found successful in imparting to timber preternatural hardness and durability.* Timber of excellent quality is plentifully distributed over the country, and may be had at a cheap rate; in some places, almost for the expense of cutting. Teak, Saul, Sissoo, Soondree, and Babool, (a species of Mimosa) from their resisting the white ant, their durability and their abundance, will probably be selected for sleepers.† The soil being admirably adapted for making bricks, they may be commanded to almost any extent in almost any locality. With the coal and iron already noticed, as occurring in many parts of India, we also find stone well adapted for building purposes. A reference to the Appendix will show the cheapness of labour and materials in India. * Sir William Burnett's invention preserves wood against rot and the ravages of insects. (1846). + Teak is well known for its solidity, hardness and durability as the most valuable timber of almost any country-but it is expensive. Sissoo also commands a high price in Calcutta, and has, although not so frequently as teak, been used for ship building. It is dark, coarse grained, and possessed of great tenacity. Saul is less expensive in Calcutta than the former, is coarse grained, a degree less hard and tenacious than Sissoo, but bears exposure rather better. It is very abundant in the broad belt of forest at the base of the Himalayah, and in the hilly regions in other parts of the country where it may be obtained for almost a nominal price. (1846). Soondree is peculiar to the Sunderbundes and the Upland district to the west of Calcutta, and excels all the forest trees of India in the density of its fibre, in toughness, in durability when exposed, in strength or resisting power, and its acidity gives it a perfect immunity from the ravages of insects. It never attains a great size and is occasionally contorted, but sticks adapted for railway sleepers, i. e. of 8 or 9 in. scantling are to be had in any quantity at a cheap rate; it makes good buggy shafts, but English workmen object to it, as it turns the edge of their tools. A large quantity of this wood may be seen at the London Docks, or at Messrs. Roberts and Mitchell's, Old Jewry Chambers. (1846). *The cost of the West Flanders lines will not amount to one half of the average cost of the state lines per mile. Second halfyearly Report of the Directors of the West Flanders Railways, July 3rd, 1846. + Principles of railway management by J. Butler Williams, Esq F.S.S, F.G.S. (1846). 2,812* 7,500 to 10,250† Captain Goodwyn, exclusive of plant 3,000 4,400 3,000 Captain Western (incomplete clusive of plant) on American plan It is stated in the report of the Irish commission that railways might be constructed in that country at the rate of £10,000 per mile. "The Board of Trade in their report on the South Western District, in 1845, states that the lines proposed to be made in that part of the country might be constructed for about £12,000 per mile; and the estimated cost of the mass of new railways projected during the last two years, ranges 64 * For the mode of constructing railways in America-see Weale's Ensamples of Railways." (1846). The line from Calcutta to Mirzapore, if executed in the manner proposed by the Railway Commissioners, may be estimated at From Allahabad to Delhi £20,000 per mile From Calcutta to the Sutlej it would be an From And would require a capital of, about (1846). average of £12,000 to 15,000 £18,000,000. to the rougher work it would be subjected to-than by attempting to transport a Birmingham or Great Western, with all their grandeur and complicated arrangements, into Hindostan. CLASSIFICATION OF PASSENGERS, &c. IT It may be interesting to compare in some particulars the working of our railways with those of Belgium, the only country in Europe, besides our own, in which such works have hitherto been carried on as a system, and where the results have been published. At the end of 1842, there were in operation in that kingdom, 282 miles of railways, the average cost of construction of which was £17,120 per mile, while the average cost in this kingdom has been £34,360,* or just double the cost in Belgium. This difference results from a variety of causes. In the first place, the works being undertaken by the government, there Those lines principally used for transporting coals and minerals are not included in this average. (1846). |