The _Surcoup_ and _Forbin_ illustrate another favorite type of cruiser. They are 311 feet 7 inches long, have 30 feet 6 inches beam, and on a mean draught of 13 feet 11 inches displace 1848 tons. The hull weighs 817 tons, and the engines (with boilers filled) 544 tons; the coal capacity is 200 tons, and the endurance 2400 miles at 10 knots. The engines are expected, with forced draft, to develop 6000 indicated horse-power and 19.5 knots. They have a four-masted schooner rig, spread 7255.5 square feet of canvas, and carry a complement of one hundred and fifty officers and men. The battery consists of two 5.5-inch guns on the upper deck, three 47-millimetre rapid-fire guns on the poop and forecastle, four 37-millimetre Hotchkiss revolving cannon on the rail, and five torpedo launching tubes—two firing ahead, one astern, and one on each beam. This lightness of battery and small coal capacity indicate with great precision how much weight-carrying power has been sacrificed to spars and sails. The _Coetlogon_ and _Cosmao_ laid down this year are of the same type. Wishing to obtain a small class of steel cruisers, the French government lately invited the leading ship-builders to send in competitive designs for a vessel which at an extreme draught aft of fourteen feet would on the least possible displacement sustain with natural draft a speed of eighteen knots for twelve hours, and with forced draft a speed of nineteen knots for two hours. The coal endurance was to be 2400 miles at ten knots, the main battery to include two 5.5-inch guns, and the protective steel deck to be 1.6 inch thick. Five competitors furnished plans, and finally those of the Société de la Gironde were chosen, and the two vessels now known as the _Troude_ and the _Lalande_ were laid down. Their principal dimensions are, length 311 feet 7 inches, beam 31 feet, mean draught 14 feet, and displacement 1877 tons. The armament will be two 5.5-inch and three rapid-fire guns, four 37-millimetre revolving cannon, and a supply of torpedo tubes. The vessels, as with the _Surcoup_ type to which they are very similar, will have a fore and aft rig and a complement of one hundred and sixty.