by land or water from Alexandria to Cairo, a distance of one hundred and seventy-three miles; and from Cairo to Suez, ninety-three miles, across the desert, in about five days. At Suez would be a station for steamers, and the Red Sea would be traversed in three runs or more. If necessary, stations for coals might be established at Cosseir, Judda, Mocha, and finally at Aden or at Socatra—an island immediately beyond the mouth of the Red Sea, in the Indian Ocean; the run from Suez to Cosseir would be three hundred miles-somewhat more than twice the distance from Liverpool to Dublin. From Cosseir to Judda, four hundred and fifty miles; from Judda to Mocha, five hundred and seventeen miles; and from Mocha to Socatra, six hundred and thirty-two miles. It is evident that all this would, without difficulty, in the most unfavourable weather, fall within the present powers of steam-navigation. If the terminus of the passage be Bombay, the run from Socatra to Bombay will be twelve hundred miles, which would be from six to eight days' steaming. The whole passage from Alexandria to Bombay, allowing three days for delay between Suez and Bombay, would be twenty-six days: the time from Bombay to Malta would therefore be about thirty-three days; and adding fourteen days to this for the transit from Malta to England, we should have a total of forty-seven days from London to Bombay, or about seven weeks.

If the terminus proposed were Calcutta, the course from Socatra would be one thousand two hundred and fifty miles south-east to the Maldives, where a station for coals would be established. This distance would be equal to that from Socatra to Bombay. From the Maldives, a run of four hundred miles would reach the southern point of Ceylon, called the Point de Galle, which is the best harbour (Bombay excepted) in British India: from the Point de Galle, a run of six hundred miles will reach Madras, and from Madras to Calcutta would be a run of about six hundred miles. The voyage from London to Calcutta would be performed in about sixty days.

At a certain season of the year there exists a powerful physical opponent to the transit from India to Suez: from

the middle of June until the end of September, the southwest monsoon blows with unabated force across the Indian Ocean, and more particularly between Socatra and Bombay. This wind is so violent as to leave it barely possible for the most powerful steam-packet to make head against it, and the voyage could not be accomplished without serious wear and tear upon the vessels during these months.

The attention of parliament has therefore been directed to another line of communication, not liable to this difficulty: it is proposed to establish a line of steamers from Bombay through the Persian Gulf to the Euphrates.

The run from Bombay to a place called Muscat, on the southern shore of the gulf, would be eight hundred and forty miles in a north-west direction, and therefore not opposed to the south-west monsoon. From Muscat to Bassidore, a point upon the northern coast of the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, would be a run of two hundred and fifty-five miles; from Bassidore to Bushire, another point on the eastern coast of the Persian Gulf, would be a run of three hundred miles; and from Bushire to the mouth of the Euphrates, would be one hundred and twenty miles. It is evident that the longest of these runs would offer no more difficulty than the passage from Malta to Alexandria. From Bussora, near the mouth of the Euphrates, to Bir, a town upon its left bank near Aleppo, would be one thousand one hundred and forty-three miles, throughout which there are no physical obstacles to the river-navigation which may not be overcome. Some difficulties arise from the wild and savage character of the tribes who occupy its banks. It is, however, thought that by proper measures, and securing the co-operation of the pacha of Egypt, any serious obstruction from this cause may be removed. From Bir, by Aleppo, to Scanderoon, a port upon the Mediterranean, opposite Cyprus, is a land-journey, said to be attended with some difficulty, but not of great length; and from Scanderoon to Malta is about the same distance as between the latter place and Alexandria. It is calculated that the time from London to Bombay by the Euphrates-supposing the passage to be successfully esta

blished-would be a few days shorter than by Egypt and the Red Sea.

Whichever of these courses may be adopted, it is clear that the difficulties, so far as the powers of the steam engine are concerned, lie in the one case between Socatra and Bombay, or between Socatra and the Maldives, and in the other case between Bombay and Muscat. This, however, has already been encountered and overcome on four several voyages by the HUGH LINDSAY steamer from Bombay to Suez: that vessel encountered a still longer run on these several trips, by going, not to Socatra, but to Aden, a point on the coast of Arabia, near the Straits of Babel Mandeb, being a run of one thousand six hundred and forty-one miles, which she performed in ten days and nineteen hours. The same trip has since been repeatedly made by other steamers; and, in the present improved state of steam navigation, no insurmountable obstacles are opposed to their passage.

STEAM NAVIGATION FIRST ESTABLISHED IN AMERICA. CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH LED TO IT.- FITCH AND RUMSEY. STEVENS OF HOBOKEN. -LIVINGSTONE AND FULTON. -EXPERIMENTS ON THE SEINE. FULTON'S FIRST BOAT.-THE HUDSON NAVIGATED BY STEAM.-EXTENSION AND IMPROVEMENT OF RIVER NAVIGATION. SPEED OF AMERICAN STEAMERS.- DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM AND EUROPEAN STEAMERS. SEA-GOING AMERICAN STEAMERS. AMERICAN PADDLE-WHEELS.LAKE STEAMERS. THE MISSISIPPI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.-STEAMERS NAVIGATING IT.-THEIR STRUCTURE AND MACHINERY.-NEW ORLEANS HARBOUR, STEAM TUGS.

(228.) THE credit of having afforded the first practical solution of the problem to apply the steam engine to the propulsion of ships, undoubtedly belongs to the people of the United States of America. The geographical character of their vast country, not less than the sanguine and enterprising spirit of the nation, contributed to this. A coast of four thousand miles in extent, stretching from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the embouchures of the Missisippi, indented and

serrated in every part with natural harbours and sheltered bays, and fringed with islands forming soundscapes, and promontories enclosing arms of the sea, in which the waters are free from the roll of the ocean, and take the placid character of lakes, rivers of imposing magnitude, navigable for vessels of the largest class, for many hundreds and in some instances for many thousands of miles, affording access to the innermost population of an empire, whose area vastly exceeds the whole European continent,- chains of lakes composed of the most extensive bodies of fresh water in the known world, and this extensive continent peopled by races carrying with them the habits and feelings together with much of the skill and knowledge of the most civilized parts of the globe, endowed also with that inextinguishable spirit of enterprise which ever belongs to an emigrant people,- form a combination of circumstances more than sufficient to account for the fact of this nation snatching from England, the parent of the steam engine, the honour of first bringing into practical operation one of the most important if indeed it be not altogether the most important of the many applications of that machine to the uses. of life.

The circumstances which rendered these extensive tracts of inland and coast navigation eminently suited to the application of steam power, formed so many obstructions and difficulties to the application of other more ordinary means of locomotion on water. The sheltered bays and sounds which offered a smooth and undisturbed surface to the action of the infant steamer argued the absence of that element which gave effect to the sails and rigging of the wind-propelled ship, and the rapid currents of the gigantic streams formed by the drainage of this great continent, though facilitating access to the coast, rendered the oar powerless in the ascent.

(229.) The first great discovery of Watt had scarcely been realized in practice by the construction of the singleacting steam-engine, when the speculative and enterprising Americans conceived the project of applying it as a moving power in their inland navigation. So early as the year 1783