wood filling. These cradles carry the ships down the too often imperfectly bedded inclined launching-ways at a speed of some twelve miles an hour. As the vessel is leaving the launching-ways her stern is waterborne whilst the bow is pressing hard on the shore, but yet it is the rarest thing for any mishap to occur to a vessel even under this singularly rough treatment. The best way of blocking a ship on a railway cradle will be quickly determined after a few weeks' experience, but at Chignecto the method adopted in the first instance will certainly be the well-tried one of timber keel and bilge blocks.

Nothing calls for special notice as regards the line of railway. It is, as before stated, a double line of ordinary gauge, but the space between the two lines is five feet wider than usual. Very strong steel rails, weighing 110 lbs. per yard, and exceptionally large sleepers, spaced very closely together, give the required support on the ballast to the heavily laden ship cradle. Near the Amherst end a long and deep moss or bog had to be crossed, and, as the floating system adopted by Stephenson for the original Manchester and Liverpool Railway across Chat Moss would obviously be inappropriate for the heavy loads of a ship railway, there was no alternative but to form a solid rock embankment across the bog, and this has now been successfully completed. On other parts of the line there is a heavy rock cutting and a river bridge, but beyond these matters there are no works of importance on the line.

The state of the works of the Chignecto Marine Transport Railway at the present time is as follows: The hydraulic lifts and machinery as previously described, together with the hydraulic traversers for shunting laterally sections of the cradle, with small coasting vessels on them, off the main line on to sidings, have been almost completed and shipped by the manufacturers, Messrs. Easton & Anderson; the cradles are well advanced at the works of Messrs. Handysides; the earthworks of the line and docks remaining to be done are only about one-eighth of the total quantity, and the whole of the permanent way has long since been on the ground. It will be seen, therefore, that, as little remains to be done but the completion of the masonry and the erection of the machinery, there is good. reason to hope that the much-debated question of ship railways versus ship canals will soon receive a practical answer by the opening of the Nova Scotia undertaking.

It has been said that the completion of the Chignecto Ship Railway is being awaited with much interest in many parts of the world where the requirements for such works exist. The derelict canal at Panama is a standing warning of the almost insurmountable difficulties which may attend the construction of a level waterway from ocean to ocean, and of the vast difficulties which still remain, even after the principle of climbing over a summit by an ascending and descending ladder of locks has been conceded. The writer last

year was called upon to examine, in conjunction with M. Eiffel, the progress plans of the Panama Canal, and to report on the feasibility of adapting the partially executed works to the construction of a ship railway; but, as might be anticipated, the conditions were not found favourable. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, north of Panama, is better suited for a ship railway, and the late Mr. Eads-the distinguished engineer of the Mississippi River Jetties-obtained a concession from the Mexican Government for the construction of such a work across the isthmus. This project is still alive, and only waiting the experience of the Chignecto railway to be actively prosecuted. The president of the company was the late Mr. Windom, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States Government, and it is clear, therefore, that serious business men in America, and not mere adventurers, regard a railway to carry ships of 5,000 tons overland between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as a desirable and practicable undertaking. Mr. Eads, with his usual energy and caution, obtained the opinions of leading shipbuilders, engineers, and other authorities throughout the world as to the practicability of the work before embarking in its prosecution. Thus, Sir E. J. Reed, K.C.B., the late Chief Constructor of the Navy, said: 'I have no words but those of encouragement for a ship railway, regarded from my point of view as a shipbuilder, accustomed for a lifetime to the designing, building, repairing, and docking of both wood and iron ships.' And, again, the late Mr. Pearce, the builder of the Etruria, and of so many other celebrated vessels, said: "I am of opinion, from what I know of the working of floating docks that I have designed and built, that iron steamers of 4,000 to 5,000 tons displacement may be docked, loaded, without any injury whatever, and that a ship railway for vessels of this size may be constructed and worked successfully, provided the land is solid and the line moderately level.' Equally favourable opinions were elicited from many other authorities of no less weight than the two cited, and Mr. Eads, therefore, although he died before the accomplishment of his project, must be regarded as having rendered eminent service to the cause of ship railways by thus ventilating the subject.

Space will not admit of a reference to the various projects for ship railways now under discussion, but it may be mentioned that last year the Secretary of War, U.S.A., transmitted to the House of Representatives an official report with detailed plans for a ship railway, to overcome obstructions to navigation in the Columbia river, Oregon, which report was the result of a year's investigation into the relative merits of a ship canal and a ship railway, by a board of Government engineers, who visited most of the hydraulic docks and ship inclines in Europe, for the purposes of the inquiry. In forwarding the report to the Secretary of War, General Casey, the chief of engineers U. S. army, remarked that the ship railway

as recommended by the board was, in his judgment, 'feasible, and the best solution of the problem presented.'

In concluding these memoranda on ship railways past, present, and future, the writer desires to state that, although during the past two years he has given much personal consideration to the engineering details of the Chignecto Ship Railway-by far the largest work of the kind hitherto undertaken-he was not even aware of the existence of the project until the arduous task of satisfying his fellow-Canadians of the feasibility and utility of the work and of obtaining the financial assistance of the Dominion Government had been successfully accomplished by his colleague, Mr. H. G. Ketchum, with the powerful aid of Sir Charles Tupper, K.C.M.G., K.C.B.

B. BAKER.