The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-16 00:00:00

DEPARTURE OF THE VIFREDO.

MALTA, OCT. 10.
Tho Vifrcdo, screw steam transport, which arrived from
Portsmouth on the Gth, as already reported, with detach-
ments of the 79th and 88th, several military and commis-
sariat officers and employes, left again on the same day for
the seat of war, followed on the morning of the Bth by the
Sphynx, steam frigate, which arrived from Plymouth on
the evening of the 7th with supernumeraries for the Black
Sea fleet. The Stromboli and Salamander steam frigates
arrived from England on the Bth, the former laden with
cordage and other stores, the latter with shot and shells,
for the fleet. The Stromboli left for the Black Sea on the
racgAilla 9 tio 106 hr T 11,44 liYilz.figroX INA-boat axrived

from Plymouth on the Bth, and left for the Black Sea on
the 9th, followed on the 1001 by the Viper, which arrived
from England and Lisb-on on the night of the. 9th. The
Balbec, screw merchant steamer, arrived from Liverpool
on the Bth, and left for Constantinople on the 9th, having
on board Lieutenant Greville, Lieutenant Heneago; and
the Hon. W. A. Amherit, of the Coldstream Guards ;
Messrs. Carte, Taylor, Kellett; and Tittorden, of the Staff.
Dr. Walsh went passenger by the Stromboli. The Ara-
bian screw steamer arrived from Alexandria on the Bth,
and lett for Liverpool ou the 9th. The Army and Navy
screw steamer arrived from Smyrna on the 9th, and loft
for England on the 10th, fruit laden.

EXTENSION OF THE EGYPTIAN
RAILWAY TO SUEZ.

We extract the following from a despatch re-
ceived via Marseilles in anticipation of the Over-
land Mail :

