178 A. D. 1788. 



The Ruflians have alfo engaged in this trade, in which they have ad- 

 vantages over all other European adventurers : but they never carry 

 their furs to Canton, and the quantity is unknown. 



From the above account it appears, that, though the value at Canton, 

 the only market to all nations except the Ruflians, be very high, when 

 compared with the coft of the articles given in exchange for the furs to 

 the American Indians, yet the w^hole amount of the fales is fcarcely ad- 

 equate to the expenfe of the outfits, efpecially from Britain, and that it 

 will probably never be any great objed to individuals, and far lefs a 

 great national objed:. 



•Some fiirther account of this trade, and of the quarrel it almofl en- 

 gaged us in with the court of Spain, with the fubfequent negotiations, 

 will be given hereafter. 



About this time a number of new experiments were made upon the 

 materials and the conftrudion of veilels, both for inland and ocean na- 

 vigation. In the preceding year Mr. Wilkinfon, the proprietor of a 

 very extenfive iron work, conilruded a barge for the Birmingham canal 

 navigation of 70 feet long and 6 feet 8-^ inches wide, of iron plates, 

 which could fwim in 8 or 9 inches of water, and carry 32 tuns of goods : 

 and this year a fimilar barge was conftruded at Shrewfbury. A veflel 

 with a bottom entirely of copper, without any plank, was built laft 

 year, and another of the fame metal in the year 1789. At Leith a 

 veflel was built with two bottoms ; or rather two very narrow vefl^els 

 were joined together by the beams of the lower and upper decks. She 

 had five mafls, and was furniflied with five wheels, under the lower deck 

 and between the two bottoms, which were intended to make way in a 

 calm, or againfl: the v^ind ; and it was expeded, that the double hold 

 fhe had of the water would enable her to carry an extraordinary quan- 

 tity of canvafs with very little heeling. But in a pafl^age, which flie 

 made to Peterfljurg, the two bottoms were found to ad as levers againfl: 

 each-other, not merely in keeping her ftiff (or upright), but alfo in 

 ftraining the whole frame, whereby flie was fo much injured, that no- 

 body cared to venture home in her, and flie was left in Ruflia *. 



* A flight iketch of this double ftiip may be feen in the Gentleman's magazine, 1788, p. 1069. 



