2-969-795 - /Heritage Images

Reading the News of the Fall of Sebastopol at Ceylon, 1856. Crimean War news. Engraving '...from a photograph by Mr. Parting...representing the scene in the Colombo Observer office during the reading of a carrier-pigeon express containing the details...of the fall of Sebastopol...Dr. Elliott's carrier-pigeon express had been recognised as a public institution of the greatest possible value, in the absence of a line of electric telegraph to connect Colombo, the capital of the island, with the port of Galle, at which the steamers touch. The distance is seventy-two miles, the road being almost a straight line, and our pigeons usually accomplish the passage, well laden with manuscript and printed slips, in from one to two hours...When pigeons occasionally go astray, driven out of their course by a strong wind...they are almost invariably caught and sent to the Observer office by the natives...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.