CHAP. XL.] RAILWAYS. 355 



CHAP. XL. 



Construction and Management of Railways in America. 

 Journey by Long Inland from Neiv York to Boston. Whale, 

 Fishery in the Pacific. Chewing Tobacco. Visit to Wenham 

 Lake. Cause of the superior Permanence of Wenham Lake 

 Ice. Return to Boston. Skeletons of Fossil Mastodons. 

 Food of those extinct Quadrupeds. Anti-war Demonstration. 

 Voyage to Halifax. Dense Fog. Large Group of Ice 

 bergs seen on the Ocean. Transportation of Rocks by Icebergs. 

 Danger of fast Sailing among Bergs. Aurora Borealis. 

 Connection of this Phenomenon with drift Ice. Pilot with 

 English Newspapers. Return to Liverpool. 



May 21. 1846. IN the construction and manage 

 ment of railways, tlie Americans have in general 

 displayed more prudence and economy than could 

 have been expected, where a people of such sanguine 

 temperament were entering on so novel a career of 

 enterprise. Annual dividends of seven or eight per 

 cent, have been returned for a large part of the capital 

 laid out on the New England railways, and on many 

 others in the Northern States. The cost of passing 

 the original bills through the State parliaments has 

 usually been very moderate, and never exorbitant; 

 the lines have been carried as much as possible 

 through districts where land was cheap ; a single line 

 only laid down where the traffic did not justify two ; 

 high gradients resorted to, rather than incur the 



