On the following day (the 26th of April) the engineer was subjected to a most severe examination. On that part of the scheme with which he was most practically conversant, his evidence was clear and conclusive. Now, he had to give evidence on the plans made by his surveyors, and the estimates which had been founded on those plans. So long as he was confined to locomotive engines and iron railroads, with the minutest details of which he was more familiar than any man living, he felt at home and in his element. But when the designs of bridges and the cost of constructing them had to be gone into, the subject being comparatively new to him, his evidence was much less satisfactory. He was cross-examined as to the practicability of forming a road on so unstable a foundation as Chat Moss. "'Now, with respect to your evidence upon Chat Moss,' asked Mr. Alderson, 'did you ever walk on Chat Moss on the proposed line of the railway?' 'The greater part of it, I have.' "'Was it not extremely boggy?' 'In parts it was.' "'How deep did you sink in?' 'I could have gone with shoes; I do not know whether I had boots on.' "'If the depth of the Moss should prove to be 40 feet instead of 20, would not this plan of the railway over this Moss be impracticable?' 'No, it would not. If the gentleman will allow me, I will refer to a railroad belonging to the Duke of Portland, made over a moss; there are no levels to drain it properly, such as we have at Chat Moss, and it is made by an embankment over the moss, which is worse than making a cutting, for there is the weight of the embankment to press upon the moss.' "'Still, you must go to the bottom of the moss?' 'It is not necessary; the deeper you get, the more consolidated it is.' "'Would you put some hard materials on it before you commenced?' 'Yes, perhaps I should.' "'What?' 'Brushwood, perhaps.' "'And you, then, are of opinion that it would be a solid embankment?' 'It would have a tremulous motion for a time, but would not give way, like clay.'" Mr. Alderson also cross-examined him at great length on the plans of the bridges, the tunnels, the crossings of the roads and streets, and the details of the survey, which, it soon appeared, were in some respects seriously at fault. It seems that, after the plans had been deposited, Stephenson found that a much more favorable line might be laid out, and he made his estimates accordingly, supposing that Parliament would not confine the company to the precise plan which had been deposited. This was felt to be a serious blot in the Parliamentary case, and one very difficult to get over.