Steam Power in mamtaming a Ferry, 69 



sent. At Queensferry, it is a very proper regulation that hay 

 and straw shall not be embarked at all in the steam-boat ; and 

 yet the inconvenience of hoisting carts of either into the sailing- 

 boats is very great. At Dundee, without perhaps its appearing 

 as a matter of specific regulation, the practice is the same ; and 

 almost the only use to which sailing-boats are still applied on 

 that highly improved ferry, is to convey flax-yam, and other 

 such goods, across. Were the steam-power, however, at either 

 place, embarked in a separate boat, and merely employed in 

 towing, such practice might easily be discontinued; and sailing- 

 boats, with their uncertainty and discomforts, be almost entirely 

 disused. 



12. Upon the tug-system, high-pressure engines might be 

 again introduced into steam-navigation, and their advantages 

 secured, without alarm to passengers. These advantages are 

 greatly undervalued in this country ; — they consist chiefly in 

 original cheapness of construction, diminished expence of work- 

 ing, superior lightness (nearly as 4 to 5) ; but, above all, in com- 

 mand of high power, not for current use, but in reserve against 

 occasions when it may be required. In low-pressure engines 

 there is no such reserve ; — beyond a certain limited point, an 

 increased fire only fatigues the machinery, without adding one 

 jot to the useful effect : yet in every species of navigation, it is 

 important to have it ; in ordinary cases it is furnished by the 

 morale of the seamen, — and in steam-navigation, it ought, if 

 possible, to be within the physique of the engine *. All these 

 advantages are, however, at present sacrificed to the apprehen- 

 sions of the public, — apprehensions in a considerable degree 

 overcome in America, where the subject is more studied, and 

 the value of modern improvements is consequently more exact- 

 ly appreciated ; but which it would be very unwise, and even 

 criminal, as yet to neglect here. Tlie first step might, how- 



• To meet this occasional addition to the working power of the engine, it 

 would not probably be difficult to contrive paddles which should expand and 

 contract at will ; it is not unlikely, indeed, that they are already contrived. 

 Lieutenant Skene, of the Navy, has lately patented a form of paddles, of 

 which I have not seen the specification ; but the praise given them by the 

 newspapers, when they were tried lately on the Thames, seems unintelligible 

 on any other supposition. 



