158 Captain Hall’s Account of the Dundee Ferry. 
the ferry in question, there can be no doubt it would immediately 
increase the thoroughfare, by offering a far more ready means of 
transporting, across the Firth, all the cattle and sheep intended 
for Edinburgh and for the South, than is now afforded by Alloa 
and the Queensferry. Horses, carts, and carriages would, in 
like manner, be conveyed over with ease and celerity ; and if 
any thing comparable to the punctuality, so admirably observed 
at Dundee, could be established between Burntisland and New- 
haven, the whole of the foot passengers, from all the adjacent 
parts of Fife, would eventually be drawn to that ferry, where 
the means of embarkation and landing would be so superior to 
those of any other, and where alone, it is conceived, such a 
pier may be built, as will ensure the requisite facilities at 
all times of tide, and in all weathers. The advantages which 
Burntisland offers, as the point.of call on the Fife side, over 
every other, are so great, that it would be quite wonderful there 
should ever have arisen, for an instant, any discussion on a 
matter so obvious, were there not some local interests concerned. 
These interests, however fairly acquired originally, or however 
honestly maintained at the present day, if they are allowed to 
interfere with the establishment of a single point of call on each 
side, are clearly in opposition to the general interests of society. 
The distance between Kirkaldy and Newhaven, in a straight 
line, is exactly nine statute miles : that between Burntisland and 
Newhaven five and a half. The course, (by compass), from 
Kirkaldy is S. W. by S. ; that from Burntisland is S.J W. So 
that with the prevalent wind, which is from W. S. W. to S. W., 
a course may always be shaped both to and from Burntisland, 
while it will be useless to set a sail in the passage from Kirk- 
aldy, during at least eight months of the year. Moreover, the 
passage from Burntisland lies directly across the tide ; but that 
from Kirkaldy during two thirds of the distance, is directly a- 
long it, a circumstance extremely inconvenient in any ferry. 
Thus it is probable, that as the natural advantages of Burntis- 
land, are so superior to those of every other place on the coast 
of Fife, for the establishment of a frequent, punctual, and cheap 
ferry, it will eventually become the most frequented, notwith- 
standing all the competition which may, and no doubt will, for a 
time be opposed to the regular ferry. The shortest passage, 
