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

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

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 harrier 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 'fastened 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 sedn 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 sancto-
rum. 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 in 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. N either 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 come
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 onlyeysn,ihnjltoiikytnhsgoeucdolsoffoierne,
penance in one of the bolge of Dante. From half
an hour to eight or nine hours of the day are the
wretched e
Whichp op
ol people
tshtee willesdhutomgaenthiteesr
hinisthheaitr
to
oybgthieiagsn
tahreemsinitotntehraitng7intaakuinfgeu I know not, but there they
breakfasting, by reading, knitting,
and dominoes on little floatingtalpes
best c) f theirl
playing
day'sca
rd ennuisand
and gossip in the water. You must shut
and take off your hat, if you wish to go and see
them; you are not allowed to smoke, nor to carry
on any religious 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 corn-
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 the right bank as far as
Sukkur, and from that place to Mooltan upon the
left bank 515 miles, thus showing a saving of 35
miles in favour of the left bank. The gradients in
both cases were very favourable. but more so on
the left bank line. The harbour improvements now
in progress at Kurraehee had 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 accident, or the loss of any
goods carried. The number of voyages made by
the flotilla was 28 in 1862, 42 in 1863, 77 in 1864,
and 33 for the first half of 1865. The gross earnings
of the fleet for eight months 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 tine last about £37,000 ; total, £224,903.
The renenue returns, after deducting cost of stores
consumed, and the working expenses left a surp:us
of £3,575, ending December, 1862, of £11,460
ending June 1863, of £12,390 ending Dec. 1863, of
£22,265 ending June 1861, of about £14,000 ending
Dec. 1864, and of about £6,000 ending June, 1865,
making in the aggregate 3:69,689, 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
_ _

,oth 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.