NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 137 



PROGRESS OF TELEGRAPHIC! CONSTRUCTION. 



While citizens of the United States are engaged upon the great enter- 

 prise of constructing a line of telegraph to Europe via Behring's Straits 

 and the Amoor, the British government are pushing their great project of 

 connecting London and Calcutta with the electric wire, to a speedy conclu- 

 sion. Telegraphic communication has existed for two or three years be- 

 tween London and Constantinople, and about the same time ago a cable 

 was laid down through the Rod Sea, between Suez and Aden, a distance 

 of 3,000 miles, intended to complete the link between Europe and India, 

 but it subsequently failed. Recently, however, a cable has been success- 

 fully submerged through the Persian Gulf, which with the exception of 

 160 miles of land line, between Diwanyeh, on the Euphrates, and the 

 Shat-el-Arab, the western termini of the Persian Gulf cable, completes 

 the through telegraphic communication from the Thames to the Ganges. 



The distance from Constantinople to Fao, at the mouth of the Shat-el- 

 Arab on the Persian Gulf, through which the line will pass when the 

 Montific Arabs and the healthy season will permit its safe construction to 

 Diwanyeh, is 1,570 miles, and passes through the following important 

 towns, Scutari, Angora, Diarbekir, Mossul, Bagdad, and Diwanyeh. From 

 Fao to Kurrachee, the submarine cable stretches along the bottom of the 

 Persian Gulf for 1,300 miles, and 500 miles farther carries it across a por- 

 tion of the British-Indian empire to Bombay. 



The eastern terminus of the Turkish line for the receipt of messages, is 

 at present at Bagdad, and the only communication with Fao is by way of 

 the Tigris, by one British and two Turkish steamers, which run regularly, 

 occupying from five to six days in the passage up the river, and 2 down. 



Another route from England to India, in connection with the Persian 

 gulf cable, passes through Russia by way of Tiflis to Teheran, thence to 

 Ispahan and Shiraz, and joins the cable at Bushire. As the line running 

 through the Montific country, when completed, can scarcely be depended 

 upon, owing to the relations existing between the tribes, who are very 

 powerful and warlike, and the pasha of Bagdad, against whom they have 

 risen in rebellion, the British government have contracted for the con- 

 struction of a line which, effecting a considerable detour, will avoid the dis- 

 turbed district completely. This wire is to pass from Bushire, on the 

 Persian Gulf, where the cable lands before starting 170 miles further, to 

 its terminus at Shat-el-Arab, via Kazeroor, Shiraz, Ispahan, Teheran, 

 and Khmakeen to Bagdad, the distance between Bushire and Khanakeen 

 being about 1,100 miles. 



The Indian telegraphs, which connect together Calcutta, Bombay, 

 Madras, Delhi, and all the principal towns in India, are now advanced 

 eastward as far as Rangoon ; and the routes thence to China and to Austra- 

 lia, by way of Singapore, Java, and Timor, are said to be almost entirely 

 in comparatively shallow water, so far as the submarine part of the line 

 is concerned, and do not otherwise offer any difficulty which should pre- 

 vent instantaneous communication between London, Hong Kong, Mel- 

 bourne, and Sidney. 



When the Atlantic cable and the Russian line are successfully in on- 

 erat.ion, we shall have two sep rate routes to China and India, to .^e 

 latter via London and Constantinople, via St. Peter-burg and Teheran; 

 and to the former via Russia line from Irkoutsk in Siberia to Pekin, and 

 via the Persian gulf cable and India. 12* 



