CHAPTER X.

THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA.

to 1853 locomotion through India was attended

U with great difficulties. The Ganges and the Indus

are the only navigable rivers, and these during the dry season can only be ascended by small sail and row boats. The government had opened here and there a highway connecting interior military stations with Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras; but the empire, containing one million four hundred thousand square miles, had few carriageroads. Travellers sometimes made their way from point to point in carts drawn by oxen, but the usual conveyance was a palanquin, borne on men's shoulders. Some of the paths were tolerable in dry weather, but during the rainy season wholly impassable.

Such were the facilities for travel when the project of constructing railroads was agitated. The plan was opposed by many, not only in India, but in England. It was asserted that the natives never could be induced to enter a railway-car on account of their religion, which forbids an intermingling of castes. The Hindoos belonged to a sluggish, indolent race. Contact with Europeans for a century had not quickened the millions of India, and it was doubtful if they could be vitalized by any of the appliances of modern civilization. So incredulous were the public of obtaining any returns for their money, that with difficulty sufficient funds could be obtained for the opening of a short experimental line at Calcutta, and another at Bombay.

Contrary to expectation, it was soon discovered that

the natives were eager to avail themselves of this new mode of travel. The success of the experiment was unmistakable, and measures were taken to develop a grand system of railways, to afford more direct and speedy communication between the chief cities of the seaboard and the interior.

The work was undertaken by private companies. The government aided them, making over the land for a term of ninety-nine years, and also guaranteeing five per cent interest during the same period on the money spent in construction. All income was to be paid into the government treasury. After meeting the working expenses, the remainder was to be devoted to repaying the five-per-cent interest guaranteed for the current year. If then there should be a surplus, one half of it was to be divided between the stockholders and the government, — that for the government being for arrears of interest accumulated while the road was under construction. When all arrearages were paid, the companies were to receive ten per cent; but should the income exceed that rate, the authorities were to have power to lower the fares. The property is to revert to the government at the termination of ninety-nine years. Either company might surrender its franchise after three months' operation, and the government must take the road at its original cost.

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Under these conditions several companies were organized. Looking first at the lines radiating from Bombay, we see one running directly up the coast to the three important cities of Surat, Baroda, and Ahmedabad, which lie along the Gulf of Cambay. The line is completed to the last-named city, a distance of three hundred and twelve miles, and probably will be extended to Delhi, about eight hundred miles farther.

The Great Indian Peninsular Railway consists of a

trunk line and two branches. The trunk line is designed to connect Bombay with Allahabad, in the valley of the Ganges; one branch, Bombay with the city of Nagpore, in the heart of India; the other, Bombay with Madras, on the Coromandel coast. The main line, seven hundred and twenty miles in length, will be completed during the present year of 1869. The branch to Nagpore, a distance of five hundred and twenty miles, is already in use. It is not improbable that this branch may eventually be extended across the peninsula to Calcutta, and become a main line. Thirty-three miles out from Bombay is Calian junction, from which the Madras branch strikes southeast to Sholapore, a distance of two hundred and eightytwo miles. This company will have twelve hundred and sixty-six miles of railway when the several lines are finished.

Looking at the south of India, we see a line already constructed from Beypore on the Malabar or western coast to Madras on the eastern; also a line running northwest from Madras to connect with the road coming down from Bombay. The lines of Southern India are under the control of the Madras Railway Company, which will have eight hundred and twenty-five miles when completed. The distance then between Madras and Bombay by rail will be about nine hundred miles.

The accompanying map of the railway system thus far developed shows that Bombay bids fair to take position in the front rank of great commercial marts. Already the mails for Calcutta, and for every portion of India except the Madras Presidency, are landed here; and when the last rail of the line now in progress is laid, it will become the port of entry and departure for passengers from Europe to India. It will then be easier and quicker to reach Madras and Calcutta by rail than by the present circuitous route by way of Ceylon and the Bay of Bengal.

Going up to the mouth of the Indus by steamer from Bombay, we may land at Kurachee, and travel by rail one hundred and five miles to Hydrabad. We shall find the river at that point four miles wide, up which we may steam, during the rainy season, nearly a thousand miles to Moultan, where we take the Punjab Railway, running northeast to Lahore two hundred and fourteen miles, then turning south toward Delhi. It will soon be in operation to that city, three hundred and fifty miles, making a total of five hundred and sixty-six miles controlled by the Punjab company.

We may go from Delhi by rail down the valley of the Ganges in a southeast direction one thousand and seventeen miles to Calcutta. This line is controlled by the East Indian Company, which has a branch running southwest from Allahabad two hundred and forty-three miles to Jubbulpore, there to connect with the main line of the great Peninsular Railway coming up from Bombay. There are several branches in the Ganges Valley, which increase the total number of miles managed by this company to fifteen hundred. It is one of the great railway companies of the world, -as gigantic and powerful as the Pacific or any other of the important trunk lines of the American continent.

The railway system of India embraces about five thousand miles. A uniform gauge was adopted at the outset by the government, that of five feet six inches, a medium. between the broad and narrow gauges of England.

The construction of these railways has been beneficial not only to India, but to Great Britain, whence all the materials used in their construction have been transported, giving a great stimulus to British industry, and employing a vast amount of shipping. Between 1853 and 1867 more than three and a half million tons weight of railway material was shipped from English ports.