Page:Notes of a journey across the Isthmus of Krà.pdf/48

 7th.—From Point de Galle to the five-fathom anchorage in the Pakchan River, and from Tayoung, in the Gulf of Siam, to Hongkong. Table I, shows to be 281 hours' steam (more or less does not matter for calculation, as the same rate of steaming is taken for all), while the route via Singapore is shown to be 337 hours' steam. We calculate, as hereafter shown, that the passage across the Isthmus of Kraw would not ordinarily occupy more than twelve hours, with a liberal allowance of time.

We have, therefore, a difference of time in favour of the Kraw route (337 + 12) — (281 + 12) = 56 hours. This is of much importance when we hold in view the costly nature of the produce and goods conveyed. It has also long been a desideratum to have a weekly communication with England, but the immense cost of putting on four steamers per month from Calcutta to Men has hitherto, we suppose, deterred the P. & O. Company, as they would thereby obtain no extra trade.

But, supposing the communication through Kraw established, the extra trade that would be brought by the extension of the line of the P. & O. Company's vessels to Kraw would pay for an extra steamer between Point de Galle and Aden, by means of which—by making it meet the Bombay mail at Aden by bi-monthly steamers from Ceylon via Kraw—the communication between England and Calcutta would be weekly: twice per month by the P. & O. Company's line via Point de Guile and Madras, and twice by the vessels via Kraw to Calcutta, thus providing for the whole of the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, via Kraw, as the P. & O. Company's does for its western coast via Madras.

The time from Ceylon to Calcutta, via Kraw (by the direct steamer as hereafter mentioned), would be as follows:—

Nearly as quick as the route via Madras.