To be sure, it had been rushed work: the sides of the ditch were gouged and ragged, the bottom uneven and rutted, and the removed dirt was piled anywhere along its banks.

But nevertheless there was a canal, dug on grade and to measurement, and capable of carrying water.
During the afternoon a pair of men drove two lines of waist-high stakes to mark the survey of the short section of ground yet untouched, doing this under Carrigan's supervision.

In case snow came, he told Lee, he wanted something he could see.

"Nine hundred yards of unbuilt ditch will be lying buried," he added, "and I don't propose to paw up the whole mesa finding this section." About four o'clock Bryant rejoined him.
"Still lovely," said Pat with a grin.

"I've just set some plows tearing up the scalp on another two hundred yards.