BY THE NEW FOREST 113 



and Neiv York, between the General Post-Office in 

 London and the Post-Office in New York. 



The distance from St. Martin's-le-Grand by way of 

 St. Paul's Churchyard and Blackfriars Bridge is — to 

 Waterloo Station, and thence by rail to the ship's side 

 at Southampton, SO^^ miles ; from the dock here to 

 the quayside there is 3,069 nautical miles, and I 

 suppose it is half a land mile further to the New 

 York post-office — total 3,613J statute miles. The 

 mails carried by these two vessels respectively covered 

 this great distance, on an average, outwards, in 

 7 days 6 hours 55 minutes ; and despite fogs, storms, 

 icebergs, or what not, on the Atlantic, the road up 

 or the way blocked in Queen Victoria Street or on 

 Bennet's Hill, the bags achieved the inward journey 

 in 7 days 6 hours 56 minutes. 



There was only in point of time a minute's 

 difference (on the average of a year's runs) between 

 taking the mails 3,613J miles in one direction, and 

 bringing them 3,613J miles in the other. As the 

 service is not performed under the British flag, I 

 cannot say whether the same course, and therefore 

 the identical mileage, is covered on the outward as on 

 the return trip ; but the distance named appears to 

 be, at any rate, the mean or average distance. 



On June 13, 1895, a brand-new steamship of 

 16,000 tons, according to one account, and therefore 

 the largest vessel afloat, or of 11,000 tons, and still 

 one of the largest according to another (the former 

 figure probably representing builder's measurement 



8 



