288 



under the action of horses' feet and carriage wheels, and if the roads 

 are not constantly and thoroughly watered, this disintegrated ma- 

 terial is blown away as dust during the summer. If not blown away, 

 at every heavy rain a large proportion of it is washed from the road 

 into the silt basins. This not only entails the loss of that amount 

 of valuable material, but necessitates the renewal of the road surface, 

 and this in turn requires excessive watering and expensive rolling, 

 and incidentally the expensive cleaning of silt basins and sewers, 

 follow from the use of destructible road surface. 



Two improvements in the case of roads have been tried else- 

 where with marked success. One is the use of chloride of lime and 

 the chloride of sodium, neither of which are expensive, in the water 

 used for sprinkling the roads. These unite with the fine material of 

 the road surface, and by cementing them together, prevent both dust 

 and the wash before mentioned. The other is in the use of steam 

 rollers, in place of those drawn by horses. A steam roller can be 

 made much heavier, can travel much more rapidly, and will do a 

 much greater amount of work, at a greatly reduced cost. The roll- 

 ing upon drives in use could be done at night, when there was no 

 driving, and upon new roads at any time. 



ARCHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 



Both of the arches mentioned in the last report have been com- 

 pleted, with the exception of the wooden lining of that arch near the 

 main entrance to the park, and this is nearly finished. 



The foundations for the Meadowport arch have been laid during 

 the season, and the abutment walls carried up to the springing line. 

 The excavations for the foundations developed a stiff clay soil. The 

 foundation was prepared by laying oak timber, twelve inches thick, 

 about twelve inches apart, and filling the spaces between them with 

 concrete ; upon this foundation the heavy stones of the abutments 

 were laid. The superstructure of this archway is to be of Ohio stone 

 and of brick. 



About the same progress has been made with the Nethermead 

 arches. The material upon which the piers rest is a sharp, clean 

 sand. Concrete one foot in depth was laid, upon which the walls 

 were built ; when these had been carried up about three feet, 

 a heavy storm filled the pit in which the foundations were, with 

 water to a depth of eleven feet. There being no outlet, the water 

 filtered away between and around the piers and abutments in a few 

 hours, but the stability of the masonry was not in the least dis- 

 turbed thereby. 



