DICKENS, in a late number of his "Household Words," thus describes the railway wonders of the United Kingdom for the year 1850. The fancies of Boz will not impair the force or accuracy of the facts and figures, which he has borrowed from official and other reliable sources.

From the unimpeachable record of scarcely credible statistics, it appears that at

the end of 1849 there were, in Great Britain and Ireland, five thousand five hundred and ninety-six miles of railway in active operation; upwards of four thousand five hundred and fifty-six are in England, eight hundred and forty-six in Scotland, and four hundred and ninety-four in Ireland. Besides this, the number of miles which have been authorized by Parliament, and still remain to be finished, is six thousand and thirty; so that, if all the lines were completed, the three kingdoms would be intersected by a network of railroad measuring twelve thousand miles: but of this there is only a remote probability, the number of miles in course of active construction being no more than one thousand five hundred, so that by the end of the present year it is calculated that the length of finished and operative railway may be about seven thousand four hundred miles, or as many as lie between Great Britain and the Cape of Good Hope, with a thousand miles to spare. The number of persons employed on the 30th of June, 1849, in the operative railways was fifty-four thousand; on the unopened lines, one hundred and four thousand.

When the schemer of the infancy of the giant railway system turns to the passenger account for the year 1849, he declares he is fairly "knocked over." He finds that the railway passengers are put down at sixty-three million eight hundred thousand; nearly three times the number returned for 1843, and a hundred times as many as took to the road in the days of stage coaches. The passengers of 1849 actually double the sum of the entire population of the three kingdoms.

The statement of capital which the six thousand miles now being hourly traveled over represents, will require the reader to draw a long breath; it is one hundred and ninety-seven-and-a-half millions of pounds sterling. Add to this the cash being disbursed for the lines in progress, the total rises to two hundred and twenty millions! The average cost of each mile of railway, including engines, carriages, stations, &c., technically called "plant," is thirty-three thousand pounds.

Has this outlay proved remunerative? The commissioners tell us that the gross receipts from all the railways in 1849 amounted to eleven millions eight hundred and six thousand pounds; from which, if the working expenses be deducted at the rate of forty-three per cent, (being about an average taken from the published statements of a number of the principal companies), there remains a net available profit of about six millions seven hundred and twenty-nine thousand four hundred and twenty pounds, to remunerate the holders of property to the amount of one hundred and ninety-seven millions and a half; or at the rate, within a fraction, of three-and-a-half per cent. Here our parent of railway prospectuses chuckles. He promised twenty per cent per annum.

In short, in everything except the dividends, our scheming friend finds that recent fact has outstripped his early fictions. He told the nervous old ladies and shaky “halfpays" on his projected line, that railways were quite as safe as stage-coaches. What say the grave records of 1849? The lives of five passengers were lost during that year, and those by one accident-a cause, of course, beyond the control of the victims; eighteen more casualties took place, for which the sufferers had themselves alone to blame. Five lives lost by official mismanagement, out of sixty-four millions of risks, is no very outrageous proportion; especially when we reflect, that taking as a basis the calculations of 1843, the number of miles traveled over per rail during last year, may be set down at eight hundred and forty-five millions; or nine times the distance between the earth and the sun! Such are the railway wonders of the year 1849.

THE RAILWAYS OF RUSSIA.

A French journal publishes from the Augsburg Gazette, an interesting account of the progress which has been made within the last few years in the prosecution of railways in Russia. From this article we gather the following facts:

The first railway in Russia was that leading from St. Petersburg to Tsarskozela and Paulowski, two imperial residences, a distance of 17 miles. This road was opened in 1836, by a company consisting in part of British capitalists; and the shares which cost 40 or 50 dollars, are now worth 60 to 70. This was soon followed by the great enterprise undertaken by the Emperor, in which he took a deep interest, of a first class railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow, 607 versts in length, or just about 400 English miles. In the prosecution of the work it is well known by the friends of the late Major Whistler, who was one of the efficient engineers of the Western Railroad in Massachusetts, that he was invited thither through the agency of Mr. Bodisco, the Rus.

sian Minister, and was employed in a very responsible situation in the conduct of the work, until his death, which took place a short time before it was finished. Under the agency of Mr. Whistler, a large number of American mechanics were invited to Russia, and employed in the construction of locomotives and machinery.

This work was constructed under the direction of the Minister of Public Works, Count Kleir Michel, aided by Major Whistler, and was opened on the 1st of November, 1851. It is found to be of immense benefit to the Commerce of the country, and the business upon it is daily increasing. The passage is made from the one capital to the other in 22 hours, which previously occupied four days in diligent traveling day and night.

The Augsburg paper goes on to relate this line had been hardly finished, when the emperor ordered the construction of another gigantic road between St. Petersburg and Warsaw. The track has been laid out, and thousands of laborers are now engaged in grading it.

