FOREST-ROADS. 313 



metalled. The cart-track in tiiera is excavated, lined with stones 

 or cement, and coarse broken stones are then spread on the 

 surface and firmly rolled down. Several other layers of stones 

 are then superposed, each layer consisting of finer material than 

 the one below it. It is always better to use broken stones, which 

 pack better than round pebbles. Each separate layer is rolled 

 and firmly pressed down. The more gradual the change of 

 size in the material used for successive layers of metalling, the 

 more durable the roadway will be. If small stones are directly 

 placed on a coarse basis, the road soon becomes worse than the 

 simplest macadamised road ; the coarse stones from below work 

 their way through to the surface, rendering it uneven, and forming 

 holes into which material placed to mend the road soon sinks. 

 As these paved roads must be everywhere strongly constructed, 

 the retaining walls, culverts, bridges, &c., must be much more 

 elaborate than on ordinary roads ; frequently solid masonry- 

 revetments must be applied to the steep slopes above them, to 

 prevent landslips, and in any case, slopes of soft material must 

 be terraced and wattled. 



The main roads coming from a forest, where the traffic is con- 

 tinual, should be constructed as paved roads or at least mac- 

 adamised. Even the most frequented subsidiary roads should 

 be macadamised. False economy is never more out of place than 

 in the construction of indispensable forest-roads. 



(e) Roads made of Wood. — Such roads are not durable and 

 should be avoided as much as possible. In the case of peaty 

 soil and in swampy depressions, they cannot, however, be 

 dispensed with, nor for summer-sledging. They are of three 

 kinds : roads made of fascines, of round pieces of wood and 

 sledge-roads. 



i. Itoads made ivith Fascines. 



Fascines are used for short distances in crossing swampy 

 ground, which cannot easily be drained, especially over peat- 

 mosses where macadam would sink in uselessly. After digging 

 the boundary ditches of such roads, a layer about one foot deep 

 of spruce or Scotch-pine branches is placed evenly on the track, 

 the larger ends being turned inwards ; on this a layer of moss, 

 heather, bilberry or turf-sods, &c., whichever the locality affords, 



