It would be interesting to trace back, and, if possible, ascertain from whence the exact gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches was derived. No doubt, in the early days of the pioneer iron highways in England, the railways were made the same gauge as the tramroads which they superseded. But why was 4 feet 8½ inches the gauge of the tramroads? We may reasonably infer that the first four-wheeled waggons used on the early tramroads were in reality the same waggons which had been previously used on the common roads for the conveyance of coal and minerals to the ports for shipment, and that the waggons were merely transferred from the roughly paved or macadamised roads to the tramroads. Flanged wheels were then unknown, and the introduction of the tram-plates was at first simply designed to lessen the resistance to haulage. The gauge, or width between the wheels, of these waggons may have been the outcome of long experience as to the most suitable width for convenience of load, stability during transit, or for space occupied on the highway. The width may have been handed down from generation to generation, going back to the time when wheeled vehicles were first built in the country. Perhaps in the beginning the first vehicles may have been imported from Italy, or Greece--countries which in the earlier ages were the most advanced in matters of luxury and convenience. When in Pompeii, a few years ago, the writer measured the spaces between a large number of the _wheel-ruts_ which are worn deep into the paving-stones in many of the principal streets of that wonderful unearthed city. These paving-stones, very irregular in shape, and many of them 2 feet 6 inches long by 1 foot 6 inches wide, are carefully fitted together, and form a compact massive pavement from curbstone to curbstone. The wheel-tracks, which are in many places worn into the stones to the depth of an inch or an inch and a 40 half, are always distinct, and there is no difficulty in defining the corresponding track. The result of a large number of measurements gave an average width of about 4 feet 11 inches from centre to centre of the wheel-tracks, a curious coincidence with the gauge of our own road vehicles at the beginning of the railway era. Whether our selection of the railway gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches has been the result of study, imitation, or caprice, we certainly have the silent testimony of these old deep-worn stones to prove that two thousand years ago the chariots of Pompeii were of very similar gauge to our own of modern times.