ROMANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10271, 13 February 1894, Page 4

ROMANCE.

Those who are familiar with Washington Irving’s

Sketch Book, will also have become imbued with an appreciation of the magnificent scenery of the Kaatskill Mountains, a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family in New York State, away to the west of the river Hudson, "swelling up to a noble height and lording it over the surrounding country.” Hera it was, according to that most veracious chronicler, Dledrich Knickerbocker, that the delightful old vagabond Eip van Winkle found the happiest of happy huntiug grounds; here, that on a memorable occasion, he foregathered with the ghostly Hoindrich Hudson and his crew of the historic Half-moon, saw them in their old Dutch dresses playing at uinepms in a hollow of the mountain, tasted their potent beverage and—slept for twenty long years.

But “ the Kaataberg or Catakill mountain* have always been a region of fable ” says Mr' Knickerbocker, and he goea on to tell how an old Indian squaw spirit had her abode there. “ She dwelt on the highest peak, and had charge of the doors of day and night, to open and shut them at the proper time. She hung up the new moons in the skies and cut up the old ones into stars.”-,-l

And she had charge of the weather, and “if displeased would brew up cloud* black as ink, sitting in the midst of them like a bottle-bellied spider in the midst of its web.” Before the old squaw’s time there was a dreaded manitou or spirit that plagued the red men sadly, assuming various forms of animals, and leading the hunters into all sorts of dismal dangers. The manitou’a favourite lurking-place was the Garden Rock, to which, once upon a time, a hunter penetrated, and “beheld a number of gourds placed in the crotches of trees. One of these he seized and made off with, but in the hurry of his retreat he let it fall among the rocks, when a great stream gushed forth, which washed him away and swept him down precipices where he was dashed to pieces j and the stream made its way to the Hudson, and continues to flow to the present day, being the identical stream known by the name o the Kaaterskill.”

In reality, the scenery of the Catskills is as beautiful

REALITY.

as in romance, and the people of Green and Ulster Counties are keenly alive to the value of their mountain possessions as affording health and pleasure resorts for folk from the teeming city. The highest mountains, broad and rocky of summit, have an altitude of nearly four thousand feet; there are precipitous cliffs, deep ravines, waterfalls, and all the characteristics of scenery at once magnificent and picturesque. On a terrace of Pine Orchard mountain, 2400 feet above the Hudson, and commanding a grand view of the river, is the famous Mountain House summer resort for thousands of tourists. The development of the touristtraffic has induced provision for easy travelling; and now, instead of the sound of the bowling of Heindrich •Hudson and his quaintly-garbed men, the roar and rattle of a mountain railway awaken the echoes. The road that has been constructed is 7240 feet long, and in that distance it rises 1800 feet. The system devised is ingenious : a single-track cable road, whereon cars run up and down at the same time, this being accomplished by an automatic “ turnout M half-way up. Of course, at this “turnout,” or passing point, there are double lines. Huge reversible engines work the double line of steel wire cable; and there are elaborate contrivances to do away, as far as human ingenuity can devise; with the risk of danger. Should the cable snap, each car is fitted with a peculiar brake, which the parting of the cable would bring into instant action; and should the engineer neglect to stop the cars ah the journey’s and, “ there is provided in the roadway between the rails a tongue or lever, which is tripped by the car approaching the summit; this shuts the steam off from the engines and applies a .Westinghouse automatic air-brake located in the engine-room.”

