630 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ON RAILWAYS, &c. 



to a central point, it would seem probable that our 

 globe has a metallic nucleus, wonderfully compact- 

 ed and consolidated, having a pressure of posterior 

 matter, three or four thousand miles in diameter. 

 The envelopes of this great amalgam may be agate, 

 jasper and diamond: their involution, ores, alloys, 

 and primitive rock, and lastly, the various earths 

 and salts, in which the vegetable and animal fossil 

 matter is imbedded. From what has been said, all 

 light bodies and detached portions of matter, are 

 to be found on the surface of the earth, resting on a 

 solid foundation and capable of being moved in va- 

 rious directions. This was perhaps the situation 

 of the earth soon after its formation, or about the 

 time chaos was reduced to order ; but as soon as 

 the earth received its rotatory impulse, many im- 

 portant changes on its surface took place. Her 

 motion from west to east agitated the waters, and 

 produced a great western current, which continued 

 until it was retarded by gravity and friction, and 

 obstructed by marine mountains and extraneous 

 conglomerations. The effort of this current was, 

 to bring together large portions of loose earth, which 

 were elevated and consolidated in an eastern direc- 

 tion and formed the continent of Asia, 4740 miles 

 from the Dardanelles on tiie west, to the eastern 

 shore of Tartary, and 4380 miles from the Southern 

 part of Malacca, to the most northern part of Nova 

 Zembla. Asia was probably a small continent when 

 the Allwise Creator planted tlie garden of Eden, in 

 which he placed Adam and Eve. Since that, large 

 masses of loose sand and earth have been thrown up- 

 on its eastern coast, until the continent attained its 

 full size. This current brought up at the same time, 

 materials enough to form tlie Asiatic Lsles, New 

 Holland, and the American continent, which is no- 

 thing more than a continuation of Asia from Bah- 

 ren's strait to the 56th degree of south latitude. 

 These immense accessions of matter to the east of 

 Asia, caused a reaction in the waters, and threw 

 up large masses of matter in a contrary or western 

 direction, which gave rise to the continents of Eu- 

 rope and Africa. As soon as these continents were 

 thrown up and consolidated, tliey divided the wa- 

 ters, in such a manner that the great current was 

 cut off, leaving the oceans to be influenced by the 

 winds and tides. Many ages might have passed 

 away before this current threw up matter enough 

 to form the various islands and continents. Asia 

 was, no doubt, large enough in the time of Adam 

 to support his descendants for many centuries, and 

 she now supports more than half the human race. — 

 If this theory be correct, there can be no longer 

 any doubt as to the manner in which the various 

 continents were first inhabited — they all join or 

 approximate; and when mankind multiplied, they 

 spread abroad and emigrated to new countries. 



A western current, has been denied by some and 

 warmly supported by others. Nothing appears 

 more probable than that such a current once exist- 

 ed. — If a vessel filled with water be drawn along a 

 horizontal plain, the fluid will be thrown in an op- 

 posite direction to the course of the vessel. Again, 

 if a globe be dusted with fine starch and projected 

 briskly through the atmosphere, the starch will 

 form a cloud in an opposite direction to the course 

 of the globe. Lastly, if a globe be moistened witli 

 fluid paste, and turned briskly to the east, there 

 will be a western movement of the paste and it will 

 be elevated and collected in large masses on the 

 eastern surface of the globe. galen. 



OBSERVATIONS ON RAILWAYS, WITH HINTS 

 TO RAILWAY COMPANIES. 



From ihe London Morning Chronicle. 

 ISTr. Editor, — The art of forming Railways and 

 of enduing them, as means of transport, with the 

 utmost degree of economy, velocity, and security, 

 is yet in its infancy. To the promotion and con- 

 struction of these works, or to the determination of 

 their probable success, as durable fountains of pro- 

 fit, the thoughts and attention of engineers, of mer- 

 chants, manufacturers, agriculturists, capitalists, 

 indeed, of all the enterprising portion of the com- 

 munity, are as keenly directed as were the efforts 

 of our immediate forefathers to the establishment of 

 Canal Navigation.* The two most important en- 

 terprises of this nature now inactivity — the Stock- 

 ton and Darlington, and the Liverpool and Man- 

 chester Railways — have been highly lucrative from 

 their outset : a fact, in the history of mercantile 

 associations of this nature, as remarkable as it is 

 encouraging. In a commercial sense, the objects 

 of these two Railways are distinct ; the one being 

 limited, almost exclusively, to the transport of coal ; 

 the other combining the convenience of myriads of 

 passengers, with the carriage of an infinite variety 

 ofmerchandise. These two great, and hitherto suc- 

 cessful, experiments may not be inaptly compared 

 — as to tlieir novelty, their purpose, their impor- 

 tance, and their results — to the two first specimens 

 of artificial communication by water in this island, 

 viz. the Sankey Navigation, and the Dukeof Bridg- 

 water's Canal. The comparison will hold good un- 

 der each of these heads ; and I confess that I am 

 sanguine enough to think that the two Iron Ways 

 will rival, in permanency of profit, tlie celebrated 

 Water-ways referred to ; and, further, that Rail- 

 ways and Canals may co-exist, with fair gain to 

 their respective proprietors. But, it behooves the 

 authors of new and similar projects to inquire dili- 

 gently into the particular causes of the success of 

 these first experiments ; to compare carefully the 

 spriiigs whence these parent Railways derive their 

 traffic, with the sources relied upon as feeders to 

 the projected lines ; to investigate the most minute 

 details of daily expense ; to analyse rigidly the cause 

 of wear and tear, as well as of all interruptions and 

 accidents ; in short, to make themselves as tho- 

 roughly masters of the subject, and to act with as 

 much forethought and deliberation as an individual 

 would do in a private venture. It is not upon the 

 engineers that reliance should be placed for mer- 

 cantile details or points of management ; our busi- 

 ness is simply that of workmen ; it is upon mature 

 and well-digested plans, aided by an efficient di- 

 rection, that the prosperity of all associations of 

 this nature must mainly depend. 



Professionally uninterested in Railways, I am 

 impelled to submit the following hints and obser- 



* The canahzation of Great Biitain has, in fact, been 

 accomplished within the memory of man ; for there 

 still lives one of the original proprietors and chief pro- 

 moters of the Sankey Canal Navigation — the first arti- 

 ficial waterway in this island. I mean Nicholas Ash- 

 ton, Esq. of Woolton, near Liverpool, now at the ad- 

 vanced age of ninety years. This canalized brook con- 

 veys the coal from the pits about St. Helens to the Mer- 

 sey, near Runcorn. A railway has recently been open- 

 ed between the same points, which will, probably, con- 

 tend as successfully against its aqueous opponent, as 

 does the Stockton and Darlington against the rivers and 

 canals in itsneighborhocJ. 



