In practice it will therefore be seen--chiefly on account of the actual distance saved--that transportation can be afforded cheaper, in this case, on the 80 feet gradient than on the 50, without bringing into the estimate the interest on $841,000 that the latter would cost to obtain it more than the former. Under these circumstances we did not hesitate when the choice of routes was reduced to a selection between these two methods of overcoming the mountain, to decide in favor of the line by Robinson's, which has the additional advantage of bringing us within 6-1/3 miles of Hollidaysburg, where a connection may be made with the Allegheny Portage by a branch line, passing over favorable ground. The distance from Harrisburg to Robinson's summit is 132-2/3 miles; upon the whole of this line, the only extraordinary impediments to the easy graduation of the road bed are the bridge over the Susquehanna, a deep and long cut near Newton Hamilton, and a tunnel 1,200 feet in length through a point of Tussey's mountain, and in this distance the maximum ascending gradient to Lewistown is 16 feet per mile, and descending 8 feet. Thence, to Robinson's summit, they are increased to 21 feet ascending, and 10-1/8 feet descending. The descending gradients are generally so short that they will not be found, in practice, to decrease the load going east much below what is due to a fair _working_ load for a locomotive on a level. The maximum ascending gradient above Lewistown is determined by the deep cut near Newton Hamilton. The ascent of the Little Juniata seems, however, to require--to obtain an economical line--the use of this inclination, without much intermission, from Dorsey's forge to Robinson's summit. Below Lewistown the gradients are fixed to accommodate the increased trade that would fall upon the line between that place and Harrisburg, without increasing the number of trains. These low gradients insure to us the important advantages of a single pair of drivers for the passenger engines, upon the eastern division, and, with these rates of inclination, we are enabled to make the line conform to the natural features of the country (above high water mark) without decreasing the curvature below 955 feet radius, except at the east end of the Susquehanna bridge, where a radius of 880 feet has been admitted.