the Cunard Line to boast that it has never lost a passenger or at least so far as its regular service is concerned-a parcel. To suppose that such immunity, extending over so long a time, is accidental, would be absurd. In earlier days, no doubt, the mail subsidy which the Cunard Company received added materially to the safety of the Transatlantic voyage. When so little was done towards economizing steam and fuel, vessels so solidly built could only, commercially speaking, have been worked at a heavy loss. As regards later days, this striking immunity from disaster will probably be attributed to a caution which has in some eyes become old-fashioned. Would the same caution, it might be asked, have in every case prevented those appalling catastrophes which have from time to time marked the annals of Transatlantic steaming? This is a question which it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to answer. For the startling thing about these catastrophes is this-that the most appalling have been those about which no whisper has ever reached either side of the Atlantic. Since the path across that ocean began to be a highway for steam, no less than four steamers, beginning with the President and ending with the City of Boston, have utterly and totally disappeared, not to speak of wrecks in which every soul has perished. It is impossible to realize this fact without a sense of horror. Scenes have passed in mid-ocean the agony of which can never be known or even guessed at. There is another side to the triumph, after all, as there is another side to victory on the battle-field. Still it may be said of these triumphs of the arts of peace more surely than it can be said of the triumphs of the arts of war, that the balance of results is in favour of human happiness. Denis Papin, a celebrated French physicist, was born at Blois, 1647, and died at Marburg, 1714. He was one of the first to indicate how the intense force generated in water, air, &c., under the action of heat, could be made of practical utility. He undoubtedly was the first to apply steam to produce motion by raising a piston. He was also the inventor of the "safety-valve," and made many other important discoveries. notárial, pertaining to-here written, or drawn up, or attested, by-a notary (an officer authorized to attest contracts or other writings; originally, a person employed to take notes of proceedings in courts among the Romans). Lat. notarius, from nota, "mark, sign, shorthand character," from nosco, "I know." Dalswinton Loch, a lake on Miller's estate of Dalswinton, in Dumfriesshire. The experiments were conducted by Miller, Taylor (tutor 'in Miller's family), and Symington (an ingenious mechanic), in 1788. They were repeated on the Forth and Clyde Canal next year. Charlotte Dundas, built by Symington in 1803. He had taken out a patent for the construction of steamboats in 1801. Robert Fulton, an American engineer, working out improvements on the attempts at steam-navigation that he saw in Scotland, launched a steam-vessel on the Hudson in 1807, which first demonstrated the practical utility of steam navigation. THE rocky ledge runs far into the sea, And on its outer point, some miles away, The Lighthouse lifts its massive masonry, A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day, Even at this distance I can see the tides, Upheaving, break unheard along its base, A speechless wrath, that rises and subsides In the white lip and tremor of the face. And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright, Through the deep purple of the twilight air, Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light With strange, unearthly splendour in its glare Not one alone; from each projecting cape Holding its lantern o'er the restless surge. Like the great giant Christopher it stands Upon the brink of the tempestuous wave, Wading far out among the rocks and sands, The night-o'ertaken mariner to save. And the great ships sail outward and return, They wave their silent welcomes and farewells. They come forth from the darkness, and their sails Gleam for a moment only in the blaze, And eager faces, as the light unveils, Gaze at the tower, and vanish while they gaze. The mariner remembers when a child, On his first voyage, he saw it fade and sink; Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same Year after year, through all the silent night, Burns on for evermore that quenchless flame, Shines on that inextinguishable light! It sees the ocean to its bosom clasp The rocks and sea-sand with the kiss of peace. It sees the wild winds lift it in their grasp, And hold it up, and shake it like a fleece. The startled waves leap over it; the storm Press the great shoulders of the hurricane. The sea-bird wheeling round it, with the din A new Prometheus, chained upon the rock, "Sail on!" it says, "sail on, ye stately ships! And with your floating bridge the ocean span; Be mine to guard this light from all eclipse, Be yours to bring man nearer unto man!" LONGFELLOW. |