224 



THE ROAD UPON THE MOSS. 



CHAP. XII. 



slight extension of the bearing surface was thus sufficient 

 to enable the bog to bear this temporary line, and the 

 circumstance was a source of increased confidence and 

 hope to our engineer in proceeding with the formation 

 of the permanent road alongside. 



The digging of drains had been proceeding for some 

 time along each side of the intended railway ; but 

 they filled up almost as soon as dug, the sides flowing 

 in, and the bottom rising up ; and it was only in some 

 of the drier parts of the bog that a depth of three or 

 four feet could be reached. The surface-ground between 

 the drains, containing the intertwined roots of heather 

 and long grass, was left untouched, and upon this was 

 spread branches of trees and hedge-cuttings ; in the 

 softest places rude gates or hurdles, some eight or nine 

 feet long by four feet wide, interwoven with heather, 

 were laid in double thicknesses, their ends overlapping 

 each other ; and upon this floating bed was spread a 

 thin layer of gravel, on which the sleepers, chairs, and 

 rails were laid in the usual manner. Such was the 

 mode in which the road was formed upon the Moss. 



It was found, however, after the permanent road had 

 been thus laid, that there was a tendency to sinking at 

 those parts where the bog was the softest. In ordinary 

 cases, where a bank subsides, the sleepers are packed up 

 with ballast or gravel ; but in this case the ballast was 

 dug away and removed in order to lighten the road, and 

 the sleepers were packed instead with cakes of dry turf 

 or bundles of heath. By these expedients the subsided 

 parts were again floated up to the level, and an approach 

 was made towards a satisfactory road. But the most 

 formidable difficulties were encountered at the centre 



gauge-waggons used for forming the 

 road. They were being thus impelled 

 one day at considerable speed, when 

 the waggon suddenly ran off the road, 

 and Mr. Moss, one of the directors, 

 was thrown out in a soft place, from 



which, however, he was speedily ex- 

 tricated, not without leaving his deep 

 mark. George used afterwards laugh- 

 ingly to refer to the circumstance as 

 " the meeting of the Mosses." 



