r 91, 1M5.I
��255
��r-, eameil Engluid to set nbout the undertaking; ■ork on IhB road has bogiin. The gauge, after e dlscosaioQ of the relative merits of three feet, « feet six inches, and other widths, has been Bxed ■*■ ^«ur feet eight inches and a half, probablj with a •^s '^r to permanency. It will be necessary to use Iron ■■S»*-i.pers, as the ants destroy wood rapidly.
' A'he ([uestion of a water-supply on thi? route Is h ■^»-y imporlnnt oue. Col. H. G. Prout, au American '**JBiiieer, formerly in [lie employ of (he khediveundi-r " **"ii. Stone as chief of Ihe geographical anil topo- ■*~*kphical seeljoii iti the geuer^! stall bureau at Cairo,
��describes. From his communication the following poiats are condensed: —
Two miles inland from Snakin are wells whlcb yield the only water tor the town. For fifteen miles the route lies over a plain of gravel and small bowl- ders, and rises about eight hundred and tifty feet above the sea In that distance A number of shallow beds of water-courses cross this plain, dry except for short and infrequent periods, as there is ofleu no rain for two or threeyears. There is no vegetation, except some small acacias six to twelve feet high. In this distance wells are found at two places, each aufBcient
���rribiites to the Engiiieerins neica of Sliireh 7. INii, ut account of a reconnolssance of the Suakln-Berber route mnde by him In April, 1875, and gives a map mnd profile of the route, the essential features of which are reproduced here. This profile is slated to be the Drat one published outside of Egypt; and the lianctteitter ^irrdian speaks of hi; report as giving tbe best Information possessed in regard to the line. The survey was made with care; the longitudes of the termini were taken from the best maps, and checked by chronometer; the latitudes were determined by hi* own observations; the line of the route was kept by piismatic compass- bearings and by marching- time; observations for altitude were made with two aneroid barometers, and carefully reduced. As the survey wa<< made in April, and as there had then
- io riln for two years, the English will now find
the tame condition of things as that which he
��for from three hundred to five hundred men and their animals. Then the line enters the mountains, otid posses for five miles tbrough n valley varying in width from one or two miles to the bowlder-bed of a mounlun torrent. Here at Sinkat, a thousand feet above the sea, are the wells of Hambuk, — water- holes three feet deep, filling slowly, and kept drained by two hundred men and their horses, and three hun- dred camels. Thirty-two miles from ^iuakin Is the divide between the valleys of Sinkat and O-Mareg, sixteen hundred feet above the sea, and presenting the first difficulty in building a railroad, as for some miles Ibe pass is narrow and crooked, and the grades steep. Masonry to protect the road-bed from the tor- rent will be required, and rock-cutting may be neces- sary. The defile is a. very bad one to pass In the face of an eneTny- Thence the route lies through small vallevs, with a growth of low trees and shrubs for
�� �
