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Anchor Ice. Your explanation is certainly rather crude. If the Earth was in the habit of freezing one hundred times as much as it now does, and water froze no easier then at present, it might be possible for the frost to burrow under the beds of rivers and coming up freeze the stones etc., and make ice stick to them, but it would hardly be anchor ice even then. But that could not happen under the present dispensation. Your illustration also is unfortunate. We have no such thing as "Gunter's Chain". We use a hundred foot Chain with foot links. The Contractors also belong to the "Crowbar". Moreover the ice or cold iron thrown into water would be not anchored but adhering and to flatten you clear out, it would all melt off in fifteen minutes! Anchor ice is not froze on to the bottom. but lies there because it is heavier than water. It looks & feels most like snow lying on the bottom. but examined you see that it is composed of minute atoms of ice, pure crystalized Water dropped together there simply by its own gravity. The question is, and returns how comes it by this strange, unaccountable, all at once, gravity, so apparently contrary to all reason & nature? R.R. Sleepers, or CrossTies. Cedar I know nothing of, except that I should suppose it would be best; it is not found in this region at all. Chestnut is used almost altogether here, it is perhaps the most common wood in all this region. Where Chestnut is not so very abundant Oak is very much used. On Vt. & Mass., we use for dimension 7 1/2 feet long, "6 infill & 6 in face". That is -- You know they are generally hewed or sawed on two opposite sides of faces. 6 in "fill" is required or thickness between these faces. "6 in face" or width of the hewed or flat side, though if the stick is big enough sides enough, less than 6 in face in spots is accepted. Some roads lay 7 ft long sleepers, in fact we have miles here. I do not know but it is so good. On various of our cognate Railroads, the rule is "7 in fill, 5 in face," instead of ours "6 in fill 6 in face". Price, Various, dependent upon abundance & convenience of Timber to the point of delivery. I have contracted for them from 19 cts. to .25 cts. This is a very Timber Country. In many places they cost much more. 30 or even 40 cts. All along the Seaboard I should think Sleepers must come from "Down East". You know prices there better than I do