5th. A line starting from Tripoli, and proceeding across the desert by way of Damascus and Palmyra to the Euphrates, whence it might follow one of the preceding routes. Which of these routes will eventually be adopted, is still the subject of much discussion. Mr. W. P. Andrew, F.R.G.S., who for thirty years has devoted much time and attention to endeavouring to carry out this design, has furnished us with an admirable report on this project. We will give a short sketch in his own words: “In the proposal to restore this ancient route—once the highway of the world’s commerce and the track of the heroes of early history—by the construction of a railway to connect the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, we have at hand an invaluable and perfectly efficient means at once of thwarting the designs of Russia, if they should assume a hostile character, of marching hand in hand with her if her mission be to carry civilisation to distant lands, and of competing with her in the peaceful rivalry of commerce. “On every ground, therefore, the proposed Euphrates Valley Railway is an undertaking eminently deserving our attention, and the support and encouragement of our Government. “The countries which our future highway to India will traverse have been, from remote antiquity, the most interesting in the world. On the once fertile plains, watered by the Euphrates and Tigris, the greatest and most glorious nations of antiquity arose, flourished, and were overthrown. “Twice in the world’s history, mankind commenced the race of civilisation on the Mesopotamian rivers. Twice the human family diverged from their banks to the east, the west, and the north. Arts and sciences made the first feeble steps of their infancy, upon the shores of these rivers. “Very early in history we know that Babylon was a great manufacturing city, famed for the costly fabric of its looms. At a more recent date the Chaldean kings made it a gorgeous metropolis—the fairest and the richest then on earth. Alexander of Macedon made it the port of the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf; and he proposed to render it the central metropolis of his empire. “The countries through which the Euphrates flows were formerly the most productive in the world. Throughout these regions the fruits of temperate and tropical climes, grew in bygone days in luxurious profusion; luxury and abundance were universally diffused. The soil everywhere teemed with vegetation; much of this has since passed away. Ages of despotism and misrule have rendered unavailing the bounty of nature; but the land is full of hidden riches. The natural elements of its ancient grandeur still exist in the inexhaustible fertility of the country, and in the chivalrous character and bearing of many of the tribes; and the day cannot be far distant when it is destined to resume its place amongst the fairest and most prosperous regions of the globe.