34 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



at the bottom, diminishing to three quarters of an inch at the top of 

 the side. The main and spar decks are four inches thick, laid on iron 

 beams of large dimensions, to which are connected large iron shelf- 

 pieces and stringers, with water-ways formed of timber extending all 

 round the decks, and connected with the sides of the ship. The 

 armament for the spar deck will be two swivel guns of 112 cvvt. each, 

 and four of 56 cwt., all for. firing shot or shell of eight inches diam- 

 eter ; there are also two 32-pounders of 25 cwt. each. For the main 

 deck there are twelve 32-pounders of 56 cwt. each. The screw-pro- 

 peller is so fitted that it can be disconnected from the engines and 

 raised on deck through a trunk fitted through the decks for that 

 purpose. 



This is in point of tonnage the largest iron frigate ever built, and 

 the largest ship of that material ever launched, for it must be remem- 

 bered that the leviathan, the Great Britain, was not launched, but floated 

 into the water. 



THE NEW UNITED STATES STEAMER SUSQUEHANNA. 



THE United States steamship Susquehanna, at Philadelphia, will 

 be ready for launching early in the spring. She is thirty feet longer 

 than the great ship of the line, the Pennsylvania. Her breadth of 

 beam is much less, and her tonnage is but 2,500. She will carry but 

 eight guns, of heavy calibre ; one of them, which will be placed upon 

 her bow, will throw hollow shot weighing 268 pounds. Her ma- 

 chinery will cost $300,000, the four boilers alone $30,000 each, and the 

 whole vessel, when completed, about $600,000. Her crew will consist 

 of about 300 men. Journal of Commerce. 



GREAT RUSSIAN RAILWAY FROM ST. PETERSBURG TO MOSCOW. 



THE greatest work of modern times, undertaken as a public im- 

 provement, and not directly as a war measure, was the project by the 

 Emperor Nicholas of Russia for a line of railway to connect the 

 great capitals of the empire. The distance was generally stated at 

 500 miles, but the location of the railway has been effected in a dis- 

 tance of only 420 miles. The plan adopted contemplated the con- 

 struction of a road perfect in all its parts, and equipped to its utmost 

 necessity, regardless of expense or of the time requisite to its com- 

 pletion. The estimates were on a scale of imperial grandeur, and 

 contemplated the expenditure of thirty-eight millions of. dollars. The 

 work was intrusted to Col. George W. Whistler, with unlimited 

 authority, and forty millions of dollars were set aside for the work. 

 Seven years was the shortest estimate made for the time of its comple- 

 tion, and all parts of the work were so distributed as to give tune for 

 everything to take its appropriate position when required. These advan- 

 tages were fully appreciated by Col. Whistler, and all his plans were 

 matured upon a scale of comprehensive economy suited to so import- 

 ant an undertaking. The line selected for the route had no reference 

 to intermediate localities, and is the shortest one attainable without 



