Construction & Maintenance of Roads, &c. 27 



pally from the want of drainage. It must be patent to 

 any one, that with roads such as ours, — unless they are 

 well drained, — where the rainfall is not allowed to cover 

 the parapets, there is very little difficulty in keeping them 

 in order, except on those where the water is allowed to rise 

 on the parapets in some places to within 6 or 8 inches of 

 the crown of the road, and remain there for weeks, as is 

 notably the case on the East Coast Berbice. In such 

 cases it is absolutely necessary to be constantly working 

 on them, as the water percolates through the clay, and 

 consequently the hard substance as fast as it is put on sinks 

 out of sight, making it necessary during the dry weather to 

 secure a good crust on these roads by a free application 

 of burnt-earth and shell so as to enable them to bear the 

 strain of the traffic during the rainy season. The cost of 

 preparing burnt-earth for our roads varies considerably ; 

 in some parts of the colony, where wood is conveniently 

 near and there is no cultivation to interfere with the burn- 

 ing near the road, the earth can be prepared at from 40c. 

 to 60c. per cubic yard, but in other places where the wood 

 has to be transported long distances it costs $1.20, 

 $1.50, and sometimes as much as $2.00 per cubic yard ; 

 the average cost all over the colony for last year was 84c. 

 per cubic yard. Shell also varies in price ; that procured 

 on the coast at " Bel Air, " Buxton," and other places 

 costing about 56c., but that purchased from the Waini 

 River and Berbice Coast from 80c. to 90c. per cubic yard. 

 The experiment alluded to before of using Barbados marl 

 over a granite foundation, is rather costly, the marl being 

 $2.00 and the flint or granite $ i .68 per ton. I calculate that 

 with this material the cost of covering a rood of road is as 

 near as possible $300, but I have no doubt that with better 



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