The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-25 00:00:00

THE SUB, LONDON, MONDAY EVENIAG, SEPTEMBER 25, 1865.

phon. That ship, however, being of iron, and very
strongly built, afforded a really favourable oppor-
tunity for its trial on a large scale, and the success
attained is most remarkable. It is true the Bel-

lerophon has been designed expressly with a view to
handiness, being made short, and of a light draught
of water forward expressly for this purpose, and she
would no doubt have steered remarkably well with
an ordinary rudder. But it is to the adoption of
the balanced principle that the extreme ease with
which the helm is handled is due. On Friday last
Capt. Randolph, R.N., who had charge of the ship,
_ _

and Mr. Reed, themselves took the steeringwheel
with the ship at full speed, and steered her easily
without assistance. At Portsmouth, on the

Minotaur's trial, it required 60 men to put the

rudder over 37 deg. in 20 secs. The Minotaur,

with 60 men, turned a circle in 7 nun. 15 secs. ; the

Bellerophon, with eight men, turned it in 4i min.

The Minotaur turned the half circle in 3 min. 47

sees. ; the Bellerophon in 1 min. 50 secs. Even

these figures will scarcely enable the reader to fully

realise the handiness of the new frigate ; but few
will be at a loss to understand it when it is stated

hat while the Admiralty have at length been com-

pelled to build new and powerful steamtugs in order

to enable the Warrior and other long iron-clad ships
to be got into and out of Portsmouth and Devon-

port harbours, the Bellerophon, after the com-
pletion of her trials on Friday, steamed, without the
aid of tugs merely into sheerness harbour, but har-
sued her way at a speed of 10 8-10 knots (by log)
along the 14 miles of the river Medway's winding
course, threading her way among the long succession
of hulks which encumber that narrow and tortuous
stream, never stopping her engines for a moment
until she reached the sheer-hulk off Chatham Dock-
yard, to which she was secured for the night. This
achievement was one of national interest, and much
credit is due to Capt. Stokes, the master attendant
of the dockyard at Chatham, who had charge of the
ship after Sheerness was passed, for affording so
striking an illustration of the steering capabilities of
our latest iron-clad frigate.
The Euryalus, 35, wooden screw frigate, 2,371
tons, 400 horse-power, Capt. W. M`Dowell, C. 8.,
was paid off on Saturday, after a commission of
three years and eight months as the flagship of Sir
A. L. Kuper, K.C.8., in China and Japan. The
Euryalus was commissioned at Portsmouth on Jan.
23, 1862, by Capt. Josling, for the flag of Rear-
Admiral Kuper, and sailed from England in the
following march. After calling at Madeira, the Cape
of Good Hope, and Singapore, she arrived at Hong-
kong on Aug. 12, and on the 29th sailed thence for
Yokohama, Japan. After visiting Yeddo and Naga-
saki she proceeded to Shanghai, where Admiral
Kuper relieved Rear-Admiral Hope in the Imperie use,
in command of the station. The seamen and marines
of the ship were shortly afterwards landed from the
Euryalus and m arched to Kanding to oppose the rebels,
who were then advancing towards the town. While
engaged on this duty two officers and a large num-
ber of the men died from cholera, and many others
were invalided. The Euryalus afterwards proceeded
to Hongkong, wher she remained until February,
1863, when she sailed for Yokohama. Afterwards,
in August of the same year she sailed with the fleet
for Kagosima, the stronghold of Prince Satsuma,
and engaged the batteries there on the 15th and 16th
of August. On that occasion Captain Josling, the
commander of the ship, and eight seamen were
killed. On the 17th of August the Euryalus re-
turned to Yokohama, and remained there until Sep-
tember, 1864, when she sailed with the combined
allied fleets, representing the English, French, Dutch,
and American flags, for Simonosaki, where an attack
was made on the batteries, a force landed, and the
• acts of bravery performed by a midshipman and two
seamen of the Euryalus which led to their being

invested with the Victoria cross at Portsmouth on
Friday last. In this second day's action Captain
Alexander was wounded severely, and several of the
men were also killed and wounded. The officers
and crews of the other ships were not wanting in
bravery on the occasion, as an instance of which we
may mention that the commander and gunner of
one of her Majesty's ships, with the commander of
his Dutch Majesty's ship Medusa, landed from a
boat during the night, after the first day's action,
and spiked the guns of a powerful battery on the
right of the Japanese works, at a time when it was
known that the woods which reached down to and
surrounded the battery on all sides but its sea face
were swarming with Japanese. In the action of

