Ranged on each side of the saloon are the cabins, each containing two berths. These sleeping-cabins, like the saloon, are prettily furnished and tastefully decorated. Over the saloon is another deck or platform-- the whole structure as may be seen from our illustration is very much "be-decked"--about the middle of the vessel and in front of the funnel. Here is situated the wheel, and here also the captain and officers take their position. This part of the vessel is kept private to them, no passenger being permitted to trespass on it. Beneath the saloon-deck is the middle-deck, as has already been indicated, which also contains a saloon of its own, as well as sleeping apartments. This portion of the steamer is usually reserved for the unmarried ladies among the passengers, who, as all readers of American literature must be aware, are treated in America with an almost chivalrous courtesy and consideration. The dining-saloon of the vessel is situated in a third and undermost deck, which reaches from the middle of the boat right aft, and is a well-lighted, well-arranged room. The cargo is placed amidships, heaped up in great piles--passenger boats seldom or never carrying heavy goods. The American's passion for economising time is manifest in the steamboats as everywhere else, most of them carrying a barber, who will accommodate you with "easy shaving" during the voyage. The barber's shop is forward with the cook's quarters and other offices. American river-boats may vary, of course, in details, but we have endeavoured to indicate the leading characteristics of a typical example. The stories current in regard to the facility with which an American steamboat blows up have been much exaggerated, but nevertheless it is probably true that they bear the bell in this direction of risk and danger. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Of all craft of the canoe order, the flying-proa of the Pacific is the swiftest. It carries a sail almost triangular in shape, and a straight yard. It has an outrigger; and outrigger, mast, and yard are of bamboo. Strong matting composes the sail, which is stretched very flat upon the yard. When the crew wish to put their boat about they have merely to shift the sail, when what was before the prow of the proa becomes the stern. These boats are usually manned by a crew of about half-a-dozen. One man sits at either end of the vessel and takes his turn of steering according to whatever tack the canoe is on. The duty of the rest is to bail out the boat and to keep the sail properly trimmed. Nothing afloat, probably, can go so close to the wind as the flying-proa, while its speed is astonishing. The Malays use the proa, but theirs is a broader, heavier, and less swift boat than that used by the Ladrone islanders of the Pacific, which is that which we have just described.