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said not to be successful in Atlantic steam navigation may be summed in the old city maxim-that "if a thing pays it succeeds." Now, the American lines do not pay. Indeed, as yet ocean steaming has not been fruitful in dividends. Very few ocean steamers pay; none of the transatlantic mail packets could, unassisted by their respective governments, earn enough to pay for their coals. Steam upon the ocean has yet to be applied successfully as a commercial speculation. Our mail packets are, like our racehorses, maintained at an expense that can only be indulged in by great commercial nations like England and America, to whom intelligence is often worth almost any pecuniary sacrifice.

The Americans carry their extravagance in mail steaming to excess. They are evidently afraid of being driven off the seas by the Cunarders. Their competing line, managed by Collins, is sustained by large grants of public money, as well as by private zeal. Yet this line has never paid simple interest to the stockholders. But such is the desire of our transatlantic friends to have fast packets, that one individual gave upwards of 2,000,000 dollars to insure the continuous working of the packets. This patriotic person said to Mr. Collins, on placing at his disposal this enormous sum: "You may sink the whole of that capital, but you must not make a failure."

The result of this tremendous steam-boat race across the Atlantic is, we hope, fast coming to a crisis. It will, we trust, be beaten by the electric telegraph. Once lay down the submarine cable, and then there will not be the same necessity for such a high speed as practised by the American captains, who, by their reckless conduct, jeopardise whatever life and property is entrusted to their care. But we fear, while we hope, that this struggle, which has now been going on for years between two of the most dogged maritime races on earth, will not be closed suddenly. The victory has yet to be won. Every year brings forth some fresh naval specimen from our dockyards, which beats all previous efforts. Year after year the passage from Liverpool to New York is reduced day by day. The Great Western, our pioneer steamer, ran the course in fifteen days. The Persia, our last racing steamer, did it in nine. She has made the quickest passage on record. Nine days have now become a register and a rule, and the Americans are put upon their mettle, and the Adriatic, a new vessel which they are building, is to eclipse the Persia. They even threaten us with a new line to Southampton, and have applied to Congress for a compensation-for so they term a public gift of 16,608 dollars for the round trip-to sustain them in the ruinous struggle for speed over the Atlantic. They have, moreover, appended a proviso to their application, by which they inflict a penalty upon themselves of 1000 dollars for every twelve hours they are beaten by the English boats. This is racing with a vengeance. They must beat the Persia, or sink, for that is the meaning of the thousand-dollar proviso.

"No flinching" is also a well-known British motto. We know that this race against time is also a struggle for maritime supremacy; only let our government abandon the regular transatlantic mail service and leave it to its own resources, and then the Yankees would not have spent their millions of dollars in vain. They would then step in and

have the whole carrying trade in their hands. That they fear our competition is evident from the vast sacrifices they make to support their Collins line; and they have solid grounds for fearing a loss in their carrying trade, for there has been an absolute decrease in their sail tonnage owing to steam. The cheaper capital in Great Britain has given to us an advantage over the United States in steam tonnage, and the carrying trade of our own and other countries has returned to our hands after having been wrested from us by the sailing packets of the United States. Steam has partially restored the carrying trade to British bottoms. We must keep this trade at any cost, and our government would do well to imitate the United States in affording aid to their mail steamers. The heavy taxation to support the American line in its competition with the British is four times as much for each trip as the English Government pays to its mail service. But the Yankees are determined to go ahead at any sacrifice; but let them beware. Let the fate of the Arctic and the Pacific, as they lie at the bottom of the Atlantic, warn them of the dangers of steam-racing upon the ocean.

Passing now from a financial view of this subject to observe what progress has been made in steam naval architecture, we have strongly marked contrasts. We remember how, in 1815, a little vessel passed by canal from Greenock to London to try its fortune upon the Thames. Since then the conquests of science have given such fleet wings to steam that it flies over the broadest oceans, in mighty fabrics that may be styled the most daring specimens of human ingenuity. It is instructive to contrast the dimensions of the first sea-going steamer with some of the ships that have recently been launched; and the following table gives the relative size of the Rob Roy and some of the largest steamers now built or building, and affords a ready means of realising what our "giant" has accomplished since he first began to put his "paddles" in salt water:

Thus, in less than forty years steam-vessels have grown enormously in bulk, and have enlarged the sphere of commercial operations in all parts of the world; and perhaps no power of physical effort, under the control of man, has ever within so short a space of time produced such startling results.