The extension of the Egyptian Railway to Suez would
materially reduce the cost of steam nav-gation in the
Red Sea. At the present rates of freight the Peninsular
and Oriental Company find it cheaper to convey their
supply of coal on the backs of camels across the desert
than to ship .it round the Cape. The extension of the
Bombay Great Indian Peninsular Railway to the Ner-
budda coalfields is also a desideratum, but the progress
of that line has been stopped by Lord Dalhousie, at the
advice of Colonel Kennedy; late consulting engineer to
the Government of India, in favour of a competing line
got up by that officer, of which he is himself the manager,
and of which two of his nephews are respectively engineer
and secretary. The expenses of the preliminary sur eys of
this new company are to be paid by the Court of Direc-
tors, while those of the Great Indian Peninsular Corn.
pany have been paid by its shareholders. At Bombay
the general opinion is that Colonel Kennedy's •acteme
will ultimately fall to the ground. The engineering
'advisers of the local Government are strongly opposed
,to it, and it is evident to the re-eest tiro in railway en
gineering that the growls on which the Colonel bases
his scheme are entirely erroneous. He advises that the
steepest gradient admissible on trunk lines should -be
1 in 2,000, the ruling gradient of the English Great
Western being as steep as about 1 in 330. With such
views, an ascent of the Ghauts is, of course, out of the
question, and the Colonel thinks it worth while to go
round by Surat and the Taptee-160 miles out of the
direct line—to avoid them. This ignorant dread
of the Ghauts is one of the greatest difficulties
that railway engineers have had to contend
with on this side of India. The Thull Ghaut
ascent would be only five miles in length ;
its cost only 47,0001. per mile ; its inclination the same
as that of the Lickey incline on the Birmingham and
Glocester Railroad ; its curves double the radius of those
found to be unobjectionable at equal inclinations on the
Somerring ; and, as regards the cost of working, the lo-
comotive and traffic manager of the Bombay 'Railway
(taking into consideration the fact of the bulk of the
traffic being downwards) offers to work the ire miles of
the Ghaut ascent at the average cost of twice that dis-
tance (11 miles) of the other portion of the line ; econo-
mically, therefore, it would not be worth while to go
even 10 miles round to avoid the Ghauts. As re-
gards the local accommodation it would afford or the
facility of construction, the superiority of the direct
line surveyed by the Great Indian Peninsular Com-
pany over Colonel Kennedy's roundabout line is
decided and unquestionable. From Bombay to
Surat Colonel Kennedy's line would run along
the coast and have to compete with one of the
cheapest lines of water-carriage in the world. The pro-
posed crossing of the arm of the sea dividing Salsette
from the main land I believe to be economically imprac-
ticable, and thence to Surat tidal creeks running far
inland are of frequent occurrence. From a few miles
above Surat to Candeish the course of Colonel Kennedy's
line would be through a rocky and almost uninhabited
)ungle, the deadly' malaria of which is proverbial in
Western India, and its course would be much obstructed
by the frequent and terrible ravines which break down
into the bed of the Taptee, and which are so well known
to every sportsman who has shot along its banks. On
the other hand, the course of the direct line effects an
enormous saving in distance, and presents no engineering
difficulties besides thoGhaut ascent; it traverses the rocky
belt of country separating the productive plains and valleys
of the interior from the Bombay coast, and blocking upthe
lower portion of the Taptee and Nerbudda valleys, taps
the great plains of the Godavery at the most eligible
point. For 45 or 50 miles its course lies over these
plains, which stretch thence without a break to the
Madras coast. Leaving these plains, the line enters the
valley of Candeish through a complete gap some miles
wide—the Indegadreo range, without any considerable
earthwork. Thence it follows the Circa, crosses the
Taptee, and reaches Burhampore, the old capital of a
province as fertile as Bengal, which, in the time of the
Aloguls, is said to have yielded a revenue of 3,000,000
sterling. Thence it crosses, at Asseerghur, the water
shed separating the Taptee and Nerbudda valleys. This
country for a few miles is uneven, but it presents no
engineering difficulties ; no tunnelling is necessary, and
not much earthwork, and the gradients are unobjection-
able. It then enters the valley of the Nerbudda, which it
taps close to the western extremity of the fertile plain that
runs along its southern bank throughout Goondwana.--tlie
'country that supplies Malwa with wheat and Europe
and America with white linseed, the straw of which (at
present only used for burning) would be thus rendered
available in quantities exceeding the former 'supply of
hemp from Russia. The hills on each side of the valley
abound in iron, and those on the southern side in coal.
The latter has been proved in the furnaces of the Bombay
steamers and factories to be of better quality than any
hitherto imported from Wales or Scotland, and it crops
out close to the line in beds of a thickness altogether
unprecedented in any European or American coal-field.
The working surveys and estimates of the Great India
Peninsular Railway are now completed as far as Jub-
bulpore (I have lately had an opportunity of examin-
ing them), and they are now being extended to meet
the Calcutta line at Mirzapore. A branch between
50 or 60 miles long would connect the line between
Aesesrghur and Hossungabad with Indore, the
capital of the rich State of Malwa ; and this branch
might ultimately be extended to Rajpootana and Delhi.
I have no personal predilections whatever in respect to
any one concerned in either of these competing lines,
and have no shares in either, but I am .well acquainted
with the districts they traverse. I was formerly en-
gaged in examining the engineering capabilities and
collecting their traffic statistics, with a view to the ex-
tension of railway communication between Bombay and
the interior, and, in common with all those acquainted
with the productive resources and the engineering ca-
pabilities of the Gungathuree (or plain of the Godavery),
the valley of Candeish and Ellichpore, Gooudwana, and
Malwa, I cannot but regard the introduetion of the
principle of competing lines, and the consequent delay
of the direct Bombay and Mirzapore line by the Thull
Chalet and the Nerbudda coalfields, as the greatest
blow to the progress of Western India that has been
struck since the subjection of the Bombay Government
(even in matters of the minutest detail), to the distant
authority and often petty and jealous interference of
the Supreme Government of India.