the freight.
There are fourteen carriages; and the passengers are countless--at
least 600. Onward she darts at headlong speed, until, apparently in
perilous proximity to her wharf, a frightful collision appears
inevitable. The impatient Yankees press--each to be the first to jump
ashore. The loud 'twang' of a bell is suddenly heard; the powerful
engine is quickly reversed, and the way of the vessel is so
instantaneously stopped, that the dense mass of passengers insensibly
leans forward from the sudden check. These boats cost about L.6000. In
economy, beauty, commodiousness, and speed, they form a striking
contrast to the steam-ferry from Portsmouth to Gosport, which cost, it
is said, L.20,000. The author strongly advises persons in Europe, who
have any intention of projecting steam-ferries, to take a leaf out of
the Yankee book. As an example: If the Portsmouth Ferry had been
conducted on the same principles as the Fulton Ferry, a very large
profit would have ensued, instead of the concern being overwhelmed in
debt.

Here is another sample of Yankee _go-aheadism_. A launch! We are in
Webb's shipbuilding-yard. Look around. Five huge vessels are on the
stocks: three are to be launched at highwater. The first is a liner of
1708 tons, built for running, and, with a fair wind, it will outsail
any man-of-war afloat. The second is a steamer of 2500 tons. The third
is a gigantic yacht of 1500 tons, nearly as sharp as any yacht in
England. Five thousand seven hundred and eight tons were launched from
one builder, and within thirty minutes!

The clipper-ships, although certainly the finest class of vessels
afloat, are very uneasy in a sea. Mr Steers, the builder of the
far-famed yacht _America_, is very sanguine that he will produce a
faster vessel than has yet ploughed the seas, and Captain Mackinnon is
inclined to believe that he will. His new clipper-vessels will be as
easy in motion as superior in sailing. The great merit of Mr Steers,
as the builder of the _America_, is in his having invented a perfectly
original model, as new in America as in Europe. He informed our author
that the idea, so successfully carried out in the _America's_ model,
struck him when a boy of eight years old. He was looking on at the
moulding of a vessel by his father (an Englishman), when suddenly it
occurred to him that a great improvement might be made in the
construction; and the _modus operandi_ speedily took possession of his
mind. Mr Steers