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293. rock. The descent on the opposite side was very rapid-seven hundred feet in little more than half a mile. This has been accomplished by a series of zig zags constructed on the face of the hill in the rudest possible way. The fronts of pine trees were laid longitudinally on what was to be the outside of the road. On the inner side some of the rock was picked down & bashed, & laid on the pine trees; & thus a road was made, as in the case of the briges I have mentioned, to a very little greater width than that of the Coach. The zig zags were short, & consequently the angles were close together. In the middle of the roadway the rock evry where obstructed to a height some times of five or six inches. Any other people wd have made the road more carefully, & of more durable materials. In the worst places, wd have put some kind of parapet to it, & wd probably have used mules for the Coach, making those sure footed animals walk down the hill. But an American wd consider it insufferable that the safety of the public sd be ensured at a loss of a few minutes time daily, & that a dollar more than was absolutely necessary sd be spent on a road which might in a year or two be suspended by time. unclear better, or not wanted at all. And to the way they arrange it,, it constructed a road of the narrow scantling?, & an the unclear fashion I have mentioned, and then to unclear down it, with six fine horses, at a rate of not less than eleven miles an hour. As soon as we get to the top of the hill, the horses were put under the whip, & away we went. As we turned the corners at full speed the