.

The wire used in this line is No. 9 iron, zinc-coated, weighing three
hundred and fifty pounds to the mile, and the total weight used between
Omaha and San Francisco amounts to seven hundred thousand pounds. The
insulators are of glass, protected by a wooden shield, of the pattern
known as the Wade insulator.

The line is worked by Morse instruments, usually direct from Chicago to
Salt Lake, Hicks's self-acting repeaters being kept in the circuit at
Omaha and Fort Laramie. At Salt Lake the messages are rewritten, and
thence sent direct to San Francisco. The stations average about one for
each fifty miles, and the whole length of the line is inspected twice a
week by persons employed for the purpose. The cost of construction was
about two hundred and fifty dollars per mile.

No trouble was experienced from Indian depredations until the last
winter. Up to that time the line had worked almost uninterruptedly. Even
during the Indian difficulties of the previous summer and autumn, which
compelled the suspension of the overland mail, the telegraph was not in
any manner molested by the savages. This was supposed to be owing in a
great measure to the influence of superstitious fear among them in
regard to the wire, which they supposed to be under the especial care of
the Great Spirit; but it was probably largely due also to the many kind
offices done them by the telegraph-operators, who frequently ascertained
where the buffalo were in force, and informed their red-skinned
neighbors, who were thus enabled to find their favorite game. The charm
is now, however, unfortunately, dispelled; and the savages take every
opportunity to break and carry off the wire and destroy the poles.
Government is dispatching a large force of cavalry to punish the
marauders and protect the line, which it is to be hoped may prove
effectual.

* * * * *

It has already been mentioned that the Russian Government has undertaken
to extend the main eastern and western line from Irkoutsk to the mouth
of the Amoor River. This extension is now rapidly progressing. But this
is only a single and not very prominent part of the work which the
Emperor of Russia has begun. His design embraces nothing less than the
following stupendous works, namely:--

A line, with the necessary submarine cables, from the mouth of the Amoor
River, across the Straits of Tartary, over the island of Sakhalien,
across the Straits of La Perouse, ov