pany was perhaps the first to commence the system. Until 1850 the third class excursion trains from London to Brighton and back were usually charged 5s. per ticket; but in this year the charge has been reduced to 3s. 6d. The South Eastern Company followed, and made their 6s. tickets available not only to Dover but to Margate and Ramsgate; while their Reading branch was made available to a 3s. 6d. ticket. The South Western then astonished railway travellers by their 3s. tickets to Southampton and back, and equally cheap tickets elsewhere. The Great Western Company, who have hitherto hung back from excursion trains, next entered the field, and placed Windsor, Oxford, Bath, Bristol, and Cheltenham, within the limits of excursions. Late in the season the Eastern Counties Company followed in the same track; while the Northern Companies have not been slow to develop the system. The ingenuity which the companies have exhibited in finding out new objects for pleasure excursions, shews that the results are deemed satisfactory: that the abstraction from ordinary traffic is not equal to the addition by holiday traffic.

In order to afford means for establishing comparisons between ordinary traffic and pleasure traffic, and between the present year's fares and those which may eventually mark the busy industrial year 1851, we will throw into the form of a table the actual rates charged on the occasions above alluded to, by the cheapest class in each train, whether called 2nd or 3rd; for it is by the cheapest class that an enormous majority of the excursionists travel. This may be conveniently tabulated by the number of miles travelled for 18.:

The last two examples in this list are less than one farthing per mile.

ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

In various volumes of the Companion, both in separate articles, and in short paragraphs connected with railways, frequent mention has been made of the Electric Telegraph, one of the most important adjuncts of the railway system. The year 1850 has been a busy one in this respect, especially in relation to the establishment, for the first time, of electro-telegraphic communication across the

sea.

It was on the 28th of August, 1850, that England and France were thus first connected. The Goliath steamer was employed on the occasion. Between the paddle-wheels, in the centre of the vessel was a gigantic drum or cylinder, fifteen feet long, seven feet in diameter, seven tons weight, and fixed on a strong frame-work. Upon it was coiled about thirty miles of telegraph wire, enclosed in a covering of gutta percha about half an inch in diameter. The point of the French coast nearest to England is Cape Grisnez, about half-way between Calais and Boulogne; and as the distance between this point and Dover is twenty-one miles in a direct line, there were nine miles of wire left for slacking. It was intended to imbed the wire on the bottom of the sea by means of leaden clamps, several hundred in number, and each weighing from 20 to 25 lbs. The sea varies in depth from 30 to 180 feet, the deepest part being near the middle, interrupted, however, by two shallows called the Ridge and the Varne, which are dangerous to navigators; but it was calculated that the weight of the leaden clamps would carry the wire to the bottom in every part, out of the reach of anchors and fishing nets.

On the 27th the first attempt was made, but without full success. Captain Bullock, in H.M. steam-ship Widgeon, marked out a straight line from the English to the French coasts by a series of pilot-buoys with flags. The connecting wires were placed in readiness at the Government pier in Dover Harbour, to establish the electric circuit with the coil of wire in the ship; and similar wires were placed at Cape Grisnez, where they were carried up the face of the acclivity, which rises to a height of 124 feet above sea mark. It was intended to start the Goliath about one o'clock; but a gale sprang up, which necessitated the postponement of the operation till the next day. On the 28th the vessel, having Mr. Jacob Brett and other managers of the enterprise on board, pard, started from Dover Harbour at a rate of about four miles an hour, 'paying out' or unrolling the telegraphic wire as it proceeded, and allowing it to drop (aided by the leaden weights) to the bed of the sea. At every sixteenth of a mile the leaden clamps occurred. At intervals during the voyage, messages and salutations passed to and fro between the voyagers and Mr. John Brett, on shore. Early in the evening the Goliath safely arrived at the French coast; and the wire was run up the cliff at Cape Grisnez to its terminal station. On that very same evening messages were sent to and fro instantly between the English and French

coasts.

But the inventors had not duly calculated all the exigences of such a novel and startling enterprise. The telegraphic wire in a short time snapped in twain. The wire, in settling into its place at the sea-bottom, crossed a rocky ridge which lay in its way; and this ridge seems to have cut it. There is an agreement drawn up between the projectors and the French government, by virtue of which the former will pay themselves by the exclusive use of the Submarine Telegraph for a limited period; but until the mechanical difficulties shall have been surmounted, the legal privileges seem to lie in abeyance.

The arrangements now being made by the company are on a scale of great magnitude. The wires are to be enclosed in gutta percha, which is itself to be enclosed in an iron-wire cable four or five inches in diameter. There are to be two such cables, at a distance of three miles apart, in order that one may be serviceable in the event of the other receiving damage. Each cable is to contain four wires. The strength and weight are so calculated, that it is hoped all sources of damage will be guarded against. The works will not be finished for this great enterprise till the spring of 1851.

If this Anglo-French telegraph should happily succeed, we shall speedily see other and broader expanses of sea crossed in a similar manner. Holyhead and Dublin may safely be regarded as the future termini of one such route; and when we think of the indomitable energy which characterizes the United States, we hardly dare to place limits to the possibilities of such a system. Lord Palmerston on one occasion, at a public dinner at Southampton, pleasantly alluded to a prospective period when, if the Minister were asked in the House of Commons, "whether it was true that a war had broken out in India?" he might perhaps be able to answer, "Wait an instant till I telegraph the Governor-General, and I will tell you."

