CHAP, ix.] VARIOUS APPLICATIONS OF STEAM. 499 



Figures are not forthcoming about the manufacturing industries of 

 other countries of Europe or of America. But we may gain an idea 

 of what they probably are by considering the immense development 

 that has taken place in the network of railways over the entire 

 globe, a network traversed night and day by steam, which is also 

 continually increasing its hold on the navigation of seas and rivers 

 and lakes. 



Up to 1875-76 the length of all the railways of the world reached 

 a total of 176,141 miles, or nearly seven times the entire circum- 

 ference of our planet. They are distributed as follows : 



Europe . V .- . ..... . 83,864 



America . '. . . ". .. 82,335 



Asia . . . .'. './.' , " .. . 6,822 



Africa ...-..', . . . ! ' ! . 1,675 



Australasia 1,463 



Locomotives now even pour forth their clouds of steam in India, 

 Australia, and Japan, and steamboats are ploughing every sea. The 

 navy has, in fact, followed the example of the manufacturing 

 industries and the land transport, and though on a smaller scale, yet 

 in an always increasing proportion. 



In Europe, of 100,000 ships, forming nearly the total number of 

 the mercantile marine, 4,500 ships employ steam, the tonnage of the 

 latter greatly exceeding the tonnage of the sailing vessels. The 

 number of sailing vessels employed in the home trade in Great Britain 

 and Ireland was reduced from 11,000 in 1861 to 10,800 in 1874, 

 while in the same time the number of .steam vessels similarly em- 

 ployed had increased from 448 to 1,128, and in the foreign trade 

 from 477 to 1,597. The number of new ships built in the same 

 year was 



Sailing Ships. Steam Ships. 



1861 774 . . .. . . 201 



1874 ..... 499 ..... 482 



All these facts indicate the rapid conversion of a sailing into a 

 steam marine. The total tonnage of all vessels rose from 26 million 

 tons in 1861 to 45 million tons in 1874. 



K K 2 