the following day the battery was powerless. From
Shnonosaki the Euryalus returned to Yokohama,
Nagasaki, and from the latter to Chusan, whence
the admiral proceeded to Shanghai and Ningpo in
the Coromandel screw gunboat, tender to the flag-
ship. The Euryalus, on the return of Admiral Kuper
in the Coromandel, proceeded to Amoy, Hongkong,
and Singapore, giving up the command of the
station on the 22d May last, at the last named port,
to Vice-Admiral King, who had just arrived from
England in the Princess Royal. On May 27th the
Euryalus sailed from Singapore for England, called
at Batavia, the Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena,
and Ascension, on her way home, and arrived in
Plymouth Sound on the 4th inst., where she after-
wards disembarked Rear-Admiral Sir A. Kuper and
his suite, and then sailed for Portsmouth. Of the
crew of the Euryalus, John Richards, Admiral's
coxswain, and 'William Hewett, sailmaker, are re-
commended to the Admiralty for medals and gratui-
ties for long service and good conduct.
The screw steam frigate Liverpool, 39, Capt. R.
Lambert, now at Devonport, will, it is expected, be
sent back to Ireland.

The screw steam frigate Arethusa, 35, Capt. Mac-
donald, which vacated the Prince's Dock, at Devon-
port, on Thursday afternoon, made a trial of her
machinery outside Plymouth Sound on Saturday.
On her passage to Madeira she will be accompanied
from Plymouth by the Constance, now in the Sound,
and by the Octavia, which arrived there from Spit-
head on Thursday.
The iron screw steam store ship Supply, 2, Staff
Commander Chas. Bowden, from Woolwich, which
arrived at Plymouth on Friday morning, left in the
afternoon for Gibraltar and Malta.

The screw steam sloop Greyhonnd, 17, at Devon-
port, was put in commission on Saturday by Capt.
Sterling. She will have a complement of 175 offi-
cers and men, and will receive draughts to-day.
The crew of the screw steam corvette Satellite,
21, Capt. Crofton, at Devonport, were paid off on
Friday in presence of Rear-Admiral Symonds,
Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard. The Sa-
tellite will be placed in the fourth division of the
steam reserve in Hamoaze.
The iron screw steamship Agincourt, 26, now
alongside the sheer hulk in Hamoaze, received three
of her iron masts on Saturday, and will have the
remaining two stepped to-day.
The sailing frigate Terpsichore, 18, which has
been selected by the Admiralty to be handed over to
Mr. Donald M'Kay, of Boston, United States, to be
used by him in the experiments about to be under-
taken for the purpose of showing the value of tor-
pedoes as an agency for destroying vessels of war, is
now alongside the dockyard at Chatham. She has
been denuded of the whole of her stores and gear,
the triala ar
stoor
being
as to leave her a mere empty shell, in readiness
moore et do a
takett he
place, end of
care the harbour,
bou r
t, a
kwhere
place the vessel at
such ueh a
spot that accidents may
be avoided. To test the value of the torpedoes 30
placedunder the fri ate and dis-
charged, these consisting of six large g'
and 24 smaller
shells, which are now in course of
manufacture for
the purpose. The test shell will be planted in the
mud, below the vessel's keel, 48 hours before explod-
ing. Eighteen of the smaller torpedoes will be
charged with 601 b. of powder, and six with 751 b.
each ; the six large torpedoes will be charged with
4601 b. weight of gunpowder, the whole being suffi-
cient to destroy the largest iron-clad ship in the
English navy. The powder used for the torpedoes
is the same as that in usefoi the ordinary rifle.
Col. C. Hogge, C. 8., of the Royal (late Bengal)
Artillery, one of the members of the Ordnance Select
Committee of Woolwich Arsenal, who died at Ash-
leigh-house, Erith, on the 19th inst., was buried on
Saturday with full military honours. The proces-
sion was composed of all the available troops in
garrison at Woolwich, accompanied by the regi-
mental and divisional bands of music. The remains
of the deceased officer had been previously removed

from Erith to the General Hospital at Woolwich,
whence they were conveyed in procession to the
new cemetery at Charlton.

