The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-09 00:00:00

for the year 36f. a share, or 9 per cent. on the paid-
up capital. The above-mentioned profit was thus
employed :—lnterest on the funds due to the state,
765,438 f. 31c. ; interest on the debentures delivered
to the Boulogne shareholders, 56,500!'. ; sinking fund
for the same debentures, 68,7.50 E ; ditto for the
capital of the Northern Company, 184,350 f. 79c. ;
interest on Northern shares, deduction being made
of the interest on disposable funds, 6,123,199 t. 44c. ;
dividend of 20f. per share for 1851 to the Northern
shareholders, 8,000,000 f. ; balance for 1852,
192,628 f. 62c. ; making a grantl total of 15,896,862 f. 66c.
The year 1852 the report states, was also opening
most auspiciously, as the first quarter showed an in-
crease of receipts amounting to 855,329 E, of which
362,128 E applied to the Boulogne line, which the
Northern Company did not work at the same period
last year. The report also states that the sum allowed
by the State for the injury done to the line by the
devastations of February, 1848, was 739,889 E,
which was allowed for by the Government in
the sums to be paid to it by the company.
The report then speaks of the railway round
Paris ; of the propriety of increasing the sum allowed
to the railway discount bank to 400,0001'.; and con-
cludes by stating that M. Joly de Bimmeville the
Duke de Galliera, M. Adam, M. Pereire, and M.
Delebecque, were designated by lot as outgoing direc-
tors, but capable of being re-elected.
The report was adopted unanimously. The five
outgoing directors were then re-elected, and a vote of
thanks passed to the board of directors. The meeting
then separated.

CORNWALL RAILWAY.
The great change that has now taken place in the
mode and expense of constructing railways has pat this
undertaking on such a footing that the directors ought
no longer to delay its completion. We understand that
this line can now be constructed for less than one-half
of the amount estimated when it received the sanction
of Parliament, while the traffic in its neighbourhood has
greatly increased; justifying the expectation that it will
be a much more productive line than many which are
now in working. The Board of Trade has reduced the
capital by one-fifth, or to 1,125,060/., and consented that
every 501. share shall be reduced to two 201. shares, and
that every 251. share shall be reduced to one 201. This
will greatly lessen the responsibility of shareholders, and
must improve the mode of raising the capital.
We understand that there are contractors ready to
take the construction of the works at the estimate, aril
to embark their capital extensively in the undertaking.
Considering that the port of Falmouth is, as a mercan-
tile port, fur position, security, and accommodation, su-
perior to any other on the south-west coast of England;
that the shipping which frequent it have enormously in-
creased, and that a railway to it will have the cordial
support of the Admiralty, the Board of Trade, and the
Government generally; that it will command the ship-
ments and landing of the Transatlantic mails; that the
light goods from Manchester and the north will reach it
by way of Bristol cheaply and quickly, the construc-
tion of this railway from Falmouth to Plymouth, and an
extension of the Great Western line, will be a most
valuable and important accommodation to the public.
If the directors adopt a spirited course of action, and
copy the rigid economy observed upon the West Corn-
wall line, there is no reasonable doubt but that the rail-
way system will be soon completed to the Land's End,
and its promoters have a property which will rapidly
improve for their advantage.

RAISING OF THE CHEPSTOW RAIL-
WAY TUBE.
CHEPSTOW, THURSDAY EVENING.—After two
postponements, the operation of floating the tube to
its position between the piers has been accomplished
to-day with complete success. At a quarter to nine
o'clock this morning the operation of floating com-
menced. Among those upon the tube, or who wit-
nessed the experiment, were—Lord Villiers, M.P.,
Earl Cadogan, General Pasley, late a GoVernment
inspector of Railways; Captain Claxton, R.N. en-
gineer of the Great Britain ; Mr. Appold, the patentee
of the great centrifugal pump exhibited at the Crystal
Palace ; Mr. C. Saunders, secretary to the Great
Western Railway Company, and several of the direc-
tors; Mr. E. Clarke, Mr. F. Clarke, and most of the
directors of the South Wales Company ; Mr. Wool-
combe, chairman of the South Devon; Major Bulke-
ley, chairman of the Windsor ' • Mr. Grissell, Mr. C.
Owen, and a laree number of Mr. Brunell's staff.