We now resume our gossip, and point out a path upon the ocean, as yet only partially tried by our "paddles," and only just beginning to be traversed by our 66 screws." We allude to our distant colony of Australia. Full-powered paddle steamers are useless here. The best ten-day transatlantic packets would not pay for the coals consumed, and other working expenses, between London and Melbourne. Even the

attraction of the gold fields failed to produce a supply of practicable steamers, and sailing clippers have hitherto made the most remarkable passages. Some of these vessels have made extraordinary runs; and, as the race now stands between England and Australia, it is a struggle between canvas and steam. But canvas ships are subject to a difficulty that they cannot overcome. In certain latitudes the swiftest clipper may lie becalmed for days an idle log upon the water. Full-powered steamers, on the other hand, are too expensive; even the attractions of the gold fields could not make them pay. It soon became evident, therefore, that if our giant" was to be made useful either in our communications with India or Australia, he must call in the assistance of the wind, an element he has hitherto set at defiance. Steam, therefore, may be said to have assumed a new phase. It has done so in the clipper screw, a union of canvas and steam.

Let us say a few words upon this important and interesting subject. Hitherto our gossip has been merely descriptive of past events. We can be descriptive no longer. We have to do with the future, and must turn prophet. Be it so. We hold it to be a sound conclusion in all commercial speculations, that the success of an undertaking depends upon whether it pays or not. Starting with this axiom, let us test this clipper-screw scheme by an appeal to figures. Let us say that a fullpowered steam-ship adapted to run to Australia would cost £70,000. She would require engines of 500 horse-power; her tonnage would be perhaps 2000 tons, yet such a ship would only have vacant space, after coaling, for about 500 tons of cargo. She would consume on the Voyage about 2000 tons of coal, which, at £2 per ton (a low estimate), would amount to £4000. Now, the value of the freight upon her cargo, taking it at £3 per ton, is £1500. We leave out all expense of the crew and officers, and the profits derivable from passengers, for reasons which will be seen below, and proceed at once to a commercial result upon these items. It is clear, then, that such a steamer would expend in coals £4000, and would receive £1500 for freightage, and would of course come home in debt about £2500.

Now, let us see what may be anticipated if the £70,000 capital be laid out in two screw clippers-for that is the amount we believe the Screw Clipper Company set apart, as the value of two such ships. The capital being the same, in both instances, what are the expected results of a different mode of working it? We quote from authority when we assume that two "clipper screws" of a tonnage equal to 2866 tons, with 160 horse-power engines, can be built for such a sum; that their united capacity for carrying cargo equals 2800 tons, and that consequently the value of freight upon the cargo in both ships, at £3 per ton, would equal £8400, while the consumption of the coals, estimated at 300 tons, would amount to only £600. Let us now proceed to a commercial result upon these items. It is clear, therefore, that two such " clipper screws" would expend in coals £600, and would receive £8,400 for freightage, and would of course come home with a profit of £7,050 after paying all expenses.

With regard to the wages of the officers and crews of the screw clippers, it is believed that they would about equal the expense attending the engine-room of a full-powered steamer, when the wear and tear

of the machinery, the consumption of stores, are taken into consideration; we have therefore set the one down as a balance against the other. With respect to passengers, the full-powered steamer will accommodate as many as the two clipper screws, and we have balanced the one against the other. The practical result, then, seems to be as follows: that upon the same amount of capital employed the clipper screws would have in their favour a balance of £7,050 over the fullpowered steamer in each voyage.

We have to apologise for introducing such a vulgar subject as £ s. d. into our gossip, but it has been found that such considerations assume an importance upon all modes of keeping up a rapid and continuous stream of communication between the mother country and her golden regions in Australia. Indeed, cost is the main element in the practicable working of steam-ships. If they pay, they succeed. A good dividend is the life of steam companies.

