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NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



1. Sketch of the Civil Engineering of North America. By David Steven- 

 son, Esq. Civil Engineer. John Weale, London 1838. 



The interesting volume here recommended to the particular 

 notice of our readers, we owe to a son of Robert Stevenson, 

 Esq. the celebrated engineer. It is characterized by that cau- 

 tion, sound judgment, and accuracy, for which the Stevenson 

 family is so distinguished. The following subjects, which em- 

 brace almost every description of work that comes under the 

 practice of the engineer, are treated of, viz., Harhours- — Lake 

 Navigation — River Navigation — Steam Navigation — Fuel and 

 Materials — Canals — Roads — Bridges — Railways — Water- 

 works — Lighthouses — and Housemov'mg^ an operation peculiar 

 to the United States. 



Our author, after detailing the character of the American 

 harbours, next treats of Lake Navigation, which, as is well 

 known, is stopped for a considerable period (three months) every 

 year, by the ice. On the subject Mr Stevenson says, " The pe- 

 riod at which lake navigation closes, is generally about the end of No- 

 vember or beginning of December, and this interruption is never removed 

 before the first week of May. In 1887, the year in which I visited Ame- 

 rica, the navigation was not wholly open till the last week of May. On 

 the 20th of that month, I passed down Lake Erie, on my way to Buffalo, 

 in the steam-boat ^' Sandusky," on which occasion, even at that late pe- 

 riod in summer, we encountered a large field of floating ice, extending 

 as far as the eye could reach. Our vessel entered the ice about seven 

 o'clock in the morning, and at twelve in the forenoon she had got nearly 

 half-way through this obstacle, when a breeze of wind sprung up, which, 

 from its direction, had the effect of consolidating the field into a mass so 

 compact, that our vessel being no longer able to penetrate it, was detain- 

 ed a prisoner at the distance of about ten miles from Buffalo, the port for 

 which she was bound. During the two following days, the efforts of our 

 ere w to free the vessel were unavailing, and so tliick was the field of ice 

 by which we were surrounded, that several of our less patient and per- 

 haps more adventurous fellow passengers, made many fruitless attempts 

 to reach the shore, which was only two or three miles distant, by walk- 

 ing over its surface. On the morning of the 23d, a breeze of wind fortu- 

 nately loosened the ice, and our captain, after having seriously damaged 

 his vessel in attempting to extricate her, succeeded in making his escape, 

 and landed his unfortunate passengers during a torrent of rain, on tlie 

 shores of the lake, far from any house, and ten miles from Buffalo, the 



