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shores of North Wales and the Isle of Anglesea, is one of the most gigantic structures of modern times. It has been described as Ian iron tube hung across an arm of the sea." The iron tunnel is supported on three piers, two on the Carnarvon and Anglesea shores, and one on the rock in the centre of the Straits, with massive piers on each side. Nothing less than a sight of this bridge is sufficient to create an adequate idea of its height and dimensions. In the execution of this grand undertaking there were used 1,400,000 cubic feet of masonry, 10,000 tons of malleable iron for the tubes, and the total cost was £500,000. The total length of the bridge is 1000 yards, and the greatest height 240 feet above high water mark— more than two-thirds the height of St. Paul's Cathedral. In Mr. Williams's capital book, "Our Iron Roads," published in 1852, an illustration of the bridge is given, together with a very interesting detailed description; and here it may be remarked that Mr. Williams's work will well repay perusal. As a description of our railway system of a quarter of a century ago, it is most entertaining and complete.

Though a continental undertaking, reference should here be made to the Mont Cenis Tunnel, which forms a direct railway communication between France and Italy. Its length is eight miles all but eighty-five feet, and is another of the most extensive, costly, and difficult undertakings ever attempted in connection with railways. The total expense of this vast work amounted to 65,000,000 francs, or more than £2,500,000. It may be mentioned that arrangements are made for a daily

express to leave Rome for Paris, and vice versa, to pass through this tunnel, and a passenger is thus enabled to make the journey in about forty-eight hours. As the result of this arrangement, a journey from London to Florence can now be accomplished in forty-eight hours, and to Rome in fifty-eight hours.

Mr. Gladstone, speaking at the banquet of the Civil Engineers in May, 1872, said-and not without reason "You have already covered the civilized portion of the world, and you are rapidly piercing the uncivilized. The cataracts of the Nile are no longer secure. I believe the next step will be a railway across the desert of Africa. Underground as well as above, you will be compelled to employ yourselves, and when you have dealt sufficiently with the bowels of the earth, there will remain to you the regions of the air."

Well might the poet exclaim :

"No poetry in railways! foolish thought

Of a dull brain, to no fine music wrought,

By Mammon dazzled! Though the people prize
The gold untold, yet shall not we despite
The triumphs of our time, or fail to see,
Of pregnant mind, the fruitful progeny
Ushering the daylight of the world's new morn.
Look up, ye doubters, be no more forlorn!
Smooth your rough brows, ye little wise! rejoice,
Ye who despond! and with exulting voice
Salute, ye earnest spirits of our time,

The young Improvement ripening to her prime,
Who, in the fulness of her genial youth,
Prepares the way for Freedom and for Truth;
And break the barriers that, since earth began,
Have made mankind a foreigner to man.

Lay down your rails, ye nations, near and far;
Yoke your full trains to Steam's triumphal car;
Link town to town; and in these iron bands
Unite the strange and oft-embattled lands.
Peace and Improvement round each train shall soar,
And Knowledge light the Ignorance of yore;
Men joined in amity shall wonder long
That Hate had power to lead their fathers wrong;
Or that false glory lured their hearts astray,

And made it virtuous and sublime to slay."

MACKAY.

CHAPTER IV.

NOTED MEN.

AMONG the men whose names will ever be associated with the history of our railways, those of George Stephenson, Robert Stephenson, and George Hudson will not be the least prominent. There are many others who are justly entitled to honourable mention, such as Mr. Gray, to whom reference has already been made; the services of Pease, Brunel, Rastrick, Hackworth, Barlow, Brassey, Sir Morton Peto, and others, will be familiar to readers.

While it is not necessary to fully reiterate here what has been so frequently told elsewhere of the lives of our great engineers, it would seem that a popular account of our iron highways, however brief, would not be complete without some mention of these pioneers of the railway system. The biography of such men may be read again and again with interest and profit.

The name of George Stephenson naturally takes the first position; and although the tale of his remarkable life-principally through the medium of

Mr. Smiles's charming biography of the great engineer-must ere now have become almost as "household words," it will not be out of place, perhaps, to note some of the most important facts in connection with Stephenson's career. He was born at the village of Wylam, eight miles west of Newcastle, on the 9th of June, 1781. His father was employed as fireman of the pumping engine at the Wylam colliery, and was in receipt of twelve shillings a week wages. At the age of eight, without having had any schooling, he began the work of life by herding cattle, his wages being twopence a day. He was afterwards engaged at the colliery at sixpence per day; he was then so young that he often hid himself when the overlooker passed, for fear he might be considered too little to earn his wages. When in his teens, he worked as a fireman at the Mid Mill, Winnin, near Newcastle, where he remained two years, his wages being one shilling a day. When the pit at Mid Mill was closed, George was sent to work a pumping-engine near Throckmorton. While here his wages were raised to twelve shillings per week, when he said he was a man for life; although at this time he was in his eighteenth year, and, it is said, could neither read nor write.

From the time George was appointed fireman he applied himself so assiduously and successfully to the study of the engine-taking the machine to pieces whenever he had an opportunity, for the purpose of understanding its various parts-that he soon acquired a practical knowledge of its construction, and