OUR COMMON ROADS——MURPHY. 451 
whole distance. If we can effect such improvement by such 
treatment, we may fairly conclude that the necessary expenditure 
would be a judicious one, and that its adoption might be well 
worth consideration. 
GRAVEL ROADS. 
Penfold (Practical Treatise on Roads) recommends “ that pebble 
gravel should be first cleansed from dirt and useless matter by 
sifting and screening, and then the stones above one inch in 
diameter should be separated by another sifting and then broken.” 
The general practice in both Europe and the United States, is to 
screen pit gravel and remove the earthy material from it, before 
spreading on the road. In Nova Scotia the custom is to apply 
it as road covering just as it comes from the pit. Our roads are 
therefore classed, according to our idea, good or bad roads, as the 
pit may turn out good or bad gravel. Gravel roads will have to 
serve our purpose in this country for some years longer, and as 
the mode of construction and maintenance now in vogue are 
susceptible of many improvements, it may be acceptable to shew 
how this material is being dealt with in its employment abroad, 
hoping that such suggestions and the discussion that may arise 
thereon, may tend towards developing greater practical worth and 
realizing a greater degree of endurance. 
“ A capital distinction,” says General Gilmore, “ must be made 
between gravel that will pack under travel and clean rounded 
gravel which will not, due to a small proportion of clayey or 
earthy matter contained in the former which unites and binds 
the material together. Sea-side or river-side gravel, consisting 
almost entirely of water-worn and rounded pebbles of sizes which 
easily move and slide upon each other, is unsuitable for a road 
covering unless some other materials be mixed with it, while pit 
gravel contains too much earthy matter.” We have, however, seen 
very little gravel, even from our sea beaches, that will not, with 
a little blinding, pack under the traffic. Our roads are mostly 
gravel roads, yet it is doubtful if there is one continuous mile of 
a gravel road in Nova Scotia, outside of town limits, treated as 
the same class of roads in Europe and in the United States are 
