Hudson and Mohatvk Rail Road. 145 



The soil through which the road passes is generally sandy. Some 

 considerable elevations are cut through, and several ravines crossed. 

 The slopes left by the cutting or formed by the enhankments, are 

 partly covered with sods, and will be entirely so in the course of 

 another season. No settling of the road has taken place except to 

 a very slight degree in some of the embankments which is easily rec- 

 tified j» 



Construction of the Road. — After the grading was finished, the 

 residue of the work was done in the following manner. Under each 

 line of the rails, which is very accurately ascertained by means of a 

 transit instrument, square holes are dug at the distance of three feet 

 from center to center, capable of containing nine cubic feet of bro- 

 ken stone. In clay, the holes are connected by a neck, and in these 

 holes, in either case, the broken stone is placed, and rammed down 

 so as to form a solid mass. The stone which is principally grau- 

 wacke, is broken into pieces that will pass through a ring of two 

 inches diameter. On this foundation the stone blocks are placed, 

 quarried either on the canal twelve miles above Schenectady, or at 

 Singsing on tlie Hudson, about double that distance from New York. 

 They are dressed on the upper side only, but have a flat bottom in 

 order to lie evenly upon the broken stone. They are very quickly 

 laid down and leveled, and firmly seated. A litde practice enables 

 even an ordinary workman to adjust them to their places. 



A massive wooden pounder, with four arms, managed by the 

 united strength of four men is applied to them to bring them exactly 

 to their level, after the broken stone has been moved in such a way 

 as to give them their proper position. The next step is to drill the 

 holes in the face of the stone, and by means of a simple adaptation 

 of an old principle which may hereafter be noticed, four holes can be 

 drilled at once, two in each block, with great ease and much economy 

 of labor and time. In these drillings small plugs of locust wood, 

 about four inches long, and about an inch in diameter, are loosely 

 placed. Into these plugs, are driven the iron spikes which pass 

 through, and hold down the cast iron chairs. The chairs are pieces 

 of a peculiar shape, being double or single, secured to the stone 

 block by a spike, and clasping the rail on each side. The double 

 chairs are of sufficient length to pass across, beneath the rail, and 

 are used in the proportion of one to three sii>gle chairs, which are 

 on each side of the rail also, but do not pass under it. 



Vol. XXI— No. 1. 19 



