A. correspondent sends us some notes on a recent night journey by the Shapghai-Nanking Railway, which may be of general interest. He was particularly struck by the new sleeping cars, in which the beds are placed at right angles, the lower one across the width of the compartment, the upper one lenge th wise above the window, with a neat folding. hanging ladder by which to climb up: There is an extra charge of one dollar and five copper cents (why these odd coppers one does not quite understand) for the lower berth, but the upper one is perfectly comfortable; and there is a generous provision of hooks and space for luggage. For each two compartments there is, between them, a very nice lavatory, and in the morning each passenger is provided with a clean towel enclosed in a paper bag. Everything is beautifully neat and clean, though the pillows are rather stony. The permanent way, however seems to need overhauling. At regular intervals there comes a ""bump-bump," at some places rather severe, and always a trial to those who find sleeping in a train difficult. Our correspondent says he is no expert, but suggests loose fish-plates. The trains run. punctually, but obviously it should be possible to do the journey more quickly. The trouble is evidently that owing to numbers of passengers trains must be much longer than the available engines were built to haul. The S. N. R.
be doing fine business now and it is much to be wished that additional rolling-stock and more powerful engines could be had, to increase its capacities.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.