The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-24 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

TRAFFIC RECEIPTS FOR THE WEEK.
Miles Opened. Receipts.

Bailwa:

1863. 1862. ‘r
1863. 1862.

X £ Belfast and N, Counties 136 136 2,376 2,317
Belfast and Coiuity Down
Blyth and Tyne . . ...........
Bristol and Exeter
Caledonian , ... —...
Cockermouth& Workinicton— Si 84 3 5 272
Cork and Bandon . .
Cork, Blackrock, &P.assage 64 64 268 245
Cork and You,ghal ...... . ..... 324 27 519 406
Cornwall 531 534 1,574 1,662
Deeside l7 17 415 337
Dublin & Belfast Junction— 63 63 1,3.-3 1,381
Dublin and Drogheda 75 63 2,091 1,800
Dublin and Meath
Dub. & Wicklow and Wextd 5ll 484 2,943 2,793
Dundee, Perth, & Aber. Jun 3l 31 _
Edinburgh and Q-lasgow 1694 1694 9,041 8446
Forth & Clyde Junction
50 5) 3,015 2 358
Furness, &C
___
~_ .
___ _ ._ ,-

Glasgow; & South-Western 198 198 9,041 8,446
Gt. gastern,Nrik.,&E.Unaon 663 64* 30,836 30,318
Great Northern B5l 340 31.803 34,670

Great North of Scotland 5B 58 2,413 2,200
(it. Northn. & Westn. (Irel.) 7ll 564 451 372
qt.Southn. & Westn.(lrind.) 354/ 329 8.174 8.036
Great Western 10564 10181 68,150 72,e29
Inverness & Aberdeen June 864 864 1,847 1,391
Irish North-Western 145 145 1,899 1.931
Lancashire & Yorkshire 395} 3954 40,110 37,4,5
Limerick and Ennis... 244 241 170 177
Limerick and Foynes 264 264 147 129
Llanelly 461 464 845 601
London & North-Western
London and Blackwall 54 51 2,134 1.962
London & South-Western
Lond. Brighton, &S. Coast 2614 2114 23,2.6 25,590
London, Chatham, & Dover 724 724 6,865 6,851
Do. Metropolitan itxtension 104 - 1,500
Loud., Tilbury, & Southend .. 424 424 3 774 2,406
Kan.,Sheffield,& Lincolnsh .. 2391 2391 15,988 14,633
Manch. S.Jun.&Altrincham.. 94 04 1,397 1,203
faryport and Carlisle
Metropolitan 34 - 1,538 -
Midland (incl. N.-Western) 641 6144 46,785 45,0E9
Midland Gt.Westn. of hind- 2594 1924 4,308 3,809
Monkla.nd
Monmonthsh. Rail. & Canal l4 44 2,479 2,324
North British, Edin., Perth
and Dundee
N-Eastern and Stock. & Darl 1095 10654 59014 54,394
North London 9 9 3,318 :3,092

North Staffordshire 254 252 7,485 8.464
Oswestry and Newton... 5O 42 1,317 1,139
Rhymney l9l 191 895 890
St. Helen's Canal& Railway 52 62 2,219 2,209
Scottish Central

„312
Scottish North-Eastern l3B 132} 6,810 6,518
Somerset and Dorset 39f 39f
South Devon
South-Eastern 306 306 29,360 29,718
Taff Vale 55 55 5,717 5,772
Ulster 64i 51 1,954 1,786
Vale of Clwyd
Vale of Neath 321 251 2,531 1.9x0
Waterford and Kilkenny 3l 31 4..6 464
Waterford and Limerick 77 77 1,0.;6 1.394
West Cornwall 27f 27f 818 1,t05
W.ll artlepool HarbrAltail 4B 48 4,608 4,014

