1847.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



199 



the first time the experimeDtal trials with the Amphion have proved suc- 

 cessful. In all former trials the success was most incomplete, the engines 

 woulil scarcely work fur half an hour without stopping, owing to the 

 canvass collapsing. Metal valves have now, on the recommendation of 

 the authorities at Woolwich been adopted, and the result has proved in 

 the highest degree satisfactory. A correspondent says — " considering the 

 great size of the Amphion, and that her auxiliary engines are only of 300- 

 horse power, a very small proporlion for a frigate of 36 guns, her progress 

 through the water was surprising, and leads to the belief that she will 

 prove one of ihe most serviceable vessels afloat." She carried with her 

 in this cruise, all her guns, with stores, provisions, and water, for three 

 months, and a large supply of coals. 



NOTES ON FOREIGN WORKS. 



Alpine Vienna and Trieste Railway. — This line, from Cilly to the end of 

 the Saun valley (14 English miles), has been just completed, and ranks now, 

 hy the skill employed thereon, as well as the great beauties of Alpine 

 scenery, amongst the most remarkable objects of Styria. The bridge, in 

 fine, which has been thrown across the Saun (near its confluent with the 

 Save), is the culminating point of the whole work. Conformalily with the 

 difficulties presented hy the grounfl, it consists of an oblique arch, whosecircu- 

 lar opening is 100 cubits. The three minor arches will have a span of 

 12 cubits in the lieht, their height being 40 feet. The construction of the 

 protecting dyke was accomplished by iron bars being screwed perpendicu- 

 larly to the rock-bed of the Saun, on which bars the piles were planted. 

 The difficulty of Alpine ground may he guessed from the fact, that from the 

 watering place of Tiiffer to Steinhiucken (a distance of four English miles), 

 the embankments of the road amount to 12,000 cubic klafter. M. Pico, the 

 engineer, is much praised for the choice of the most solid materials, and 

 for the solidity of the works. The Bath of Tiiffers was known and 

 resorted to hy the Romans. 



Great Continental Raibray Lines. — A joint meeting of the directors of 

 the different lines forming those from Vienna to Hamburg, and Vienna to 

 Stettin — the first 140, the latter 12.5, German leagues (15 to a degree), have 

 met at Berlin, and concerted a plan, by which the first distance can be ac- 

 complished in 44 hours, and the latter in 40 hours, either going or coming. 

 The train will leave Vienna at 7 o'clock, p.m., arrive next day at noon at 

 Breslau, where it will stop four hours ; start at 4 p.m., and arrive at 5 a.m. 

 at Berlin, whence it will start for Hamburg or Stettin at 7. It is stated, 

 that the Berlin and Magdeburg company wish to purchase the interest of the 

 Magdeburg and Leipsig line, at the enormous interest of 250 per cent. ; but, 

 however foresighted the plans of the company may be, it is pretty well ac- 

 knowledged now in Germany, that over-speculating ought to be rather called 

 unrfer-s peculating. 



Regulation and Drainage of the Rhine. — After the terrible disasters 

 which the overflowing of this river caused, last year, near Vaduz (Switzer- 

 land), surveys and plans for the above purpose have been made by Colonel 

 Lanicea and a nundier of Swiss engineers. According to this plan, an area 

 of about 5,000.000 square klafters (cubits) of arable land could be gained 

 in this spot, hitherto considered most barren. 



Spanish Surveys. — The activity which reigns in some departments of Spa- 

 nish science and industry, is fairly exhibited in a gigantic chart just pub- 

 lished — ** Gran Mape de la Isia de Mallorca." Its dimensions are 67 inches 

 (pulgadas castellanas) by 52 inches. Its detail of ports, harbours, bays, and 

 Other features of the island of Majorca, are accurately rendered. 



Brussels. — M. Peter Dabrren, merchant of Cologne, has been introduced to 

 the king, for the purpose of laying before his majesty his new plan for pre- 

 venting accidents on railways. It consists of an ingenious plan of suddenly 

 detaching the engine from the train, and bringing it to a stand still. The 

 inventor intends, also, to have his discovery tested in other countries. 



Literary and Art Property in Austria. — An imperial decree has been 

 lately published on this subjfct — the purport of which is consonant with 

 similar regulations enacted previously by the Emperor of Russia. The copy- 

 right for any ideal property [ideate Eigenthuni) lasts during the lifetime of 

 the author or artist, and thirty years, in the main, after his death. Foreign 

 (not German) woiks are treated according to a standard of "material reci- 

 procity." Austria has not joined the Anglo-Prussian convention of literary 

 and art property — but Saxony, Hanover, and others, have. 



The Fossil Sea-Serpent. — Dr. Koch, who brought to this country the 

 Missourri mammoth, exhibited in Egyptian Hall, has also discovered in Ame- 

 rica the fossil remains of an ophidian animal of immense size, vihich he calls 

 Hydrarchos. It possesses a vast number of vt-ry large vertebrae, and is the 

 most extraordinary specimen of the so-called antediluvian creation extant. 

 It has been exhibited at Berlin, and the king has given orders to purchase 

 it, notwithstanding Dr. Koch requires an extraordinary price for it. 



