generosity peculiar to the commanders of the India Company's ships," sent fresh provisions, tea, and other articles to the crew of the Resolution, and deservedly received public acknowledgment from Cook. The True Briton then steered out to sea, on her way to England, carrying letters from Cook to the Admiralty.

The Resolution anchored in Table Bay on 22nd March; the usual salutations followed; the Resolution fired thirteen guns, the Dutch garrison returned the compliment. Cook speaks in high terms of the treatment he received, saying, "There are few people more obliging to strangers than the Dutch in general at this place." All the voyagers enjoyed real repose, recruiting their strength by a liberal supply of fresh-baked bread, fresh meat and vegetables, &c. The ship was thoroughly overhauled and repaired. The sails and rigging were found in a bad condition, and who can wonder after such a voyage. Our Captain remarks, "From our leaving this place, to our return to it again, we had sailed no less than 20,000 leagues; an extent of

G

voyage nearly equal to three times the equatorial circumference of the earth, and which, I apprehend, was never sailed by any ship in the same space of time before. And yet in all their great run, which had been made in all latitudes between 9o and 71°, we sprung neither low-masts, top-mast, lower nor top-sail yard, nor so much as broke a lower or top-mast shroud; which, with the great care and abilities of my officers, must be owing to the good properties of our ship."

Very much of this success, no doubt, depended on the build of the ship, as well as on the excellence of her appointments. Now, the Resolution was 462 tons burden, and the Adventure 336, which would not be called large in these days, and they were not selected for the fineness of their lines, or because they were "smart craft," but for their relative capacity and seagoing qualities. With this narrative before us, we are almost tempted to question the wisdom of constructing our modern ships on such refined methods; now-a-days the delicacy of the structure is such, that the working of the whole machine seems to depend too closely upon the stability of each part, so that the breakage of one member, in some cases, disables the whole ship. Surely, then, if these old ships had less speed, they had more power-power to surmount the fury of a storm, nor were they disabled by the splitting of a sail or the breakage of a spar.

At the Cape it occupied just one month for the necessary repair of the Resolution, and getting her ready for the voyage home; she put to sea on 27th April, and sailed for St. Helena, which isle was sighted on 15th May. As nothing of importance to our narrative occurred here, we have only to note that the ship left again on 21st, and made the island of Ascension on 28th May, and on 31st again set sail, and, proceeding northward, ran for the island of Fernando de Noronho (N.E. of Cape St. Roque), which was reached on 9th June.

On the 11th the equator was crossed in longitude 32° 14′ W.; squally weather ensued; fresh water was running short, and the still was put into requisition, thirty-two gallons being thus obtained, by the expenditure of one and a half bushels of coals. North-east winds now prevailed. The Resolution made the Azores on 13th July; here fresh provisions were obtained and fifteen tons of water; hence Cook (sailing on 19th) proceeded homeward with all expedition, made the land near Plymouth on 29th, and set foot on Old England again on 30th July, 1775.

On this voyage Cook was absent three years and eighteen days, during which period, under all the changes of climate, he lost but four men, and only one of them by sickness.

S. H. M.

HE history of steam navigation, as far at least as England is concerned, is comprised within living memory. About the close of the Peninsular war and the battle of Leipsic, the steamboat was beginning to show itself in our rivers, to the surprise of rustics and "old tars." An engine and paddle-wheels were fitted to a strong barge, which became then almost independent of wind and tide. Crowds flocked to see the uncanny monster, and augured ill for its safety under trying circumstances. They thought it a toy, and nothing more. Even seven years after, in 1820, at many booking-offices in the City and in the leading thoroughfares, bills, duly illustrated, announced the departure of sailing packets to British and foreign ports. Several boldly painted signposts represented the Edinburgh packet scudding along, fearless of the rocky headlands in sight. But in the year 1823, barely ten years after the first appearance of a steamship in English waters, the James Watt steamed from London to Edinburgh in about fifty hours. It was a pleasant vessel. Passengers had to book themselves many days before. They had to embark at Blackwall, where there was no embankment, no pier except an extemporé one made by laying planks on the mud, and no inn, except one where the traveller who ventured to take a bed was eaten alive before the morning. The James Watt lay off Scarborough to put out passengers and take in. Leaving Blackwall at 6 a.m., it reached Scarborough, under favourable circumstances, at noon next day. It was a good ship, and did excellent service for thirty or forty years. One could play a game of chess on board, and speculate with epicurean indifference on the fate of the hundreds of rotten, ill-found, ill-manned colliers, creeping along, should the wind happen to set in-shore. It must often have

