_Christmas Isle to Canton._ (p. 062) Geo. Miles. Days. Christmas Isle to Canton 5250 26 Stop at Canton " 3 Canton to Christmas Isle, by Owhyhee route 6900 46 ------ -- Totals 12,150 75 Eight packets would perform this work, giving two mails each month: cost 76,000_l._; yearly charges, 33,600_l._; which shows that it takes one packet more by this arrangement than would be required by the other. Keeping the stations altogether separate, the following would be the periods and number of packets required, premising that the packets would return to the point of departure on the west coast of America, nearly in the dotted lines which are laid down on the accompanying Chart:-- _Rialejo to Canton._ Geo. Miles. Days. Rialejo to Owhyhee 4100 22 Owhyhee to Canton 5200 27 Stop at Canton " 2 Canton to Rialejo (circuitous) 10,000 59 ------ --- Totals 19,300 110 Eight packets would perform this work, giving two mails each month; first cost, 76,000_l._; yearly charges, 33,600_l._ _Rialejo to Sydney, New South Wales._ Geo. Miles. Days. Rialejo to Otaheite 4100 22 Otaheite to Sydney 3400 19 Stop at Sydney " 3 Sydney to Rialejo, by N. Point, New Zealand 8500 51 ------ -- Totals 16,000 95 Examining attentively the three preceding routes of communication, (p. 063) it is plain that, in point of expense, the last, namely, that which gives two establishments, is not more than the most eligible of the other two, while in point of time it is considerably the quickest. The packets going out and returning twice each month, or every _fifteen_ days, it follows that, on every route, their voyages divide into periods of that duration. In the more distant, such as the routes at present under consideration, their voyages, in order to coincide and to meet with the return mails at any given point, will run, say, 90 days, 105 days, 120 days, &c.; and within the latter-mentioned number the mail from Canton must return to Jamaica, to secure, without extra loss of time, a packet bound to England.