22

THE BOMBAY LIXE.

to a cheap railway, were not of a character to deterengineers from attempting their construction.

They would he works of first-class magnitude, theoutlay of money and time would necessarily he great,hut they presented no difficulty which money, skill, andendurance would not he sure to overcome. Beyond theriver Jlielum, the plains merge into the hills formingthe outworks of the gigantic ranges of mountainsknown as the Suliman and Hindoo Khush, and in thisdistrict many engineering difficulties would he en-countered; hut the science of engineers and the appliancesnow familiar to railway contractors would, withoutdoubt, allow a railway to reach Peshawar . This descrip-tion will enable the reader to understand the physicaldifficulties that a main line of railway communicationfrom Calcutta to the extreme north-westerly point of ourfrontier, running in a direction parallel to the Himalaya mountains, would meet.

The second great line of intercommunication re-quired by India was, it wall he remembered, that fromBombay to some central point on the railroad betweenCalcutta and Lahore .

Bombay , the port of India , is justly celebrated forits admirable harbour, and for the commercial enterpriseand ability of its Parsee merchants. From its situationit has long been the leading city of the west of India ,and as soon as the railroads which have now to bedescribed shall be completed, it bids fair to supersedeCalcutta as the metropolis. It is already placed in weeklycommunication with England, and soon nearly all thethrough passenger and goods traffic between Europe andthe East will forsake the long sea-route round Ceylon,and will adopt the shorter, speedier, and more convenientcourse through Bombay , and so directly to either Calcutta or Madras.