We will conclude our gossip by glancing at the next phase ocean steaming may be expected to assume, but we confess we are at a loss how to grapple with the subject. What shall we call the huge leviathan now growing into shape at Millwall? This mass of iron overwhelms us with its magnitude. The Great Eastern is of course a ship, but she is not much like other craft. Like the Great Britain, however, she has been laughed at now she is in the "stocks," but seeing what that celebrated iron screw steamer has done both afloat and ashore (in Dundrum Bay) we have great faith in the powers of iron. Indeed, iron ships have performed wonders; besides, we have not quite overcome the amazement that other iron miracle of science, the tubular bridge of Stephenson, created in our minds; we are only just beginning to understand the quality of this metal, and we shall not allow ourselves to be carried away by any nautical doubts bred and fostered in our mind by early associations connected with the "wooden walls" of old England.

We confess, however, that we are not "up" to the exploits our present engineers seem able to perform. We should be happy to see the Great Eastern safe out of her present "ways," for they appear to us but feeble "means" of support for her monstrous weight of metal. When in the water we shall fancy her, of course, a ship. At present her appearance is as indescribable as bits of dreams. The shipwrights build her in patches, which, when connected, will form a noble piece of patchwork no doubt. But until she is in the water we shall be

nervous.

She is intended to form a new era in steam navigation, and, like the Great Britain, produce important results. We have faith in her accomplishing this end. However, it is in vain to speculate upon her future, and therefore we will merely describe her as she will soon be when afloat, and safe out of the mud of the Isle of Dogs.

Only fancy, then, a ship 700 feet long, with only 60 feet of beam; her length is therefore out of all proportion to her breadth, according to "rule of thumb;" but we have witnessed some departures from old rules that have turned out remarkably well. Nevertheless her appearance upon deck must be like a railroad; indeed, some of the modern appliances of railways appear necessary for the navigating of this

monstrous ship. Thus she will have a semaphore and an electric telegraph, so that her officers may convey their orders over her vast hull with the velocity of lightning. She is to be at once both paddle and screw steamer, and so far will contain within herself all that is known of the powers of steam propulsion.

Vast as she is in hull and outward shape, some of her internal machinery conveys to our senses an idea of gigantic power equally astonishing. Thus the "shaft" of her propeller is 160 feet long, and weighs 60 tons. Only imagine this tremendous spindle revolving with the rapidity of a fly-wheel, and turning a brazen screw of some dozen tons weight at its extremity. In addition to this colossal propelling apparatus she will have paddle-wheels of 56 feet diameter, or 168 feet circumference, and with these motive powers, unaided or nearly so by canvas, she is expected to go through the water at the rate of sixteen, eighteen, or twenty miles an hour. The exact speed had better not be stated, for fear, when she comes to the test at the " measured" mile, her engines or something else may be "whimsical."

The Great Eastern is to be perfectly secured against ordinary sea dangers by ten water-tight compartments, so that, although she may be quarterwrecked, half-wrecked, or even three-quarter-wrecked, she cannot be wholly wrecked; for as each compartment will be self-sustaining it is not very likely that the latter calamity can ever overtake her. She need not fear collision with anything but an iceberg. We do not know what effect this mode of building will have upon the insurance, but we should say that as a portion of her may be damaged and the cargo destroyed, it behoves the underwriters to look into the matter. Seriously, a question might arise upon this subject. And lastly, her engines are enormous, and her tonnage prodigious!-25,000 tons!-and she will carry a small coal mine in her "bunkers" sufficient to feed her "volcanic fires" with fuel for the "round" trip to the antipodes.

Remarks upon this stupendous vessel before she is launched would be "reckoning our chickens before they are hatched." We will therefore conclude with suggesting that, as it is only about "forty years since" that the Rob Roy, of ninety tons, made the first sea voyage ever attempted by a steamer, and as that little trip was by the wiseacres of that day denounced as a failure, so now, while we are gaping with wonder at the Great Eastern, of 25,000 tons, and speculating upon what will be her fate, had we not better hold our tongues and suspend our judgment until the "future?"

NARRATIVE OF A BRITISH EXPEDITION TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONTIER IN 1842.

AFTER a five years' residence in that portion of the West Indies forming the beautiful though, alas! well-filled burial-grounds, delighting in the names of Trinidad, St. Lucia, and British Guiana, during which I had fought through my share of fevers, &c. &c., I began to feel that not only my body but also my mind required a change. In fact, I felt that if I could not by some means get away to Europe, my