for Agricultural Purposes. 
389 
on the high roads, which at certain times may elbow the ordinary 
traffic : but no complaints have ever been made. 
The number of passengers transported by the Lille narrow 
gauge railway in 1880 was 450,000. 
Between Lille and Roubaix there is a telephonic communi- 
cation, which assures the service of the engines. 
The maximum curve is 2187'20 yards, and the minimum 
21-872 yards. 
The engines are on Hughes's system ; there are sidings and 
shunting stations and depots to house the coals. 
The question of warming the carriages during the winter 
months is being studied. 
Liglit Narroio Gauge Railway in the Department of the Meuse. — 
The following information concerning this railway, which has 
its junction with the Eastern Railway of France at Sermaize, 
has been furnished by M. Ernest Chabrier, Civil Engineer, who 
has specially studied the system during the last ten years : — 
The length of the line is 60 kilometres, or say 37J miles, 
of which one-half is laid on the high roads. The capital is 
48,000/. The Government and the Department jointly sub- 
sidised the Company to the extent of 52,000Z., and granted a 
concession as for a railway of local interest, of which full par- 
ticulars are hereafter given. The gross receipts are 320Z. per 
mile. 
The rate for fully loaded waggons is 2d. per ton per mile. 
The line is not yet completed, and its profits are employed 
in its extension. 
The difficulties of steep gradients were surmounted by making 
deviations across the fields or open country.* 
Farmers who require sidings and branch lines pay a sum 
down of 200Z. to 240Z., and also all expenses of plant and lay- 
ing ; the length of the junction-line is added to the distance for 
the mileage tariff. 
Special tariffs are arranged for cereals, cattle, meat, milk, 
miscellaneous articles, butter, cheese, poultry, hay, straw, arti- 
ficial manures, oilcake, chalk, lime, sand, clay, marl, &c. ; but 
at the present time the working of the line depends mostly upon 
the exportation of district produce. The goods imported consist 
of articles of daily consumption, such as wine, groceries, &c. 
The cost of the railway stock came to from 320Z. to 368?. 
per mile. 
The construction of the line has been much delayed, owing to 
* This seems an exception to the rule of the Government Ehgineers, vide 
Specification. 
