The first railroad to be built in Ohio was the Kalamazoo and Erie from Toledo, Ohio, to Adrian, Michigan. This was later bought up by the Michigan Southern road and was the first link in the route to Chicago, taken, as will be remembered, by our traveller of 1840. It was thirty-three miles long and was a typical early railroad. Seven-eighths of it was built in unbroken forest, and one-third through a densely timbered swamp where malaria and mosquitoes made the lives of the workmen miserable. The track was built of oak stringers, or long wooden beams, upon which were fastened strips of iron five-eighths of an inch thick and two and a half inches wide. These rails were supported by wooden cross-ties placed about four feet apart and resting securely on a heavy foundation of broken stone. The cars were built after the fashion of the body of a stage-coach, or rather of three stage-coaches put together, and were set on a four-wheeled truck instead of directly on wheels, to make it possible for them to swing round on curves. The conductor walked along an outside footboard to collect fares. These cars opened at either end and seated about twenty-four persons, who faced to the front. On the Toledo road a horse track was laid between the rails, and the road was used for one year with horse power. In 1837 a locomotive was purchased and steam power was substituted. For ten years American builders had been experimenting with types of locomotives and had adopted a pattern which has persisted to this day in its principles, although it has been much changed in details and size. The fore part of the engine was placed on a four-wheeled truck and fastened to it with a bolt, which allowed the truck to swing some distance and thus to round sharp curves safely. The back part rested on four connected driving wheels. An engine of this type had been built in 1836 in Philadelphia, and was speedily adopted elsewhere. It weighed about ten tons when water and coal tanks were loaded, and would seem to us to-day a crude and small affair, but it was better suited to wooden rails than a heavier engine would have been. Passengers paid four and a half cents a mile to be carried on this Toledo railroad at a speed of less than ten miles an hour.