CHAP. XII, STEPHENSON DETERMINES TO PERSEVERE. 227 



any further. They had previously taken the opinion of 

 other engineers, who reported unfavourably. There 

 was no help for it, however, but to go on. An immense 

 outlay had been incurred ; and great loss would have 

 been occasioned had the scheme been then abandoned, 

 and the line taken by another route. So the directors 

 were compelled to allow me to go on with my plans, of 

 the ultimate success of which I myself never for one 

 moment doubted." 



During the progress of this part of the works, the 

 Worsley and Trafford men, who lived near the Moss, 

 and plumed themselves upon their practical knowledge 

 of bog-work, declared the completion of the road to be 

 utterly impracticable. " If you knew as much about 

 Chat Moss as we do," they said, " you would never have 

 entered on so rash an undertaking ; and depend upon 

 it, all you have done and are doing will prove abortive. 

 You must give up altogether the idea of a floating rail- 

 way, and either fill the Moss up with hard material 

 from the bottom, or else deviate the line so as to avoid 

 it altogether." Such were the conclusions of science 

 and experience. 



In the midst of all these alarms and prophecies of 

 failure, Stephenson never lost heart, but held to his 

 purpose. His motto was " Persevere ! " " You must 

 go on filling in," he said ; " there is no other help for it. 

 The stuff emptied in is doing its work out of sight, and 

 if you will but have patience, it will soon begin to 

 show." And so the filling in went on ; several hundreds 

 of men and boys were employed to skin the Moss all 

 round for many thousand yards, by means of sharp 

 spades, called by the turf-cutters " tommy-spades ; " and 

 the dried cakes of turf were afterwards used to form 

 the embankment, until at length as the stuff sank and 

 rested upon the bottom, the bank gradually rose above 

 the surface, and slowly advanced onwards, declining in 

 height and consequently in weight, until it became 



Q 2 



