Finally, he concluded that he had
overcome all difficulties in his apparatus; and accordingly a formal
trial was arranged on November 30. For about four and a half miles of
the ascent the drum worked well; and the hoarfrost, with which the
rails were thickly covered, showed good contact. Afterward it worked
irregularly; but the station of Schindelleghi, a distance of five
miles, was reached without accident, the locomotive dragging a car
loaded with 20 tons of rails. It was then attempted to make the
descent by the aid of the helicoidal drum; but this jumped the rails,
and broke them almost immediately. By the aid of back pressure of
steam and brakes, the locomotive was stopped. Then, unfortunately, the
engine was started again; but hardly had the descent been resumed when
it was evident that the drum was not holding, and that the speed was
accelerating rapidly. Brakes and steam were both found useless, and
the engine went tearing over the rails at the rate of a mile a minute.
Of the fourteen persons in the vehicles, three were thrown out and
killed, and the rest were more or less seriously injured. The heavily
loaded car left the track, and tore up both central and side rails
until its coupling broke. The engineer, with great intrepidity, clung
to his engine, coolly giving signals to open switches so that the
locomotive might run upon the level track and so expend its momentum;
but the engine left the rails at a sharp curve, destroyed the track
for about a hundred feet, and finally stopped a mass of ruins, with
its brave engineer mortally wounded. Whether the Wetli system can be
made to work as intended by the inventor is regarded as doubtful by
the engineers who have examined into the causes of the disaster.

* * * * *

LEGHORN HENS.

If a man keeps Leghorns he must have no garden, or he must cover the
top of his hen yards. That Leghorns are great layers and active hens,
there can be no denying, but they are great flyers. We have built our
yard a lath and a half high, says the _Poultry Review_, but what do
these saucy things care for that? Although they have the whole outside
world to range in, yet the garden seems to have a greater attraction
than all the rest. The other day we found it necessary to feed a weak
chicken in the garden by itself, so that it might be sure of its
share. A few minutes afterwards, on looking out of the window, we
discovered the weak chicken in the henyard