which we were travelling ultimately struck out for the more open country till we came to the Harlem river. There we got out and inspected a very remarkable bridge, with a draw of a most ingenious construction for the passage of vessels, which will be completed speedily. From the railway we enjoyed a fine view of the Croton Aqueduct, of which New York may well be proud, the high bridge by which it is carried across the Harlem River being an imperial work recalling the grandest enterprises of the kind of the Roman engineers. There was a good view of the Central Park and of the country which has been so rapidly encroached upon by the builders; but there is still a considerable tract of land occupied by sheds and shanties of a very abject and miserable aspect, in the possession of squatters who cause much anxiety to landowners, and are very difficult to dispossess. Whether they have rights of disturbance or not I cannot say. Probably if they were to introduce some of the machinery of the law which is considered peculiarly suited to the wants of Ireland, the New Yorkers might find it to their advantage.

On the route to the Harlem River the line rises to a dizzy height, quite above the tops of houses of three stories. Now that the system has been adopted, it seems impossible to change it, as these "L Lines," as they are called, have cost too much money (I think more than twelve millions sterling) to be abandoned or bought up, and they are still in course of construction. No amount of utility can compensate for the intrinsic ugliness of these erections which block up the vista and darken the streets below; and in winter time, when New York, groaning under a burden of snow, has to suffer from the accumulations thrown down by the railway, the inconvenience must be greatly aggravated.