The next thing that struck me was the immense improvement that has been steadily effected in the permanent way of the line. Steel bridges substituted for temporary wooden structures, embankments that have taken the place of mere tressels, are visible all along the route; and one sees the work steadily going on. Then gradients have everywhere been eased and curves lessened, so that the traffic facilities have marvellously improved. Of course the improvement is most marked over that part of the line where traffic is heaviest. The great stretch between Ottawa and Port Arthur is now in most excellent condition. The work proceeds steadily westward as the traffic necessities call for it. We are now just about to embark on the _Empress of China_. The Government had insisted upon two of the Empress steamers being detained at Victoria for fear accommodation should not be sufficient. But, with the adaptations made by the company, the _Empress of China_ alone proved ample, and as it was much more convenient to have the whole party together, we are all embarking on her. CALCUTTA, _June 29_. We sailed before midnight on the 5th, and have just arrived after a most successful voyage. The only regret of the captain, which was by no means shared by any of us, was that at this time of the year he had no chance of letting us see what a fine seaboat the _Empress of China_ is. He boasts that the way she weathered some very bad typhoons last year was splendid. No doubt, from a seaman’s point of view, that may be very desirable; but we are quite content to have had a June passage over smooth seas, and with never anything much more than an occasional fresh breeze. The mail is just leaving, and you will know much more than I do of what has been going on out here. I hear the siege of Herat is making little progress, the Russians having had great difficulties in getting up any heavy artillery. CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES—FRANCE AND GERMANY. _December 31, 1892._ The Great War has come to an end. The preliminaries of peace have been signed. We have, therefore, now only to record the events in different parts of the world which have brought this about. In the first place, during that lull in the conflict on the Continent which we recorded in our last reports, for many weeks an almost complete silence fell over the centre of Europe. Commercial relations, in their modern sense, were almost entirely suspended.