The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-01 00:00:00

THE BRILLIANT AURORA BOREALIS.

The following letter has been addressed to a con-
temporary by Mr. E. J. Lowe :
Sir,—Last night and this morning there was an
unusually brilliant display of Aurora Borealis; un-
fortunately the cloudy state of the sky frequently
prevented more than the strong light being seen.
Where less cloudy the phenomenon must have been
very grand. From 840 p.m. until 9 p.m. curtains
of red light were visible near the zenith. By 11 40
p.m. the glare of orange light in the north was
powerful enough (even through much cloud) to
make the hands of a watch visible. From mid-
night, fo;r
ytehtreaeolu2ar2tef
a.m.
thean hour, the tehmeittyd was
as
overcast
so strong that it gave the impression of
theafexday et lliy o
daylight.
The clouds in west and northwest were inky black.
At ts
s 4 ea h
5 an
cupola,nopenin whichg(inth wecaleousidtus clouds)zenithspace,
dn
Alpha Andromed ; this star being in open
surrounded by a white circle, or more frequently by
an ever-changing mass of wavy streams of light.
In a few minutes again overcast, and remaining so
till 1 10, when the clouds began to clear off. At 115
a.m. magnificent rays of light met 2 deg. east of
Alpha Andromeda, where a wing-shaped mass of
Aurora was situated ; each ray as it approached this
spot became " bended." At this time three-fourths
of the sky were covered with Aurora. In the north
north-west there was a long black cloud-like line,
which travelled slowly eastward. At 125 a.m. its
south end was passing across Capella, which star
shone brightly through it. From 130 till 230
much cloud. At 2 30. there being more clear sky,
a splendid mass of Aurora Borealis was visible,
forming an ever-changing cupola close to Gamma
Trianguli ; 3 15 less brighth.e wind
bseeuth co utislclatlio3nosl
moved slowly eastward. -T
'regards the earthquake shocks __
then south-west . There
k s in nicorefonlok
;doounbetxavi..,
ac . mining my pendulum I find that a perceptible moo e-
ment from west to east has taken
Observatory, Beeston, Aug. 29

Gnreceivedl B,s cos,—lhe following letter 19,11
bee
dated the 26th inst. : t' I,fire
----.—=------ --T_
have here the depot of Garibaldi ~,
s corps. When i 1.,,,
A it A L D if m,
rom
Como,
men learned that their General was going to Central I taty,
they refused to servo in Piedmont. They mutinif sZt, ea-
claiming that they would follow their General, tha t 0 iey
had taken up arms to fight, and not to remain in a go. rrif .on.
It was found necessary to adopt severe measures, butt' they
are not yet appeased. It is announced that the troo vs f anda
the command of Colonel Medici, in the Valtel jut , Itave
conducted themselves in a similar manner."

