Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/368

 352 KOAD scales are large, with concentric and radiating lines, 43 on the lateral line, which falls by a curve from the upper part of the gill cover below the middle of the body, and thence is nearly straight to the tail. It is found in large shoals in the still rivers and lakes of temper- ate Europe, and feeds on worms and aquatic plants ; it is caught abundantly in the Thames, going high up the river in May or June to spawn, but is best for food and finest in color in October ; yet it is not much esteemed. The beautiful dace of New England (L. [leucoso- mu] pulchellus, Girard) resembles the Euro- pean fish, and hence is often called roach ; this name is also applied to the bream (porno- tis vulgaris, Cuv.). ROAD, a solid pathway for the transportation of passengers and commodities. Koads are of various kinds, the degree of perfection to which they have been carried generally cor- responding to the degree of civilization of the country where they are situated. The ancient Egyptians must have had hard paved roads on which to transport the immense blocks of stone used in building the pyramids and oth- er structures. The Hebrews had roads at a very early period ; the song of Deborah speaks of abandoned highways (Judges v. 6). The Greeks paid much attention to roads, but the greatest improvements, such as permanent pavements, are said to have been made by the more commercial Carthaginians. The Via Ap- pia, called by Statius the queen of roads (see APPIAN WAY), the Via Aurelia (the Tyrrhe- nian coast road), and the Via Flaminia (see FLAMINIAN WAY) were the first great Roman roads, and the Roman empire soon became intersected with numerous paved roads con- structed with great care at enormous expense. In many parts they have lasted till the present day. During the last Punic war a paved road was constructed from Spain through Gaul to the Alps. Similar roads were afterward made in every part of Spain and Gaul, through II- lyricum, Macedonia, and Thrace, to Constan- tinople, and along the Danube to its mouths on the Black sea; and the islands of Sar- dinia, Corsica, Sicily, and Great Britain were crossed by them. Under Antoninus Pius (A. D. 138-'61) all the Roman military roads were surveyed, including six great roads in Egypt. In India good roads were made at an early period, connecting Agra with Lahore, and La- hore with Cashmere; but after the death of Aurungzebe they fell into decay, and the only good roads in India, it is said, have since been constructed by the British, who have carried a good and metalled road, called the Grand Trunk, from Calcutta to Peshawer on the bor- ders of Afghanistan. The " metalling " (pave- ment of stone or concrete) of these roads is mostly composed of a calcareous nodule called Jcunkur found there, which when moistened and pounded into a crust nine inches or a foot deep forms an excellent pavement. The kunkur is sometimes ferruginous, which im- proves its quality. In ancient Peru tfie Incas built great roads, the remains of which still at- test their magnificence. The most remarkable were the two which extended from Quito (or in fact nearly 100 m. N. of Quito) to Cuzco, and on toward Chili, one passing over the grand plateau, the other bordering on the ocean. Humboldt, in his " Aspects of Nature," says of the mountain road : u But what above all things relieves the severe aspect of the deserts of the Cordilleras are the remains, as marvellous as unexpected, of a gigantic road, the work of the Incas. ... In the pass of the Andes between Mausi and Loja we found on the plain of Puttal much difficulty in making a way for the mules over a marshy piece of earth, while for more than a German mile our sight continually rested on the superb remains of a paved road of the Incas, 20 ft. wide, which we marked resting on its deep foundations, and paved with well cut, dark porphyritic stone. This road was wonderful, and does not fall behind the most imposing Roman ways which I have seen in France, Spain, and Italy. By barometrical observation I found that this co- lossal work was at an elevation of 12,440 ft." Prescott says : u Galleries were cut for leagues through living rock ; rivers were crossed by means of bridges that swung suspended in the air ; precipices were scaled by stairways hewn out of the native bed ; ravines of hideous depth were filled up with solid masonry; in short, all the difficulties that beset a wild and mountain- ous region, and which might appal the most courageous engineer of modern times, were encountered and successfully overcome. The length of the road, of which scattered frag- ments only remain, is variously estimated at from 1,500 to 2,000 in. Its breadth scarcely exceeded 20 ft. It was built of heavy flags of freestone, and in some parts at least covered with a bituminous cement, which time has made harder than the stone itself. In some places, where the ravines had been filled up with masonry, the mountain torrents, wearing on it for ages, have gradually eaten a way through the base, and left the superincumbent mass such is the cohesion of the materials still spanning the valley like an arch." The Britons failed to keep up the roads made by the Romans, or to construct new ones, and for centuries they used bridle paths, or at most nar- row passages for small carts ; and not till the 16th year of the reign of Charles II. was there any attempt by the government to improve the roads. The first turnpike road was then established by law ; but it was not till about a century ago that a system of good roads was established. Up to that time goods were con- veyed in Scotland on pack horses. In 1770 the journey from Liverpool to Manchester, ac- cording to the account of Arthur Young, was not a little perilous from the bad condition of the road. But within the next 60 years, when the manufacturing resources of the country, through the introduction of the steam engine