radiating from the city of Savannah have been surfaced with gravel, broken stone or shell; and they are now kept in excellent condition for travel. These surfaced roads, which often extend for several miles into the country, are constructed and maintained by convicts; while the other roads of the county are kept up by statute labor.

According to the Annual Report of the Prison Commission of Georgia for 1898, Chatham county employs, on its roads and public works, 232 convicts. About a tenth of this number is regularly employed in surfacing and grading the roads; while the remainder is engaged in ditching, building canals, doing farınwork, etc.

The chain-gang is under the direction of a superintendent and three overseers. The latter are each paid $75 per month. There are also, regularly employed, 20 guards at salaries of $45 each per month. The total cost, of working each convict in Chatham county, has been estimated, by Mr. W. F. Chaplin, Superintendent of Public Works and Roads, at 26.1 cents per day. This estimate includes the cost of guarding, and all other expenses connected with the maintenance of the chain-gang.

All the gravel roads of Chatham county are now being constructed of Augusta gravel, which costs, on board cars at Savannah, $1.15 per cubic yard. In constructing these roads, the surface of the roadway is first leveled and properly crowned, after which the gravel is put in place, to the depth of six or eight inches, and thoroughly rolled, until it becomes hardened. The cost of constructing these gravel roads depends largely upon their width, and the distance, to which the gravel has to be hauled from the railroad. The average cost of an eighteen-foot road, including grading, has been placed at $3,500 per mile. A limited amount of gravel from Liberty county, and chert from Northwest Georgia, as well as oyster shells, have been used on the roads of Chatham county; but none of them are said to give as satisfactory results as the Augusta gravel. Besides the gravel and shell roads, the county also has some five miles of macadamized road, con

This road, which is
The road seems to

structed of granite from South Carolina. twenty feet wide, cost about $5,600 per mile. be well constructed; but the large size of the stones in the surface-layer renders it too rough for bicycles, or for pleasure drives. The above estimated cost of road-construction per mile includes several small steel bridges, which have replaced wooden structures across small streams and canals.

The equipage for road-working owned by Chatham county is quite complete, and cost many thousand dollars. It consists of one 10-ton steam-roller, one 4-ton horse-roller, one road-machine, 30 mules, numerous scrapers, carts, wagons, tents etc. This equipage is moved from place to place throughout the county, as the roads are being improved; and, consequently, little time is consumed, in going to and returning from work.

The abundance of sand, the numerous swamps and the entire absence of rock for road-building material renders road-making in Chatham county both difficult and expensive. In many places, the sands are so heavy, that it is practically impossible, for a team to haul anything like a heavy load. In a few localities, clays can be had for surfacing; but all materials for hardened ways must be obtained beyond the limits of the county. The cost of grading roads in Chatham county is reduced to a minimum, by reason of the level condition of the surface. It is no uncommon thing, to see stretches of road extending for long distances with little or no grading. In fact, the surface is so nearly horizontal in places, that drainage is difficult, and the cost of elevating the road-surface above the general level of the plains is frequently considerable.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Geological Survey is under great obligations to the Chairmen of the Boards of Road Commissioners in some counties, and to the County Ordinaries in others, for special reports on their several counties, from which much of the information included in this chapter was obtained.

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