position, not for the mere sake of name and fame, but in order that England may be able to disseminate the arts of civilization in remote parts of the world; to protect the oppressed, to punish lawlessness and violence, and, in the performance of these high functions, to extend her trade and increase her prosperity more and more to the benefit of her own children.

STEAM SHIP BUILDING IN 1871.

THE leading journal has set people thinking by an article some short time since, on the subject of the great additions lately made and still being made to our fleet of merchant steamers. The article to which we refer conveys the impression that in the mind of the writer we are building too fast, and are in consequence likely to bring about a serious financial crisis.

The subject is one which may well demand attention and discussion in the columns of the Nautical Magazine.

The owners for whom the large fleet of steamers is now being built, may be divided into two classes, viz., (1) Those who understand their business; and (2) those who do not. If the latter class were the more numerous, or if the majority of steamers under construction at the present time were being built for that class of owners, then indeed we should be right (seeing how great is the number of steamers on the stocks) if we were to conclude at once that we are building recklessly, and that the consequences must be disastrous. In any case such a gloomy conclusion may possibly be sound, we do not say that it is not; but we think that many facts must be taken into consideration and weighed carefully before such a conclusion is warranted.

Early in the Session we shall no doubt be in possession of returns that will give us exact figures, but we need not wait for those exact figures in order to lay before our readers some considerations which may, we trust, tend temporarily to modify if not to allay the alarm felt in many quarters.

In the first place we must bear in mind that as the number of sailing ships built or building has fallen off very greatly, it would indeed be a discouraging symptom if the number of steamers did not proportionately increase. Most of our readers will recollect how great was the number of wooden ships (sailing ships) turned

out annually on the Wear, the Tyne, and the Tay. There is now scarcely a wooden ship building on either river. This being so, it is satisfactory to find that ships of some other description are being constructed at these places. To meet the bona fide requirements of trade it is absolutely necessary to keep up, let alone the necessity for increasing, the tonnage of the Empire. That the new ships are iron ships and steamers, in lieu of wooden ships and sailing, is the inevitable result of the keen competition now going on with foreigners of the strides made by our constructors and engineers in the simplification and multiplication of appliances for building iron ships, and in the economy of the steam engine and of the opening of the Suez Canal. After the great discovery of the compound engine, and its successful introduction by the late John Elder, and after the successful opening of the Canal, we cannot expect to see sailing vessels of any size constructed in large. numbers as heretofore. The case of the Wear serves as an illustration of the extent to which the abandonment of the construction of sailing (wooden) ships is carried. The transformation is so great that instead of the wooden fleet annually under construction on that river there were when we visited it, but a short time since, certainly not half a dozen wooden ships building; but there were between sixty and seventy iron ships (steamers) on the stocks and afloat, in various stages of construction. But it may be said these new steamers are more than sufficient to replace the old ships worn out, wrecked, and otherwise destroyed. We admit it. There can be no question of it, but although this is so, the fact is not in itself any argument, certainly not any conclusive argument, in favour of the allegation that we are over-building. We know that traffic begets traffic. A line of communication being once established may be carried on by one ship at first, but that ship soon becomes too small or too slow to meet the business it has created, and other faster and larger ships must supply its place-and so the stream of healthy trade once opened goes on, whether it be in the number of warehouses or of waggons, railway cars, omnibuses, or ships; increased means of production and increased means of transport, speed, increased accommodation, increased trade, act and react on each other. There is nothing new in all this. If one fact is established beyond a doubt, it is this mutual action and reaction, and yet no sooner do we see practically a verification of it, than people ask "can there be employment for the ships we are building ?"

The steam trade with the United States and our North American possessions for instance, began with one ship, and was maintained somewhat precariously by three or four. It is not very long since

that passengers and goods were conveyed across the Atlantic in sailing ships. Then came the steamers, slowly at first, but always in an increasing arithmetical proportion, so that now in addition to the original (Cunard) line of steamers to America, we have the lines of beautiful ships of Messrs. Inman, Messrs. R. Guion, the National Company, the Messrs. Allan's, Messrs. Handyside and Henderson, and lastly, the White Star line. The tonnage of Atlantic ships is now drawing towards 4000 tons, and their length verging towards and sometimes exceeding 400 feet.

Those of our readers who have seen the discharging and loading of a transatlantic steamer, the discharge of 2000 tons, and the shipment in their place of other 2000 tons of cargo in one ship in less than a week, who bear in mind, that this discharging and reloading is for ever going on, not in one ship but in many, and that cargo is always to be found in such abundance that additional steamers are required to meet increased demands, those of our readers who have seen and know these things, must smile when they hear talk of over-building for these trades.

