Roads . 
293 
guous to and lower than the road— nor the depositary of the stones 
intended for repairs ; that it should be protected by a ditch from the 
draining of the higher land ; that it should be wide enough to ad- 
mit the safe passage of two carriages, (not less than 15 feet); or 
that there should be a summer road on each side of the paved road 
of ten feet wide at the least, and that the law, which directs all 
carriages to turn to the right, should prevail in respect to these 
roads; or in other words, the carriages travelling upon them 
should be obliged to keep the paved road to their left hand. Of 
the necessity of each of these arrangements with respect t q the 
summer road, every one who has travelled the Lancaster turnpike 
must be thoroughly convinced. 
In mountainous districts, the maintenance of a good summer 
road will always be a matter of expense and difficulty ; greater, 
probably, than would be rewarded by its advantages. And in the 
contracts for the great western road of the United States, therefore, 
it was right to omit any provision for such a road. But in the 
more level parts of our country, it is an object which would be well 
worthy of expense, and I think that by relieving the paved road 
from wear for 6 months nearly in the year, it would repay the mo- 
ney laid out in its maintenance. Its original construction is an o!^ 
ject of small comparative expense. 
B. 
In passing along the Lancaster turnpike, I think in 1797, in a 
part then unfinished, I observed that a stratum of large flat stones 
was first laid upon the clay, and smaller stones broken over them, I 
stopped and stated my opinion to a person who appeared to superin- 
tend the work, on this injudicious mode of making the road ; using 
all the arguments that occurred to me to convince him of the cor- 
rectness of my remarks. He did not know or my profession, 
and heard me with great civility ; but I did not succeed in convinc- 
ing him. In 1801,1 passed over the same ground, and found the 
same person superintending a gang of men who were breaking up 
the large flat stones which then had arrived at the surface. There 
are many parts of the Lancaster road that now bear witness against 
this injurious practice ; but the Reistertown road, near Baltimore, 
two or three years ago, afforded the strongest proof against the me- 
thod of making roads by beginning with a stratum of large stones, 
that I have observed ; for it was hardly passable for horses or light 
carriages, on account of innumerable loose stones lying and roll- 
ing in the horse path. The mode often adopted in covering turm 
pike roads is not very judicious, namely, to lay the stones down in 
