[6] The Persian princes go more into detail; but we doubt whether
their description will much facilitate the construction of a
railway from Ispahan to Shiraz. "The roads on which the coaches
are placed and fixed, are made of iron bars; all that seems to
draw them is a box of iron, in which they put water to boil;
underneath, this iron box is like an urn, and from it rises the
steam which gives the wonderful force; when the steam rises up,
the wheels take their motion, the coach spreads its wings, and the
travellers become like birds."

Astley's (which the Persian princes call the "opera of the horse") was the
Khan's next resort; and as the feats of horsemanship there exhibited did
not require any great proficiency in the English language to render them
intelligible, he appears to have been highly amused and gratified, and
gives a long description of all he saw there, which would not present much
of novelty to our readers. He was also taken by some of his acquaintance
to see the industrious fleas in the Strand; but this exhibition, which
accorded unbounded gratification to the grandsons of Futteh Ali Shah,
seems to have been looked upon by the khan rather with contempt, as a
marvellous piece of absurdity. "Would any one believe that such a sight as
this could possibly be witnessed any where in the world? but, having
personally seen it, I cannot altogether pass it over." But the then
unfinished Thames Tunnel, which he had the advantage of visiting in
company with Mr Brunel, appears to have impressed his mind more than any
other public work which he had seen; and his remarks upon it show, that he
was at pains to make himself accurately acquainted with the nature and
extent of the undertaking, the details of which he gives with great
exactness. "But," he concludes, "it is impossible to convey in words an
adequate idea of the labour that must have been spent upon this work, the
like of which was never before attempted in any country. The emperors of