Scouring river beds and fording rivers with wineskin saddle-pads
Notes on making water dig out its bed and on crossing rivers whose depth and level change.
Two notes address the management of rivers: one, headed 'on the right', begins a method for making water scour out the bed in different places along its course. The other describes a crossing four braccia deep, in which guards restore the water where it falls, riders cross on saddle-pads made like wineskins (otri) when the river is deep, and the flow is released in bursts, 'in the manner of a bombard', so that it stays in its bed to be driven on again from below. The sheet also carries faint, largely untranscribed sketches beyond these two river notes, including circular figures and an arched form with a scalloped crown at lower right.
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Making water scour the bed in different places
A note headed 'on the right' opens a procedure for enabling water to dig out the bottom at various points along its rivers; the transcription breaks off before the method itself.
Fording a river four braccia deep on wineskin saddle-pads
With the water four braccia high, the guards must restore any water that fails below. When the river is deep, riders cross on saddle-pads made like wineskins so the passage is not blocked; when it runs dry no such pads are prepared. Every mile the water should be let go in bursts, in the manner of a bombard, and kept in the bed where it runs so that it can be driven on again from below.