This road will be 1,010 versts, or 668 miles long. It will pass by the cities of Louga, Pskoff, Dunabourg, Wilna, Grodno, Vileka, Duna, Viala, Niemen, and Narev. Gen. Gertsfelt, of the corps of engineers, directs the works of this road.

While this great railway is in prosecution, a company has been formed at Riga for building a branch which is to unite the seaport with the city of Danabourg, and thus connect Riga with the two Capitals of Russia and Poland. This branch, the track of which was laid out by the engineer Gonzenback, will be about 138 miles in length. It will keep along the right bank of the Duna, and will pass near the cities of Johobstadt and Freidricstadt. The capital is fixed at nine millions of rubles, and it is hoped that the government will grant a guaranty of interest at 4 per cent.

Another line, which is not yet begun, is to unite Dunabourg by Smolenski, with Moscow, and establish a direct communication between this ancient Russian capital and Warsaw, by the route which was pursued by the advance and retreat of the French army in 1812.

In the south of the empire, the government is about, it is said, to authorize a company, by granting a guaranty of 4 per cent, to undertake the construction of a railroad between Kharoff and Odessa. This road will cross Dnieper at Kreineetchong, above the rapids, which obstructed the navigation of the river. This road will benefit the Commerce in grain in the same manner as the line from Dunabourg to Riga is destined to help forward that of timber.

Finally, in the kingdom of Poland, where for some years the line from Warsaw to Mysolvitz, in Prussian Silesia, has been in full activity, two other lines are thought of: one from Warsaw to Bromberg, the other from the same capital to Posen; but the arrangements necessary to be made with the Prussian government for this purpose have not reached a satisfactory result. The line from Warsaw to Mysolvitz, a little more than 200 miles in length, puts the capital of Poland in communication by railway with Vienna and Berlin, and consequently with Paris. When the line which is to join Warsaw to St. Petersburg is open for travel, which it is expected will be in about three years, the immense distance which separates France and Russia may be traveled over in four or five days.

EFFECTS OF RAILROADS ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.

The town of Fayetteville, N. C., situate in a great agricultural region, has for years had to depend for its supply of hay on the New York and other northern markets. Recently the Western plank road, connecting with that city, has been finished, and a short time since they received over 10,000 pounds of hay, (of a better quality than they have been getting from the North,) brought in from Forsyth county, N. C., at $1 25 per 100 pounds. The Fayetteville Observer says:—

We learn that such hay has been abundant in that county at 30 cents per 100 pounds, but that since the article has been brought here at a profit, it has risen to 50

cents.

The meadow from which this hay came, has yielded at the first cutting this year about 2,500 pounds per acre-of herds grass, clover, &c. At the second cutting it will yield fully as much more of blue grass. Five thousand pounds, worth formerly at 30 cents, $15 per acre; worth now, at 50 cents, $25 per acre. This shows a clear gain to the farmer of $10 per annum per acre, or interest equal to an increase in the value of his land of $166 66 per acre.

THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.

The following is a statement of the comparative receips of this work for the month of August this year and last, and for eight months of this year and last:

THE MANUFACTURE OF OTTO OF ROSES.

WHERE IT IS PRODUCED, THE QUANTITY MADE, ITS VALUE AND USE. The time has been when Tunis used to furnish the finest Otto of Roses known in Europe; at present not an ounce is exported from there. Mecca, Aleppo and Damascus have been said to yield it in abundance; but now all these places, including Tunis, are supplied from the market of Constantinople. Ghazipore in India, on the Ganges, and not in

"The vale of Cashmere

With its roses the brightest the world e'er gave,"

still prepares a rich and extremely dear oil, but it is never exported thence to England. It is almost entirely consumed among the people there on festival occasions. Its price also is enormous, said to be one hundred dollars an ounce.

The center of production in Turkey in Europe for the Oil of Roses which is exported, is in a small district called Aasanlik in Bulgaria. Hasanlik is a shire-town about 200 miles north west of Constantinople, and gives its name to a district of thirty-six villages, which is devoted mainly to the cultivation of the rose. Though the villages are all situated on a plain on elevated ground, yet, as the plain is protected by high mountains, the climate of the region is very moderate. The inhabitants are all of the Bulgarian Sclavonic race, in part Mussulmans and in part Christians. The rose which they cultivate for the sake of the leaves is the Red Centifolia,

"The floweret of a hundred leaves,"

and is planted in the open fields with the same profusion as corn or potatoes with us. The roses are in full bloom by the month of May, and before the second week in June the harvest of the leaves has been completed, and nothing is done in collecting them at any other time. During the season of flowering, the whole country for miles beyond the district is redolent with odor of roses. The digging and pruning of the bushes, collecting the leaves, the process of distillation, and the manufacture of vessels to hold the oil, occupy the people nearly the whole of their time.

