ed road, on which a man might walk without risk of sinking. A
single line of temporary railway was then laid down, formed of ordinary
cross-bars about 3 feet long and an inch square, with holes punched
through them at the ends and nailed down to temporary sleepers. Along
this way ran the waggons in which were conveyed the materials requisite
to form the permanent road. These waggons carried about a ton each, and
they were propelled by boys running behind them along the narrow iron
rails. The boys became so expert that they would run the 4 miles across
at the rate of 7 or 8 miles an hour without missing a step; if they had
done so, they would have sunk in many places up to their middle. A
comparatively slight extension of the bearing surface being found
sufficient to enable the bog to bear this temporary line, the
circumstance was a source of increased confidence and hope to our
engineer in proceeding with the formation of the permanent roadway
alongside.

The digging of drains had been proceeding for some time along each side
of the intended line; but they filled up almost as soon as dug, the sides
flowing in, and the bottom rising up. It was only in some of the drier
parts of the bog that a depth of three or four feet could be reached.
The surface-ground between the drains, containing the intertwined roots
of heather and long grass, was left untouched, and upon this was spread
branches of trees and hedge-cuttings. In the softest places, rude gates
or hurdles, some 8 or 9 feet long by 4 feet wide, interwoven with
heather, were laid in double thicknesses, their ends overlapping each
other; and upon this floating bed was spread a thin layer of gravel, on
which the sleepers, chairs, and rails were laid in the usual manner.
Such was the mode in which the road was formed upon the Moss.

It was found, however, after the permanent way had been thus laid, that
there was a tendency to sinking at those parts where the bog was softest.
In ordinary cases, where a bank subsides, the sleepers are packed up with
ballast or gravel; but in this case the ballast was dug away and removed
in order to lighten the road, and the sleepers were packed instead with
cakes of dry turf or bundles of heath. By these expedients the subsided
parts were again floated up to the level, and an approach was made
towards a satisfactory road. But the most formidable difficulties were
encountered at the centre and towards the edges of the Moss; and i