402 Chronicles of Science. [ July, 



last. This line is 22 miles in extent, and almost completely 

 encircles Paris within the fortifications. The Calais and Boulogne 

 Railway was opened for passenger traffic on the 1st April, and by 

 it half-an-hour is saved in the journey between Paris and London. 

 The Charente Railway Company has opened a section from Rochefort 

 to Saintes, and the Northern of France Company has opened a line 

 73 miles in length from Amiens to Rouen. At the commencement 

 of the present year, the length of railway open in Spain was 3,182-J- 

 miles; the distance in course of construction was 35 6| miles, and 

 512^ miles remained still to be commenced out of the lines conceded. 

 The total extent of railways in Italy at the close of last year was 

 2,572 miles, 404 miles having been opened in the course of 1866. 

 A line from Civita Yecchia to Nanziatella, which is to unite the 

 Leghorn line to Rome via the Marennes, is now ready for traffic. 

 Among the works especially deserving of notice on this line, are 

 bridges over the Mignone, the Marta, the Arone, and the Fiera. 

 By the transfer of Yenetia to the kingdom of Italy, the network 

 of Italian railways has been increased to the extent of 600 miles. 

 An uninterrupted line of railway has now been established on the 

 eastern side of the Italian Peninsula. The opening of the line from 

 Ancona to Foligno and Rome, puts the North in communication 

 with Naples, and Florence has now also uninterrupted railway 

 communication with Rome. In Russia, surveys for great lines 

 uniting the Baltic to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea are 

 expected to be pushed forward ; several applications have recently 

 been addressed to the Russian Government for new lines, either 

 from foreign or domestic capitalists. At the close of last year 

 885f miles of railway were decreed in Holland, of which 616J 

 miles were in operation, while 193f miles were in course of con- 

 struction, leaving 75 miles still to be constructed. In the course of 

 1866, about 110 miles of line were opened for traffic. In India 

 there has recently been opened a further section of the line between 

 Bombay and Calcutta, leaving only 200 miles yet to be completed 

 in order to unite those two capitals. A section of railway between 

 Delhi and Meerut was opened on the 15th of April ; and a branch 

 railway between Lucknow and Cawnpore was opened on the 23rd 

 of April last. Trains have also within the last month commenced 

 running on the Ceylon Railway. 



A new bridge has recently been completed on the Rhine between 

 Manheim and Ludgwigshafen, consisting of three openings of 290 

 feet span each, and a project has been brought forward for the 

 construction of another great bridge over the same river, near 

 Dusseldorf. 



The Hoosac tunnel, the largest work of the kind yet attempted 

 in America will be about 4^- miles in length, and its sectional area 

 459 square feet. Only 4,600 feet, of about half the full section, 