The half-yearly meeting of this company was
held at the London Tavern, yesterday—Sir I. Car-
michael in the chair.
Mr. COURTENAY, the secretary, read the adver-
tisement convening the meeting and the report,
which said
" The number of messages transmitted over the
company's wires in the half year ending June 30,
1859, amounted to 63,005, being an increase of
13,627 messages over the corresponding half-year of
1858, and an increase of 11,303 over the number
transmitted in the six monthsending 31st Decem-
ber last.. This large increase in the business of the
company has not yielded an equivalent addition to
the gross revenue, on account of the considerable
reduction which has been made in the tariffs, as the
charge of a single message between Paris and Lon-
don and London and Brussels is now only 7s. 3d. ;
but the receipts for the present half-year of £14,113
ss. 10d. have enabled the directors to pay off the
balance of costs of repairs of cables, &c., without
trenching in any way on the reserve fund, and to
recommend the declaration of a dividend at the
rate of 7 per cent. per annum. After appropriat-
ing 10 per 'cent. of the net revenue to the reserve
fund, a balance of £193 4s. 11d. will remain to be
carried over-to the credit of the current half-year.
It may not, perhaps, be generally known to the
shareholders, that although the company's cables
from Dover to Calais, and Dover to Ostend, have
been laid down between seven and eight years, the
total cost of repairs, which have arisen solely from
damages caused by anchors of large ships, has only
amounted to £4,546 15s. 5d., which is, in the
opinion of your directors, very strong evidence of
the great superiority of heavy cables, wherever
there is the slightest risk from anchorage. The
directors have now the pleasing duty of congratu-
lating the shareholders on the successful completion
of two new important lines of submarine telegraph
—viz., between Folkestone and Boulogne, and be-
tween the. coast of Norfolk, Heligoland, and Den-
mark, an& they wish to take this opportunity of
expressing their sense of the admirable manner in
which these cables have been both manufactured
and submerged by the contractors, Messrs. Glass,
Elliot, and Co. The cable to Boulogne is unquestion-
ably the strongest and most perfect submarine cable
that has hitherto been constructed, and contains six
conducting wires, which will, it is calculated,
most thoroughly develope the telegraphic in-
tercourse between this country, France, and
Southern Europe, while one wire will be devoted
to the requirements of the London Stock Exchange
and the Paris Bourse, so that in future the great
inconvenience arising from Stock Exchange mes-
sages being delayed 'from a press of other business
will be entirely avoided. This important advantage
will of itself greatly facilitate and increase the num-
ber of despatches between London and Paris. As
soon as this new service via Boulogne is perfectly
organised, it is the intention of the directors to put
into complete working order the original Calais
cable; which operation will, in the opinion of the
company's engineer, be very easily effected, and
attended with but small expense. The company
will then possess 10 efficient conducting wires for
telegraphic purposes between England and France,
besides six to Belgium, and five to Hanover, Den-
mark, and the north of Europe. The only line now
remaining to be established, under the concessions
granted to .the company, is that between the Chan-
nel Islands and the French coast. This cable,
which will consist of one conducting wire, is now
being manufactured, and will be laid down in the
course of the.ensuing month. In making estimates
for the construction and laying down of the various
submarine lines, the directors were unable to fix the
exact points of landing on the different coasts, and
consequently could not make allowance for the cost
of land lines to connect the cables with the respec-
tive systems of continental telegraphs. With the
view of avoiding anchorage ground, several of the
points of landing originally proposed have since
been clianged, and altogether about 25 miles of
land telegraphs are in course of construction, a
portion of which, where near the coast, will be sub-
terranean ; but the total expense of these lines, to-
gether with the establishment of new stations at
Emden, Heligoland, and Westerhever (in Den-
mark) will be more than covered by the small
amount of additional capital which it is proposed
to raise. At the next meeting of shareholders the
directors trust to submit a complete statement
of the capital account of the company, with a
view to its being closed, as all the contracts en-
tered into by the company will then be completed,
and at the same time they intend recommend-
ing the establishment of a reserve fund on an ex-
tended scale with a view not only for the repair of
accidents, but also to meet any ultimate deprecia-
tion of submarine cables. The shareholders are
doubtless aware that objections were taken by her
Majesty's late Government to the company laying
their cables on the English coasts, on account of
certain privileges contained in their concessions.
These objections were, however, overruled by the
rights conferred on the company under the royal
charter of incorporation, and as this company re-
quire nothing more than a reasonable protection
against undue competition— a protection which
has been accorded either by exclusive concessions
or by
.means of guarantees or subsidies to every
other submarine company in existence—the direc-
tors feel confident that they will be enabled to
arrange such terms with the present Ministry as
will be satisfactory to the shareholders, the Govern.
ment, and the public in general.'
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, congratulated the shareholders on the con-
tinued prosperity of the company, and stated that,
at a meeting of the Electric and International Tele-
graph Company, Mr. Robert Stephenson, the em

nent engineer, had stated that subinarine telegraphs
would not last more than six or eight years. That
probably might be the case with the telegraphs
laid down on the principle of that belonging to
Mr. Stephenson's Company between Orfordness
and the Hague, with only four small wires and in
a very difficult sea, but it was not so with their
telegraphs, which were of considerably greater
weight. Indeed, the directors had had portions of
their Dover and Calais cable taken up, and though
it had been down eight years, the shareholders'
might obserye—a specimen of it being on the table
—that it was as perfect as on the day when it was
first submerged; and on this point they had re-
ceived the following letter, dated as late as the
previous day :