occurred to observers that steam navigation made a more rapid progress in the first ten years than it has done since; but it is to be remembered that as early as 1825 England went literally mad upon railways, and though at that date few expected the locomotive to beat the mail coach, even the speed of the mail coach would compete with the Edinburgh packet. By the year 1830, all the speculation of the country was diverted from the sea to the land. It was long before the ocean steamer was regarded as anything but the romance of some half crazy, perhaps not quite honest engineers, ready to try grand experiments at the cost of easy dupes. In this, as in other matters, moral causes, and even political, have had as much to do as scientific development. Only a quarter of a century ago we had not a single ironclad, and our steamships were so few that a short run of disasters would have compelled us to manage as we could with sailing ships. Nor were mishaps so uncommon or so unlikely to happen at the most inconvenient season, as will be remembered by those present at the naval review before the Russian war.

The launch, last month, of the Cunard Company's Royal Mail Steamship Servia, at Clydebank, near Glasgow, in presence of a large number of spectators, is, if we may be excused the inappropriate metaphor, a landmark in the progress of steam navigation. Great interest was taken in the event from the circumstance that the new vessel is fully 3,000 tons larger than such huge ships as the Gallia, the Arizona, the Orient, the Furnessia, and the Parisian, being in point of dimensions and tonnage exceeded only by Mr. Scott Russell's famous ship the Great Eastern. The Great Eastern was a gigantic effort, in several respects far in advance of the age. Its cost was incalculable; it was wrecked in the very launching; it had no reasonable prospect of a regular traffic; there were only two or three ports in the world that it could approach with safety, even with precautions costing much time and money; and all attempts fully to utilise it have ended in failure. The Servia is a member of an existing line of steamers. It is a cautious and justifiable advance on its successful predecessors. The management of the Cunard line has occasionally come before the public, with the result of disclosing that nothing is there left to chance, to sanguine hopes, or brilliant ideas. All is exact calculation, founded on facts and averages. The rules to be observed by the captain are as well considered as the bearings and proportions of the wonderful engine below. The capacity and steam power have been fixed on commercial principles, not for a possible Exodus or imaginary Argonauts. The Servia is only 530 ft. long, 52 ft. broad, and 44ft. deep; that is, only as big as twenty good West-end houses. This makes it not much more than a third the bulk of the Great Eastern,

which is 692 ft. long and 83 ft. broad. But it comes in a regular series of successive enlargements, comprehending the Great Western, which was only 236 ft. long, and the Great Britain, which was 322 ft., and thought a very great achievement. It is the regular growth that guarantees the future. Even already it is a fact of much import in the relations of the new and the old world, and of the British races, that several lines of ships of such bulk, speed, comfort, and safety are timed to run to a day across the once boundless ocean. This can now be done, in ordinary weather, with an ease and luxury far beyond that of the best-managed Continental tour. Everybody who has travelled, even in the fairest regions of Europe, knows that perfection has not yet been attained in the railway system. Whether the traveller try long journeys or short journeys, whether he push ahead or break his journey, whether he take the express or the slow train, he finds it still a choice of ills. They who have divided their time between Continental and Transatlantic journeys give their preference to the latter; there is no rest so complete, no change so thorough, no variety so refreshing as that of the passage, unless you are very unlucky in your weather. This is a contingency to which all holidays, all amusements, all operations are liable. A single storm has spoilt picnics, overthrown armies, changed dynasties, and ruined empires. Even a short spell of merely indifferent weather has done the mischief. The Cunard line does not pretend to put the elements quite out of the question, but it has succeeded in doing so quite as much as any other home arrangements.

The full dimensions of this new vessel, the Servia, are-length 530 ft., breadth 52 ft., depth 44 ft. 9 in., gross tonnage 8,500 tons. A better idea of the huge size of the vessel will be gained from the following facts. Her cargo capacity will be equal to 6,500 tons, with 1,800 tons of coal, and 1,000 tons of water ballast, the vessel having a double bottom on the longitudinal bracket system. The anchor davits are 8 in., and the chain-cable pipe 22 in. in diameter. The propeller shaft weighs 26 tons, and the propeller, boss, and blades, which are made of Vickers steel, are 38 tons in weight. The machinery consists of three cylinder, compound, surface-condensing engines, one cylinder being 72 in. and two 100 in. in diameter, with a stroke piston of 6 ft. 6 in. It is anticipated that the indicated horse-power will amount to 10,500. There are in all seven boilers, six of which are double and one single-ended, and all are made of steel, with corrugated furnaces, the total number of furnaces being 39. Practically, the Servia is a five-decker, as she is built with four decks and a promenade. The promenade, which is reserved for the passengers, is very large and spacious. On the fore part of it are the steam steering gear and house,