the whole area of the Arsenal from end to end,
and from side to side, and is dragged by horses,
and sometimes by certain mules brought over
from the Crimea. These mules are of such
immense size, that they would be large even for
horses, and are of such outrageous obstinacy
and intractability, that asses or ordinary mules
are docile creatures in comparison with them.

To give the reader some idea of the energy
which has been exerted during the last few years
at Woolwich, it may be well to mention that,
before the late Russian war, the roads about the
Arsenal, now so well paved and furnished with
the iron tramways just mentioned, were in such
an impassable condition that the Superintendent
of the Gun Factories informed the writer that
four years ago he used to be obliged to go from
one part of the place to another in fisherman's
boots. The changes wrought by the Russian
war are obvious on every side, and the influence
for good, exercised by Colonel Tulloh, Colonel
Wilmot, and Captain Boxer, meet one at every
turn, and amply justify the amount of confidence
which has been placed in those gentlemen by
Government.

It was but a few years since that a travelling
commission, consisting of the first named of
these officers and certain other gentlemen, made
an expedition through the north of England in
search of any new inventions which might be
serviceable in the peculiar kind of manufacture
under their superintendence, and the United
States and the Continent have been ransacked as
well, for anything that could contribute to the
success of the Arsenal Works of Woolwich.

Amongst the machinery thus assembled
together, the writer was especially struck by two
sawing machines in the Royal Carriage Factories,
through which, it will be remembered, we
are now passing. One of these was a ribbon
saw, and the other a circular saw. The ribbon
saw was brought from Paris and is an invaluable
instrument in all cases where curved
or intricate cutting is required. It is a ribbon
of perfectly flexible steel, passing round
and round for ever, like that leather strap, or
band, which every one has observed as being so
important a part of all kinds of machinery. This
ever moving strip, which is not more than an
inch wide, and as thin as a paper knife, has one
of its edges serrated with teeth, and against this
edge the thing to be cut is pressed continuously
till it is through. To give some notion of the
intricate cutting that may be achieved by means
of this ribbon of steel, the writer may mention
that he saw the letters V. A., which had been
cut with much flourish out of a thin sheet of
wood by this beautiful instrument.

Of a far different character from this delicate
weapon was the next which attracted the notice
of your Eye-witness. He had heard of circular
saws, and had already conceived that such an
engine must be a thing of mighty capabilities,
but he had conceived nothing so fine as the fact.

Along the whole length of the saw-mill workshop
there ran a very narrow groove—much
such a one as a flat pasteboard caldron will
ascend through on the stage when the play of
Macbeth is in course of representation. Through
this groove your Eye-witness was told that at
the proper moment the circular saw would rise,
so he drew back from it to a little distance, and
waited with much curiosity for what was to come
next. In order to show the capabilities of the
saw, a trifle in the shape of the trunk of a large
tree had to be brought to the saw-mill and
wedged firmly into its place across the fatal
groove. While this was being done, the attention
of the Eye-witness was solicited to other
matters in the building, but still something
seemed to whisper in his ear that he should keep
his eye upon the groove, and he did so. He did
well.

He had not kept his watch very long, before
there slowly dawned through the aperture which
he regarded so eagerly a long steel tooth,
hooked, pointed, terrible to look at. Then, as
he continued to look, more teeth appeared in a
continuous succession, all like the first, hooked
and pointed, and all like the first, terrible to look
at. As this dreadful instrument rose gradually
out of the ground it became apparent that these
teeth were part of a vast circular plate of
polished steel, which was very slowly, but quite
smoothly (or the effect would have been nothing),
coming up like the moon from behind a bank of
cloud.

It rose, then, thus stealthily out of its groove,
till half the circumference of this huge
spurrowel was visible. Then for a single moment
it paused, and then—flew at the tree which had
been placed in its way, and, with a screech like
a cry of rage, deadly and remorseless, it tore its
way through the trunk more rapidly than I can
write the words, and slowly sank back again into
its lair, like a monster that was gorged with
blood.

Instantly availing himself of an offer to go
down and visit this desperate character in his
den, your Eye-witness passed through a trap-
door, and, descending some steps, came upon him
while he was yet burning hot and quivering with
recent cruelty. Here, alone, underground,
this savage of the saw-pit resided, then, in darkness.
Here he meditates on past carnage, and
revels in the thought of more. And here, too,
they come from above at times to sharpen up his
wicked teeth till they yell under the file with
hunger. There was something almost fearful in
the suggestion of consciousness about this
inanimate thing. Your Eye-witness could not
shake it off, and thinks of the monster now in
his dark and secret cellar with something of
hatred in his wonder.

The wood thus cruelly dealt with, is passed
on to other workshops, where it is placed under
the action of the different kinds of machinery
which form it into the separate portions of the
gun-carriages, ammunition cases, and other special
produce of the Royal Carriage Factories. Of
these branches of manufacture, one of the most
important, and one of the most interesting,
is the process by which are constructed the
wheels which are required in vast numbers