The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-15 00:00:00

surpasses by far all previous achievements in rail-
way construction and engineering, and would be a
marvel if our people had not already been accus-
tomed to the most surprising developments of
American energy. The gap of 1,721 miles,
upon which there were but seventy-one miles
of railway in January, 1866, had been reduced
in October, 1868, to 714 miles. More than
a thousand miles of the Pacific Railway across the
mountainous, barren, and almost uninhabited part
of our continent, were in complete running order
more than a month ago, carrying passengers and
merchandise, limited only by the limited roll-
ing stock of the roads. Of the 1,667 miles now in
operation, 820 miles have been constructed by the
Union Pacific Railroad Company, stretching from
Omaha to Green River, far away beyond the sum-
mit of the Rocky Mountains; and the other 187
miles by the Central Pacific Railroad Com-
pany, extending from Sacramento, in Califor-
nia, eastward across the formidable Sierra Ne-
vada to Walsworth. As the railway stands now,
the journey from Philadelphia to San Francisco
may be made in 12 to 13 days. We had a striking
illustration of the progress made on Thursday last,
November sth. On that day we received two sets
of ❑ewspaper files from San Francisco, one of them
by steamer, bringing files to the 14th of October,
and the other by the overland mail, bringing the
papers of October 22d, containing full accounts of
the earthquake iu California, on the 21st. One
day of the fourteen by the overland mail was
doubtless lost in the post-offices in San Fran-
cisco and New York. Quite recently a travel-
ler passed over the whole of that part of the route
between San Francisco and Omaha in eight
days, and could have reached Philadelphia by rail
in four days more. But the bare statement that
1,007 miles of the Pacific Railroad are in actual
operation does not give an adequate idea of the
' work accomplished. At the California end, although
but 187 miles are in operation, the track is graded
and the iron laid 197 miles further to Reese River,
making 384 miles in all that will be in operation
within one month. Nor is this all, for the track is
graded more than 60 miles further, and there is a
strong expectation of getting the iron down before
winter sets in. Ten thousand men are at work,
and the engineers are pushing them with the
utmost vigour. On the 20th of August six miles
of track were laid on that one day. Such is the
rate of progress at the California end of the road.
Coming back to the eastern end, it is yet to be
stated that the iron is laid a long distance beyond
the terminus of the 820 miles of road over which
the trains are now running. The roadway is
graded through Weber canon, near Great Salt
Lake, 995 miles west of Omaha, and it is ex-
pected that by the middle of next month the
rails will be laid as far as Bear River, one of
the affluents of Salt Lake, 939 miles west of
Omaha, and 119 miles beyond the present termi-
nus. As the actual progress of the work on these
two roads has generally surpassed both promise and
expectation, we may set down 939 miles at the
eastern end of the road, and 38.1 miles at the California
end as practically completed for traffic, thus closing
up 1,323 miles of the 1,721 miles between Omaha and
Sacramento. This leaves about 400 miles to be
done next year, and the engineers say they will do
it. About 200 miles of the remaining 400, viz.,
from Humboldt Wells around the northern end of
Great Salt Lake, is run through a much more favour-
able country than many parts of the completed
track. On half this distance the grades vary from 20
to 25 feet to the mile, and none exceed 75 feet. In
crossing the Sierra Nevada at the California end
the roadway already in operation had to climb a
height of 7,042 feet within the first hundred miles
from tidewater, and to distribute this great and
sudden ascent so as to have a railroad practicable for
ordinary locomotives, required scientific skill
of the highest order, and involved the most diffi-
cult and expensive kind of railway construction.
It is a triumph of American boldness and skill,
with which the roads over the Semmering Alp and
Mount Cenis do not compare as railway achieve-
ments.—. Philadelphia Public Ledger.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

GRATESEND, Tuesday Morning.
Wind S.W. ; fine.
No arrivals.

DEAL, Tuesday Morning.

Wind, S.W. by S., fresh.
Anchored, Dec 12.—Trossachs, from London, for Val-
paraiso.

JEADIES IN MAMAS.—Ramasami may be ;taken
as the generic name of the Madras Boy ; just as Joames is
that of the London footman. There aro Pronasamis, Chi-
masamis, Appasamis, Autonis, Lazaruses, Gabriels, and a
host of other names, bat these are seldom used or even
known
.by masters and mistresses. It is a bachelor's
factotum that Ramasami is seen to the best of advan-
tage. If his master's salary be small, Ramasami will
manage his house, wait at table, black his boots, take
care of his clothes, sew on his buttons—in short do the
work of half a dozen servants—and will smoke only a few
of master's cheroots, and will cheat him only a little.
As his master's salary increases, Ramasami takes care
that more servants shall be engaged, and that
the expenses shall increase ; he smokes more
of his master's cheroots, and' cheats him a little more.
But ho is generally so willing, so handy, and after all
cheats so discreetly, that a Madras Boy is generally
acknowledged to be the best bachelor's servant in
India. In a family where his accounts are carefully
examined by the mistress daily, whore there are
plenty of servants under him, when he is not kept up
to the mark as regards fire and cool soda, when he is not
liable to be called on unexpectedly in the dead of night to
prepare hot grilled bones and cool boor, then he generally
degenerates into a fat, lazy, complaco butler.—Dickens.s
"All the Year Round."

INDIAN REMAINS.—The explorers sent out by the
Smithsonian Institute in search of American antiquities
have discovered a large number of skulls and idols in the
mounds of Indiana, Missouri, and Tennessee. These re-
mains aro supposed to be older than any that have hitherto
been found in America, and aro believed to have be-
longed to a race anterior to the Indians. The skulls are
smaller than any previously noticed, aro box shaped and
almost square. In the same mounds were also found pot-
tery and implements, unlike any that have hitherto been
discovered.