ery few public
officials proved untrue, and crime has greatly diminished. Our
department has charge of all mail matter and telegraph, telepost and
telephone lines and wireless stations and all newspaper books and
magazine publications, and we edit the National Gazette; besides we
have charge of all Government scientific research parties, and if you
will call again to-morrow I think I will be able to introduce you to
the Chief Engineer who stands very high in his profession, and who has,
by placing an Astronomical Observatory on the summit of Mount Everest,
attracted the attention of the civilized world."

CHAPTER VI.

DEPARTMENT OF MINES.

I called at the appointed time and was introduced to the Chief
Engineer, who invited me to accompany him on an inspection tour, to
which I gladly assented, and, after a week's pleasant travel by rail,
we arrived at the station on the southwestern slope of Mount Everest at
an elevation of twelve thousand feet above the sea. We had arrived in
the evening and enjoyed a good night's rest, and, eating a hearty
breakfast, we walked out to take observations of the locality, before
taking our trip to the summit, and the Chief told me of the way by
which they finally erected an observatory on the highest mountain of
the earth.

"Five years ago the President sent for me," explained the Chief
Engineer, "and asked if I could plan an observatory on Mount Everest. I
replied that I would try to do so if the Government saw fit to place me
in charge of the undertaking. I received my commission the next day
and, calling to my aid two of the ablest engineers in the service of
the Government, we selected a site for the entrance of the tunnel and
next we searched for suitable power to do the work. We found a
waterfall twenty miles distant, where we built a power house, installed
turbines and dynamos and built an electric line to this place. We then
erected a machine shop, in which we placed our electric engines and air
compressors, and built a railroad connecting with the main line, and
after we had done that we started the tunnel. As you will observe, the
tunnel is a round bore twelve feet in diameter, and no explosives were
used in making it. We used a tunneling machine driven and operated by
compressed air, boring on the average fifty feet every twenty-four
hours, and we washed the debris away by a powerful stream of water
directed against the face of the tunnel so as not to obstruct the work.