complicated in construction. Their arrangements are based upon the same
principles as railways of the ordinary gauge, and are not by any means
capable of being adapted to agriculture, to public works, or to any
other purpose where the tracks are constantly liable to removal. These
permanent narrow gauge lines, the laying of which demands the service of
engineers, and the maintenance of which entails considerable expense,
suggested to M. Decauville, Aîne, farmer and distiller at Petit-Bourg,
near Paris, the idea of forming a system of railways composed entirely
of metal, and capable of being readily laid. Cultivating one of the
largest farms in the neighborhood of Paris, he contemplated at first
nothing further than a farm railroad; and he contrived an extremely
portable plant, adapted for clearing the land of beetroot, for spreading
manure, and for the other needs of his farm.

From the beginning in his first railroads, the use of timber materials
was rigidly rejected by him; and all parts, whether the straight or
curved rails, crossings, turntables, etc., were formed of a single
piece, and did not require any special workman to lay them down. By
degrees he developed his system, and erected special workshops for the
construction of his portable plant; making use of his farm, and some
quarries of which he is possessed in the neighborhood, as experimental
areas. At the present time this system of portable railways serves all
the purposes of agriculture, of commerce, of manufactures, and even
those of war.

Within so limited a space it would be impossible to give a detailed
description of the rails and fastenings used in all these different
modes of application. The object of this paper is rather to direct the
attention of mechanical engineers to the various uses to which narrow
gauge portable railways may be put, to the important saving of labor