Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/68

 delay of the mails, and also occasioned a very heavy extra expenditure by the Post-office.

The obvious cause of this defect of the roads, was the admission of water from the loose and unskilful method of their construction. Previous to the severe frost, the roads were filled with water, which had penetrated through the ill-prepared and unskilfully laid materials: this caused an immediate expansion of the whole mass during the frost, and upon a sudden thaw, the roads became quite loose, and the wheels of carriages penetrated to the original soil, which was also saturated with water, from the open state of the road. By this means, many roads became altogether impassable, while the whole were rendered deep and inconvenient to be travelled upon.

In particular, it was observed, that all the roads of which chalk was a component part, became, generally, impassable; and even, that the roads made over chalk soils gave way in most places. This evidently proceeded from the absorbent quality of chalk, which renders it so tenacious of water, that I consider its use to be one of the most dangerous errors in road making. I was induced on former occasions to recommend particular care in making roads over chalk soils, and to advise a discontinuance of the