210 EVIDENCE OF ENGINEERS. CHAP. XI. 



Chat Moss, and the impossibility of starting a locomotive 

 engine in the face of a gale of wind ! 



Evidence was called to show that the house property 

 passed by the proposed railway would be greatly deterio- 

 rated in some places almost destroyed ; that the 

 locomotive engines would be terrible nuisances, in 

 consequence of the fire and smoke vomited forth by 

 them ; and that the value of land in the neighbourhood 

 of Manchester alone would be deteriorated by no less 

 than 20,000. ! Evidence was also given at great length 

 showing the utter impossibility of forming a road of 

 any kind upon Chat Moss. A Manchester builder, who 

 was examined, could not imagine the feat possible, unless 

 by arching it across in the manner of a viaduct from 

 one side to the other. It was the old story of " nothing- 

 like leather." But the opposition mainly relied upon 

 the evidence of the leading engineers not, like Mr. 

 Stephenson, self-taught men, but regular professionals. 

 Mr. Francis Giles, C.E., was their great card. He had 

 been twenty-two years an engineer, and could speak 

 with some authority. His testimony was mainly directed 

 to the utter impossibility of forming a railway over Chat 

 Moss. " No engineer in his senses" said he, " would go 

 through Chat Moss if he wanted to make a railroad 

 from Liverpool to Manchester In my judg- 

 ment a railroad certainly cannot be safely made over Chat 

 Moss without going to the bottom of the Moss. The soil 

 ought all to be taken out, undoubtedly ; in doing which, 

 it will not be practicable to approach each end of the 

 cutting, as you make it, with the carriages. No car- 

 riages would stand upon the Moss short of the bottom. 

 My estimate for the whole cutting and embankment 

 over Chat Moss is 270,000/. nearly, at those quantities 



and those prices which are decidedly correct 



It will be necessary to take this Moss completely out at 

 the bottom, in order to make a solid road." 



Mr. H. R. Palmer, C.E., gave evidence to prove that 



