In such a valuation, also, many items, some of considerable magnitude, were found which were extremely difficult to classify and assign to their proper place. Such a one, for instance, as a soft, sand rock deposit beside the track, which for many years had furnished engine sand. Many thousand cubic yards of this material had been excavated, but it had not gone into the roadbed as ballast, or to make fills, or to widen embankments. It would hardly have been proper to classify such excavation as grading, for it was an item of engine maintenance and train operation. This is only one of numerous problems which had to be solved. After all the survey had been made, most of the work of compilation had to be done. Some of it had already been done in the office by the small office force, but the great mass had to be done by the men who did the work in the field. This task was of almost incomprehensible magnitude. There were thousands and thousands of items, and such a great mass of figures that the ordinary man would become lost in the maze. The data had to be checked and re-checked by men who were not accountants, and sometimes most ludicrous mistakes were discovered. However, it was at last accomplished, and the writer's recollection of the "Present Value" of the Chicago and Northwestern property in Minnesota is that it was somewhat more than $23,000,000 for the entire mileage (about 625 miles), or an average of about $37,000 per mile of track. Hardly any of the mileage would be called high-class or trunk-line track, but most of it might be classed as second-class or important branch-line railway. E. KUICHLING, M. AM. SOC. C. E. (by letter).—This paper is a very valuable addition to the literature of a comparatively new subject that is rapidly attaining great political importance, and it gives abundant evidence of deep research and thought by the author. The reasons for determining the true value of such properties, as well as the general principles of making the valuation or appraisal, have been set forth so clearly and convincingly that little can be added in this respect; hence, there is room for comment only about details.