Besides the healthy development of the North American trades we have old companies-the Peninsular and Oriental, the Royal (West India) Mail Company, and other companies (not to mention those companies whose ships make short voyages); and we have (Mr. Just's) Pacific company, probably the largest steam monopoly afloat, the two African companies, Messrs. Lamport and Holt's line, Mr. Alfred Holt's line, Messrs. Bibby's line, besides steam ships and lines belonging to other well-known firms, such as Messrs. Norwood's, Green's, Wigram's, and many others, all doing increased healthy trade, all with ships increasing in size, numbers, and speed, and all at the same time whilst carrying on trade, creating trade, to be done by further increase of steamers of their own lines, or affording a ready means for the employment of the capital of new adventurers. It will doubtless not be long before we see steamers carrying such goods as sugar and molasses, at sailing ships' rates. If this comes to pass it must be done by an increase in the number of steam ships of the present companies, or by ships laid on by other owners on purpose, but that it will be done is morally certain; such is the economy of our modern steam engine. What is probable in the case of the sugar trade is probable in many other trades, in which steamers must partially supersede sailing ships. We trust that we have shewn that the absolute necessity that exists for additional steamers to meet the bona fide requirements of increased trade is in itself a circumstance that should lead us to pause before we accept as true the allegation-that we are over-building.

But there is yet another circumstance that we must not omit to notice, viz., our position as competitors with foreigners: we cannot afford to be left behind in the race. Foreigners can afford to build iron ships largely in this country, and can and do work them at a profit too, and in some instances are very keen competitors. If they can afford to do this why cannot we also?

We must now leave the subject for the present. It would be unwise to say too much, until authentic figures are published: but we may indicate, that if any apprehension is to be entertained at all just now, it is not that too many steam ships are really being built, but that the owners of sailing ships will be speedily ruined. Our experience of shipowners does not however even lead us to this conclusion. It is true that according to some accounts the shipowner has been ruined over and over again during the last twentyfive years, by the repeal of Navigation Laws, and the removal of restrictions, and other, so called, at the time, bad legislation; but it is also an undeniable fact that he still exists and can afford to build expensive ships even now. A shipowner knows just as well when to "Go into steam," as he knows any other part of his business, and he also knows that, notwithstanding the increase of steamers, there are and will for a long time be many cargoes on which he can earn a handsome profit; cargoes better suited to sailing ships than to steam ships, and which to the advantage of all parties concerned can under certain circumstances be conveyed in the slower and less expensive sailing ship.

A METHOD OF COMPUTING THE HEIGHT OF
MOUNTAINS,

FROM OBSERVATIONS OF THE BAROMETER OR THE BOILING POINT

OF WATER.

By STAFF COMMANDER C. GEORGE, R.N.

RULE-1st. Place the readings of the Barometer under each other, the Barometer at the lower A uppermost: take their sum, half sum, and difference, and call the two last quantities A and B.

2nd. Take the sum and half sum of the detached thermometers and call the half sum C-; take out the log of C from table C, and under it place the log of B, and then the arth. comp. of the log of A-, add these three logarithms together, and it gives the logarithm of the difference of level in feet.

Temp. Logarithms Temp. Logarithms Temp. Logarithms Temp. Logarithms

4:421927 53.0

4.438848 70.5

4.454700

88.0

4.469995

35.5

4:422394 53.5

36.0

4.422862

54.0

36.5

37-0

37.5

38.0

38.5

39-0

39.5

4.439298 71.0 4-439748 71.5 4.455591 89.0 4.470833 4:423353 54.5 4.440220 72.0 4.456047 89.5 4.471273 4.423845 55'0 4:440693 72.5 4.456479 90-0 4'471713 4:424311 55.5 4.441141 73.0 4.456912 90.5 4.472130 4:424777 56.0 4.441590 73.5 4.457344 91.0 4.472547 4-425266 56.5 4.442060 74.0 4:457776 91.5 4.472963 4-425755 57.0 4-442531 74.5 4.458229 92.0 4.426219 57.5 4-442976 75.0 4:458683 92.5

4.455135

88.5 4.470414

4:473380

4.473817

40-0

4.426683 58-0

4:443423 75.5 4.459113 93.0

4-474255

40-5

4:427170 58.5

41-0

4-427657 59.0

41-5

42.0

42-5

4.428580 60.0 4-445249

4-428118 59.5 4.444805 77·0 4:460446

77.5 4:460874 95.0

4.475956

4'429065 60.5 4-445716

43.0

43.5

44.0

44.5

45.0

45.5

46-0

46.5

4.429550 61.0 4.446183 78.5 4:461752 4:430010 61.5 4.446625 79.0 4:430470 62.0 4-447068 79.5 4:430977 62.5 4:447509 80.0 4:431484 63.0 4-447951 80.5 4:431922 03.5 4-448415 81.0 4.432351 64.0 4-449879 81.5 4.432807 64.5 4.449318 82.0 47-0 4:433264 65.0 4.449758 82.5 47.5 4-433744

4.462202

4:462628

97.0 4:477650

4:463055

4-463503

4-463951

4:464375

4:464800

99-5 4-479849

4.465224 100.0 4.480159