[96] The whole of the sea service of the Indian, China, Japan, and Australian Postal Communications of Great Britain is, with the exception of that between Dover and Calais, performed by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. This company is the largest Ocean Steam Company in the world. It has a fleet of 53 steamers, with an aggregate tonnage of 86,411, and 19,230 horse-power; its largest ship is of 2,800 tons; its next largest is of 2,600 tons, five are between 2,000 and 2,500 tons, and eighteen are between 1,500 and 2,000 tons each. Its routes extend from Southampton and from Marseilles to Alexandria, from Suez to Bombay, from Suez to Point de Galle and Calcutta, from Bombay to Calcutta, from Point de Galle to Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Yokohama, Japan, and from Point de Galle to Melbourne and Sydney. The total number of knots performed by the postal vessels of the company in 1866 was 1,194,952.
The total contract land mileage of our Eastern mails is at the present time as follows:—
| Route. | Length, Miles. | No. of Journeys. | Total. |
| London and Dover | 88 | 96 | 8,448 |
| Calais and Marseilles | 740 | 96 | 70,080 |
| Alexandria and Suez | 250 | 192 | 48,000 |
| London and Southampton | 78 | 96 | 7,488 |
| ———— | |||
| 133,916 | |||
It should be explained that the “heavy mails” which are conveyed between Southampton and Alexandria are taken across the Isthmus of Suez by separate trains from those which convey the light mails viâ Marseilles; hence there are 96 trips of Eastern mails per annum across the Isthmus for the Marseilles mails, and 96 for those viâ Southampton. Thus the total annual length of this great postal service is—
| Water | 1,374,194 | English | miles. |
| Land | 133,916 | ” | ” |
| ———— | |||
| 1,508,110 | ” | ” |
or 4,132 miles per diem, 173 per horam, nearly 3 per minutam.
[97] In summer the journey from London to Constantinople, viâ Paris, Strasburg, Vienna, and Basiach by railway, and thence by steam on the Danube and Black Sea, can be accomplished in seven days.
[98] Almost immediately after the above extract was made from Mr. Juland Danver’s report we read the following portion of a telegram, dated Calcutta, October the 9th: “Unprecedented floods have inundated the districts of the Ganges. Numerous villages have been swept away, and the Eastern Bengal Railway has suffered severe damage.”
[99] When the railway to Peshawer is made, it will have to cross the Indus either by a bridge, or to go under it by a tunnel at Attock, a thousand feet above sea-level, and 942 miles from the river’s mouth. For many miles above this great fortress the river flows in a wide divided stream at no great velocity; but as it approaches Attock, it becomes contracted and united, the velocity increases, and during the wet season it flows past the fortress at the rate of fully thirteen miles an hour. Numerous schemes have been tried for bridging the Indus at this point, but none have been successful, owing to the enormous difference of the water level at different periods of the year. It was therefore proposed, in 1859, to carry a tunnel under the river, and some progress was made with the work. Further reference to this subject will be found at a subsequent page.
[100] Colonel Glover, late Director-General of Indian Telegraphs, in his recent memorandum, pointing out the difficulty of maintaining telegraphic communication in India, says—“In many parts of the country the wires are laid through forests, jungle, and desert, where means of transit do not exist; where there are literally no roads; where unbridged rivers of first magnitude cross the route, rendering inspection difficult, and at times impracticable; where the population, whether dense or sparse, only affords labourers unskilled, and as such, of use only for the amount of brute force they are capable of exerting, adding considerably to the cost and difficulty of construction and repairs. In many parts the climate at certain seasons of the year is of a character so deadly that inspection is carried on by European officers at the risk of life; while native subordinates simply refuse to face it. In some places the rainfall and natural humidity are of a magnitude almost unknown elsewhere, and the case of Arracan may be instanced, where 240 inches of rain fall annually, of which 224 inches fall during the months of June, July, and August. On the western coast the climate is very similar, and Assam can scarcely be considered more favourable. Storms and hurricanes are of regular and not exceptional occurrence, and during the last monsoon they occurred with unusual violence, destroying the telegraphic wires for miles, as well as the embankments of the railways in Scinde, Goozerat, and Bengal. These and other influences peculiar to the country involve an unexceptionally heavy expenditure in repairs and renewals, and necessitate the retention of a large conservancy establishment.”