1831 .] 
Analyses of Books. 
157 
The upward voyage of September occupied 24 days, and the return 14, including 
2 days detention at Benares. The whole passage, up and down, 1613 miles, took 360 
hours under steam, being an average rate of 44 miles per hour. The steamer was 
drawing 3 feet 8 inches, with 806 maunds of Burdwan coal on board. The quantity 
of fuel consumed was 2245 maunds of coal, and 408 of wood : her motion through 
the water was seven miles per hour, whence deducting the mean velocity of the 
stream, 4 miles, leaves a net progress of three miles. On descending from Allaha-i 
had, the Hooghly grounded on a sand bank, and was only saved from spending the 
whole of the dry season there, (as was the fate of the Comet in the Moorshed- 
abad river last year,) by the fortuitous effect of anchoring her, head and stern, 
athwart the current, which, forming an eddy round her, by degrees cleared away so 
tnuch of the sand as to shear off the vessel at right angles to the cables, by which 
she was retained : when once clear, the force of water upon her broad side enabled 
her to drag her anchors, until she again ran into the sand, and this process conti- 
nued insensibly all night, until she extricated herself. 
Her second expedition was attended with infinite fatigue, from the necessity of 
seeking for channels through the numerous shoals of the dry season : an alteration 
in her rudder had rendered her more manageable, but her new poop accommoda- 
tion, though better adapted to the fierce heat her crew had to encounter, (104° in 
the cabin,) was an impediment to her steering against a strong westerly wind. She 
found an average current of only 1 mile per hour, but this advantage was lost to her 
on account of her heavy draught. She got to Benares with difficulty in twenty-one 
days, and could not arech Mirzapoor for want of water. Her voyage up and down, 
1938 miles, occupied 410 hours, w T hich even, after deducting the detour through the 
Sundurbuns, exceeded her former trial, both in time and in distance traversed, from 
the winding of the low water channels. 
Among other useful results of these experiments, which satisfactorily proved 
that there existed no insurmountable obstacle to the establishment of a river steam 
navigation, we cannot omit to notice the revised charts of the Ganges and Delta 
channels, published by that able and lamented officer Captain T. Prinsep. Valuable 
information was also contributed in Captain Johnston’s and Mr. Warden’s reports, 
and especially in a memoir by Captain Smith, of Engineers, on the navigation of the 
Jumna, and its confluence with the Ganges. It is gratifying to see the opinions 
and researches of well informed and practical officers, laid open for general edifica- 
tion, instead of being consigned to oblivion the moment after their ephemeral notice 
in a Secretary’s budget. 
The same remark will apply to the numerous questions officially brought under 
discussion in the Marine Board, or in special Committees, on subjects connected 
with Steam Navigation, such as, the substitution of steamers in the Company’s 
Pilot service ; the tug system, and form of tugs and barges best adapted for the 
Ganges. We have in the volume before us an abstract of the opinions of the per- 
sons best qualified to judge on such points, frequently followed by an experiment 
to verify them ; thanks to the resolution and spirit of inquiry which have lately 
characterized the Bengal Government. 
The most essential point of lessening the draught of the steamer, without weaken- 
ing her section for the support of the boiler and machinery, has been accomplished 
by Captain Forbes 1 , in a boat launched in September last, which drew only 10 inches 
empty, and 2 feet when loaded with the weight of a 40 horse engine, and 5 days’ coal ; 
1 The plan of Capt. Forbes’ Steam tag does not accord with the specification in 
App. A. 3. which refers to a boat with a double truss j but the principle is the same 
Mr both. 
