Here the two roads join in one, and, as a single road, it leads on to Dalwhinny, where it branches out again into two; of which one proceeds towards the north-west, through Garva Moor, and over the Coriarach mountain to Fort Augustus, at Killichumen, and the other branch goes due-north to the barrack of Ruthven, in Badenoch, and thence, by Delmagary, to Inverness. From thence it proceeds something to the southward of the west, across the island, to the aforesaid Fort-Augustus and so on to Fort-William, in Lochaber.
The length of all these roads put together is about two hundred and fifty miles....
In the summer seasons, five hundred of the soldiers from the barracks, and other quarters about the Highlands, were employed in those works in different stations, by detachments from the regiments and Highland companies.
The private men were allowed sixpence a day, over and above their pay as soldiers: a corporal had eight-pence, and a sergeant a shilling; but this extra pay was only for working-days, which were often interrupted by violent storms of wind and rain, from the heights and hollows of the mountains.
These parties of men were under the command and direction of proper officers, who were all subalterns, and received two shillings and sixpence per diem, to defray their extraordinary expence in building huts; making necessary provision for their tables from distant parts; unavoidable though unwelcome visits, and other incidents arising from their wild situation....
The standard breadth of these roads, as laid down at the first projection, is sixteen feet; but in some parts, where there were no very expensive difficulties, they are wider....
The old ways (for roads I shall not call them) consisted chiefly of stony moors, bogs, rugged, rapid fords, declivities of hills, entangling woods, and giddy precipices. You will say this is a dreadful catalogue to be read to him that is about to take a Highland journey. I have not mentioned the valleys, for they are few in number, far divided asunder, and generally the roads through them were easily made.
My purpose now is to give you some account of the nature of the particular parts above-mentioned, and the manner how this extraordinary work has been executed; and this I shall do in the order I have ranged them as above.
And first, the stony moors. These are mostly tracts of ground of several miles in length, and often very high, with frequent lesser risings and descents, and having for surface a mixture of stones and heath. The stones are fixed in the earth, being very large and unequal, and generally are as deep in the ground as they appear above it; and where there are any spaces between the stones, there is a loose spongy sward, perhaps not above five or six inches deep, and incapable to produce any thing but heath, and all beneath it is hard gravel or rock....
Here the workmen first made room to fix their instruments, and then, by strength, and the help of those two mechanic powers, the screw and the lever, they raised out of their ancient beds those massive bodies, and then filling up the cavities with gravel, set them up, mostly end-ways, along the sides of the road, as directions in time of deep snows, being some of them, as they now stand, eight or nine feet high. They serve, likewise, as memorials of the skill and labour requisite to the performance of so difficult a work....