CHAPMAN S REPORT. 285 



D. 



RAILROAD REPORT. 



From Lieutenant W. Chapman,* Bombay- 

 Engineer, on special duty in Sindli, to the 

 Superintending Engineer. 



EXTEACTS. 



A cursory inspection of the map of Sindh, 

 and a slight knowledge of the commercial 

 routes of the province, are requisite to deter- 

 mine on the valley of the Indus as the 

 direction that any contemplated railroad must 

 of necessity take ; and since the unequivocal 

 success which attended the construction of 

 the first line of railroad in England is uni- 

 versally attributed to a complete communica- 

 tion having been at once established between 

 two important points, while the wisdom of 

 the principle laid down has been so fully borne 

 out, as well by the failures as successes of 

 subsequent undertakings, as to have become 



* This higlily-taleuted aud valuable young officer was unfortu- 

 nately drowned in the Indus near Sehwan, with a Sergeant of 

 Engineers and several men, by the upsetting of a boat which struck 

 against a sunken tree on the 21st December, 1853. 



