composite or circle sailing, to make the passage round the globe in something less than half the time formerly required.

The Shipping Interest is largely aided by the enterprise of our capitalists and merchants. We have taken an active and leading part, either by money or material, in all the great constructive undertakings carried out of late years for the improvement and extension of Commerce;-and the Panama Railway, the Pacific Railroad, the Suez Canal, the Mont Cenis Tunnel, the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence, the network of railways in India, in British North America, and in Australia, the thousands of miles of overland and submarine telegraphs and cables are so many valuable aids to the progress of settlement and the extension of that carrying trade of which we have the largest share. New marts are opening up day by day for British trade and manufactures. Our Colonial progress is rapid and prosperous, for never before in the world's history were seen such Colonial empires as extend in all directions under British rule-in India, and the East, in Australasia, in Africa, and in North America. All these are pregnant with deep results in swelling the tide of commerce, and all classes of British subjects at home or abroad share in the common weal.

But there are other points which help to swell the current of British Commerce. Great rivers, which were never thought navigable, have by British enterprise become changed in their aspect. In Australia the Murray and its tributaries now bear down to the sea rich cargoes of wool, tallow, hides, and other colonial produce, to the delight of the squatter and the manifest enhancement in value of his land and his flocks.

Another vast continent, South America, has opened up its interior treasures to commerce, furnishing new markets for our manufactures, new fields for agricultural and industrial enterprise, and numberless new products from regions comparatively unknown and unexplored, but abounding in all that can minister to the wants of man. The steamer now floats proudly on the Magdalena, stems the broad torrent of the Amazon and its confluents, penetrates into the interior rivers of Peru, and traces the important affluents of the Rio de la Plata into Paraguay and Brazil. Who can tell the benefit which shall result to the various South American republics from the extension of steam into the great watershed of the continent-thus opening up the highways which Providence has munificently supplied? The inhabitants are no longer shut out from communication with the sea, and produce which formerly had to be conveyed long and expensive journies by land on the backs of mules or alpacas, and then by circuitous voyages on the Pacific and

round the Horn, are now brought promptly and economically direct to the Atlantic ports in a brief space of time, and at little cost, for shipment to European markets. The navigation of the Niger by British steamers has opened up numberless new channels of commerce. The legitimate trade of Western Africa, its nut and palm oils, its cotton, its ivory, and its dyewoods, have taken the place of the base traffic in human beings-and round the eastern and western coasts towards the south, whether in the diamond fields, or the thriving colony of Natal, British enterprise is opening new fields of supply, and new markets for our commerce.

Passing eastward, we find our commerce has made rapid strides in China and Japan, empires formerly closed to our trade; but the wall of exclusion has now been broken down, and our merchants and traders are permitted easy access, the great river of China being navigated by British steamers. Each and all of these are subjects of importance to the British mercantile marine and shipping interest, for these are the channels which swell European commerce.

In conclusion, in the words of a practical teacher it may be shown how dependent we are upon the raw materials of commerce for our prosperity and comfort, for without an extensive mercantile fleet we could not maintain our supremacy as the carriers of the world. Dr. Yeats, in his recently published work on "The Natural History of Commerce," well observes, "Without a considerable knowledge of raw materials and their adaptations we could not live; and without an unremitting application of such knowledge we could not live in comfort. We may ever measure a country's civilization by the extent and diffusion of this important knowledge. The economic history of a nation would be a record of the discovery of new raw materials, of new sources of supply, and of additional applications. All such discoveries tend to our benefit, while the result is occasionally to enrich the discoverer, and to change the face of our social and industrial life. We have only to contrast the present period of our history with any former period, or the condition of any one country with another, to perceive the effect of such knowledge upon human well-being. Every year adds to our list of useful animal, vegetable, and mineral substances, while the increasing consumption of those already known calls forth as a rule increased production. Thus the importance of a knowledge of raw materials cannot be overrated. It is a matter of personal interest to everybody in every part of world."

P. L. SIMMONDS.

NEW BEACON-BUOY IN USE ON BOARD H.M.S.

“LIGHTNING.”

As many of our readers are doubtless interested in nautical inventions or improvements, we beg to call their attention to the engraving in our frontispiece of a safety-beacon and portable tideguage, which are now in use on our West Coast survey under the command of Staff-Commander John Richards, of H.M.S. Lightning.

In marine surveying it is often necessary to use floating beacons, and it is very desirable that such marks should not range about with the wind or tide, but remain fixed in one position; this has been accomplished in Captain Richards' beacon. It can be moored taut, head and stern, as represented in the sketch, will carry a much larger mark than any other kind of beacon-buoy, and will rise easily to the heaviest seas: in proof of which may be adduced the fact that the one now in use has been moored at one of the most exposed places outside Morecambe Bay for more than two months, and although the wind has partly destroyed the mark on the mast, neither the beacon nor its wooden platform have been injured or strained in the least degree.

This safety-beacon is moved about easily-as a boat-with two oars and a steering scull, and sails fairly with the wind free; carries all her own gear, viz., two 14 cwt. anchors, 36 fathoms of the Lightning's stream chain and tackles for working it; besides oars, mast and sails, and a crew of five men.

The beacon is put to various uses on board the Lightning, amongst which may be noticed conveying fresh water off to the ship in bulk. One of the objects for which it was constructed, however, may be explained as follows:--when surveying flat, shallow coasts where sandbanks dry at low water far from the land, as at the River Dee and Morecambe Bay, it is occasionally necessary to fix a tide-guage far from the shore, where it can only be registered by a person stationed afloat, and as an open boat only was available in the case of the Lightning, Captain Richards was desirous of securing the tide-marker against liability to danger, from the sudden rising of the wind and sea during the unavoidable absence of the ship. It will be seen that the beacon makes a perfect life raft, and a not uncomfortable residence for one man.

The wooden platform surmounting the pontoons is quite out of reach of the sea; it is six feet long and includes a space, nearly square, covered by a tent of No. 1 canvas (painted), distended by