86 MOTIVE POWER AND DISPOSITION

appear to have been noticed. The horsestherefore would, along the same line of road,be frequently subjected to very fluctuating de-grees of draught. Upon some of the old wag-gon-ways, the horse is sometimes verv heavilystrained, and his action is, at other times,not required at all. When the waggon cameto some of the descents, it was the custom tounhook him from the fore-part of the waggon,and cause him to follow behind, the w aggonsrunning of themselves; the horse thus followeduntil he arrived at a part of the road where thewaggon would no longer run down; he wasthen again fastened to the waggon, until hearrived at another declivity, when his actionwas not required ; and it was no uncommonthing to find him thus changed several timesin the course of his journey.

The only motive power for a long time afterthe introduction of Rail-ways were horses, and,so long as the wooden rail continued in use,the general load was from two to three tons,including the weight of the carriages. Theonly guide, in the formation of the road, appearsto have been to enable the horse to drag thatweight, and the road was sloped accordingly.It is interesting to trace the gradual advance-ment towards the present state of improvementfrom the old roads to those successively formed