Under these circumstances it is not surprising that steam-packets on the Clyde increased with marvellous rapidity. In 1812 the COMET first began to ply between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh, and she was, in fact, the only steamboat then sailing on British waters. Three years later (in 1815) a fleet of seven steamers, viz., the GLASGOW, BRITANNIA, DUMBARTON CASTLE, CALEDONIA, ARGYLE, PRINCE OF ORANGE, and PRINCESS CHARLOTTE, sailed regularly from Glasgow to Largs, Ardrossan, Troon and Ayr, southwards; and Rothesay, Tarbert, Lochgilphead and Inverary, westwards. No agents’ names are given in any of the press advertisements of this or previous years, but the sailings were advertised on boards placed outside the agent’s counting houses, and exhibited in taverns and other places of public resort. In 1816 and subsequent years the owners’ or agents’ names are appended to the press notices of the various steam-packets. [Illustration: Early type of African Coasting Steamer.] In May of the year named, the steamboats BRITANNIA and (new) WATERLOO were advertised to sail between Glasgow and all the watering places on both sides of the Clyde. “Families wishing to agree for the season may know particulars by applying to Mr. Lewis MacLellan, Gallowgate, Mr. Wm. Smith, Bromielaw, and the Masters on board.” These small steamers were the pioneers of the magnificent fleet of Channel steamships, sailing from Glasgow, and known as the “Laird Line.” A grandson of the Mr. Lewis MacLellan here referred to, and a nephew, are still (1903) connected with the Company as directors. The steamer ALBION was advertised in the same paper in similar terms, and on the 9th July following the agents of nine steam-packets sailing from Glasgow, gave notice that the issue of season tickets was discontinued for the remainder of the season. Hence it appears that the issue of season contract tickets, popularly supposed to be a modern institution of the railway companies, is found to be a common practice amongst the steamship owners of Glasgow more than three-quarters of a century ago. Mr. W. S. Lindsay, in his admirable book “The History of Merchant Shipping from 1816 to 1874,” quotes Mr. Muirhead’s “Life of Watt,” as stating that “In April, 1817, Mr. James Watt, Jun., purchased the CALEDONIA, and having re-fitted her, took her in October to Holland and up the Rhine to Coblentz; having thus been the first to cross the English Channel in a steamboat. The average speed he obtained was seven and a half knots an hour.” Either Mr. Muirhead was in error in the dates given, or he was wrong in assuming that the CALEDONIA was the first steamer to cross the English Channel. A correspondent of the “Glasgow Chronicle,” in a letter to that Journal, dated Cologne, 16th June, 1816 (_i.e._, sixteen months prior to the date mentioned by Mr. Muirhead as the date on which the CALEDONIA crossed the Channel), says:—