CHAP. I.] ENGINE-ROOM OF A STEAMER. 19 



got sight of land, consisting of the hills near St. John s, New 

 foundland, about forty miles distant. When we came on deck, 

 we were running rapidly in smooth water along the shore, within 

 four miles of Trespassey Bay. The atmosphere was bright, and 

 we had a clear view of the rocky coast, which reminded me of 

 some of the most sterile, cold, and treeless parts of Scotland. 

 Not even a shrub appeared to vary the uniform covering of green 

 turf; yet we were in a latitude corresponding to the South of 

 France. 



In a large steam-ship like the Britannia, there are three very 

 distinct societies, whose employments during the voyage are sin 

 gularly contrasted. There are the sailors, all of whom were 

 fully occupied under their officers, for a time at least, during the 

 gale, furling the sails and attending to the ordinary duties of a 

 sailing ship. Then there is the saloon, where gentlemen and 

 well-dressed ladies are seen lounging and reading books, or talk 

 ing, or playing backgammon, and enjoying, except during a hur 

 ricane, the luxuries arid expensive fare of a large hotel. Tn 

 another spacious room, which I had the curiosity to visit after 

 the storm, is a large corps of enginemen and firemen, with sooty 

 faces and soiled clothes, pale with heat, heaping up coals on the 

 great furnaces, or regulating the machinery. On visiting the 

 large engine-room, we were filled with admiration at seeing the 

 complicated apparatus, and the ease with which it moved, having 

 never once stopped for a minute when traversing 3000 miles of 

 ocean, although the vessel had been .pitching and rolling, and 

 sometimes quivering, as she was forced by the power of the steam 

 against the opposing waves, and although the ship had sometimes 

 heeled at a very high angle, especially when struck suddenly by 

 the squall of the 14th. The engine is so placed near the center 

 of the ship, that during a storm the piston is never inclined at a 

 higher angle than twelve degrees, which does not derange the 

 freedom of its motion. The Britannia, a ship of 1200 tons, has 

 four large boilers ; the engines having a 44-0 horse power. 

 When she left Liverpool she had 550 tons of cuals in her, and 

 burned from thirty to forty tons a day, her speed augmenting 

 sensibly toward the end of the voyage, as she grew lighter ; 



