372 ARTIFICIAL STONE MANUFACTURE. 
his work by the position of the mortar rather than by that of the 
6tones. 
But weaver that something better than Pictish concrete masonry is now 
attainable, and at a figure which recommends it to the favourable notice 
of landowner and tenant in many localities at the present time, where 
brick and stone are either bad, or not to be had at all, unless brought 
from a distance, such places yielding, at the same time, chalk or gravel, 
or sand of the finest quality, for artificial stone manufacture and build- 
ing. Almost anybody can fill a long box or trough with sand from an 
adjoining gravel-pit ; and when once the solution is known, or got from 
its manufacturer, it takes very little more skill to pour in the solution 
until it stands to the brim or surface of the sand, so as to run the whole 
together into a solid rock, layer upon layer, until the chimney-tops are 
attained in farm-houses and cottages, the top of the walls in buildings 
for cattle, and the coping of fences. In other cases, the sand or gravel 
and the solution might require to be incorporated, and then poured into 
the mould in a semi-fluid state. Thus, the steam-engine could be made 
to mix and work the mortar in a pug-mill, and then elevate and pour it 
into the moulds by means of an archimedian screw, so constructed as_ 
to be put up at different lengths to suit different heights of walls. 
Such hypothetical data, it is true, may not altogether coincide with the 
actual line of future progress upon which we are about to enter, but 
they nevertheless evidently lie in the same direction. 
Again, artificial stone-roads for carts and horses, carriages, tramways 
for traction-engines, for steam-cartage and steam-culture, are other 
purposes that are embraced by our proposition. The ancient Eomans 
made artificial stone-roads of almost incredible hardness and durability, 
of which we may instance the " Appian-way," on which the Apostle 
Paul appears to have travelled (Acts xxviii. 15), when sent a prisoner 
to Kome. Were tramways of such artificial stone as the Appian-way 
was constructed of, laid down on the principle of railways so as to 
reduce the gradients to what the traction-engines now in use require, the 
carrying of manure to the fields and the bringing home of the produce 
of harvest are works that would soon be realised, and we do not see a 
valid reason why England in the present boastful age should be behind 
the " Mistress of the World/' in the days of " the Apostle of the Gen- 
tiles," or when Horace penned the oft-quoted oracle, 
"Kusticus expectat, dum defluat amnis ; at ille 
Labiter et labetur." 
If there is a reason at all, it must obviously be embraced somehow in 
this same oracle ? It follows, therefore, that this part of our proposi- 
tion, like the others, involves less novelty than some old-school opponents 
to progress may imagine. In short, what we propose is merely an 
improvement upon the old Koman tramway, because at present urgently 
demanded by the rapid progress now being made in the application of 