" To the Chairman and Board of Directors of the
Spbmarine Telegraph Company :
" Gentlemen,—Agreeably to your instructions,
we have picked up at sea, and cut out and carefully
examined several portions of your submarine cable
between Dover and Calais, laid in the autumn of

1851, and which, therefore, is now just eight years
old. We cut the cable at six miles (nautical) from
this shore, and at lesser distances, so that we might

obtain fair average specimens of your property.
" We are now enabled to report, for the informa-
tion of the board, that so far from exhibiting any

_
serious symptoms of
_deterioration, the externa

. -
iron and the internal hempen and gutta percha
coatings are in most excellent preservation, and
that they promise to continue in their present satis-
factory condition for a long period yet to come.
In fact, the natural depreciation of the metal coat-

ing, as well as of the interior of the cable, is not
only practically of very little importance, but it is
rather encouraging from the small effect as yet per=
ceivable.

"We have much pleasure in forwarding here-
with specimens of the cable removed, so that the

directors may personally inspect them.
" The only damage sustained by the company,
up to the present time, has been from positive me-
chanical injuries done to the cable by the dragging
of ships.'' anchors, and the total cost to the company
of repairs rendered nzicessal'y from this source has
not exceeded, for all the company's cables, for the
-whole term of eight years,_ the sum of £5,000, or
about £5OO per annum.—We are, gentlemen, your
obedient servants,
(Signed)

" T. R. CRAMPTON.
"W. ANDREWS."
Mr. SANDERSON felt highly gratified at the re-
port and the statement of the chairman ; and was
much gratified at observing that a reserve fund
was being established to meet any contingencies
which might arise, as he looked to that fund as the
surest guarantee for the future prosperity of their
line.

Sir CHARLES . BRIGHT, though having the
highest opinion of Mr. Stephenson as a railway
engineer, could not give that weight to his
opinion with regard to electric telegraphs, of
which- he had had: very. little experience. The
submerged
lines laid down from Dover to Calais, Dover to
Ostend,' Spezia to Corsica—which was sub
in lBs4—had required very little repairs,
that from Orfordness to the Hague, owing to its
being constructed with only. four small wires and
the nature of the sea, had .required a steamer to
watch if, and would probably not last more than
the time stated.; but that was altogether different
from any of the cables of this company, which he
looked upon as likely to last for very many more
years than they had vet been down.. With regard
to a reserve fund he looked upon it as very judi-
cious,.aud was convinced that the additional traffic
arisinefrom their now lines would be so great as
to prevent any 'diminution of dividends to the pro-
prietors from the establishment ,of that fund.

• Mr: CRAMPTON having been called upon, pro-
ceeded to undo various portions of the specimen
cable on the table, to show that it was as perfect
;And as good as though made yesterday,, the only
p erceptible difference being that there was a little
lees moistness in the tow, so that it did not so rea-
dily dirty the fingers in handling. It was worthy

