SEMMERING ALP. 



difficulties at Trieste, on his way back to India. 

 Our departure from London was sudden, it 

 having been occasioned by a telegram from 

 the British Ambassador at Vienna to the India 

 Board, and the object of our journey necessi- 

 tating rapid travel, Ave lingered so little on the 

 way, that we reached Trieste in a hundred 

 and twenty-two hours, although detained by 

 business an entire day at Vienna. 



Almost every one is now so familiar with the 

 principal routes from London to Trieste, thanks 

 to Murray's hand-books, that a minute descrip- 

 tion of the one w^e travelled, via Cologne, Dres- 

 den, and Vienna, would be superfluous ; but I 

 cannot forbear a passing notice of the railroad 

 over the Semmering Alp between the Austrian 

 capital and Gratz, as a wondrous triumph of 

 engineering skill, being carried over parts of a 

 mountain, where a few years ago the construc- 

 tion of an ordinary road was deemed impracti- 

 cable. The entire route, indeed, from the foot 

 of the Alp to the vicinity of Trieste, passes 

 through a succession of the most picturesque 

 scenery imaginable, the railway following the 

 course of one bright stream after another, and 

 those Styrian streams are perhaps the brightest 



