[CHAPTER XXII.]
FROM CEYLON TO INDIA.—A MARINE ENTERTAINMENT.—THE STORY OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
There are several ways of going from Ceylon to India. Doctor Bronson and the youths took them all into consideration before making their final decision, and settling upon their route of travel.
TEMPLE AND TREES AT TUTICORIN.
Once a week a steamer goes from Colombo to Tuticorin, which is at the southern end of the great peninsula of Hindostan. From Tuticorin there is a railway which connects with the whole railway system of India; few people are aware of the extent to which railway construction has been carried in the land of the Bramins, and it is not surprising that the boys listened with something akin to astonishment, as the Doctor leaned back in his chair and grew eloquent over what the builders of the iron road had accomplished in this part of Asia.
"At the time of the Mutiny, in 1857," said the Doctor, "there were barely 200 miles of completed railway in all India. From Calcutta northward the line was finished to Ranegunge, 120 miles; and there were about seventy miles in operation from Bombay toward Poonah. At present there are nearly if not quite 7000 miles of iron road in India, and every year sees a considerable addition to the grand total of miles. By zigzagging across the country somewhat, it is possible to travel from Tuticorin in the south to Lahore and Mooltan near the northern frontier. The railways are of great importance in a military point of view, and if they had existed in 1857 as they exist now, the Mutiny would have been next to impossible.
"Let me give you a general idea of the entire system as it now is, and for convenience we will start from Calcutta, the capital. The general direction of the line from Calcutta is north-westerly. Benares is 476 miles away, Allahabad nearly a hundred miles farther, and Cawnpore another hundred. Delhi is 955 miles from Calcutta, and when we step from the train at Sher-shah, on the banks of the Indus, eleven miles from Mooltan, we are 1510 miles from the capital city. From Sher-shah we can proceed by steamboat on the Indus to Kotree in Scinde, whence another railway will carry us to Kurrachee (Kur-rach-ee), near the entrance of the Persian Gulf. There are several branches intended as feeders to the main line, and also as military conveniences—notably, one from Benares to Lucknow, and another from Cawnpore to Lucknow. From Allahabad to Bombay there is a well-built line, and there is a line from Delhi and Agra through Central India which enables the traveller to reach Bombay by a different route from the one just mentioned.