In distilling the oil, the usual process for extracting volatile or essential oils is par sued. The rose leaves while fresh are placed in the alembic, and fresh water is poured upon them. The water which comes off is successively distilled, and finally the oil, being the lightest, rises to the top, and is skimmed off. The oil is limpid, but with a tinge of orange color. It is said to take three hundred thousand roses to yield an ounce of oil. It is brought to Constantinople in flat-sided, round-edged, tinned copper vessels, each hermetically closed, and sealed with the maker's name. These cases vary in size from those capable of holding an ounce to those which hold seven pounds, and even more. At Constantinople, after passing into other hands, it is put up in gilt bottles which preserve the antique form of two hundred years back, and are manufactured in Bohemia expressly for the purpose.

The quantity of otto of roses produced in any one year varies like that of most productions of the soil. In the year 1837, a very good one, the district, yielded 4,465 pounds. In the worst years they do not obtain more than 1,500 pounds, and an ordi

nary year's amount of production may be estimated at something less than 3,000 pounds. The weight employed in buying and selling it is a peculiar one, the metical, which is just a drachm and a half, and nine drachms make a Troy ounce. The fair price of the veritable pure otto is about 65 cents the metical, or $6 an ounce, equal to $72 a pound. Consequently, one of those copper cases may be worth $500, and the oil is worth five to seven times its weight in silver. The price of the oil commonly to be found may not be more than $4 or 5 an ounce; but as the amount exported is nearly doubled by mixing with foreign oils, the value of the trade in otto of roses to Turkey, may annually be about $400,000.

The oil that was formerly mixed with otto of roses was sandal wood oil, which is worth only $5 or $6 a pound. In the mass it has little or no smell, but when diffused its odor is very agreeable. It is much less liquid and flowing than the oil of roses, and adheres a long time to the hand. Within comparatively a few years a new oil has been introduced to dilute oil of roses and render it less overpowering. It is called by the Arabs who bring it from Meccha, ittri shahi, which means "shepherd's perfume," and by another name is called shepherd's crook, or crane's bill. This is a kind of geranium, the odor of the oil of which very nearly resembles the odor of the leaf of the pennyroyal geranium much more than it does the odor of the wild flower called with us crane's bill. The Arabs say that they make this oil among themselves, and they sell it as low as $2 a pound, or one-thirty-sixth of the price of otto of rose. Its odor in the mass is extremely agreeable, and produces none of the oppressive and even nauseating effects upon some constitutions that oil of roses does. Both on account of its cheapness, a certain similarity of odor, its likeness in color and weight with otto of roses, no other oil combines so many qualities to render it appropriate to mix with it and reduce its strength. In the common oil of roses found in the shops there is probably fifty per cent of foreign oils; and on account of the diffusibility of its aroma it will bear to receive, without any perceivable depreciation (in the opinion of ordinary judges) of its virtues and character, even eighty per cent of foreign oils, especially of the oil of geranium, if it has been cleanly washed in water and well bleached in the sun.

The reduction of its strength by mixture begins at Hasanlik. The people there are probably ready to supply nearly as much as there is a profitable demand for. The oil of geranium is sometimes poured upon the leaves and distilled over with the liquor of the roses. A sufficient quantity of oil of geranium, to suit the necessary profits of the seller, and the price the buyer is willing to pay, is also added previous to exportation; and large quantities of the same oil are exported to foreign lands, and may serve to adapt the quality of otto of roses to the exigencies of purchasers. It is a proof of the progress of refinement and luxury and of the prosperity of America, that the highest priced and therefore the purest otto of rose is more and more sought for from Turkey.

There are individuals in Constantinople whose profession it is to examine and test for the merchants, the quality of otto of roses, and they will readily divide the samples offered to them into five or six qualities, almost entirely by the sense of smell, and they are the persons who most successfully perform the manipulations necessary in mixing. It is said they never fail of coming within two per cent of the amount of foreign oil existing in any specimen offered to them to examme. The common test among all classes engaged in the trade is to moisten a piece of white paper with some oil of roses, and if it is pure otto, it will entirely evaporate, leaving not a trace upon the paper, but yet a very marked perfume. If it is a mixed oil, it will, on the contrary, leave a stain on paper, but no odor.

The usual appearance of otto of roses is here sufficiently well known by all but the green-horns. They, however, are always numerous enough to induce the Jews of Smyrna and Constantinople to prepare, in exchange for people's money, the meanest compound of scented grease and oils, and they way lay sea captains and travelers in the streets, and induce them to buy at prices not much below common otto of roses, numerous bottles of something resembling rather spermaceti and oil, as choice presents to their wives and friends. Occasionally such persons go home with most fabulous stories of the cheapness of oil of roses on the Levant. One afternoon, last year, an American traveller returned to his hotel from an excursion in the bazaars of Constantinople, and exultingly showed to his fellow travelers a precious peculation he had made in otto of roses. He had bought six ounces in as many bottles for five dollars a bottle. An intelligent companion soon convinced him that he had obtained nothing but six bottles of olive oil, scented with rose, and in a natural fit of indignation