In a paper communicated in 1849 by Mr. Whishaw to the British Association, he gave the following account of the state of the electrotelegraphic system in three different countries at that period. The length of railway to which the system had been applied in Great Britain down to July 1849 was about 2000 miles; and the cost was about 150l. per mile. In Prussia the telegraphic wires were suspended on the English system until the year 1844, since which date a new plan has been followed; the wires are coated with gutta percha, and laid along underground, at a distance of about two feet beneath the surface, not only under railways, but under turnpike roads and towing paths. There are at each principal station two telegraphic machines, one colloquial and one printing. The length of Prussian telegraph, to July 1849, was about 1,500 miles, at a cost of about 40l. per mile. In the United States the telegraphic line is formed by a single iron wire supported from post to post; it is carried not only along railways, but across the open country. There were at the date above mentioned 10,500 miles of American telegraph, at a cost of about 20l. per mile.

Down to the spring of 1850 there were about 1000 miles of electric telegraph in the Austrian empire. During the summer another 1000 miles have been added; and it is expected that the year 1851 will increase the length to 3000 miles. The plan now adopted in that country is to place the wires underground. On Oct. 1, 1850, a telegraphic union was forined between Austria, Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria, whereby extensive intercommunication is established, and the rates of charge greatly reduced. The high charge made in England is a great bar to the use of the Electric Telegraph. France is progressing less rapidly in this invaluable system than is befitting so important a country. The other countries of Europe have, as may be supposed, made but little progress in electro-telegraphy.

One of the most astonishing results of this system has lately occurred in America, where the telegraph may also be said to have run a race with Time, and beaten him. New Orleans is westward of New York, and the clocks are thus later in the former city than the latter, in proportion to the difference of longitude. When the 'Atlantic' made her first return voyage from Liverpool, a brief abstract of her news was telegraphed to New Orleans at a few minutes after noon (New York time): it reached its destination at a few minutes before noon (New Orleans time), and was published in the New Orleans papers on the evening of the very day when the ship arrived at New York: the evening papers of New York and New Orleans gave the same news at the same hour!

The Railway Insurance principle, which at first had an air of such strangeness to many persons, is gradually becoming understood. The Railway Insurance Company have an interest in meeting honourably all claims upon them arising out of railway accidents. In a recent report of the company, ny, the particulars of thirty claims and awards are given, in which sums varying from 21. to 210l. have been paid to the sufferers. The pain, the loss of time, the medical expenses, the permanent or temporary disablement, all are taken into account in determining the amount paid. The highest sum was paid in a case where perinanent loss of the sight of an eye is apprehended. The insurance of railway travellers is in every respect as legitimate and sound in principle as the "underwriting" or insurance of a ship, or as life or fire insurance. If the company be commercially sound, the system will work well.

OCEAN STEAMERS-FOREIGN MAILS.

"IN 1833," says a recent writer in the Edinburgh Review (Oct. 1850), "a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the means of promoting communication with India by steam. The evidence taken by it contains the views and suggestions of probably as able a body of witnesses as have ever been brought before those celebrated tribunals. Engineers, men of science, military and naval commanders, merchants, travellers, diplomatists, geographers, and antiquaries, all contributed to its instruction. It is true, seventeen years' experience has displaced many of the considerations relied on by the advocates of the line by the Euphrates in preference to that by Suez and the Red Sea But if we can obtain a still more safe and expeditious communication, and at the same time equally regular, by the Euphrates, Suez in its turn must share the fate of Cape Town; and if again the mighty project of a continuous railway from Ostend to Calcutta should be actually carried out, Antioch and Aleppo would have to resign the stream of traffic to Constantinople. In the mean time the commercial interest will not cease employing the shortest and most profitable path; and there are certain undisputed facts in favour of the line of the Euphrates, which must always keep alive our interest in any additional information respecting it."

INDIA MAIL-EUPHRATES ROUTE.

.

In respect to actual mileage, the distance from England to India is much less by the Euphrates than by the Rea Sea. Scanderoon is the Mediterranean port of departure for the Euphrates; Alexandria for the Red Sea; it is a few additional hours of steaming to the former; but the onward route more than counterbalances it. From Scanderoon to Bombay is 2,574 miles; from Alexandria to Bombay is 3,255 miles; the former has only 800 miles of sea voyage; whereas the latter has 1,725 miles. These were the two points of preference which led Captain Chesney to suggest the Euphrates route for the India mail, independently of the road-side traffic (so to speak) which might be picked up on the way. In 1831 he had descended 962 miles of the Euphrates in boats; and in the next following year he had visited the river 300 miles higher up. He proposed to the committee an exploring expedition on the Euphrates, by means of two small iron steamers and a corps of scientific assistants. His plan was, that the iron steamers should be sent out in pieces; that they should be landed either at Scanderoon or Antioch (at the extreme eastern end of the Mediterranean, southward of Asia Minor); that the pieces should be conveyed by land carriage a distance of 122 miles to Bir on the Euphrates; that they should be there put together; and that the whole expedition should steam down the Euphrates from Bir to its mouth at the Persian Gulf, a distance of about 1,200 miles. The Government assented; the expedition was made in 1835-6 and 7; but the volumes which describe the details have only lately been published-indeed only two out of the proposed four volumes have yet (Nov. 1850), ap