and 15-1/2 feet in diameter. Two others are 18-1/4 feet long and 11-2/3
feet in diameter, and the two others, single-ended, are 8 feet long and
10 feet in diameter. Eight of the largest boilers are set in
watertight compartments.

In appearance the Columbia will closely resemble, when ready for sea, an
ordinary merchantman, the sides being nearly free from projections or
sponsons, which ordinarily appear on vessels of war. She will have two
single masts, but neither of them will have a military top, such as is
now provided upon ordinary war vessels. This plan of her merchantman
appearance is to enable her to get within range of any vessel she may
wish to encounter before her character or purpose is discovered. The
vitals of the ship will be well protected with armor plating and the gun
stations will be shielded against the firing of machine guns. Her
machinery, boilers, magazines, etc., are protected by an armored deck
four inches thick on the slope and 2-1/2 inches thick on the flat. The
space between this deck and the gun-deck is minutely subdivided with
coal-bunkers and storerooms, and in addition to these a coffer-dam, five
feet in width, is worked next to the ship's side for the whole length of
the vessel. In the bunkers the space between the inner and outer skins
of the vessel will be filled with woodite, thus forming a wall five feet
thick against machine gun fire. This filling can also be utilized as
fuel in an emergency. Forward and abaft of the coal bunkers the
coffer-dam will be filled with some water-excluding substance similar to
woodite. In the wake of the four-inch and the machine guns, the ship's
side will be armored with four-inch and two-inch nickel steel plates.

The vessel will carry no big guns, for the reason that the uses for
which she is intended will not require them. Not a gun will be in sight,
and the battery will be abnormally light. There will be four six-inch
breech-loading rifles, mounted in the open, and protected with heavy
shields attached to the gun carriages; eight four-inch breech-loading
rifles; twelve six-pounder, and four one-pounder rapid-firing guns; four
machine or Gatling guns, and six torpedo-launching tubes. Besides these
she has a ram bow. The Columbia is to be completed, ready for service,
by May 19, 1893.

THE FIRST AMERICAN.

ELIZA COOK, a popular English poetess. Born in Southwark, London,
1817.

Land of the West! though passing brief the record of th