24

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION.

hard, durable, and safe road, infinitely superiorto the swampy, soft, and marshy paths, indis-criminately formed in all parts of the country,by its early inhabitants. Many of these roadsare yet in existence in various places; and, asmay be expected, from the purposes for whichthey were originally intended, they are veryuneven and undulating. Their direction beingfrom one station to another, which were gene-rally placed upon the most elevated parts ofthe country, for the purpose of watching themotions of the enemy, these roads invariablyavoid the more level parts of the country, andstretch from hill to hill.

For many centuries after the invasion of theisland by the Romans, articles of trade weretransported from one place to another, uponthe backs of horses, which were called, “ Pack-horses.” Even so late as the middle of the lastcentury, almost the whole land-carriage ofScot land, and of several part s of England, wereconveyed on the backs of horses; and we find,at the present day, in most of the mountainousparts of Wales, and in the highlands of Scot-land , the whole traffic carried on by the samemode of carriage.

The paved and hard roads of the Romanswould afford a comparatively good track forhorses, but as the inhabitants advanced in civi-