MATERIAL FOR EGYPTIAN RAILROADS.

A report of the Austro-Hungarian Chamber of Commerce of Alexandria gives the following interesting statistics:

The total value of material ordered for the Egyptian State railroads in the year 1902 amounted to £760,105 Egyptian ($3.757,239). The following countries participated in this trade to the amounts given:

Of the foregoing, England furnished coal (£120,000 Egyptian, or $593,160), rails, ties, and rolling stock; the latter was also bought from Belgium. Turkey, Sweden, Austria, and India furnished mainly wooden material. Hungary furnished trucks, which are said to be better made than those from the United States, where they were formerly purchased. France supplied oil, varnish, and copper tubes. Italy supplied stones. Germany received orders for locomotives, wheels, steel for bridges, telegraph wire, and insulators. Austria also furnished locomotives. About locomotives, the railroad management remarks:

LOCOMOTIVES.

During the last year 25 locomotives for passenger trains were ordered-15 from a firm in Cassel, Germany, and 10 from the State Railway Company at Vienna. All these locomotives are of the system "Trevithick," but the German firm was allowed to make slight changes.

The American locomotives require very large quantities of coal, although their shape is very good.

CARS.

The American cars are less durable, excepting those which were furnished for the narrow-gauge line Luxor-Assuan, which meet all requirements.

The Hungarian freight cars give satisfaction in every way. The Hungarian passenger coaches can also be favorably mentioned, although they have a few faults which are annoying to the public and the railway employees.

FRANKFORT, June 30, 1903.

RICHARD GUENTHER,

Consul-General.

TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY SCHEDULES.

According to the new schedule and tariff of the great TransSiberian Railway, which has just been issued, express trains which have been leaving Moscow heretofore three times a week will now be dispatched four times a week-that is, Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and will arrive at Moscow on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The trip from Moscow to Dalny can be made in thirteen days by fast and in seventeen days by slow trains. Direct communication exists at present from Moscow to Irkutsk and then to Lake Baikal; after crossing the lake, to Missova, via Harbin, direct to Dalny. The distance from Moscow to Manchuria station is 6,295 versts (4,197 miles); to Harbin, 7,171 versts (4,780 miles); to Dalny, 8,053 versts (5,368 miles); and to Port Arthur, 8,082 versts (5,388 miles).

Express trains only run from Moscow to Irkutsk; thence to Manchuria station, post and passenger trains; and from Manchuria station to Dalny, express and post trains.

The new rates for traveling on Government trains, including sleepers, are as follows:

In the above rates the crossing of Lake Baikal on the steamer Angara is included.

The charges for special trains, which can be procured from Moscow, Warsaw, and Wirballen to the Far East, are 2 rubles ($1.03) for each verst (0.663 mile) on the Russian railroads and 50 per cent more on the Chinese railroads. These special trains will consist of

three passenger cars and one baggage car.

Moscow, June 17, 1903.

SAMUEL SMITH,

Consul.

ORDER IN RAILWAY STATIONS.

On the 18th of this month the department of railways of Baden issued an order restricting the free passage of the public through the depots and upon the platforms where the trains enter and depart.

Heretofore there were no restrictions in the Grand Duchy of Baden regarding access to trains, but in order to prevent accidents and the congregating of the public where the officials might be interfered with in the discharge of their duties the new order was issued. In the future all persons will be obliged before passing through the gates to show either a railroad ticket or a ticket giving them the privilege of the platforms. These "privilege" tickets cost about 21⁄2 cents and may be procured by dropping a 10-pfennig piece into an automatic machine. As the enforcement of the new order on all the lines at once would involve considerable expense and necessitate changes at many of the stations, it will be enforced gradually.

During the month of May, 1903, the railway receipts in the Grand Duchy of Baden showed an increase of $86, 182 over the receipts for May, 1902. The total receipts for May, 1903, were $1,646,441. The total receipts for the first six months of 1903 were almost $7,140,000— an increase of $357,000 over a like period in 1902.

KEHL, June 24, 1903.

JOSEPH I. BRITTAIN,

Consul.

ELECTRIC POWER AND TRANSMISSION IN INDIA.

There has recently been carried out in the native state of Mysore, southern India, the largest transmission of power by means of electricity that has yet been attempted in the East.

The site of the generating station is at a fork of the Cauvery River, the falls from which the power is derived-and which are known as the Buna Chukki and the Gangan Chukki-being located in

the east and west branches of the river, respectively, about half a mile from the north, or down-stream end, of the island of Sirasamndrum. The Cauvery, which is one of the principal rivers of southern India, rises in the Coorg Hills of the western Ghauts, near the Malabar coast, 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. It flows in a circuitous southeasterly course across the peninsula and falls into the Bay of Bengal, on the Coromandel coast. In the vicinity of Trichinopoly it separates into several branches (the principal of which is the Coleroon River, 92 miles long), which enter the sea by numerous mouths in the province of Tanjore.

The whole course of the Cauvery is about 475 miles and is navigable only for small boats. The crafts in use are circular baskets,

9 to 14 feet in diameter, covered with buffalo leather.

The native brings produce in them down the river, but is unable to navigate them in returning on account of the swiftness of the stream. He therefore takes them to pieces and carries the leather back on his head.

The Cauvery, in its course of 160 miles through Mysore territory, receives six large tributaries, draining an area estimated at about 6,400 square miles before it reaches the gorge in which the falls are situated.

For 20 miles above the island of Sirasamndrum the river forms the boundary between the native state of Mysore and the presidency of Madras, the two branches formed by the island uniting about 11⁄2 miles below the falls, and after a course of some 20 miles enter the British territory of the Madras presidency.

The question of utilizing the power afforded by these falls had been discussed from time to time prior to 1890, but as there was no apparent local market for it and no prospect of the establishment of manufacturing industries in the district were cheap power made available, the matter got little beyond the state of conjecture.

In 1894-95, however, the Mysore government established temporary gauging dams in the river at Sirasamndrum, with the object of determining the amount of power available under minimum conditions-i. e., during the dry seasons; and while these tests were not, perhaps, as regards accuracy, as satisfactory as might have been desired, they were at the same time sufficiently convincing to justify the belief that a steady supply of power on a fairly large scale could be counted upon.

The progress which has been made in the United States in electrical transmission of power over long distances, and the utilization of such power for mining and other purposes, had been watched closely by the engineers connected with the Mysore government.