51 



purpose, the surface having to some extent disintegrated and worn 

 away. The circumstances under which this was tried were, however, 

 very unfavorable to the pavement, as it was put into use within an 

 hour after it was laid, (at the time of opening the first Park drives), 

 and it should have had time to become hard before being used. I 

 think it would be well to try experiments with any style of roads that 

 promises to be an improvement upon gravel roads. Perhaps nothing 

 better than a gravel road, when in good condition, could be desired, 

 but a kind of road surface which will reduce the cost of maintainance 

 certainly is desirable. The expense of maintaining gravel roads is 

 very great. The gravel disintegrates under the action of horses feet 

 and carriage wheels, and if the roads are not constantly and thorough- 

 ly watered, this disintegrated material is blown away as dust during 

 the summer. If not blown away, at every heavy rain a large propor- 

 tion 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 destructable road 

 surface. 



Two improvements in the case of roads have been tried elsewhere 

 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 rolling upon drives 

 in use could be done at night, when there was no driving, and upon 

 new roads at any time. 



ARCHWAYS AND BEIDGES. 



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 timbers, twelve inches 1hick, 



