26 8 T. W. E. DAVID. 
A study has also been made of icebergs in the Southern Ocean, 
which shews a very unusual number of them in the tracks of 
vessels to and from Australia. The result has been published as 
a pamphlet. 
Railway Construction Branch—Railway Survey Work.—A 
branch, leaving the Molong-Parkes railway at Parkes, has been 
permanently staked as far as Condobolin, a distance of sixty-three 
miles, and a survey for extension of this line via Menindie to 
Broken Hill has been undertaken and is in progress. Between 
Moree and Inverell, a distance of one hundred and one miles, trial 
surveys have been made with a view to connect Inverell with the 
main railway system by the railway now under construction from 
Narrabri to Moree. The survey of a branch line from Tamworth 
to Manilla, leaving the main line at Tamworth has been completed. — 
This branch is twenty-eight miles in length. A survey is in pro- 
gress for a railway from Singleton to Jerry’s Plains, a distance of 
twenty-eight miles. 
For improving the grades and cutting out the Great Zig-zag on 
the Great Western Railway, a large amount of survey work has 
been carried out, comprising surveys of over forty miles of rail- 
way, also other improvements on the Western line and between 
Picton and Mittagong on the Southern, in order to reduce the 
heavy grades, a deviation extending over thirty-five miles has been 
surveyed. The connexion of Broken Hill with the railway system 
of the Colony via Condobolin and Menindie is under consideration 
of the Government, and a survey over the proposed route is in 
progress. 
The following proposed lines have been recently inquired into 
by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public works: 
Tamworth to Manilla, twenty-eight miles long; Nevertire to 
- Warren, twelve and a half miles long. 
Railway construction in progress—Narrabri to Moree, sixty- 
three miles nine chains in length, estimated cost £153,000; Parkes 
to Bogan Gate, twenty-three miles, thirty-eight chains in length, 
