down upon her deck, doing a considerable amount of damage, and she had only drifted a few hundred yards from the berg, after the impact, when an immense portion of it fell at the spot where only a few moments previously the ship had rested. This is one of the narrowest escapes recorded in the annals of the sea. Fortunately, her collision bulkhead withstood the enormous strain, and the vessel received a magnificent, though entirely undesired, testimonial to the soundness and stability of her construction. She put into St. John’s, Newfoundland, and was found to be so badly damaged that she had to have entirely new bows. The success of the _Arizona_ led to the building of the _Alaska_, which proved another triumph for Messrs. John Elder and Co., for the speed she developed won her the title of the Atlantic Greyhound, her homeward passage in June 1882 being less than seven days. This remarkable run was, however, eclipsed by the _Oregon_, the last vessel added by the Guion Company prior to its dissolution; she sailed from Liverpool to New York on October 6, 1883, and accomplished the passage from Queensland to Sandy Hook in 6 days 10 hours 9 minutes. The _Oregon_ was an iron vessel built and engined by Messrs. John Elder and Co., on similar lines to, but of greater dimensions than, the _Arizona_ and the _Alaska_. She was no less than 500 feet in length, 54 feet wide, 40 feet deep, and registered 7375 tons. Her engines were compound and consisted of one 70-inch high-pressure cylinder placed in the centre, and two low-pressure 104-inch cylinders, with a 6-foot stroke; her boilers had a steam-pressure of 110 lb., and her average daily consumption of coal was 310 tons. [Illustration: THE “OREGON” (CUNARD AND GUION LINES, 1883).] From about this time the passenger service across the Atlantic began to assume proportions and a degree of importance to which it had never before attained. Hitherto the steamers engaged on the transatlantic route had depended considerably on their cargo capacity as a means of meeting expenses, but with the demand for larger and faster vessels--and faster vessels could only be made larger--there was developed an express passenger boat which depended almost wholly on its passenger accommodation and carried a much smaller amount of cargo than some of the older and smaller vessels then engaged in the trade. The Guion Line did not wholly meet these requirements, and on the death of Mr. S. B. Guion, the line gradually dropped out of existence, the remaining vessels of the famous fleet of steamers being dispersed in various directions. Some years before this happened, however, the White Star Line began to build steamers for the Atlantic.