124 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



powerful of those you have now seen and heard, 

 or a good steam whistle, can, if not going at a 

 speed of more than four or five knots, give ample 

 warning of her approach, and sufficient indication 

 of her position, to allow any other vessel to give 

 similar information in return, in good time for the 

 two, if both acting judiciously, to surely avoid 

 collision by daylight. It is almost a pleasure to 

 be in the British or Irish Channel by daylight in 

 a dense fog, and to perceive so vividly through 

 your ears that you imagine you see a steamer 

 sounding her steam whistle and crossing your bow 

 at a safe distance, or a sailing vessel coming down 

 free on your starboard quarter, when you are 

 creeping to windward on the starboard tack. The 

 pleasure, such as it is, is no doubt greatly marred 

 by the thought that there may be near you some 

 lubber, or as I should prefer to say, felon, whether 

 under steam or canvas, sounding neither steam 

 whistle nor fog-horn. 



I am informed by Mr. Thomas Gray, of the 

 Board of Trade, that probably soon a great im- 

 provement is to be made in the system of fog 



