Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/71

 those mighty works which surpassed all the other monuments of this people. Made at immense labour and expense, they extended, it may be said, from the Pillars of Hercules, through Spain and Gaul, to the Euphrates and the most southern parts of Egypt. Everything was sacrificed in their construction; hills were sometimes perforated, and mountains and great rocks were deeply cut for their passage, as at Terracina. Those of Italy, if we are to judge by their remains, were the best made; the Appian Way is perhaps the most solid. These admirably formed highways were elaborately and curiously built. The centre, being subjected to the greatest amount of wear, was higher than the sides, and consisted of strata of sand, gravel, and excellent cement, overlaid by the pavement, in the form of not very large flat stones, laid close together and firmly bound by the cement, thus making a hard smooth causeway. Near Rome the flags were of granite. From their very even surface, and their passing between banks, mounds, and through valleys, the hard hollow hoofs of prancing steeds would sound loud enough, when compared with the noise made by other quadrupeds. Hence the epithet of ‘sounding feet’ was very appropriate, and naturally suggested itself, according to Bracy Clark.

Montfauçon says the surface was very smooth, like glass, a circumstance which must have made the horses in wet weather slide about very much; even in the best weather, travelling must have been uncommonly slow, had horses worn iron shoes, because of their slipperiness. Besides, they would not have lasted nearly so long, and so far as I can ascertain there are no traces of horse-shoe