290 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



clean, sharp, angular, razor-like cleavage is destroyed, 

 and with it the power it otherwise possessed of wedging 

 itself into one solid impenetrable mass, the angles being 

 rubbed off and rounded, and the setting of the stone 

 rendered tedious, probably requirmg some or all of the 

 stones to be broken over again in order to regain their 

 abihty to set. 



Its very hardness demands care in its setting, which is 

 of little moment in inferior stones, which find a bed for 

 themselves and upon each other only too quickly. 



Indeed, just as the Builder should beware of quickly- 

 setting cement so should the Road Surveyor be upon his 

 guard against quickly-setting road stone. 



I believe that too little attention is paid to this 

 circumstance. 



If a good stone be laid on in too thick layers at one 

 time, the knife edges of the stone are made to bear upon 

 each other, and the difficulty of setting is thus increased 

 in something like the proportion in which the knife edges 

 are destroyed. 



Few country Highway Boards possess a steam roller, 

 and newly laid-on metalling is indeed a severe strain upon 

 the poor animals who have to drag heavy weights over 

 it. Humanitarian grounds, are, I would submit, the only 

 possible apologv (for justification there otherwise cannot 

 be) for a])j)lving clav, &c., in order to (-ause the metalling 

 to set. 



This difficulty, however, is one that it is within the 

 power of any Road Surveyor to overcome, in a manner 

 which, as my experience goes, is eminently satisfactory. 

 I presume that if we had the power of converting the 

 Basalt of the Clee Hill into its once liquid form and could 

 apply it as we do Asphalte, so that in .setting it regained its 

 original toughness, we should possess a road surface made 

 throughout, .so to speak, of an impenetrable adamant, in 

 which there could be no movement of its parts, and into 



