d. Before
land again looms in view, speed is much slackened, and now the
engineer requires all his experience and his utmost skill. The
high winds across the ocean may have caused his car to deviate
slightly from its path, so as soon as land appears the deviation
has to be corrected, and only two or three seconds remain in which
to correct it. However, the engineer is equal to his task, and
the car is now in the same manner as before, brought to a stand
in Galway at 6 minutes to 8, just 30 minutes out from St. John's
and 54 from Halifax. At 8 o'clock Dublin is reached, next comes
Holyhead, and then London at 8.20. Here passengers for the South
of Europe change cars. As the car for the South does not start
till 8.30, there is time for a hasty glance at the enormous
central depot just arrived at--one of the wonders of the world.
Cars are coming in every minute punctually on time from all parts
of the country and the world. The arrival slide is here shaped
like the inside or concavity of a shallow cone, two miles in
diameter, with the edge rather more than 150 feet from the ground.
In the centre, where the cars stop, is a hydraulic elevator, by
which they are immediately let down below to make room for the
next arrival. The passengers are then disembarked without hurry.
Those who are to continue their journey then go on board their
right car and are again started on time. The departure slide is
like a lower storey of the arrival one. It is immediately beneath
it, but its grade is not quite parallel. Near the centre, where
the cars start, the upper slide is twenty-five feet above the
lower one, but at the edge, a mile distant, in consequence of the
difference in grade, there is fifty feet between them. The path of
the cars before they emerge from the departure slide, is between
the supports of the upper one, yet the supports are so placed that
the cars can be pointed before starting for all the principal
routes. There is a through car to Constantinople, and in it the
twenty passengers from Halifax take their seats. At 8.30 the
first spring is made, and Paris is reached in 10 minutes.
Another spring, and in 10 minutes more Strasbourg appears. Then
successively: Munich in 8 minutes, Vienna in 10, Belgrade in 15,
and lastly Constantinople in 20, or at 9.43, that is just one hour
and thirteen minutes from leaving London, and two hours and 43
minutes from Halifax. It is still early in the day--well that is
where a surprise awa