Across the Channel the steam-packet TRITON, built at Bordeaux, maintained a passenger service, three times each way per week, between Havre and Rouen. The passage occupied about nine hours, and the fares charged were 8s. first class, and 4s. second class. On the 5th October, 1820, the steamer CONDE DE PATMELLA, Captain Silva, sailed from Liverpool for the Brazils. She made a remarkably rapid passage to Lisbon, arriving there in four days. This is probably the first steamer that ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Europe. Perhaps one of the most remarkable steamers ever launched was a small steamboat, named the SNAKE, built at Bombay, and launched in 1820. She was the first steamer on the Indus or on any river in India. Her engines were designed and built by a Parsee, and were the first ever manufactured in India. How well they were constructed is evidenced by their lasting power. After a notable career of 60 years, she was broken up in 1880. Above the initials “W. P.,” a correspondent of the “Liverpool Mercury,” in a letter dated 25th October, 1820, suggests the use of iron ventilators, to supply fresh air to the holds of steamers carrying cattle across the Channel, for, of course, at that date, steamers to carry cattle across the ocean were unthought of. He describes the ventilators suggested as “iron funnels with movable vane tops, which could be constructed by any mechanic at a cost of about £3 10s. each.” In the spring of 1821, a new steamboat, named the TOURIST, was launched at Perth. When launched she was the largest steamer in the United Kingdom, being 128 feet long by 40 feet broad. She was rigged as a three-masted schooner, with a clipper bow and bowsprit, and was propelled by two engines of 40 h.p. each. She was intended (as her name implies) for the passenger trade between Leith and the Northern Ports of Scotland, and her owners claimed that communication between the ports named “will thus be effected in one-third less time, and for one-sixth of the expense incurred by the present mode of travelling.” After running for a short time in the Leith and North of Scotland trade, she was placed on the station between Newhaven and London, on behalf of the London and Edinburgh Steampacket Co. In May of the same year two steam vessels of upwards of 400 tons burden each, were built for the Leith and London passenger service. These steamers were not intended to carry cargo, but they had sleeping accommodation for one hundred passengers. They were propelled by engines of 100 h.p., and were expected to make the passage in about sixty hours. [Illustration: Bridge in London] Chapter VIII.