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

ACROSS THE CONTINENT.

For a few months past everybody has been so
much absorbed in politics that the rapid and almost
wonderful progress of one of the greatest works of
modern times has received but little attention. Be-
tween the new :town of Omaha, on the Missouri

river, and the city of Sacraments, in California, on
the tide-waters of the Pacific, there is a stretch of
territory 1,721 miles in length, in some few places
very sparsely settled by frontiersmen and other
hardy pioneers, in others partly occupied by miners,
but for the most part entirely uninhabited except
by roving tribes of Indians. The route of travel
through this stretch of territory, crosses forsnidable
ranges of mountains and hut-anise plains of barren
land. Four years ago there wer.3. no artificial
means of traversing these seve-ltJen hundred and

twenty-one miles between the Missouri and the
Pacific, except by stage or by mule or ox trains
with the exc:ption of thirty-0:1U inne3 of roi! near
Sacramento. In January, 1866, less than three
years ago, forty miles of rail were laid at the o.naha
end of the route, making seventy-one miles in a:I
at both ends. Since then there has been a pro-
gress of the most extraordinary character. It
surpasses by far all previous achievements in rail-
way construction and engineering, and would be a
marvel ii 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 Wadsworth. 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 newspaper 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 in 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 he 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 do ,Vn 939 miles at the
eastern end of the road, and 381 miles at the California
end as practically complete.l for traffic, thus closing
up 1,323 miles of the 1,721 miles between Omaha and
S..cratuento. 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.,

oin 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.—Thiladelphia Public Ledger.

SHIPPING I.N7WLLIGENCE.

GRAVESEND, Tuesday Morning.

Wind S.W. ; fine.
No arrivals.

DEAL, Tuesday Morning.

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

Foreign Mail Packet List.

MAILS LUIS.?

Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton Jan. 2
Ditto, via 3f-wooilles
Ditto, via Pi.:_arna
tirazil. iiucnoi Ayres, and Monte Video JAu 1.
Ditto, by French packet •• Deo. 22.
Cape Verde, by Brazil paettot
Cape of Good Ascension, and St. Helena.— Dec. 23.
china, Penang, and Singapore, via Southitinpton Deo. 19.
Gibraltar, via Southampton
India,via Southampton ..... ... • •..

vitto, vim Marseil.es
Malta, Egypt, S&e. Dec 12.
Ditto, Marseilles DeJ. 17
Ilaurltius, Cape of Good Hope, and Natal, via
tkutharas too
Ditto, Marseilles _ Dec.
Yewfoundla nd •.. .... Dee 13
t'ortirral ... ... ....... Jan. 4.
United States, t anada, California, &c., by British

packet Dec 12
Ditto, by Canadian packet ....
Ditto, by L t.ited atatee packet
Ditto ditt( (Baltimore) . .
West Indies and PaJlic ;except Mexico and Baha-
mas) 13,,c 11
West Coast of Africa, Madeira, anti Teneritre Dec. 17.

JEAMES IN MAbltAS.—ltarnasami may be taken
as the generic name of the Madras Boy ; just as Jeames is
that of the London footman. There are Pronasamis, Chi-
masamis, Appasamis, Autonis, Lazaruses, Gabriels, and a
host of other names, bnt 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, sow 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 ; ho smokes more
of his master's cheroots, and cheats him a little more.
But ho is generally su 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 whore his accounts are carefully
examined by the mistress daily, where there are
plenty of servants under him, when ho is not kept up
to the mark as regards fire and cool soda, when ho is not
liable to be called on unexpected!,; in the dead of night to
prepare hot grilled bones and cool beer, then he generally
degenerates into a fat, lazy, complace 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 are believed to have be-
longed to a race anterior to the Indians. The skulls are
smaller than any previously noticed, are box shaped and
almost square. In the same mounds were also found pot-
tery and implements, unlike any that have hitherto been
clikovored.

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SUN OFFICE, 7 o'CLocK.

NOTICE.

The Third Edition of " The Sun " of last Evouing was
published in time for delivery in town at 7.15 p.m.

lUPERIAL PARLI AMEN r

THIS DAY.

THE QIJEEN'6 SPEECH.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

IVe have it far:her in command from her
Majesty to acquaint you that since the time
;.hen her :Majesty deemed it right to call you
together for the consideration of many grave
and iwportant matter;!, several vacancies have
occlrred in the Howe of Commons, owing to the
acceptance of office from the Crown by inemb...:rs of
that hous;;. It is, therefor:-, her M'jesty's pleasure
that an opportunity may now be given to issue
writs for supplyiug the vacancies so occasioned ;
and that after a suitable recess you may proccel to
the consideration of such matters as will then be
laid before you.