that could be obtained. It is urged that it has to contend against water
carriage--that, with the exception of the Burdwan mines, the coal of
which is of an inferior quality, there is no mineral produce--that
immense tracts of country through which it passes are totally
uncultivated, and from a want of water will in all probability remain
so--and it has been calculated that, even if the whole traffic at present
passing along the great trunk road of Bengal was to become quadrupled,
and if all the Bengal civilians were to travel up and down every day, and
various rajahs to take express trains once a week, it would not pay: all
these things being considered, were it not that its merits and demerits
have been maturely considered by wiser, or at least better-informed men
than the passing travellers, one might have been inclined to think that
those who expressed doubts regarding its success had some good foundation
for them.

However, it is better to have a railway on a doubtful line than none at
all; the shareholders are guaranteed 5 per cent., and the Government is
rich and can afford to pay them. So let us wish success to the
experimental railway, and hope that the means of transport may soon be
more expeditious than they are at present.

It will doubtless open out the resources of the country, though I cannot
but think, for many reasons, that it would have been more judicious to
have made the line from Allahabad to Delhi the commencement of the
railway system in this part of India, instead of leaving it for a
continuation of the line that is now being made.

The bridges we passed over are all on the suspension principle, and do
credit to the government; the rivers are difficult to bridge in any other
way, as the rains flood them to such an extent that arches will not