157

Conflruction of Roads,

tend very greatly to keep the roads in an even date, and free from deep rutsand hollows ; and that nothing could conduce more fully or more effectually toproduce and preferve firmnefs, without which it is utterly impoffible to havegood roads.”

The advantages of having a road laid out and conftruCted in this way are faidby the author to be thefe : <c that by having a level furface, every part is conve-nient and fuitable for carriages, and will, of courfe, be equally made ufe of;,from which the deep ruts, fo common in other roads, will, in a great meafure, beprevented. It will, on this account alfo, be much eafier kept in repair; and ifwell managed at firft, will be conftruCted at lefs expence than by the common,modes of making roads, efpecially in fandy foils, or where fand or gravel can beprocured with facility. On fuch a road the draught too will be confiderablyeafier. It is likewife a great advantage in thefe roads, that by having an underflratum through which water can penetrate, and the fpaces among the hardermaterials being filled with the fame kind of porous material, no water can everftagnate on the furface, nor can it ever in wet feafons become fo dirty as otherroads ; all the water that falls, except, perhaps, in very heavy rains, being con-ducted away underneath, as well as in every part.” In concluding that, fromthe interftices between the different parts of the hard materials being filled upwith loofe porous fubftances, through which moifture can readily pafs, roads-never become fo dirty or water ftagnates fo much upon them, the author is pro-bably miftaken ; as a very Ihort examination of the matter will clearly fhew, thatwhether the covering of roads be of fand, fmall Hones, or gravel, when they be-come pulverifed by the wheels of carriages, which they foon will be in dry wea-ther, and on wet weather coming on will be walked into the various interftices ofthe ftones, or other hard materials, effectually blocking them up, and thus ren-dering rhe furface completely puddled, to ufe a term employed in ground works,and thereby to retain water equally with any clay.

Sometimes it will be requifite, it is fuppofed, to have crofs drains carried underthe fences from the fmall fide drains mentioned above, at the diftance of everyten or fifteen yards, where the level of the ground will admit of them.

Thefe may be made of any fuitable material ; if of wood, it is conceived that,an inch in the bore will be fufficient. Such a narrow paffage mult, however,be very liable to be choked up and obftruCted ; it would, therefore, be much,better to have them two or three inches, or of fuch fizes as may be fuited to the:quantity of water that may at any time come upon them.

It is to be particularly noticed, that on all Hoping roads on a declivity, where thewater is apt in heavy rains to run upon the furface or at the tides, that it ought