1872.] Engineering. 523 
Railways.—The most important question in connection with railways that 
has been brought prominently forward during the past quarter is that of the 
proposed construction of a line along the valley of the Euphrates river, as 
a means of obtaining more expeditious access to our Indian possessions. 
This subject has recently been under investigation before a Parliamentary 
Select Committee, whose report has now been published. This document 
contains very extensive information regarding all that has hitherto been done 
with the view of testing the practicability of construing a Euphrates Valley 
Railway, and regarding the various alternative lines that have been proposed 
for connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Persian Gulf by means of an 
iron road. The recommendations of the committee are in favour of adopting 
Alexandretta as the terminus of the proposed line at its Mediterranean end, 
and the port of Grane for the Persian Gulf terminus; with regard to the latter, 
however, they think that a local inquiry conducted by competent scientific 
authorities is needed before finally deciding. With regard to the route, that 
by the Euphrates is preferred to the Tigris Valley, as being considerably the 
shorter and the cheaper to make, although the latter route might attra&t the 
larger amount of traffic, and would conneé itself better with the projected 
Turkish system. In the absence of any actual surveys it has been impossible 
to fix any sum as the probable cost of either route, but it is thought probable 
that the sum of ten millions sterling would be ample to cover the expense of 
the shorter of the two routes. 
From Mr. J. Danvers’s annual report on Indian Railways, which has just 
been published, we learn that there are now in existence in India nine 
guaranteed railway lines, four of which have now been completed, viz., the 
East Indian, the Great Indian Peninsula, the Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi, and 
the Eastern Bengal. The total length of the open lines is 5136 miles, and 
further lengths aggregating g4o miles are under construction. There are 
also twelve state railways sanctioned, having a total combined length of 
1573 miles. Of these latter four are completed, namely the Nulhattee branch 
to the East Indian Railway, the Calcutta and South Eastern, the Khangaon, 
and the Oomrawattee lines. The total length of state lines open is 684 miles, 
and 1503 miles therefore remain to be completed at present. Most of the 
guaranteed lines have a 5-feet 6-inch gauge, whilst the gauge adopted for the 
state railways is 1 metre, or 3 feet 3? inches; exceptions have, however, been 
made in the case of some of those lines. The total estimated cost of all 
lines sanctioned or completed in India amounts to little less than r1o millions 
sterling, of which about g2 millions have already been expended. 
The St. Gothard Railway Company has just concluded a contract with a 
Swiss contractor, M. L. Favre, of Geneva, for the construction of a tunnel 
under the Alps between Goeschenon and Airolo. This will be a more gigantic 
operation than the Mont Cenis tunnel, inasmuch as its length will be 14°8 
kilometres, or rather more than g English miles. The estimated cost for 
excavating this great tunnel is 50 millions of francs, or, say, 2 millions of 
pounds sterling, and the probable time that it will take in execution is 
estimated at about 8 years. 
Tunnels, however, cannot in all cases be adopted by railways requiring to 
pass mountainous obstrudtions, and lines laid on steep inclines must then be 
constructed. The Cantagallo Railway, in Brazil, meets with such an obstacle 
in the Organ mountains, which intervene between the important coffee-pro- 
ducing district of Cantagallo, situated on a high level, and Caxoeira in the 
plains, whence a railway already exists to Rio Janeiro. This railway, from 
Caxoeira across the mountain passes to Nova Friburgo and Cantagallo, is being 
constructed with the same gauge as the Mont Cenis Railway, namely 1'1 metres, 
or 3 feet 7,5, inches, and that part of it which traverses the coast side of the 
mountains will be laid with the central rail. In a length of 7? miles, this 
mountain portion of the line rises about 3000 feet, the gradient varying from 
I in 20 to 1 in 12, and being for the greater part of the length 1 in 13, while 
the curves are of 40 metres, or about 140 feet radius. In descending from 
the summit level on the Cantagallo side, the mid-rail is dispensed with, the 
gradients over the 12 miles extending to Nova Friburgo being easy. 
