The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-31 00:00:00

THROUGH MAILS,

Since the completion of the railroad line to the Pacific,
arrangements have been made to have records kept
showing the time occupied in the transit of mails from
Washington, Now York, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati,
and St. Louis to Denver City, Salt Lake City, Sacramento
City, and San Francisco and back. The appendix con-
tains a copy of the circular giving the necessary instruc-
tions to postmasters and others. The records of arrivals
on the Atlantic side during the month of October have
reached the department. They show that mails are car-
ried through from San Francisco to Washington in 6 days,
23 hours, and 15 minutes; to Now York, in 6 days 15
hours, and 20 minutes; to Boston, in 7 days, 4 hours; to
Chicago, in 5 days, 7 hours, and 30 minutes; to Cincinnati,
in 5 days, 22 hours, and 30 minutes ; and to St. Louis, in 5
days, 1 hour, and :30 minutes. The above figures show
the time of the shortest tri, s. The average time was: to
Washington, 7. days, 7 hours, and 11 minutes; to New
York, 7 days, 2 hours, and 23 minutes; to Boston, 7 days,
19 hours, and 25 minutes; to Chicago, 5 days, 14 hours,
and 55 minutes; to Cincinnati, 5 days, 8 hours, and 32 mi-
nutes; and to St Louis, 5 days, 16 hours, and 23 minutes.
Compared with the time from San Francisco, the time from
Sacramento City is 6 hours and 20 minutes less ; from Pro-
montory, 2 days and 10 minutes less; from Salt Lake
City, 2 days and 9 hours less; from Denver Cite, 1 day, 23
hours, and 30 minutes less; and from Omaha City, 4 days,
7 hours, and 30 minutes less -- Salt Lake City being dis-
tant from the railroad 29 miles, and Denver City 102 miles.
Under the. Old overland mail contracts, the time from the
Missouri River to Folsom City, 23 miles east of Sacra-
mento City, was 16 days, from April 1 to Dec. 1, and 20
days for the remainder of the year.
Mails have been transmitted twice a day each way be-
tween New York and New Orleans since the Ist of March
last, once over. the Southern route, via Washington, D. C..,
Lynchburg, Va.., and Knoxville, Tenn., and rice wer tha
Western route, via Louisville, Ky., and Ilutribt-rd., Tenn.
By the latter route a portion of the trips have been made
in shorter time than by the former; the shortest being 78
hours and 30 minutes going South, and 76 hours and 15
minutes going North, while the shortest by the former was
84 hours and 35 minutes going South, and 85 hours and 20
minutes going North. Greater regularity exists on the
South-Western route, however, on which the average tune
from March to September, inclusive, was 89 hours and `.:9
minutes going South, and 90 hours and 59 minutes going
North; while the average on the Western route for the
same period was 92 hours and 13 minutes going South, and
90 hours and 14 minutes going North. Taking both direc-
tions together, there were carried through, from March to
September, inclusive, on the South-Western route, 129
mails, at en average speed of 90 hours and 14 minutes; and
on the Western route, 359 mails, at an average speed of
91 hours and 18 minutes. By comparison with the
through mail tables in the last annual report, it will bo
seen that the average_time on both these routes is sensibly
improved.
A greater expedition has recently been obtained between
New York and Chicago, one of the three daily trips over
the Allentown route (via Pittsburg) being made in loss
than 31 hours each way.