The Semmering Road

Ihe most remarkable feature of the remainder of the route to Vienna is the railroad passage across the portion of the Alps calledtheSemmering. This is the first road that crossed the Alps. It was flnished in 1854. At one of the stations is a statue of the engineerwho superintended the work. They do such thing3 in Europe. lam not aware that there are anystatutes of engineers along the line of the Central or Southern Pacific railroads. But whether regarded from the standpoint of scenery or that of great natural obstacles overeóme by engineering genius, the portion of the route between Murzusehlag and Gloggnita is one of the most remarkable in Europe or in the world. Something like it might be seen if a railroad were made to skirt Yosemite valley half way up its sides, sometimos passing through the projocting capes of rock, sometimes around them, and from time to time crossing the indented valleyson arched causways resembling old Roman aqueducts. Little more than this can be said of it in the way of description. The passage is more interesting going north, for you see the finest portions of the line in descending. The speed is greater. The train flies over the viaducts, whizzes around sharp curves, rushes into a little narrow valley at the end and flies out again, plunges into a short tunnel through a spurof rock not so long that one end is not out of it before the other has entered, while far below are unsounded depthss. with silverstreams and little mountain villages, and far above tower heights that the eagle only can scale. There are in the distanco of a few miles som e sixteen tunnels and fifteen causeways, some of the latter supported by several tiera of arches. The tunnels vary from a few yards to nearlv a mile in