Steam-ships of the United States—Improvements in form of hull—Natural facilities for Steam Navigation in America—Her lakes—Canals—Harbours—Rivers—Seaboard—Bays and roadsteads—Rapid increase of steam-vessels—First vessels built for the western rivers and lakes—Dangers of River Navigation—Number of steamers lost by “snags,” ice, fire, and collision, 1831-1833—Peculiar description of wharves and levees—Description of steamers employed—Boats of the Mississippi—Boatmen—Engines of the steamers—Different construction of the steamers on the Atlantic rivers—Great speed of American lake and river steamers—Peculiarity of construction—Steamer _New World_—Details of her construction—The _Daniel Drew_—Her enormous speed—Pacific Steam-ship Company started, 1847—Cost of establishing it—Speed of its vessels—Difficulties to encounter—Number of its steamers—Services performed—China and Japan line—“Law” line of steamers—South American Steam-ship Company—Mr. Randall’s projected large American steamer—Details of proposed ship—Two sets of paddle-wheels—Principle of construction—Advantages to be derived from vessels thus built—Mr. Randall’s experience of steamers employed on the lakes and the Pacific. [Sidenote: Steam-ships of the United States.] While Great Britain is entitled to the credit of the invention of the marine steam-engine with its auxiliaries, the paddle-wheel and screw, and of having first put both into practical, if not in the earliest stages remunerative, operation, America may, on her part, justly claim the making of many improvements on them, and the turning the new motive power to profitable account with greater rapidity than England. [Sidenote: Improvements in the form of hull.] To the Americans we owe the modification of Watt’s engine still in use in their vessels: to them we are also indebted for engines of long stroke with the necessarily long crank, and the further peculiarity of upright guides for the piston-rod instead of the old parallel motion. They likewise first introduced the paddle-wheel with divided floats by which the resistance of the water was rendered more uniform, and the concussion of the common paddle-wheel avoided. But, above all, they were the first to improve the form of steam-vessels by substituting a fine entrance and a clean, clear run for the round or bluff bows and full sterns previously prevailing. By these important alterations, and by making the length of their vessels eight and, occasionally, ten times their beam, they succeeded, even during the infancy of marine steam propulsion, in raising the rate of progress from 9 to 13 miles an hour, and in giving to the world lines for the modelling of ships vastly superior to any hitherto adopted. [Sidenote: Natural facilities for steam navigation in America.] [Sidenote: Her lakes.]