SINDH RAILWAY. 281 



ordinary highway, cost in conveyance its full 

 prime cost, and its value was therefore doubled ; 

 while if conveyed by railway the same distance, 

 it would have cost in carriage no more than 

 five dollars. In cheaper kinds of grain, the 

 cost price, 24 dollars 75 c, would be expended 

 in carriage, if conveyed only 160 miles by 

 highway, whereas it would have cost 2 dol- 

 lars 40 c. only to have conveyed it the same 

 distance by railway. In Sindh, the proportion 

 the cost of conveyance bears to the price of 

 grain on the spot where it is grown is much 

 greater ; and it could be easily proved that in 

 parts of the country, at even short distances 

 from markets, where the demand is not limited 

 by local consumption, the cost of carriage to 

 that market is so great that it is unprofitable to 

 cultivate, and that the cultivation is therefore 

 checked, and limited to the consumption of the 

 immediate localities. 



Having carefully examined the country 

 through which it is proposed the railway shall 

 pass, I can assure you that it is admii-ably 

 adapted for such a work ; it consists of a number 

 of level or nearly level plains, with a generally 

 bard and smooth surface. Abundant stone will be 



