356 NEW YORK TO BOSTON. [CHAP. XL. 



expense of deep cuttings ; tunnels entirely avoided ; 

 very little money spent in building station-houses ; 

 and, except where the population was large, they have 

 been content with the speed of fourteen or sixteen 

 miles an hour. It has, moreover, been an invariable 

 maxim &quot; to go for numbers,&quot; by lowering the fares so 

 as to brin; them within the reach of all classes. Oc- 



O 



casionally, when the intercourse between two rich and 

 populous cities, like New York and Boston, has ex 

 cited the eager competition of rival companies, they 

 have accelerated the speed far beyond the usual 

 average ; and we were carried from one metropolis to 

 the other, a distance of 239 miles, at the rate of 

 thirty miles an hour, in a commodious, lofty, and 

 well-ventilated car, the charge being only three 

 dollars, or thirteen shillings. We went by a route 

 newly opened, first through Long Island, ninety-five 

 miles in length, over a low, level tract, chiefly com 

 posed of fine sand ; and we then found a steamer 

 ready to take us across the Sound to New London in 

 Connecticut, where we were met by the cars at Point 

 Allen; after which we enjoyed much delightful 

 scenery, the raihvay following the margin of a river, 

 where there were cascades and rapids foaming over 

 granite rocks, and overhung with trees, whose foliage, 

 just unfolded, was illumined by a brilliant sunshine. 



In the estuary of New London we saw many large 

 whalers, and a merchant talked to me with satisfaction 

 of the success of the United States whale-fishery in 

 the Pacific, saying it amounted to 200,000 tons, 

 while that, of Great Britain did not exceed 60,000. 

 &quot; Five fish,&quot; said he, &quot; is the usual cargo of an En- 