ALPINE TOURISTS.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
VISP, VALAIS, Sept. 24.
My last letter was posted at Interlaken yesterday
morning ; I trusted I might be able to date one this
evening from Zermatt. I have, however, only car-

ried out part of my programme. I have just come
over the great mountain wall of the Bernese Alps

—that great barrier of snow and ice that parts the
valley of the Aar from that of the Rhone.
I found a fellow-traveller according to my heart
in the person of an Englishman whom I had never
set eyes on before, and we sat down side by side on
the seat of our little go-cart or carry-all, or what-
ever else it may be called, at Interlaken, before I
was so much as acquainted with the gentleman's
name, or he with mine. We drove from Interlaken
along the southern shore of the Lake of Thun as far
as Spiez, then we struck out into the Valley of the
Kander to Frutigen, whence, after a brief nooning,
we came to the end of our journey at Kandersteg.
I heard a respectable-looking aged gentleman assert
at the table d'hote the other day that " after all,

one mountain is pretty much the same thing as
another mountain," and I think I have already
written enough about peaks, passes, and glaciers to
feel sure of my readers' thanks if I spare them a
description of our seven hours' drive. We came up a
great valley, which presently branched out into two
other still greater valleys, and had glancing snow
mountains looking down upon us from the summits
of both. That is all. We were at Kandersteg at
about 5 o'clock ; I had some sinister recollections of
an inn at that place in which I had spent a wretched
evening and night ten years ago. I asked the driver
what choice of accommodation the place afforded.
He told me the names of two hotels, one of which
sounded new to my ears, and on the principle of
that critic who, being asked by an incipient poet
which of two poems he had written on the same sub-
ject he should give to the press, ran hastily over the
first that was handed to him, and then said, with-
out one second's hesitation, " Print the other by all
means ; worse than this it can never be." On that
principle Ifastened on the new name and said, "The
Victoria, my friend, an' thou lovest me." So to the
Victoria we went, and were egregiously taken in,
for it was my ancient acquaintance " the Ritter" of

ten years ago, with the same dirt and discomfort,
the same un-Swisslike inattention and questionable
civility. We took our rooms with the best grace we
could, seeing we were in for it, and instantly quit-
ting the house struck across a path on the right
eastwards, and went up to that little boudoir of the
Fairy Queen of the Alps which mortals call the
Oeschinen Thal.

If there is any traveller in England, just back

from a complete tour through Switzerland, who
may happen to have overlooked the Oeschinen Thal,
let him not lose one moment, but take his ticket to
Bern at once, and make up for his oversight, for,
till he has seen that little forgotten nook one hour's
walk out of Kandersteg, he has seen nothing. The
Oeschinen Thal, its little lake, its waterfalls, its
giant rocks, its ice and snow, constitute a little Al-
pine world in miniature. You go up a steep ascent,
mostly through a wood, and at the end of your
walk you suddenly find yourself where, you would
say, no human foot has any business to tread, no
human voice should be heard. The great moun-
tains that hang over your head, the Blumlisalp and
Doldenhorn, have only been first ascended in 1862.
It is a pity they ever were ; a pity so easy a path

