I8G2.] the Isthmus of Krau. 359 



6th. We would here observe again, that our survey was rough, 

 that we merely passed along the native line (which is well defined, 

 but in many places in the beds of rivers) with perambulator, compass 

 and aneroid, that our aneroid showed no height above the sea of 

 more than seventy-five feet, and that our route presented no obstacle 

 of engineering difficulty, beyond dips to nullahs, ordinarily twenty 

 or thirty feet wide, with some three or four rivers from one to two 

 hundred feet wide. A careful survey would be necessary. 



7th. We would, however, recommend very little masonry, .though 

 lime and fuel for bricks are in abundance, but the vast and in- 

 exhaustible forests, through which the line passes, are full of timber 

 suitable for sleepers, for bridges, for stations and wharfs and for fuel 

 for the locomotives, all that would be required from England would 

 be plant, permanent-way, and rolling stock, the labour for the work 

 being procurable from China to any amount. 



8th. We will double, what in our own, somewhat experienced 

 minds, would be the cost of such a railroad across the Isthmus, and 

 put down the amount at £5U00 per mile, including stations, 

 wharfs, hotels, coal-sheds, &c, &c. and rolling stock for fifty 

 miles of rail £250,000. For the river service three tug steamers 

 with all the advantages of disconnecting engines, towing with a 

 single hawser &c. which the Thames tugs possess, at £15,000 each 

 equal to, .£ 45,000 



'' 12 Coal Barges @ £800, 9,600 



Rolling Stock 50 miles, 250,000 



Contingencies at 50 per cent, including Buoying 



River, 27,300 



Total £331,900 

 or say l-3rd of a million sterling. But there is the interest on a 

 capital of one million of money, saved every year in fuel, and 

 establishment of running steamers alone ; surely it must be worth 

 while the expending such a capital, in establishing this communi- 

 cation. 



20, We therefore think, that without reference to the dangerous 

 navigation, the Straits line should be abandoned as a communication 

 between India and Europe, and China ; as the old Cape of Good 

 Hope line was abandoned for the Suez line. Considering, however, the 



