298 Securities against Fire, fyc. 



We 



»/ 



relates solely to the more frequent use of solid poles to assist the 

 descent of water from roofs. I have only to slate here that as hollow 

 pipes are subject to have water frozen within them, which is an in- 

 convenience in the winter season, solid poles may in various instances, 

 be more useful for the above purpose, than hollow tubes. 



Here then shall be finished what I shall term my interlocutory ar- 

 ticles on the subject of " the collection of water" 



1 1. We now return to the case of conflagrations in dwellings ; but 

 they are dwellings of a new description of which we have now to 

 speak ; for under this head it will be found, that we may include 

 steam boats ; and especially those employed in close waters, but with- 

 out forgetting altogether steam boats in open seas. 



■ 



The Chinese, it is well known, have villages and towns compos- 

 ed entirely of large covered boats ; that is, of inhabited tenements. 



fi 



floating, but of being transfi 



boats, carrying passengers and goods, (such as move up and down 

 many rivers in the United States), may be considered then, in effect, 

 as moving taverns, with a huge ware house annexed ; and the whole 

 of this vast combination is subject to the most terrible disasters from 

 fire ; which fire, whether it arises from one part of the combination 

 or another, generally ends in the common ruin of the whole; espe- 

 cially if the water which the steam boats are traversing, is able to 

 lend its aid in rendering the disaster still more complicated. 



It is the object of this article to treat of the whole of this mass of 

 evils briefly, in order to find (as far as may be,) what are the means 

 of prevention or of cure which may be adopted respecting it. 



'f 



first 



g vessel, and 



place it in a small separate vessel of its own : which indeed was the 



atory is wanting for completing any thing in the organized part of creation, such a 

 laboratory is always provided ; and mechanical laws also are resorted to, as well as 

 chemical laws.if requisite for accomplishing a given purpose. — In short, in all around 

 us we see evidence both of unity and of variety, of knowledge and of efficiency ; 

 Human science however being often unable to decipher what is thus exhibited to 

 its view, till the study of successive ages has been employed in unveiling the se- 

 cret. So great is the Creator, so little is man! 