leads to the little dell which is their sanctum sancta
ruin. But no intrusion even of all the tourists in
Switzerland put together could profane the sacred
spot or deprive it of its awful silence, of its hoary,
mystic, solitary grandeur. No temple of Delphi, no
threshold of Dis, could strike a mortal dumb so
readily as this Alpine portal of the Oeschinen Thal.
We went back to a very indifferent 7 o'clock
dinner, but were indemnified for bad fare by plea-
sant company ; we had two or three Germans, ac-
complished and Anglicised ; an English youngster,
of noble mien, of ready wit, of fine, manly courage,
all modestly clad in easy nonchalance and innate
urbanity. He had come from: Lauterbrunnen, over
the Tschingel glacier, walking after his guides
some 10 or 11 hours on the snow. Dinner had
hardly been served when the seven or eight
strangers who met here for the first, and in all
probability the last, time were conversing with
the most open and friendly cordiality. It is the
icy air of the snow mountains, I believe, that so
wonderfully breaks the ice of the tourist's reserve.
The Germans were also, of course, foot travellers.
Each of them had his own tale of the toils and mar-
vels of the day; each of them had former exploits
to rehearse, and thus each came out with something
about his past and present, with particulars about
his birth and breeding, views of his dearest objects
and pursuits in life, scraps of personal biography.
Then the talk wandered over Switzerland, England,
and Germany; men, women, and books; philology,
Max Muller ; all things under the sun and above it.
In remote wayside inns as at the great hotels, at
Kandersteg as at Interlaken or Lucerne, I always
find the same style of living. Cordiality and almost
intimacy between man and man ; nay, between man
and woman, too. Such freedom of intercourse I
never noticed, even in Switzerland, in the travels of
my younger days.
It was long ere any one durst remind his fellow-
traveller of the early awakening that awaited us in
the morning ; late ere we parted, hardly aware of
the pleasure each other's company had afforded to all
of us ; and iu the morning all of us were wondering
who or what every one of the company of the eve
could possibly be. There are hardly any travellers'
books kept at Swiss inns nowadays, and where they
are kept they are-not much in demand. We were up
at 4, my English fellow-traveller and myself, and
on the road at 5. No one was up at the house, so
we set out without even the neverfailing continental
cup of black coffee. We walked up the steep path
that leads across the Gemmi Pass. It is by no
means one of the highest Alpine passes ; we had
only a trifle of 4,000 feet to ascend above Kander-
steg. Neither is the walk a severe one. From
Kandersteg to the Baths of Leuk we, fasting as we
were, employed hardly four hours and a quarter.
But it is certainly the most dismal, dreary, and
desolate of all the gaps through which you get over
the Bernese Alps, and the view you have from its
summit of the still grander opposite chain across the
Valais is something that is not to be enjoyed from
any point attainable by horses or mules. 'We had
Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn, and all the giants of
that region so pure and distinct before us that we
doubted whether even Zermatt and the Riffelberg
would bring us into closer acquaintance. We stood
gazing at the scene, speechless and motionless ; and
as we at last proceeded on our way still greater
wonders awaited us. We came to the great moun-
tain-wall which falls down perpendicularly from a
height of 2,000 ft. upon the Baths of Leuk, and
went down the zigzag path that human genius and
perseverance have cut into the rock like a winding
staircase. It is a giddy thing to be looked at from
above or below. You see the ground you tread upon,
you see the rock from its summit or at its base, but
way there apparently is none ; how you are to come
down, or how you actually did manage to conic
down, remains a marvel and a mystery far more
difficult to be got over than the journey itself.
We looked in at the baths to see the poor wights
plunged together in warm water, scores in the same
baths, emerging with their heads only, like souls in
pennance in one of the bolge of Dante. From half
an hour to eight or nine hours of the day are the
wretched people stewed together in that Hygeian
liquid. Which of the ills human flesh is heir to brings
them to that pot au feu I know not, but there they
rseimadminegr,inkgninttliankgin,
bgr =la ogf,
ptihayeiirn:acya'rsdesnaintudi
abrye
and dominoes on little floating tables, enjoying coffee
and gossip in the water. You must shut the door,
ounroht aatlioiwf
eydoutowsmislotkteo, go and see
nor to carry
otahnnedn nt;aykyreeoolifgai oryeu s discussion whatsoever.
From Leuker Bad to Leuk, and hence to Visp, we
had another four hours' "cruise upon wheels," along
that dreary, dusty, dilapidated valley which is called
the Valais. The heat was something to be remem-
bered. Here at Visp we found that horses would not

take us up to Zermatt in less than nine hours, and
having already done the Gemini, we were not equal
to the task of running up on foot in six hours. More-
over, it was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and
although we are still in midsummer as to tempera-
ture, we find the days dwindling down to their
autumnal sun. The journey is put off till to-morrow,
unless the clouds, which are gathering about the
high hills, portend something more serious than
those we have hitherto laughed to scorn during our
last week's experience.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

SCINDE.

