The principal incident of the fortnight has been a terrible railway accident on the line from Madras to Bombay, which is described as one of the most. appalling and disastrous yet known in the railway history of this country. As the train conveying the Europe mails and ers, which had left Madras on the ne ing before, was crossing a small bridge only 144 fect long shortly before daylight' the whole structure gave way and the engine with all the carriages except one third-class carriage and the brake-van were hurled into the swollen river. It is not yet known how many have lost their lives, and all the letters from that side having been interrupted, we have only Fery ticagre information, Up te the 19th no less than 35 dead bodies had been recovered from the debris, including those. of eight Euroepans which had been washed down the river. More are known to: be buried beneath the wreckage but the number as yet has not been ascertained. Some 26 persons have been miraculously saved, among them the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Veerapoly, the ce-adjutor Bishop of Quilon and his two secretaries, Capt. Foster of the Warwickshires, Lieut. Adderley, R.A.M.C., Lieut. Greenwood, R.AM.C, and three soldiers. Several personal accounts of most marvellous escapes have been published, and the whole scene taking place in the middle of a ter. rifle storm, in pitch darkness (3.30 a.m.), must have been a terrible one. One of the victims seems to have been a jeweller's assistant with nearly two lakhs of rupees' worth of jewels for the Delhi Art Exhibition. 'The valley where this accident oe. curred is one which receives the greater part of the drainage from the Mysore table land, which finds a vent through only three' passes in the hills and flows into the River Pennair situated on the other, north side of the railway. These streams, dry for the greater part of the ear, are liable to receive sudden rushes of water in the rainy season, and are al-says sources of anxiety to the railway authorities, since the whole of the flood water must pass under the railway in order to join the Pennair. Thirty-two years ago a very similar accident happened on one of these rivers, which was in heavy flood. On that occasion only th engine and two front carriages were precipitated into the river, and three passengers, the Rev. Mr. Seymour and his wife, together with a young native lawyer, and five railway employes, were killed. On the present occasion the loss of life has been nich heavier, and the absence of definite information makes our anxiety all the greater.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.