It
is a severe exertion to walk at all under these circumstances, letting
along the labour of also carrying a burden. The men should be stationed
in a line, each at a distance of six or seven feet from his neighbour,
and should pass the things from hand to hand, as they stand.
Plank Roads.--"Miry, boggy lines of road, along which people had been
seen for months crawling like flies across a plate of treacle, are
suddenly, and I may almost say magically, converted into a road as hard
and good as Regent Street by the following simple process, which is
usually adopted as soon as the feeble funds of the young colony can
purchase the blessing. A small gang of men, with spades and rammers,
quickly level one end of the earth road. As fast as they proceed, four or
five rows of strong beams or sleepers, which have been brought in the
light wagons of the country, are laid down longitudinally, four or five
feet asunder; and no sooner are they in position than from other wagons
stout planks, touching each other, are transversely laid upon them. From
a third series of wagons, a thin layer of sand or grit is thrown upon the
planks, which instantly assume the appearance of a more level McAdam road
than in practice can ever be obtained. Upon this new-born road the wagons
carrying the sleepers, planks, and sand, convey, with perfect ease, these
three descriptions of materials for its continuance.
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