Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/739

Rh EUROPE 709 nations are developing their resources, and turning their attention to industries that they had long neglected ; and in the older nations almost every year sees an addition to the bewildering multiplicity of human occupations. While most of the several countries, as appears by the accompanying table, are on the whole fairly supplied with, internal railway communication, and a few have developed a nearly perfect system of primary and secon dary lines, much has still to be done before the general international system will be approximately complete. Of natural obstacles the mountains are the most formidable, and at the head of the mountains in this respect, as in others, stand the Alps. Between all the countries of northern and central Europe regular traffic is easily main tained : the north of France, Belgium, Holland, and the north of Germany are practically one as far as the great network of railways is concerned. Between France and southern Germ any the connexion is not so close, though the Franco-German frontier is crossed by four or five lines, and the Swiss system, which is well developed, affords several additional routes. Between Germany and Austria there are almost equal facilities, more especially along the borders of Bohemia and Saxony. Eastwards and southwards in Poland, Russia, and Austria, the meshes of the net grow very wide, but the main threads are knotted together and satisfy the necessities of international communication. Such is the state of the case in the countries of central Europe ; but if the traveller wishes to proceed by rail to any of the three southern peninsulas, he finds himself in a very different position. From France he can enter Spain only by two routes, one of which takes him round the western end of the Pyrenees, and the other, opened in 1878, round the eastern end; at all other parts of the frontier the mountains bid defiance to the engineer. From Spain, where he will find the internal system still very incomplete, the traveller may cross the Portuguese frontier and proceed by rail direct to Lisbon, but if he wish to reach Oporto without visiting Lisbon he must resign himself to the old-fashioned road. His case is better if he turn in the direction of Italy : from France he may glide into Italy through the tunnel of the Col de Frejus, or as it is popularly called Mont Cenis, which was completed in 1870 and opened in 1871; or from Bavaria he may traverse the other extremity of the Alps by the Brennerbahn, and reach the Lombard plain by the valley of the Adige. By all other routes he must in the meantime accept the service of the diligence ; but workmen have been busy since 1871 under the massif of St Gotthard, and within a few years he may be able to pass right through from Zurich to Bellinzona and Milan It has also been proposed to effect a communication between the railways of north Italy and the line of the Rhone valley by means of a tunnel through the Simplon ; and one German engineer at least, Sturm, has a scheme for boring under Mont Blanc itself. Once in Italy, the traveller can proceed as far as Otranto at the eastern end of the peninsula, or to Reggio at the western. If, instead of Italy, it be his desire to visit the countries to the south of the Danube, the railway altogether fails him. By Austrian Hues he may reach Sessek on the Save, Essek on the Drave, or Bazias on the Danube ; or if lie go round by Galicia, he may proceed south through Bulgaria, cross the Danube at Itustchuk, and continue as far as Varna on the Black Sea. But at no point is there any connexion with the Turkish system, or rather fragmen tary beginnings of a system : the lines from Constantinople and Aghatch which meet to the south of Adrianople, stop short in the valley of the Maritza, and the line frora Saloniki proceeds only as far north as Uskub. In Greece there is but one little line, from the Pirfous to Athens. By the Russian railways the traveller can journey direct south to Odessa, Nicolaieff, or Sebastopol on the Black Sea, to Taganrog or Rostoff on the Sea of Azoll, or even to Yladikavkas in the Caucasus. Eastward he may advance as far as Tsaritsin or Sara toff on the Volga, and to Orenburg at the end of the Ural range. North-eastwards his limits are Nizhni-Novgorod and Vologda. According to the plans of the Russian Government, a few years will see the construction of lines of communication with eastern Siberia on the one hand and the new provinces of central Asia on the other. It is sufficient to mention the pro jected tunnel between France and England. The following table gives the length of the railway lines in the several countries for 1860 and 1875: 18 50. 18 75. Kilometres. Miles. Kilomttrts, Miles. Great Britain ... Belgium 16,791 1,729 10,433 1,074 26,870 3 517 16,696 &amp;gt; igs Germany 11,253 6 997 27 980 17 386 France 9,316 5,790 21 587 13 413 Austria 5,402 3 436 17 368 10 792 llussia 1,384 869 18,488 11 488 Italy 1,705 1 055 7 704 4 787 Spain .. 1,916 1 190 5 796 3 601 Sweden 467 290 4 138 2 571 Netherlands Switzerland Turkey 259 936 160 598 1,895 2,066 1 537 1,177 1,283 955 Koumaiiia 1 233 766 Denmark. 109 677 1,260 782 Portugal. 131 814 1 033 641 Xonvay.. 68 42 2 555 344 Greece 12 74 Since 1875 the railway contractors have not been idle. At the end of 1876 there were 16,872 miles open for traffic in Great Britain, and upwards of 5000 miles in course of construction. In the beginning of 1877 the Belgian lines amounted to 2228 miles or 3580 kilometres, and the French lines to 14,078 miles or 22,671 kilometres. The telegraphic system, as appears by the accompanying Telegraphs. table, is well developed throughout the continent, more especially in Switzerland, Great Britain, Belgium, Bavaria, and Wiirtemberg. As far as it is international, it is largely indebted to British enterprise and capital, and many of the most important companies have their centres in London. All the maritime countries have submarine cables. Norway has no fewer than 193, with a total length of 1233 nautical miles ; Denmark 29, with a length of 101 miles ; and Holland 18, with a length of 36. The three Russian cables of the Baltic have a total length of 62 miles, and unite Cronstadt with the capital, and the islands Osel and Aland with the continent. Of the 12 Italian cables the most important, about 118 miles long, communicates with Sardinia ; and of the 6 Spanish three are devoted to Ivi^-a, Minorca, and Majorca. Most of the 26 French cables are short, with the exception of that which stretches across_the Mediterranean from Marseilles to Algiers. Great Britain has a large number communicating with various parts of the continent, as well as with Ireland, the Channel Islands, Orkney and Shetland, the Hebrides, &c. Of prime import ance to ths continent at large are the great transatlantic cables, four of which have their European termini in the west of Ireland, while a fifth, the longest yet laid down, stretches from Brest in Brittany 2585 miles to St Pierre near Newfoundland, and a sixth from Lisbon to Pernambuco in Brazil. Two others are projected one from Portugal, and another from the Shetland Islands round by the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, itc. Direct communication is main tained between England and India by the lines of the Eastern Telegraph Company, and other lines continue the system as far as Australia on the one hand and Japan on the uther.