12
and it will strike every one at first that it cannot be much dearer
than by canal, or so large a proportion of the tonnage would never
be carried on the rail. In England millions of tons of coal, iron,
minerals, manure, &c. &c., are carried at id. per ton per mile.
In France, all the great lines of railway transport plaster, stones,
wood, grain, coal, &c., and all heavy articles of small comparative
value at 3 and 3i centimes, (j to ? of a Canadian cent), per
ton per kilometre-a rate equal, if not inferior to water conveyance.
We will now come nearer home and examine the cost of trans-
port per rail and water in the States. In the annual Report of
the En,ineers of the State of New York on the State Canals, I
find the cost of transport on the Erie Enlargement and the New
York and Erie Railway, side by side, the result being *1.08 cent
* This amount corresponds so nearly with the cost per canal between Paris
and Strasbourg but differs so materially in regard to that per rail, that I think
the following extract translated from the French report will be found interest-
ing:--
" From Paris to Strasbourg the transport is effected by the Marne and Rhine
canals, the cost of the whole amount of tonnage conveyed from the 10th March,
1855, to 10th March, 1856, averaged 3.60 centirmes per ton per kilometre and is
divided as follows:
CENTIMES.
Cost of hatlage ........................ 2.36
Transhipment at Cumi?rs and Mary............ 20
Cordage, oil and small expenses ............... 20
Assurance _............................... 19
Trade charges of all sorts .................. 51
Interest on capital and sinking fund ........... 07
3.60
In this calculation a fair allowance has been made for empties.
In general, the cost on canals of large section and few locks, admitting of
boats carrying from 180 to 200 tons, and allowing for empties, is from 1 centime
and a J, to 2 centimes, according to the proportion of empties; on canals of
small section with frequent locks, and admitting boats of a tonnage not exceed-
ing 60 to 100 tons, it will reach 3 or 4 centimes. On a'railway with average
grades, and full loads, as is the case with coal, the cost of traction alone is very
triflng, not exceed .0037 centimes, or about 4-10th of a centime per ton per kilo-
metre, but if the trains have not full loads, which is generally the case, the ex-
pense for empties will considerably increase the cost; thus taking the total
traffic on the Strasbourg line for the year 1859, it amounted to .0037 centimes, or