Drainage of Land in Dalmatia. — The valley of the Narento (Narnna of 

 the Romans) was one of the corn-depots of antiquity, but now presents 

 nothing hut a succession of unwholesome bogs and wilds, to which the at. 

 tention of government has at length been awakened. M. Matteis has been 

 directed to examine and report on the regulation of the river Narenta, the 



most considerable between Trieste and Greece. It forms a delta at its em. 

 bouchure, and its inundations have hitherto spread at random, and the 

 mould being best retained between the coppices of vineyards, merely served 

 to increase their fertility. M. Matteis proposes two different systems — first, 

 the so-called bonificazione per sedimeuto stream or warping, similar to the 

 old Egyptian method, by which, during the floods, the water, impregnated 

 with alluvial soil, is directed to and retained in such places where it is most 

 required to elevate and fertilise the soil ; secondly, by the usual method of 

 dykes and channels. The first plan is, obviously, the best, as no land is lost 

 by the cutting of canals, &c. ; but the expense is very great. Thus, most 

 probably, the second plan will be adopted with the Narenta: one of the 

 principal reasons for its adoption is the attention here paid to the rearing of 

 the silkworm, and as the mulberry trees attain an extraordinary size (some 

 being 15 feet in circumference), it is proposed to plant them along the canals, 

 and thus strengthen and solidify the consistency of the soil. 



Australian Antiquities. — Although this title may sound somewhat anoma- 

 lous, we have assumed it deliberately, — as it can be proved to evidence, that 

 as soon as man transgresses the limits of animality, he becomes a monumen- 

 tal being, if we may so term it. Although many other criteria have been 

 assigned to the idea of humanity (speech, using of instruments, &c.), yet it 

 is, after all, art of some kind or other which marks the limits between brutes 

 and human beings. In Australia, a continent of extremely novel furmatioa 

 and civilisation, these art-tiaces cannot be but very faint — still, they exist. 

 We count amongst them those native roads, as they are to be met with in 

 many parts of New Holland and Tasmania ; and avail ourstlves of some 

 notices derived from a colonial publication : " Our savages know of no rule, 

 no system, except where they are absolutely forced to resort to it. In their 

 wanderings through open plains, they follow, even if their numbers be con- 

 siderable, their own fancy ; but, if any locality, which they have to pass, 

 presents any particular feature — for instance, is encompassed by swamp, and 

 the like ; then, as a matter of course, a certain direction is given, and must 

 be followed. This is the reason why regular roads (paths) of Ihe Papnas 

 are rather frequently met with. Such are to be found on the coal-sandstone 

 rocks between Botany Bay and Point Haking ; but the most remarkable are 

 in Byron's Valley, Australian Alps, where the wandering of tribes of several 

 hundred persons, has worn off the sward of the soil, and even impressed the 

 granite underlaying it. From these to the Llama roads of Mexico and Peru 

 is but one step. These paths are the only historical monument which th« 

 Papua leaves behind him — if we except, perhaps, large accumulations of 

 oyster and cockle shells, near the sea shore ; and which, as some instruments 

 to open them which have been found amongst the heaps testify, have beea 

 thus accumulated by these people frequenting and feeding at such places for 

 a series of years. Transgressing from these aboriginal antiquities to Euro- 

 pean ones in the Australian colonies, we presume, that a freestone slab above 

 the door of one of M. R. Campbell's warehouses in Sydney Cove, engraved 

 with the date of 1302, will be once valued as the oldest inscription of the 

 kind in Polynesia." 



Her Majesty and the Royal Consort's Private Art Collections. — Un- 

 ostentatious as many other of the Queen's endeavours at general im- 

 provement— the establishing ot an especial school for the children of the 

 domestic household and the labouiers at the royal palace, and other acts — 

 the art collections at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle are also judi- 

 ciously, yet unceasingly, increased. As the sovereigns of this country, for- 

 tunately, do not possess the power to draw on the Treasury for any amount, 

 their collections do not consist of bulky and costly specimens — but of a 

 number of select and clever engravings, drawings, miniatures, &c., which, 

 while they pleasantly and worthily occupy the leisure hours of the royal 

 couple, will serve as early incentives to their growing-up family, and at a 

 future time (be it a remote one) merge into the general stock of the coun- 

 try's art-trophies. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



The new Roman Catholic church in St. George's Fields, by Pugin, has 

 been advertised as open to the public. 



The Royal Institute of British Architects have published a copious cata- 

 logue of iheir library. 



The great east window of St. Peter's church, at Sudbury, is being re- 

 stored by Mr. Sprague, of C'olchesier, at the sole expense of Dr. Maclean. 



The Bishop of Norwich, at his last visitation, made some very strong re- 

 marks against pews, and expres.sed his gratification that his cathedral wag 

 now thrown open through>>ut to all classes. 



The improvements in Durham Cathedral are making most satisfactory 

 progress. 



There has been an unfortunate accident on the Shrewsbury and Chester 

 railway, by the falling in of a large viaduct bridge, by a train being thrown 

 into the river. 



The great tunnel for the new station at Liverpool, and running from 

 Clarence Duck to Edgthill, has been begun at the surface. 



A beautiful iron steamer, named the Oberon, was bst month sent oot 

 from the yard of the Messrs. Ueunie, She is of 050 ions, and 200 norsa 

 power. 



