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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



latest masterpieces in steamboat architec- 

 ture, the Maine and New Hampshire. Fitch's 

 first boat for carrying passengers was com- 

 pleted in 1788. It was, worked with oars 

 or paddles placed at the stern and pushed 

 against the water, and took thirty passengers 

 from Philadelphia to Burlington in three 

 hours and teD minutes, or over six miles an 

 hour. Fitch's third boat was advertised in 

 1790 as "the Steamboat" to ruD to Burling- 

 ton, Bristol, Bordentown, and Trenton, and 

 return the next day. Congress adjourned 

 to see it start, and the Governor and Council 

 presented it with a flag. The Eructor Am- 

 phibolis of Oliver Evans was a combined 

 locomotive and steamboat — a scow on wheels 

 with modern axletrees and a? paddle wheel 

 behind, to travel as a wagon on land and as 

 a boat in water. It was propelled by the 

 engine up Market Street in Philadelphia and 

 round the circle to the waterworks, where it 

 was launched into the Schuylkill. The pad- 

 dle wheel was then applied at its stern, and it 

 thus sailed down that river to the Delaware. 

 Then came Fulton's Clermont, steaming from 

 New York to Albany in thirty-six hours, the 

 pioneer in a fleet which numbered eight boats 

 in 1816. The first steamer on Long Island 

 Sound was the Fulton, a vessel with one 

 mast and sloop rigging, which depended on 

 its sails to accelerate its speed, and began 

 its trips to New Haven in 1815 ; and the 

 Fire Fly, one of Fulton's boats, first rounded 

 Point Judith and reached Newport in 1817. 

 The establishment of the packet line be- 

 tween Providence and New York was an im- 

 portant event in American travel, and the 

 departure and arrival of the boats presented 

 an imposing spectacle. The fare was ten 

 dollars, and the first advertisement of the 

 company appeared under the cut of a man- 

 of-war, with portholes open and every sail 

 set. In their painting, these boats, accord- 

 ing to the account, somewhat resembled a 

 barber's pole, being striped in curious de- 

 signs. 



Unsolved Problems in Geology. — Bather 

 technical is Mr. G. K. Gilbert's review of the 

 continental problems that are before geolo- 

 gists for solution, made in his presidential 

 address before the Geological Society of 

 America; but he enumerates several such 

 problems and questions on which no clear 



light has yet been thrown. As he summa- 

 rizes them, it appears thaV " the doctrine of 

 isostasy, though holding a leading position, 

 has not fully supplanted the doctrine of 

 rigidity. If it be accepted, there remains 

 the question whether heat or composition 

 determines the gravity of the ocean beds and 

 the levity of continents. For the origin of 

 continents we have a single hypothesis (that 

 laid down by Prof. Dana in his Manual of 

 Geology), which deserves to be more fully 

 compared with the body of modern data. 

 The newly determined configuration of the 

 continental mass has yielded no suggestion 

 as to its origin. The cause of differential ele- 

 vation and subsidence within the continental 

 plateau is unknown and has probably not 

 been suggested. The permanence of the 

 continental plateau, though highly probable, 

 is not yet fully established ; and the doctrine 

 of continental growth, though generally ac- 

 cepted, has not been placed beyond the field 

 of profitable discussion. Thus the subject 

 of continents affords no less than half a 

 dozen great problems, whose complete so- 

 lution belongs to the future. It is not alto- 

 gether pleasant to deal with a subject with 

 regard to which the domain of our ignorance 

 is so broad ; but, if we are optimists, we may 

 be comforted by the reflection that the geolo- 

 gists of this generation, at least, will have no 

 occasion, like Alexander, to lament a dearth 

 of worlds to conquer." 



NOTES. 



Wood ashes are recommended in the 

 American Agriculturist, by Mr. J. M. Stahl, 

 as a valuable medicine for farm animals. 

 The author keeps them, with charcoal and 

 mixed with salt, accessible to his hogs, with 

 the best effects ; and he furnishes them to 

 his horses by putting an even teaspoonful 

 with the oats twice a week or by keeping 

 the ashes, with the salt mixture, constantly 

 before the animals. 



The most striking feature of Mr. A. T. 

 Drummond's examination of the colors and 

 times of flowering of five hundred and thirty- 

 nine of the plants of Ontario and Quebec is 

 the preponderance of white flowers, which 

 form rather more than one third of the 

 whole. Following them are the yellow flow- 

 ers, largely composites, which include about 

 one quarter; while the purples and blues 

 are much less numerous, and comprise about 

 one ninth and one tenth respectively of the 

 whole. In time of flowering April, May, and 