A QUASI-CONFEDERATE AGENT.—During eight
or ten days past there has sojourned at Queens-
town a rather young man, of seafaring aspect, giving his
name as "Captain Fisher," who has succeeded in gulling
the knowing ones of the town to an extent that no person
possessing any knowledge of them would have given them
credit for. From the time tit his arrival till the moment of
his departure he has played the part of confidential agent
of the Confederate Government of South America, and
such has been the tact and ability with whieh he has
worn
the mask, that scarce one of those who held most familiar
converse with him had, up to the last moment, the slightest
suspicion of its reality. Tha local authorities appear
to have fallen victims to the hoax played by " Captain
Fisher" as completely as the least informed of those who
made his acquaintance. He was lionized by a large section
of the respectable townspeople, and hotel proprietors felt
themselves honoured by being permitted to hold him their
debtor. " Captain Fisher" also appears to have had a sort
of prescriptive right to the use of everybody else's property,
be the same an overcoat, an opera glass, a Malacca cane, or
a £lO note, it mattered not. Suddenly, however, "Captain
Fisher," confidential agent to the Confederate Government
withdrew his presence in a manner most unceremon ous
from amongst his large circle of Queenstown acquaint-
ances and admirers—fortunately for himself, just in time
to escape the consequences of the denouinent which was
impending. On Saturday morning he left his hotel with
one gentleman's coat on his back and another gentle-
man's valuable glass in his hand—merely to speak for a
moment with a captain on business, and leaving in-
structions, should any one inquire for him, that he
would be back at nine o'clock sharp. The term nus of
the Direct Railway, however, chanced to fall in his way
within the hour stipulated, and " Captain Fisher" found it
more convenient to proceed to Cork than to return to meet
the numerous friends who would, doubtless, be anxious to
say good morning to him at the hotel. The transit thence
to the terminus of the Great Southern and Western Rail.
way was easy and natural, and so the quasi Confederate
agent departs—whither no one knows—leaving, as a small
souvenir of his distinguished patronage, sundry little bills
(the least amounting to £l2) due at the several hotels and
other establishments which he had frequented during his
stay. The cat now escapes from the bag, and some. little
inquiry results in the discovery that he has played a
game at Liverpool (where he was known as Captain Gor-
don), Belfast, and other places with scarcely inferior success.
Cork Herald.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.—The geological survey
made considerable progress during the last year ; 2,430
square miles were surveyed in Great Britain ; the publica-
tion of the maps proceeded, and memoirs were issued illus-
trating the geology of the Isle of Wight and the country
round Bolton-le-Moors. In Ireland the new ground exa-
mined amounted to about 1,028 square miles ; four new
numbers explanatory of the maps were issued. The sur-
veyors were also engaged on the re-examination of the
districts of igneous rocks running from Wicklow into
Waterford. Of the Royal school of mines, formerly called
the Government school of mines, Sir Roderick Murchison
reports satisfactorily. Statistical records of all our lead
mines, carefully prepared, now extend back to 1768.
Since 1545 every sale has been recorded. The production
of copper and tin mines is regularly registered, and
the statistics of copper mining are now complete
from 1815, and those of tin since 1852. The estimated
value (at the place of production) of the coal and metals
produced in the United Kingdom in 1861 was £34,602,8a3.
The results elicited by the Exhibition were very encourag-
ing to all who take an interest in the Royal School of
Mines. The pupils were foremost a-hong the champians of
the great industrial contest. The new industry of coal -tar
colours is generally admitted to have been the most str king
feature in the department chymistry, and this industry ema-
nated directly from the laberatory of the Royal School of
Mines; Mr. Perkin, Dr. Medloek, Messrs. Nicholson, Maule
and Simpson, to whose exertions the colossal development of
these branches of chymical manufacture is chiefly due, re-
ceived their chymical education from Dr, Hoffman in this in-
stitution. The foreign jurors bore testimony to the accuracy
of delineation in the maps and sections of the department,
and the order and arrangement of the museum; and it was
from this that so many valuable donations were offered to
the museum of Signor Sella, recently Minister of Finance
of the Kingdom of Italy, himself a distinguished mathema-
tician and crystallographer, and employed by his Govern-
ment to visit the mining and geological schools and esta-
blishments of Europe, with a view to the formation of a
geological survey of Italy, writes in an official report,
" England is, without doubt, the country where geological
maps are prepared with much greater accuracy than in any
other land. The singular importance of her mining indus-
tries' the spread of the elementary principles of geology,
the zeal applied by the geologists charged with these
labours, and the precision of their works have been so ac-
oorcplished that few undertakings of the British Govern-
ment have so much contributed to the benefit of the public
as the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom."

ARCH4EOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES AT CHESTER.—
The remains of a very fine Roman bath, or temple of
health, has, within the past few days been disovered at
Chester. We.gather from a contribution to the Chester
Chronicle that if the size of the building may be judged by
these remains, and a calculation made, ba•ed on the theory
that the building was in the shape of parallelogram, it
would lead to the conclusion that the erection was 60ft.
wide by I2oft. long. The hypocaust is composed of 120
pillars, cut out of the red sandstone of the neighbourhood,
and they do not seem to have suffered much from the
effects of heat. The tiles above these pillars, and which
would form the floor of the caldarium, are pierced, and
placed a few inches apart, and not made of stone the same
as the remainder of the floor. A few paces off is a tease
atedpavement of a rhall dico•liko pieces of stone, which
60ft. from the hypocaust are the massive foundations and
remains of six or seven large columns, eight or nine feet
apart ; and strewed about are portions of shaft and richly
ornamented capitals. About 36ft. from these columns there
have been discovered the remains of anotherr row of pillars
of similar magnitude. The space covered by the whole of
these columns is about 50ft. or 60ft. These remains tend
to show that the building was a very long one, and of con-
sideral architectural pretensions.
THE MAHARAJAH DCLEET SINGH has lately
bagged, on the Loch Kennard moors of Grantully, about
300 brace of grous,, besidetother gnme,