s rounds, the quality of adaptability of the source of power
to the sudden demands due to differences of level in the road is not
so absolutely essential as it is in traction engines designed for the
transport of goods over ordinary roads. In the former class of work
the waste of power involved in employing a motor of strength
sufficient to climb hills--although the bulk of the distance to be
travelled is along level roads--may not be at all so serious as to
overbalance the many and manifest advantages of the automobile
principle. At the same time, as has already been indicated, there is
no doubt whatever that when proper automatic shut-off contrivances
have been applied for economising mechanical energy in the passenger
road-motor, an immense impetus will be given to its advancement.

In the road traction-engine the need for what may be termed _effort_
on the part of the mechanism is much greater, more especially as the
competition against horse-traction is conducted on terms so much more
nearly level. A team of strong draught-horses driven by one man on a
well-loaded waggon is a far more economical installation of power than
a two-horse buggy carrying one or two passengers.

The asphalt and macadamised tracks which are now being laid down along
the sides of roads for the convenience of cyclists, are the
significant forerunners of an improvement destined to produce a
revolution in road traffic during the twentieth century. When
automobiles have become very much more numerous, and local
authorities find that the settlement of wealthy or comparatively
well-to-do families in their neighbourhoods may depend very largely
upon the question whether light road-motor traffic may be conveniently
conducted to and from the nearest city, an immense impetus will be
administered to the reasonable efforts made for catering for the
demand for tracks for the accommodation of automobiles, both private
and public.

The tyranny of the railway station will then be to a large extent
mitigated, and suburban or country residents will no longer be
practically compelled to crowd up close to each station on their lines
of railroad. Under existing conditions many of those who travel
fifteen or twenty miles to business every day live just as close to
one another, and with nearly as marked a lack of space for lawn and
garden, as if they lived within the city. The bunchy nature of
settlement promoted by railways must have excited the notice of any