descend, could a single body
be found in the carriages, or among the bridge girders, and some days
elapsed before any were recovered. No conclusive evidence could be
produced to show whether the train was blown off the rails and so dragged
the girders down, or whether the bridge was blown away and the train ran
into the chasm thus made. The night was intensely dark, and the wind
more violent than had ever been known in the country.

_Annual Register_, 1879.

AN EXTRAORDINARY WAIF.

The following is a translation from the Norwegian newspaper
_Morgenbledet_, dated Feb. 20th:--"By private letter from Utsue, an
island on the western coast of Norway, is communicated to Dapposten the
intelligence that on the 12th inst. some fishermen pulled on the Firth to
haul their nets, and had hardly finished their labour when they sighted
an extraordinary object some distance further out. The superstitious
fears of sea monsters which have been written a good deal about lately
held them back for some time, but their curiosity made them approach the
supposed sea monster, and, to their great surprise, they found that it
was something like a building. As the sea was calm they immediately
commenced to tow it to shore, where it was hauled up on the beach, and
was then found to be a damaged railway wagon. The wheels were off, the
windows smashed, and one door hanging on its hinges. By the name on it,
"Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway," it was at once surmised that it must
have been one of the wagons separated from the train which met with the
disaster on the Tay Bridge. In the carriage was a portmanteau containing
garments, some of them marked 'P.B.' The wagon was sent, on the 14th, to
Hangesund, to be forwarded thence to Bergen."

A RAILWAY SLEEPER.

A railway pointsman, caught napping at his post and convicted of wilful
negligence, said to the gaoler who was about to lock him up, "I always
supposed that the safety of a railroad depended on the soundness of its
sleepers?" "So it does," replied the gaoler, "but such sleepers are
never safe unless they are bolted in."

NOT TO BE CAUGHT.

The following incident is said to have occurred on the North London
Railway:--Some time ago a passenger remarked, in the hearing of one of
the company's servants, how easy it was to "do" the company, and said, "I
often travel from Broad Street to Dalston Junction without a
t