In order to understand what follows, it is necess
omary to give a short description of the nature of
the structure. The bridge, when completed, will be
in length, from bank to bank, 610 feet. It will be of
four spans, three of about 100 feet each, and one of
290 feet. The three smaller spans rest upon iron-
piers, filled with concrete, supporting cast-iron
girders, on which the railway will be constructed.
The fourth or principal span will be constructed
upon the suspension principle, the great length of the
girders requiring more support than that afforded by
the piers alone at each extremity. Mr. Brunel has
therefore constructed a tube 309 feet in length and 9
feet in diameter, which is now being raised to the

summit of piers erected on the east bank and in the
centre of the river, and from which massive chains
depend, which will be fastened to the girders and will
hold them up in the centre. The girders on which
the railway will run will be 50 feet above high-
water mark at spring tides, which here rise higher
than in any other river in the kingdom (50 to 60
feet). Of these girders, those for one line of rails are
already fixed from the centre to the west bank of the
river.
In commencing the operation of sinking the cylin-
ders to form the piers of the bridge, the workmen had
first to pass through twenty-nine feet of blue clay and
sand, below which tbey met with a thin bed of peat
containing timber, some solid !oak, hazel nuts, &c.
After that was encountered four feet of fine blue
gravel, and next came the bed of boulders, upon
which the cylinders were originally intended to rest.
Then came a bed of red marl, about five feet in thick-
ness, beneath which was the solid rock; which re-
sembles what is known as " millstone grit." Into this
the cylinders were sunk. The modus operandi was
as follows :—The cylinders were placed on planks to
prevent their cutting into the soft mud. One by one
cylinders were added until the column had reached
the top of the stage, about forty feet in height, which
had been erected for the purpose of sinking the
cylinders. Tire weight of the column then cut
through the plank, and the cylinder descended about
six feet into the mud. Men then descended into the
cylinder, two or three working at it at a time; and,
as they excavated the soil, so the cylinder continued
to sihk, and as the column descended fresh cylin-
ders were added at the top. The excavation then
continued, without interruption from water or any
other intrusion, until a depth of about seventeen
feet had been attained, at which point the
water broke in from below in such force as to
require the constant operation of two 13-inch pumps
worked by an engine to keep it under. The water
burst in at a moment's warning as soon as the spring
was tapped ; and the most remarkable phenomenon
attending this occurrence was the fact, that the spring
water invariably rose in the cylinder exactly to that
height at which the tide was standing at the moment.
That it was not an irruption of water from the river
was beyond dispute, inasmuch as the water in the
Nye at this point is, from the action of the tide,
always tainted with mud, which is held in solution in
great quantities at all times, whereas the water which
rushed into the cylinder from below was of exceeding
purity, and contained no particle of salt.
From the period when the spring was first tapped
the pumps were obliged to be kept at work until the
cylinders had been sunk to the rock, when they were
filled with concrete. This irruption of water at a
depth of 17 feet from the surface of the bed of the
river was the same in the sinking of all the cylinders
for the centre or principal pier; but the water did not
interrupt the works to so great an extent in sinking
the other piers ; the workmen penetrated to a greater
depth than 17 feet before the water broke in. The
spring appeared to be in the bed of gravel about
12 feet from the point where it first burst into the
cylinder.
Mr. Brunel and some of the principals of his staff,
with Captain Claxton, R.N., having taken their
station on the top of the tube, which was lying upon
the stage erected for it, at right angles with the river,
the word was given, and at a quarter to nine o'clock
the operation of floating commenced. The tube was
supported on a massive timber framework, at each
end resting upon iron rollers lying across a railway;
and powerful " crabs" were used for drawing and
pushing the tube along the stage, which projects 160
feet into the river. At the end of the stage three
pontoons, braced together, were lying in the river,
and these received the east end of the tube, which was
made fast to it; and as the tube was projected for-
ward the pontoons were moved across the river, and
kept in their direct course by cables attached to strong
moorings both up and.down the river, worked by other
crabs upon the pontoons. Everything went on in the
most steady and even manner. Gradually the huge
tube glided from its place across the river, and at the
expiration of exactly an hour the floating was com-
pleted, and the arrival of the one end of the tube on
the east side of the river at a quarter to ten o'clock
tane
ea announced by
downby thesome
river. cannon placedlhis
was at
ana
sswheorretdd ibsy-
church':
of the people and the workmen, and the
taken up by the peals of bells in Chep-
stow"etower, which rank out merrily. The
the most perfecyteo%
scene was
busy one during the floating, but
policemen were on-the
was maintained, and although
round to keep back the spec-
tators, there was no attempt their part to trespass
beyond the prescribed
A s soon as the float-
ing WAS completed, tackle depending. the sum-
mit of the towers on the east side offro
attached to that end of_ the tube, the rivercommence wa s
ready to
the second operation of each end of the tube
alternately to a higher elevation. The operation of
floating having been effectedin.about the time of high
, the tube was .
kept its posit' •
lon until nearly
time the tide
12 o'clock, by which having receded had
left the east end safely d d
lo ge on the pititf9rm
pre.