MY TRIP ACROSS PANAMA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1434, 22 June 1868, Page 4

MY TRIP ACROSS PANAMA.

The following is taken from Captain Bedford Pen's " Gate of the Pacific :"— Tho Fauama Railroad is 17 miles SO2O feet long, it runs on the right or easterly bank of the Ghagres, as far :is Barbacoas, where it cro3so3 the river l»y a bridge C 25 feet in length, 18 feet in breadth, and 40 feet above tho mean level of tho rirer. This bridge is of wrought iron, and is exactly midway between Aspinwall and Panama; en passant, it is singular that tho bridgo thrown across tho Nile between Alexandria and Cairo is also exactly half way, in other words both the great isthmus transits of the world are intersected at half their length by a large

river. Tho Barbacoas bridge is of 6 Bpans, built of boiler iron, with top and bottom chord, 2 feet in breadth and 1 inch in thickness, joined by a web of boiler iron, 9 feet in height at tho centre, and 7 at the ends. The rails are laid on iron floor girder 3 3 feot apart, and the whole structure is supported by 5 piers and two abutments, 26 feet wide, and 8 feet in thickness, increasing in the proportion of an inch to the foot down to their foundations, which are constructed of piles and concrete. The highest point of the line is 37J mileß from the Atlantic, and is 283 feet above the mean level of that ocean. The maximum grade on the Atlantic slope is 1 in 90, on the Pacific descent it is rather more, viz., 1 in 88. Of the road 23gmiles are level, and 2Sg- etraight, but there are some very abrupt curves. There are no leas than 134> culverts, drains, and bridges, of 10 feet and under, and os many as 170 bridges, from 12 feet span, to 625 feet Bpan. Tho line is only a single one, but there are four very commodious sidings, viz, one at Gatun, 7j miles from Aspinwall; one near Barbacoas, 22 mileß ; one at Matachin, 30 miles ; and one at the Summit, 37 miles. A substantial telegraph is established between Aspinwall and Panama. There are twenty-sis posts to the mile, constructed in the following manner : A scantling of four inches square of pitch pine, is encased in cement, mouldetf m a cylindrical form, tapering towards the top, and sunk four feet in the ground. They have the appearance of hewn stone, and are quite an ornament along the line. r Xhe total expenditure of the Panama Railway Co.' amounted to 7,407,653 dollar*, or rather more than £1,500,000 starling, which is very nearly £32,000 per mile, an expense, by the bye, below the average of our English lines which is £34,638 a mile. The passage money is £5 4s 2d, children under twelve years half-price, under 6 years quarter-price. There is only one class, sothat each passenger has to pay the same. The transit occupies about 4 hours, the distancG being 47J miles ; the fare, therefore, is 2s 2id per mile, the most expensive travelling in the world. M. Oliphant says of the scenery, "When once the deadly swamp is passed nothing can exceed the beauty of the vegetation through which the line passes. Palm trees of many varieties weave their broad leaves into thick screens to shut out the fun ; tufts of bamboo are interspersed with heavy trees, whose branches support gigantic, heavy orchids, aud whose stems are concealed amidst a mass of purple convolvulus, and divers brilliant parasites. To one j only accustomed to see a thickly populated and j highly cultivated country traversed by railmiys, and j familiar with tropical jungles only when they ar e •

pentrated by the devious little paths of the woodcutter or the hunter, this dash through tho virgin for.-flt at the tail of a locomotive is very imposing, and presents with unusual force to the mind the important change which steam is destined to effect on the face of nature."