THE GREAT PBAIEIE. 37 



ing, by a line along the inside of the roof, a continuous com- 

 munication from every carriage to the engine driver. This is 

 in general use both in Canada and the States, and when any 

 change took place in the arrangement of the carriages, the 

 connection of the signal rope was effected without any diffi- 

 culty or loss of time. There is another little matter which 

 must have often struck railway travellers in England ; the un- 

 necessary exposure to weather of the engine driver and stoker. 

 In the coldest, wettest, and stormiest nights these two men, 

 upon whose care and consciousness the safety of the whole 

 train depends, are whisked through the air at enormous speed, 

 without any shelter or cover except an upright piece of iron 

 with glass in it to protect their faces when looking out ahead. 

 In America, these useful officials have a roof over them, glazed 

 on the front and sides and open behind, within which they can 

 carry on most of their duties, without unnecessary exposure, 

 and from which they can keep a good look out, without being 

 frost-bitten. 



It was night when the train reached the first limit of the 

 Great Prairie country, for a glimpse of which through the dark- 

 ness, I strove anxiously but in vain, during the last hour of the 

 journey to Chicago. 



I had now reached the new capital of "that Western 

 World," as Washington described it, which Penn prophesied 

 would yet make a glorious country. The valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi above Cairo, comprising on its eastern bank Illinois 

 and Wisconsin, and on the west, Missouri, Iowa, and Minne- 

 sota, embraces probably the greatest tract of fertile land on 

 the surface of the globe. In total extent it exceeds England 

 and France together, with the kingdom of the two Sicilies 

 thrown into the bargain, it is more than equal to Prussia and 

 the whole Austrian empire, even Spain and Turkey combined, 

 would require the territory of the Ionian Islands to place them 



