a. After a certain time the constant coughing of
the locomotive, the dazzling of the vision from the rapidity with which
objects are passed, the sparks and ashes which fly in your face and on
your clothes become very annoying; your only consolation is the speed
with which you are passing over the ground.

The railroads in America are not so well made as in England, and are
therefore more dangerous; but it must be remembered that at present
nothing is made in America but to last a certain time; they go to the
exact expense considered necessary and no further, they know that in
twenty years they will be better able to spend twenty dollars than one
now. The great object is to obtain quick returns for the outlay, and,
except in few instances, durability or permanency is not thought of.
One great cause of disasters is, that the railroads are not fenced on
the sides, so as to keep the cattle off them, and it appears as if the
cattle who range the woods are very partial to take their naps on the
roads, probably from their being drier than the other portions of the
soil. It is impossible to say how many cows have been cut into atoms by
the trains in America, but the frequent accidents arising from these
causes has occasioned the Americans to invent a sort of shovel, attached
to the front of the locomotive, which takes up a cow, tossing her off
right or left. At every fifteen miles of the rail-roads there are
refreshment rooms; the cars stop, all the doors are thrown open, and out
rush the passengers like boys out of school, and crowd round the tables
to solace themselves with pies, patties, cakes, hard-boiled eggs, ham,
custards, and a variety of railroad luxuries, too numerous to mention.
The bell rings for departure, in they all hurry with their hands and
mouths full, and off they go again, until the next stopping place
induces them to relieve the monotony of the journey by masticating
without being hungry.

The Utica railroad is the best in the United States. The general
average of speed is from fourteen to sixteen miles an hour; but on the
Utica they go much faster. [See note 1.] A gentleman narrated to me a
singular specimen of the ruling passion which he witnessed on an
occasion when the rail-cars were thrown off the road, and nearly one
hundred people killed, or injured in a greater or less degree.

On the side of the road lay a man with his leg so severely fractured,
that the bone had been forced through the ski