222 A FLOATING ROAD. CHAP. XII. 



desired to return, and even for the moment thought of 

 giving up the job ; but Mr. Locke assured him that the 

 worst part was now past ; so the new resident plucked 

 up heart again, and both floundered on until they 

 reached the further edge of the Moss, wet and plastered 

 over with bog sludge. Mr. Dixon's companions endea- 

 voured to comfort him by the assurance that he might 

 in future avoid similar perils, by walking upon " pattens," 

 or boards fastened to the soles of his feet, as they had 

 done when taking the levels, and as the workmen did 

 when engaged in making drains in the softest parts of 

 the Moss. Still the resident engineer could not help 

 being puzzled by the problem of how to construct a 

 road for heavy locomotives, with trains of passengers 

 and goods, upon a bog which he had found incapable of 

 supporting his single individual weight ! 



Mr. Stephenson's ide.a was, that such a road might be 

 made to float upon the bog, simply by means of a 

 sufficient extension of the bearing surface. As a ship, 

 or a raft, capable of sustaining heavy loads, floated in 

 water, so in his opinion, might a light road be floated 

 upon a bog, which was of considerably greater con- 

 sistency than water. Long before the railway was 

 thought of, Mr. Roscoe had adopted the remarkable 

 expedient of fitting his plough horses with flat wooden 

 soles or pattens, to enable them to walk upon the Moss 

 land which he had brought into cultivation. These 

 pattens were fitted on by means of a screw apparatus, 

 which met in front of the foot and was easily fastened. 

 The mode by which these pattens served to sustain the 

 horse is capable of easy explanation, and it will be 

 observed that the rationale alike explains the floating of 

 a railway train. The foot of an ordinary farm horse 

 presents a base of about five inches diameter, but if this 

 base be enlarged to seven inches the circles being to 

 each other as the squares of the diameters it will be 

 found that, by this slight enlargement of the base, a 



