Page:Notes of a journey across the Isthmus of Krà.pdf/52

 of about one mile, to allow of trains passing, the remainder of the line may be single as the Suez line.

5th.—The boats of eight or ten tons for the river service should form the bodies of the carriages for the railroad service, patent slips being formed at the Kraw terminus, and, if necessary, also on the Gulf of Siam shore, up which the loaded boats may be dragged on their own wheels, which could form the slip cradles, and the boats could be tacked on to the engine, and proceed to the other side without any delay. The arrangement of the boats for goods and passengers is a matter of detail easily managed. There is no reason why a carriage should not be in the form of a boat, especially when time is saved in loading, and expense in rolling stock. These boats would be at the anchorage, ready for the steamers as they come in from the mouth; when loaded, would be towed up to the railway terminus, dragged up the slips, and taken off at once per rail to Tayoung, where there should be a wharf for the China steamers to lie alongside, if them be water enough; if not, the carriage should be launched at once on to the sea, and sent to the steamers.

Here it must be observed that provision is only made for the boats to make one trip, so that twelve boats, which are said to suffice in Clause 8 of this para., of eight to ten tons each, or a little more than 100 tons inclusive, are to convey the passengers and cargo of the mail steamer from Ceylon; ditto of the Burnish line, from Calcutta; and of the direct steamer from Calcutta, whose opium alone would exceed 200 tons, in one trip from the steamer on one side of the Isthmus to the steamer on the other. This will appear at once to be a most inefficient arrangement; however, it serves to keep the expenses low, which is all that is necessary to accomplish the object in view.

6th.—We would here observe again that our survey was rough; that we merely passed along the native line (which is well defined, but in many places in the beds of rivers), with perambulator, compass, and aneroid; that our aneroid showed no height above the sea of more than seventy-five feet; and that our route presented no obstacle of engineering difficulty beyond