There were many items of news, some time ago, about the rioting in Sicily, but the compiler of the cable mes-

THE BIOTINS IN SICILY,

sages did not think it worth his while to tell us what it was all about. Tnferentially something of the cause was to be learned, but that was not the fault of the compiler. The peasants were rising, were in arms, were burning the offices wherein sat the receivers o£ customs, and—were being shot down. Before this, it was to be inferred, they were being ground down. That is the other side of the story, and upon it the special correspondent in Borne of the London Daily News throws a flood of light. He says, without any if or but: “The municipalities have neglected their duties by squandering or plundering the public funds, and by working all the public services to the profit of the members of the municipality and their adherents. Public roads are constructed and. kept in good order where these men have personal interests. The Gardes Champetres look after only their properties, the public physician assists only them, the lawsuits are always decided in their favour, and, in a word, they have exclusively the benefit of the expenses sustained by the whole community. Added to this is the fact that in Sicily the octroi taxes (taxes, that is to say, on goods brought in) are enormous, while direct taxes are small. Sicily pays in octroi taxes treble what is paid in Lombardy or in the Venetian territory, which have about an equal population with the island. By this system the members of the municipality place the larger portion of taxation on the shoulders of the poorest of the population.” The rioting, therefore, was simply the inevitable.

“ The Swiss Federal Council has approved of the Simplon tunnel,” So says

THE SIMPLON TUNNEL.

a cable message, and it seems to mean that an end has come to a long series of engineering and diplomatic conferences, the last-mentioned group being the longer and more involved of the two. As to the engineering proposals, there was one sanguine man who proposed climbing instead of tunnelling, undeterred by the 6595 feet of rock and ice, or by blinding snowstorms and thundering avalanches. He found an equally sanguine banking firm apparently ready to finance the undertaking, but the Swiss Government seems never to have given it a moment’s serious consideration. Besides, the St Gothard tunnel was already an accomplished fact—a safe way through the mighty mountain chain for communication with Italy; and the desire was that at the more westward point a like passage should be secured. If this were done, through railway communication would ha onened up from Geneva, along the shores of the lake, on via Martigni and Brieg—the last at the base of the Simplon —then through the mountain and so to Italy’s existing terminus at Domo d’Ossolo, whence the northern lake system is within easy reach. The totft length of railway construction involved was only twelve and a half miles, but with something like half that distance to be tunnelled through rock, and with other heavy engineering work, an approximately estimated coat of two millions sterling did not surprise anybody. Switzerland and Italy held their first joint conference in 1889, and adjourned sine die. Then, a company of German capitalists lent their aid, and further conferences were held, Italy laying stress on the point that one mouth of the tunnel must be in Italian territory. Matters progressed so well that in October last it was announced from Berne that the contract for boring the tunnel had been signed; though, presumably, there had yet to be final ratification by the Federal Council. The conditions are that in five years nnd a half a single

lino of rails is to be available through the fivo-jcilo runnel, and that within the same period a gallery ia also to be constructed, •to be afterwards widened sufficiently for a second set of rails.

From the Simplon to the St Gothard is an easy and a natural transition, for just

BT GOTHARD.

Bow the St Gothard tunnel ia very much en evidence, and has been a source of no little anxiety to the Swiss Federal Council. The trouble, which has been described as one of the most remarkable lawsuits of modern times, is this: —The valleys adjacent to St Gothard are well populated, and the dwellers in these valleys are conjointly suing the Federal Government for damages arising from the great increase of avalanches since the beginning of the tunnel and railway operations, the two alleged causes being the frequent use of dynamite and the vibration of the trains in the lower tunnels. The lawyers will have rare pickings, no doubt, before all is done with, and, meanwhile, incidents of the tunnel construction and of the rock-rending dynamite are revived for the edification of the curious. "On one occasion, a number of cartridges exploded from some unknown cause, and blew a whole gang of men in the vicinity to fragments; nothing of them, save their feet, encased in their stout miners’ boots, was ever found. And Favre, the intrepid contractor, was a doomed man, though not by dynamite. Thera was a great strike amongst the workmen and consequent serious rioting, and the village of Ariolo was burned ntterly. These things preyed upon M. Favre, weakening him in body as well as in mind, and one sultry day ho staggered in the runnel and fell, all bub dead, stricken down by apoplexy. When an aperture was pierced through the last thin layer of rock, M. Favre’s portrait was handed through it before anyone attempted to pass.”