348 
PROCEEDINGS OF TIIE VICTORIA INSTITUTE. 
Sangre Grande station is, in my opinion, an excellent site for a 
terminus from the point of view of the road constructor. Main 
roads can be worked out from that central position like the 
rays of a fan in all directions. Now, gentlemen, what more is 
required ? Roads converging on that railway. The scheme as 
it stands at present is only half complete — to use a familiar 
simile, half the bridge is most substantially built, the other half 
is a yawning chasm. It is quite impossible for me in the course 
of this lecture to point out the course of all the roads the 
district requires. I would merely point out that wherever you see 
rivers running through very rough country, the best course for 
main roads is on or near the waterparting between them. I do 
not advocate roads of 30 feet in width. I suggest only that the 
trace for the road should first be selected with the greatest care, 
with easy gradients and few bridges, if possible on the ridge 
top. but where the ridge runs up into a peak, then that a bridle 
track not more than 10 feet in width should be cut out on the 
side of the hill. As funds permit, these roads should be 
metalled from the railway, or coated with burnt clay, but sup- 
posing there is no money for either one or the other, still a 
road thus located fairly well drains itself, and mud on a level 
track is not so dangerous as mud on a gradient of 1 in 4, You 
may be amused at my suggesting a road only ten feet wide, 
but on consideration, it is evident that if a road runs through 
absolutely level country that only requires a drain on each side, 
and the earth taken from the drain thrown on the road to make 
the formation level, the cost of such a road is almost the same 
if you make it 30 feet as if 3 r ou make it 10 feet, but when you 
come to side cuttings, there is a vast economy in a ten foot 
road over a broader one. The sections which I show illustrate 
this statement as in the case of the ten foot road, you save 
8-9 ths of the earthwork, and the expense of a ditch on the 
upper side. I am informed that the new road on the Island 
of Chacachacare was cut out on the side of the hill to a width 
of only five feet, and yet proved wide enough to allow all 
the material used in the construction of the lighthouse to be 
carted up to the top. I must now leave the Oropuche 
District and direct your attention to the basins of the Nariva 
and Ortoire, near the mouth of which is the district of Mayaro. 
The next question to be considered was, how far should we go. 
I recommended it should stop at a point about 12 miles from 
Mayaro where the vega became a swamp, and where the hills 
which came clown to the swamp were merely hard gravelly 
ridges, but if financial consideration prevented the line being 
continued so far, then I suggested it should at least go as far 
as Tabaquite. Now, why should Tabaquite be the temporary 
terminus J Because it is an excellent starting point for a large 
