Captain Hall’s Account of the Dundee Ferry. 159 
whatever be the obstacles in the mean time, must become, soon- 
er or later, the cheapest ; and that to a degree, far exceeding 
in importance, even to foot passengers, the difference in the 
length of the land journey, the invariable certainty of which will 
render it, eventually, altogether insignificant, compared with 
the inevitable uncertainty which, from the nature of things, 
must for ever prevail in the passage from Kirkaldy. And this 
will be true, whether the greater distance by sea be considered, 
since this must be paid for at a greater cost than the additional 
distance by land ; or the varying action of the tide which will 
often render the embarkation and landing, except at Burntis- 
land, difficult if not impossible ; or the prevailing wind from 
the south-westward, which blows during nine months in the year. 
When these disadvantages are contrasted with the certainty of 
a safe, commodious, punctual, short, and cheaper ferry at 
Burntisland, at all times of tide, and at all seasons, there seems 
little question but it must, in the long-run, be preferred to any 
other. Some few individuals, no doubt, will, for a time, fancy 
their object better served by embarking at Kirkaldy, Dysart, or 
elsewhere; but the mass of travellers, both on foot and on horse- 
back, will, on taking the average of circumstances, find their in- 
terests far better served by the regular and commodious ferry 
of Burntisland, though the land journey, in some cases, may be 
lengthened a few miles. 
Art. XYI . — Account of a new and commodious method of re- 
gulating the Movements of Steam-Vessels. By Messrs James 
and Charles Carmichael of Dundee. Communicated in 
a Letter to Captain Basil Hall, R. N. (With a Plate). 
Sir, Dundee , 20 th May 1825. 
In compliance with your request, we forward you a sketch of 
the machinery of the George IV. Twin Steam-Boat employed on 
this ferry, and we shall now proceed to give a description of 
that part of it invented by ourselves, the utility of which you 
have frequently witnessed, and which you are pleased to think 
may not be uninteresting to the scientific public. 
