entering the ordinary docks in the kingdom necessitating the use of a port of embarkation at a distance from the main channel of business. The whole of these weighty objections then have to be balanced by the economy theoretically presumed to be attainable by the increased capacity of vessels for carrying coal, cargo, and passengers. It appears obvious that coal-carrying can be done cheaper by auxiliary vessels, where the station is in a direct line, than by the vessel carrying them herself. It is only when the power of carrying coal is so small or the consumption is so large, that the vessel is forced to make a great number of stoppages, and make considerable detours to arrive at coaling stations, that stopping to coal becomes so serious an evil.” The writer goes on to contend that the propeller should be placed outside the rudder, so that a coarse pitch may work with proper effect, “as it is clearly proved that working the propeller in the deadwood destroys a large portion of its useful effect, so much so that an increase in the pitch of a propeller to the extent of one-third does not show more slip (when used behind the rudder) than the two-thirds when used before it.” He further contended that the proportion of stroke to diameter should be greater in an engine that is to drive a screw propeller direct than what is required for applying the same power to a paddle-wheel, and it would soon be found that as an instrument of propulsion, even for great speed, the screw would not be inferior to the most approved patent paddle-wheel. One has only to read a declaration of this character, by one of the leading shipbuilders of his day, and then compare the situation, the difficulties of which appeared to him wellnigh insuperable, but every one of which has passed away, with the frequent sailings of the enormous vessels which journey the whole of the way between England and Australia under steam alone without stopping, and carry passengers by the hundred, to realise the phenomenal developments which have marked the progress of the last fifty years.