compANy.r of remark that the form of cable which they first
laid down was adopted in opposition to very many
opinions—the five directors then at the table being
the original promoters of the company who decided
on that form, and every. other ferm since adopted
had proved failures, whilst theirs remained as good
now as the first day it was laid down. He was not
connected with them in his professional capacity
now, although he was at all times ready to give
them his best advice ; and he could not help con-
gratulating the company that they had now a
young man as manager—Mr. Andrews—of great
ability and business habits, with whom he, as an
engineer, was greatly pleased, and of whom the
shareholders ought to feel proud.
The report was then adopted, the dividend de-
clared, and the retiring directors and auditors re-
elected.
It was then moved by Sir J. CARMICHAEL, and se-
conded by Mr. L. SIMPSON—" That this meeting
authorises the directors to issue the balance of
the necessary capital not exceeding the sum
of £lO,OOO by the issue of 1,000 shares
of £lO each (such shares to be fully paid up to the
company's bankers, the Union Bank of London, on
allotment, or at such time or times, and in such
manner, as the directors may see fit) for finally
completing the company's several new lines to the
Continent, and in the meantime to pay the balance
of the cost and expenses of such lines by the issue
of such securities as they may be legally authorised
under the charter and deed of settlement of the
company, and may think expedient to give or issue,
not exceeding the said sum of £lO,OOO, upon such
terms, and at such rate or rates of interest, as the
directors may think fit."
The resolution having been carried, a vote of
thanks to the chairman and directors closed the
proceedings.

THE VICTORIA JSZEAWRENCE)

BRIDGE.

[COMMUNICATED.]
The present autumn will witness the completion
of, perhaps, the greatest engineering work of our
time; of that great bridge across the river St. Law-
rence, of which the Britannia-bridge over the Menai,
Straits proves to have been but the precursor, as to
Americans it will hereafter seem but as the shadow.
The Canadians, as may well be conceived, are in-
tensely excited at the prospect of finding their
country distinguished by so great a work of SeießV.l7;
and throughout the United States the completion of
the Victoria-bridge is regarded as an important
event in the history otthat new world which,since
its discovery, has been marked by such rapidity of
progress.
It may not be uninteresting, at such a time, to
recall the circumstances under which this work wis
undertaken, and to record briefly the history of its
construction. There are many, indeed, who will
gaze with wonder on the lofty piers and stupendous
tubes of this structure, to whom its peculiar features
may scarcely suggest themselves, yet the, greatness
of the conception of this design consists, in reality,
less in the size and character of the structure itself,
than in the objects—political, commercial, and
scientific—which it is capable of effecting.
The primary necessity of a new country is a road.
The better the line of communication, the more
certain the new country, of success. The greatest
boon, therefore,that could be conferred upon Canada
was the construction of a railroad; and those who
devised and carried out the project of. the Grand
Trunk Railway, connecting the different depen-
dencies of the British Crown in North America, and
passing through the richest parts of both Upper
and Lower Canada for a distance of 1,200 miles,
must be regarded as great benefactors to the
country.
Yet, rand as was the conception of the Cana-
dian railway, its original design was imperfect. It
was not a road through the province alone which
Canada required. A needed imperatively a facile
communication between the north and south shores
of the St. Lawrence—railway connection free from
the inconveniences of transshipment with the United
States, and above all, direct communication with
the sea board of the Atlantic.
Avery little consideration of the circumstances
of thq country will show the imperative character of
these requirements. The broad and rapid river
St. Lawrence, whilst during the summer months of
the year it opens out the whole of Canada to the
ocean, for the five winter months completelyisolates
the province. Canada, lying to the north of the
river thus frozen up throughout its course, is itself
commercially as well as physically congealed.
During that protracted season no ships can leave
or can reach Quehec. With the United States
the communication is, in every sense, of the most
frigid character. Up to a very recent period, even
intrcommunication between different localities of
Canada itself was, during winter, maintained with
difficulty. To sleigh for 180 miles, as from Quebec
to Montreal, was a task attended with no little
trouble and with very considerable cost. Of course
the transport of goods was impossible. Commer-
cial markets, therefore, were comparatively useless.
In fact, the want of means of communication with
the outer world, prevented by the frozen state of
the great river boundary and highway of the pro-
vince, deprived the Canadian of nearly one-half of
his active existence.
To the Grand Trunk Railway a direct and unin-
terrupted communication between the north and
south shores of the St. Lawrence was also of vital
consequence. Inasmuch as a bridge across the St.
Lawrence was the key to the whole province, so, in
possession of that key, the Grand Trunk Railway
would command the whole external intercourse of
Canada; whilst, without it, it must remain a mere
provincial line. The tide of immigration sets very
much into Canada from and through the United
States. The whole of that traffic, so important to the
Grand Trunk Railway,would have been lost without
the connecting link between Canada and the United
States. In the winter season, also, the Grand Trunk
Railway kept open, despite snow and frost, by various
arrangements and appliances, would command the
trade of the province without having to contend
with any steam-boat competition. To show, by one
illustration, the importance of a bridge to the Grand
Trunk Railway, it may be mentioned that the Ca-
nadian Government contributed the large sum of
I:50,000 a-year to the Steam Ship Company, upon
the condition of its opening and maintaining the
best direct .eommunication between Liverpool and
Canada. In the summer months the route can be
directed from Quebec, but in the winter that is im-
possible. 'Without crossing the St. Lawrence, there-
fore, the route for which this handsome subsidy is
paid could not be maintained, and the Grand Trunk
Railway Company and the Canadian community
would alike sacrifice the advantage of direct com-
munication between Canada and Europe.
These considerations naturally weighed with in-
creased strength upon the Canadian people and the
directors of the Grand Trunk Railway as that line
approached completion. A bridge they saw that
they must have ; but the question was could such a
bridge be made ?
" The rapid river ran deep and wide ;"
and there were not a few who thought that to span
it by a bridge would be little better than a tempta-
tion of Providence.
The difficulties, indeed, of crossing the St. Law-
rence were far from inconsiderable. Its width, even

