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Scientific Intelligence. [no. 3, new series, 



Canal which is now so considerably advanced will alone go far to 

 collect the 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, probably not more 

 than a Rupee a ton, that it will have a great effect on the trade, 

 and when by means of improved rivers, 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 this question re- 

 mains to be considered. The Railway 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 E. 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 will 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 few miles (the average for 

 all England is 13), that is, they go to the next town and back. 

 Strange to say, this railway of 450 miles, is not to pass through 

 one of the few towns (only 7 and all but one very* small) which lie 

 near 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 J a million more in order so to complete it. 



