its coal strata exposed to the light of clay. After passing Kerguelens 

 land it is very improbable that steam will be required for seven 

 hundred miles. On your return by the Horn I doubt whether more 

 than a half cargo of coals should be taken on board, since between 

 Australia and the Falkland Islands not more than 1 500 miles would 

 require the use of steam. A full cargo would tend only to burden the 

 ship whilst under sail, and thus lengthen the voyage instead of aiding 

 the ship. From the Falkland Islands, \nth a full cargo of coals, you 

 should strike off on the same great circle by which you left your highest 

 latitude, and then economise your fuel, taking advantage of the N.E. 

 trades, and taking care to reserve a supply of coals for the variables, 

 and especially for the channel. 



There is, however, another problem which remains to be solved, for 

 which the experience of steamers on the composite routes will soon 

 furnish us the data. Is it desirable that steamers should have any 

 coaling station on the voyage out and home? The number of days 

 during which such steamers as the Great Britain would require steam 

 out or home, I consider, will prove to be about 20. Now, at neither 

 station, either out or home, is more than one-third of the total amount 

 of coal required. Then, by decreasing the amount of coals required 

 by the engines to two-thirds the present amount, we should decrease 

 the power of the engine one-third. But this decrease of power would 

 increase the time required to steam across the regions where the aid of 

 steam is wanted more tliau from 20 to 24. Then, if one-third the 

 coals is expended in increashig the speed of the vessel so as to save the 

 time lost in coaling, we cannot regard such an expenditure in any otlier 

 light than a waste. Before, however, we can establish such a proposi- 

 tion as a fact, further data are required. 



When reviewing the passages of steamers in comparison with sailing 

 vessels, we have regarded them as failures up to a very recent period. 

 This term must be taken in a restricted sense. In one respect steamers 

 have been superior, in contributing to the health and comfort of the 

 passengers. No one but those who have crossed the tropical calms can 

 form a perfect idea of the distressing feelings they give rise to. With 

 a tropical temperature there is an incessant roll which frequently in 

 these climates affects even the experienced seaman, but to the landsman 

 it is unbearable. Under these circumstances the sickness and fever 

 arise ; and to bear out this opinion we have the fact that the mortality 

 of passengers on board the steamers that cross the line is only tea per 

 cent, of the proportion of that experienced by those on board of sailing 



