The means of transporting material in shipyards by systems of railways laid alongside the principal workshops, and traversing the yard in all directions, have been amplified and improved in many yards within recent times. Connection is made in most instances with sidings from main lines of railway, whereby materials and goods can be at once brought into the yards from whatever part of the kingdom; and in the largest yards special locomotives are constantly employed doing this work. In well arranged establishments the railway first enters a store-yard, and the material is lifted from the trucks by travelling-crane or other means, and deposited on either side of the railway, plates being set on edge in special racks, from which they can be easily removed by the workmen. Leaving this, the lines of railway traverse the building yard throughout, and are designed to permit of the material being conveyed without retrocession, but with the necessary stoppages for its being put through the various courses of manipulation, to the vessel in which it is to be used. A recent and very serviceable amplification of the system of railway transport has been fitted in one of the largest Clyde yards which enables material to be conveyed with greatly increased ease and despatch in directions and to situations wholly inaccessible to the main lines of rails. This is the narrow gauge portable system, patented by M. Decauville, of Petit-Bourg, Paris, which consists of short lengths of very light steel rails, permanently riveted to cross sleepers, and with end connections so formed as to make joint while being pressed into contact. Each section, of 4, 6, 8, 12, or 16 feet long, being complete in itself, the tramway can be laid down in any new situation very rapidly. Where divergences of route take place, curves, crossings, and light turntables are supplied, sufficiently strong to carry working loads, and at the same time light enough to be easily handled. Special waggons and trollies are also supplied by the makers, which, combined with the system of portable rails described, not only worthily take the place of, but far excel in handiness and efficiency, the ordinary wheel-barrows of the shipyard. List of Papers, &c., bearing on modern shipyard machine-tools, appliances, and methods of work, to which readers desiring fuller acquaintance with the _technique_ and details of the subject are referred:— ON THE HYDRAULIC DEPARTMENT IN THE IRON SHIPBUILDING DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVAL DOCKYARD AT TOULON, by M. Marc Berrier-Fontaine: Proceedings Inst. Mech. Engineers, 1878. ON THE APPLICATION OF HYDRAULIC PRESSURE TO MACHINE TOOLS, by Mr Ralph Hart Tweddell: Trans. Inst. Engineers and Shipbuilders, vol. xxiv., 1880-81. ON MACHINE-TOOLS AND OTHER LABOUR-SAVING APPLIANCES WORKED BY HYDRAULIC PRESSURE, by R. H. Tweddell: Proceedings Inst. Civil Engineers, vol. lxxiii., 1882-83.