at the most available point, is very formidable, its
current is very rapid; its depth not insignificant.
Besides this, the navigation of the river, not merely
by steamboats and other vessels, but by enormous
timber rafts, had to be provided for ; so that un-
usual elevation and unusual width between the

piers were both required. There was another ob-

stacle more formidable, far more formidable, than
all. In the winter season the river St. Lawrence
presents a field of ice from three to five feet thick.
'Whilst it is thus frozen the river rises sometimes
as much as 20 feet above its summer level. This

rise of water might be provided for ; but how was

accident to be avoided, at the annually-recurring
period when the "breaking up of tho ice" exhibits,
in North America, one-of the•most wonderful ope-
rations of nature on that continent ?

This " breaking up of the ice" in North America,
though welcomed as the. harbinger of returning
summer, is an event which.carries with, it no incon-
siderable amount of apprehension to the mind of
tho Canadian. From the extreme thicknessof the

.ce in the middle of the river, little or no effect is

•
immediately produced upon it by the action of the
sun. But the banks of the river imbibing the heat,

melt away.the thinner portion of ice which touches
them, depriving the main body of the support it re-
ceives from its contact with' the land. Then, when
a small line of blue water intervenes between the

shore and the river ice, the ice begins to move, first
slowly, then more rapidly, until the velocity and
power of the current, rapidly increased by the melt-
ing of the snow; wrenches the ice upwards, and
breaks and. tears .it into fiagnients, which, larger
or smaller, go floating down .tlie, river in masses,
bearing before them almost. everything which they
eneonnter.
Dismal tales are rife in Canadcro-r-thelatal dis-
asters which have occurred to life and property by
" the breaking up of the ice." The city of Mon-
treal has especially suffered from these fatalities.
,Before now, the ice has burst into that city, and
been found sliding its streets. It has broken into
the second floor windows of dwelling-houses after
blocking up the front doors for weeks. It has
forced down river terraces and spoilt public and
private gardens. Large warehouses, erected with-
put due protection on the banks of the river, have
been pushed over by the great moving sheets of
as if they were mere houses of cards. At
river, where the
7.suddeniveri"bends of the ice meets with
obstruction, it piles itself sometimes into huge ice-
bergs from 50 to 80 feet in height. At length,