[Sidenote: 50. Channel Boat approaching Dover.] [Sidenote: 51. Dover--Admiralty Pier, S.S. “Pas de Calais” unloading.] [Sidenote: 52. Dover--Admiralty Pier, S.S. “Queen” loading the Indian Mails.] Dover, seen from our deck quite clearly as we came past it, is a place of much interest to those who live in the East. You know that nowadays the letters from India and the neighbouring lands are not carried to Britain all the way round by sea past Gibraltar, but are landed at a Mediterranean port and brought across Europe by rail. They cannot enter England, however, without once more being placed upon a steamer--this time a small packet, which rapidly crosses the twenty miles of water between Britain and the Continent, known as the Straits of Dover. You can see across the Straits of Dover. There are white cliffs which glisten in the sunshine on both sides. Here is one of the Channel steamers unloading at Dover pier. Do you see the railway train drawn up alongside? It is about to leave for London. Notice the crane lifting baggage from the steamer to the train, so that there may be as little delay as possible. Here is another Channel steamer at Dover. She is just about to leave for the Continent. The railway train has arrived--a whole van, less the wheels, is being raised on the crane and placed on the steamer. It is full of baggage, and is lifted thus to save time--for every minute is worth money. Some hundred bags of mails have to be carried on to the vessel. Think of the many, many thousand letters written every week in Britain which are going to the East--to India and to Ceylon, to the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong and Mauritius. [Sidenote: 53. Gravesend--Shipping waiting for the Tide.] [Sidenote: 54. Sunset near Gravesend.] [Sidenote: 55. The same ten minutes later.] Let us now go back to our steamer. The tide turns, and we leave Gravesend, passing slowly up the river towards London. The scene is often very animated at Gravesend, as several score of vessels, great and small, get up their anchors and begin to move with the running stream. Sometimes as you look westward up the Thames in the evening, the light in the sky is magnificent, for the clouds are dense with smoke. You must remember that this city of 7,000,000 people has a cold winter, and each room has a place for a fire to keep its inhabitants warm. By good fortune we have been able to photograph such a sunset from the hill above Gravesend. Do you see the river shining on the dark ground below? Here is the same sunset taken ten minutes later. These two slides have not been painted with a brush according to an artist’s imagination, they have been photographed in colour, and they are absolutely true in their effect. [Sidenote: 56. Arrival in Dock.] [Sidenote: 57. Welcome on Deck.] [Sidenote: 58. Landing.] [Sidenote: 59. Steamers in Dock.]