t two miles.
Mining men insist upon the caution that where this length of distance
has to be exceeded in the haulage of ore from the mine over wire-rope
tramways, there is need for two installations, the loaded trucks being
passed along from one to the other by means of suitable appliances at
the termini.

Electric traction must, in the near future, displace such a cumbrous
system, and the plan upon which it will be applied will probably
depend upon the use of a steel cable along which the motor-truck must
haul itself in its progress. This cable will be kept stationary, but
gripped by the wheels and other appliances of the electric motors with
which the long trucks are provided. Besides this there must also be
the conducting cables for the conveyance of the electric current.

For cheap means of transport in sparsely-developed country, as well as
in regions of an exceptionally hilly contour, the "wheelway" has a
great future before it. Ultimately the system can be worked out so as
to present an almost exact converse of the railway. The rails are
fixed on the lower part of the elongated truck, one on each side;
while the wheels, placed at intervals upon suitable supports,
constitute the permanent way. The amount of constructional work
required for each mile of track under this plan is a mere fraction of
that which is needed for the permanent way and rolling stock of a
railway, the almost entire absence of earth-works being, of course, a
most important source of economy.

Probably the development of transport on the principles indicated by
the evolution of the ropeway or wire-rope tramway will take place
primarily in connection with mining properties, and for general
transport purposes in country of a nature which renders it unsuitable
for railway construction. This applies not merely to hilly regions,
but particularly to those long stretches of sandy country which impede
the transport of traffic in many rich mining regions, and in patches
separating good country from the seaboard. In the "wheelway" for land
of this character the wheels need not be elevated more than a very few
feet above the ground, just enough to keep them clear of the drift
sand which in some places is fatal to the carrying out of any ordinary
railway project.

The conception of a truck or other vehicle that shall practically
carry its own rail-road has been an attractive one to some inventive
minds. In sandy regions, and in other places where a ra