The construction of this rail-road was attended with considerable difficulty and great expense, on account of its being impeded by the works at Marli, for the supply of water to Versailles.  The building of the bridges over the Seine, which it crosses three times, was also very costly.  The carriages of the first class are very inferior to those of the same description upon the rail-roads in England, but they are sufficiently comfortable for so short a distance.  We were set down at the barrier of Clichi, an inconvenient distance from the best part of Paris.  Here we had to undergo a second inspection of our baggage, and I became somewhat alarmed for the fate of my medicine-chest.  We had taken nothing else with as that could be seizable, and this was speedily perceived by the officials, who merely went through the form of an examination.

The divisions in one of my portmanteaus had excited some suspicion at Havre, one of the men fancying that he had made a grand discovery, when he pronounced it to have a false bottom.  We explained the method of opening it to his satisfaction, and afterwards, in overhauling my bonnet-box, he expressed great regret at the derangement of the millinery, which certainly sustained some damage from his rough handling.  Altogether, we had not to complain of any want of civility on the part of the custom-house officers; but travellers who take the overland route to India, through France, will do well to despatch all their heavy baggage by sea, nothing being more inconvenient than a multitude of boxes.  I had reduced all my packages to four, namely, two portmanteaus, a bonnet-box, and a leather bag, which latter contained the medicine-chest, a kettle and lamp, lucifer-matches, &c; my bonnet-box was divided into two compartments, one of which contained my writing-case and a looking-glass; for as I merely intended to travel through a portion of our British possessions in India, and to return after the October monsoon of 1840, I wished to carry every thing absolutely necessary for my comfort about with we.

Another annoyance sustained by persons who take the route through France is, the trouble respecting their passports, which must be ready at all times when called upon for examination, and may be the cause of detention, if the proper forms are not scrupulously gone through.  We were not certain whether it would be necessary to present ourselves in person at the Bureau des Passeports, Quai des Orfevres, in Paris, after having sent them to the British embassy; but we thought it better to avoid all danger of delay, and therefore drove to a quarter interesting on account of its being a place of some importance as the original portion of Paris, and situated on the island.  In this neighbourhood there are also the famous Hotel Dieu and Notre Dame, to both of which places we paid a visit, looking en passant at the Morgue.  The gentleman who accompanied us entered a building, with whose melancholy celebrity all are acquainted; but though it did not at that precise moment contain a corpse, the report did not induce us to follow his example:  a circumstance which we afterwards regretted.  It may be necessary to say, that at other places we sent our passports to the Hotel de Ville; but at Paris there is a different arrangement.