o 



18 ON LANDSLIPS. 



■stones got up to them. Thus were completed the precautions 

 against slij)ping in that embankment. 



The next cutting was also in very treacherous and sideling 

 ground, and with a high slope on the right-hand side. To 

 drain this slope I had a heading driven under the railway 

 fence on that side from end to end of the cutting, drain-pipes 

 laid along the bottom, and the heading then filled up with 

 loose stones. 



Beyond this cutting there was a small embankment on 

 very sideling ground, full of natural landslips and sloping 

 down to the brook, which was close below. This was a very 

 bad place ; so a strip of land was bought on the other side 

 of the brook, a culvert 60 yards long put in to carry its 

 waters, and the railway embankment slope carried well over 

 the culvert, so as to obtain a good footing on the other side. 

 From this point the railway runs along the sideling ground 

 for 12 or 15 chains, with embankment only on the left-hand 

 side ; and this sideling ground is apparently covered with 

 natural landslips. Along this part I had a trench cut 14 

 feet deep, drain-pipes put in the bottom, and the trench then 

 filled with stone as before. This last length was the only 

 part as to which I had any doubt, fearing that the old natural 

 slips might be too deep-seated for my remedy to be fully 

 effective, with the brook so near below. 



The railway has now been opened for nearly thirty years, 

 and there has been no sign of a slip upon it anywhere; but 

 the Permanent-way Inspector recently told me he had ob- 

 served that the lines of rails had, along that last length, 

 drawn perceptibly towards the brook. There is, however, 

 a certain remedy for this, applicable at any time. 



Other slips I have had, which were always cured by the 

 use of stone counterforts or by thorough drainage ; but, as 

 there was nothing remarkable in them, they do not call for 



