Another instance of its application, often overlooked, is thus stated in the _Quarterly Review_:--“That extraordinary line of steam communication between England and her eastern possessions, (somewhat oddly called the _overland_ journey,) of which Australia and New Zealand will hereafter form the extreme branches. The creation of the last twelve years, this communication has already acquired a sort of maturity of speed and exactness, notwithstanding the enormous distances traversed, and the changes necessary in transit from sea to sea. The Anglo-Indian mail in its two sections, and including passengers and correspondence, possesses a sort of individuality as the greatest and most singular line of intercourse on the globe. Two of the first nations of Europe, France and Austria, struggle for the privilege of carrying this mail across their territories. Traversing the length of the Mediterranean, it is received on the waters of the ancient Nile--Cairo and the Pyramids are passed in its onward course--the desert is traversed with a speed which mocks the old cavalcades of camels and loitering Arabs--it is re-embarked on the Red Sea, near a spot sacred in scriptural history--the promontory projecting from the heights of Mount Sinai, the shores of Mecca and Medina are passed in its rapid course down this great gulf--it emerges through the straits of Babelmandel into the Indian seas--to be distributed thence by different lines to all the great centres of Indian government and commerce, as well as to our more remote dependencies in the straits of Malacca and the Chinese seas. There is a certain majesty in the simple outline of a route like this, traversing the most ancient seats of empire, and what we are taught to regard as among the earliest abodes of man--and now ministering to the connexion of England with that great sovereignty she has conquered, or created, in the east; more wonderful, with one exception, than any of the empires of antiquity; and, perchance, also, more important to the general destinies of mankind.” CHAPTER VIII. The magic swan--Properties of the magnet--The mariners’ compass--The process of magnetizing--The dip of the needle--Magnetic properties in various substances.