156 
Scieniific InidUginee* 
[XO. XBTT seehs^ 
CihaI -vTiiicli is now so considerably adranced will alone go far to 
collect tbe produce of a great part of the Presidency to Madras. 
When once goods reach the Canal, the cost of bringing them to 
Madras even from 2 or 300 miles will be so little, probablj not more 
than a Rupee a ton, that it will hare a great effect on the trade, 
and when by means of improved river?, branch canals, or even of 
cheap railways and common roads the whole interior is opened by 
cheap transit to the coast canal, the increase of trade will certainly 
be enormous. 
But by no means the least important point in tiiis question re- 
mains to be considered. The Bail way which is now under con- 
struction is in a direct line from Calcutta and Madras towards Lon- 
don. Without a harbour at either end, and merely as a line con- 
necting the £. and W. Coast of the Peninsula,. I look upon this 
work, as one of the least important lines on which 3 millions could 
have been spent ; assuredly nothing of any consequence either in 
goods or passengers xrill ever be conveyed by it from one coast to 
the other, and at least 200 miles of it are perhaps about the least 
productive line of country that a railway could be carried through 
in India. Further it is proved beyond all question that the pas- 
senger traffic is the main source of profit on railways, and that the 
great mass of passengers only travel a fev miles (the average for 
all England is 13), that is, they go to the next town and back. 
Strange to say, this railvray of 450 miles, is not to pass through 
one of the few towns (only 7 and all but one very small) which lie 
nelk- its route, so that it looks as if the ultimate object had been to 
make a railway, not to carry the people. But if it is treated as part 
of the line of communication between London, and Madras and Cal- 
cutta, it then becomes a work of real importance though it is so de- 
fective as a local communication. It would save 4 days in the fine 
season, and 5 in the S. W. monsoon. In the latter season it would 
be so many hundred miles dead to windward. But to make it thus 
available, or at least to make it a thoroughly effective portion of the 
line from London to Madras and Calcutta, it must have a harbour at 
each end, and if 3 millions are spent on the road itself, it is surely 
worth while to spend | a million more ia order so to complete it. 
