Consequent upon financial and other causes, an engineer is usually required to so quickly prepare the necessary parliamentary plans and sections of public works, more particularly for railways, that it is beyond the power of the most experienced to set out in a few hours the best line of railway, &c., across a country, giving due consideration to the parliamentary, constructional, economical working, district and through traffic, and financial requirements of the undertaking. There are, however, a few points which he may be able to regard respecting the stability of earthworks, some of which are now enumerated. 1. Avoid cuttings or embankments in drift soil in or upon the side of a hill. 2. Avoid all damming back or flow of the natural drainage waters, or heaping of snow by the erection of an embankment, especially in mountainous, hilly, or sidelong ground, and in an undrained district. 3. When any excavation is in the side of a hill, observe the natural configuration of the ground in the wettest part, and remember that the slope of a cutting may not stand unless at the same inclination, or the toe of the slope is supported by a massive retaining wall and extensive draining, and that any disturbance may cause it to require a flatter inclination. 4. Avoid river or stream diversions in earth of a very porous character; and should an embankment have to be erected near to a deep river having a steep bank, locate the line a sufficient distance from the edge that the slope of the river bank may be flattened when required, as an extraordinary flood may cause it to be unstable and to fall in, and in order to restore it to a condition of stability, it may be necessary to widen the river and reduce the angle of inclination of its banks. 5. In treacherous earth do not locate a railway close to a road, except at a station, as if the line be placed above the road, a slip upon the railway may result in a slip upon the road; and should the line be below a road, the extra weight or vibration may cause the road to follow the railway and act, as it were, in unison with it. 6. In treacherous soil, where practicable, have stations nearly upon the surface of the natural ground. 7. Remember that upon one side of even the narrowest gorge or valley the earth may be much more solid than upon the other. 8. In exposed situations in a hilly country ascertain upon which side snow remains the longer, note which receives the greater amount of sunshine, and is the wetter and more covered with trees and vegetation. In a hill or mountain, the side to leeward of the prevailing winds almost invariably receives the greater rainfall.