The report of the directors states that in the com-
mercial crisis through which the whole of India, but
more especially the western portion of that country,
had recently passed, the proprietors would be pre-
pared to learn that the traffic on the railway had in
some degree suffered. The general trade of the dis-
trict through which the railway passed had been in
a great measure paralysed, and to this cause and to
the unsettled state of the cotton market, occasioned
by the course of events in the United States of
America, the directors attributed the falling off in
the receipts from goods. The trade of the country
had also been affected by the prevalence of a great
amount of sickness, the heat during the season hav-
ing been unusually severe, the cholera and other epi-
demics having carried off large numbers of the popu-
lation. The receipts for the half-year ending 30th
of June amounted to £38,825, of which £30,576
was for goods, and £8,249 for passengers. The
number of passengers carried was £58,567, and the
gross receipts per mile of line open were £370. The
total receipts on the railway from the 13th of May,
1861, to the 30th of June, 1865, amounted in the
aggregate to £316,029, of which £256,384 was for
goods, £59,645 for passengers. The total traffic in
1862 amounted to £62,837 ; in 1862, to £100,463 ;
and in the year 1864, to £94,544. The Punjaub
Railway being now opened for traffic throughout its
entire length, a system of through booking between
the Scinde Punjaub Railways had been arranged;
and the native merchants appeared fully alive to the
advantages which were thus placed in their power.
With the view of accommodating that portion of the
traffic destined for places not immediately embraced
in the company's system, the company's officers in
India were making such arrangements as were likely
to prove advantageous to the company and to the
general public. A considerable saving had been
effected during the past half -year in the cost of mainte-
nance, and also in the locomotive and other de-
partments, and, quite independently of the fact that
a less amount of traffic had been carried, the ex-
penses had been reduced by means of improvements
in the organisotion of the several establishments.
Satisfactory progress had been made with the sur-
vey of the Indus valley, two of the routes origi-
nally suggested having now been completely sur-
veyed. The distance between Kotree and Mooltan
by the left bank of the Indus was 480 miles, and
that of a line carried along :he right bank as far as
Sukkur, and from that place to Mooltan upon the
left bank 515 miles, thus Ehowing a saving of 35
miles in favour of the left Lank. The gradients in
both cases were very favourable. but more so on
the left bank line. The harbour improvements now
in progress at Kurracheehai considerably increased

the depth of water at that port.
The report with regard to the Indus steam flotilla
stated that during the half-year ending the 30th of
June last the bi-monthly communication between
Kotree and Mooltan had been maintained with re-
gularity, the large steamers having been employed
on this service, while the small tugs had been en-
gaged as formerly in running between Kotree and
Sukkur. The traffic had been conducted without

the occurrence of any accilent, or the loss of any
goods carried. The numter of voyages made by
the flotilla was 28 in 1862, 12 in 1863, 77 in 1864,
and 33 for the first half of 1865. The gross earnings
of the fleet for eight mouths in 1865 were £.27,024 ;
for six months ending June 1863, £29,674 ; ending
December, 1863, £35,033; ending June, 1864,
£52,171 ; ending December, 1864, about £44,000,
and ending J unelast about £37,000 ; total, £224,903.
The renenue returns, after deducting cost of stores
consumed, and the working expenses left a surplus

of £3,575, ending December, 1862, of £11,460
ending June 1863, of £12,390 ending Dec. 1863, of
£22,265 ending June 1864, of about 114,000 ending
Dec. 1864, and of about £6,000 ending June, 1865,
making in the aggregate £69,689, which was sub-
ject to deduction for the formation of insurance and
depreciation funds, in accordance with the provi-
sions of the contract with Government. The direc-
tors, in providing new vessels had determined to
intrust the construction of one steamer and two
barges to each of the following firms :—Messrs.
Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead ; Messrs. R. Napier
and Sons, of the Clyde ; and Messrs. Samuda
Brothers, Poplar ; all of whom undertook that the
boats should be completed and ready for shipment
to India in about six months. The designs on
which those vessels were to be constructed had been
prepared by the builders, in concert with Captain
Wood, the agent and superintendent of the Flotilla.

for the separate stations of the Delhi and the East
Indian Railway should be divided longitudinally, in
equal portions, between the two companies. At Gha-
zeeabad, the point of junction between the two rail-
ways, it was proposed that a portion of the station
accommodation to be provided should be jointly
used by the two companies, while at the same time a
separate portion should be reserved by the Delhi
Railway for the accommodation of its own traffic.
During the past half year considerable quantities of
permanent way and other material had been shipped
botli for Kurrachee and Calcutta. The directors
continued to receive every support and furtherance
from the Government, both in England and India,
and they had the satisfaction to state that the con-
duct of the officers engaged in the several under-
takings of the company had throughout the past
half year been such as'to merit entire approval.