articles which can be
handled in bulk and divided, will be carried out by machines which, by
rotary action, will work their way down to the bottom of the hull and
will then be elevated by powerful lifting cranes. For other classes of
goods permanent packages and tramways will be provided in each ship,
and trucks will be supplied at the wharf.

For coastal passages across shallow but rough water like the English
Channel, the services of moving bridges will be called into
requisition. One of these has been at work at St. Malo on the French
coast opposite Jersey, and another was more recently constructed on
the English coast near Brighton. For the longer and much more
important service across the Channel submarine rails may be laid down
as in the cases mentioned, but in addition it will be necessary to
provide for static stability by fixing a flounder-shaped pontoon just
below the greatest depth of wave disturbance, and just sufficient in
buoyancy to take the great bulk of the weight of the structure off the
rails. In this way passengers may be conveyed across straits like the
Channel without the discomforts of sea-sickness.

The stoking difficulties on large ocean-going steamers have become so
acute that they now suggest the conclusion that, notwithstanding
repeated failures, a really effective mechanical stoker will be so
imperatively called for as to enforce the adoption of any reasonably
good device. The heat, grime, and general misery of the stoke-hole
have become so deterrent that the difficulty of securing men to
undertake the work grows greater year by year, and in recruiting the
ranks of the stokers resort had to be had more and more to those
unfortunate men whose principal motive for labour is the insatiable
desire for a drinking bout. On the occasions of several shipwrecks in
the latter part of the nineteenth century disquieting revelations took
place showing how savagely bitter was the feeling of the stoke-hole
towards the first saloon. As soon as the mechanical fuel-shifter has
been adopted, and the boilers have been properly insulated in order to
prevent the overheating of the stoke-hole, the stoker will be raised
to the rank of a secondary engineer, and his work will cease to be
looked upon as in any sense degrading.

On the cargo-slave steamer and sailer a similar social revolution will
be brought about by the amelioration of the conditions under which the
men live and work. Already some owners and mast