RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. 39 



5 feet 6 inches, it is interesting to note that the largest number 

 have adopted the English standard gauge of 4 feet 8 inches, 

 and that the miles of line laid to this gauge far outnumber all 

 the others. The fact that our own home lines, the principal 

 Continental lines, and nearly all that vast network of railways in 

 the United States of America, have been laid to the 4 feet 8^ inch 

 gauge, testifies to the general opinion of its utility and efficiency ; 

 and we know that included in that list are the railways which 

 carry the largest, heaviest, and fastest train service in the world. 



It would be interesting to trace back, and, if possible, 

 ascertain from whence the exact gauge of 4 feet 8^ inches was 

 derived. No doubt, in the early days of the pioneer iron 

 highways in England, the railways were made the same gauge 

 as the tramroads which they superseded. But why was 

 4 feet 8^ inches the gauge of the tramroads ? We may reason- 

 ably infer that the first four-wheeled waggons used on the early 

 tramroads were in reality the same waggons which had been 

 previously used on the common roads for the conveyance of 

 coal and minerals to the ports for shipment, and that the 

 waggons were merely transferred from the roughly paved or 

 macadamised roads to the tramroads. Flanged wheels were 

 then unknown, and the introduction of the tram-plates was at 

 first simply designed to lessen the resistance to haulage. The 

 gauge, or width between the wheels, of these waggons may have 

 been the outcome of long experience as to the most suitable 

 width for convenience of load, stability during transit, or for 

 space occupied on the highway. The width may have been 

 handed down from generation to generation, going back to the 

 time when wheeled vehicles were first built in the country. 

 Perhaps in the beginning the first vehicles may have been 

 imported from Italy, or Greece countries which in the earlier 

 ages were the most advanced in matters of luxury and 

 convenience. 



When in Pompeii, a few years ago, the writer measured the 

 spaces between a large number of the wheel-ruts which are 

 worn deep into the paving-stones in many of the principal 

 streets of that wonderful unearthed city. These paving- stones, 

 very irregular in shape, and many of them 2 feet G inches long by 

 1 foot 6 inches wide, are carefully fitted together, and form a 

 compact massive pavement from curbstone to curbstone. The 

 wheel- tracks, which are in many places worn into the stones 



