ing the jerboa, fox, jackal, baboon, hyenas, mountain sheep, etc.; about 80 species of birds, among which is the ostrich. There are also tortoises, lizards, chameleons, serpents, such as the python, horned viper, etc. The edible frog and fish also occur. There is an important trade in silk tissues and mixed goods, ivory, ostrich feathers, gums, spices, musk, hides, gold dust, indigo, cotton, palm oil, kola nuts, silver, dates, salt and alum. The exports are textiles, weapons, gunpowder, etc. Many thousand tons of phosphate are extracted. The range of temperature is very great. The chief centres of population are the oases. The inhabitants consist of Moors, Tuareg, Tibbu, Negroes, Arabs and Jews; the former occupy the region between Fezzan and Lake Tchad. The tribes of the desert inhabit the south of Algeria and Tunis. The Tuareg control the principal caravan routes. The Tibbu, who number about 200,000, live in the oases between Fezzan and Lake Tchad. The tribes of the desert are, generally speaking, camel drivers, slave and salt dealers, guides and robbers. A few possess date-groves, but they usually subsist on the milk of their herds, bartering for fruits or grain. The principal caravan routes lead from Timbuktu to the Wady Draha, and to the oasis of Twat; from Haussa by Air or Asben and Ghat to Ghadames and Murzuk; from Bornu by Bilma and Murzuk to Tripoli; from Wady by Ojariga, Kufara and Aujilah to Benghazi, and from Darfur to Siut. Pop. about 2,000,000.

SAHARANPUR, sa-här-an-poor', or SEHARUNPOOR, se-här-un-poor, India, (1) capital of a district of the same name, in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, 90 miles northeast of Delhi. It is an important railway junction. Among the buildings the most noteworthy are an old Rohilla fort (used as a courthouse), and a fine Mohammedan mosque. The residential part is substantial and modern. There is a church, an American Presbyterian mission and a fine botanical garden for experiments in tea and cinchona. Commerce in grain, sugar, molasses and country cloth is considerable. Pop. about 70,000.

(2) The district in the Meerut division has an area of about 2,242 square miles, and occupies an alluvial table-land between the Ganges and the Jumna. It consists partly of wildly picturesque broken ground, but the larger portion is tillable. Cereals are the chief products, and its commercial importance is considerable. Pop. about 1,200,000.

SAHIB, sä'ib, the term of native address in India to a reputable European. It is an Arabic word, signifying companion or lord. The feminine form is Sahibâ.

SAI, sä'i, a Brazilian native name for a local monkey of indefinite application, most often, perhaps, designating the capuchin (Cebus capucinus).

SAID PASHA, sä-ēd păsh'â, Turkish statesman: b. 1835; d. Constantinople, 29 Oct. 1907. He commanded an army corps in the Russo-Turkish War, became governor of

Cyprus and was later appointed Secretary of State. He was Premier 1879-82, was grand vizier 1882-85 and was twice dismissed but reinstated by the sultan in 1883. In 1885-95 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, and subsequently president of the Council of Ministers,

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SAIGA, si’gą, an antelope (Saiga tartarica) found on the steppes of Russia and in western Asia. It is about two and one-half feet high at the shoulders, pale bluish-gray in color and is remarkable for the greatly swollen appearance of the nose, due to the thick cartilaginous coverings of the nostrils. It once had a far wider habitat in Europe, and is steadily diminishing in range and numbers.

SAIGO, Kichinoswke Takamori, Japanese general and patriot: b. Kagoshima, 1825-32; d. there, 24 Sept. 1877. He was of the samurai class and from early youth an enthusiastic partisan of the Mikado. In 1858 the vigor with which he urged the overthrow of the Tokugawa administration caused his banishment to Satsuma. He took an important part in the restoration of the Mikado in 1868, fighting with the forces of the imperial family in the civil war which preceded it. He was afterward appointed commander-in-chief of the army by the Mikado and retained the office until 1873 when, his desire to attack Korea being overruled, he resigned and retired to Kagoshima. Himself of the samurai class, which was largely disaffected because of opposition to the progressiveness of the emperor, he rallied a large force to his support and early in 1877 launched a rebellion against the government. After continued stubborn fighting and a steady, if slow, forced retreat he fell in action at Kagoshima. The government, notwithstanding his attempt to overthrow it, mindful of his invaluable services in establishing the Mikado on the throne, afterward erected a bronze statue of him at Tokio.

SAIGO, Yorimichi (Judo), MARQUIS OF, Japanese field-marshal and statesman, brother of K. T. Saigo (q.v.): b. Satsuma, 1843; d. 1902. He was of the samurai class and took a prominent part in the restoration of the Mikado in 1868. In the crisis of 1873, when his brother Takamori withdrew from office, Saigo remained in sympathy with the government He commanded the Japanese expedition to Formosa in 1874, and from 1877 until his retirement in 1900 held various cabinet offices. He received rank as marquis in 1895.

SAIGON, si-gōn (Fr. si-gôn), or SAIGUN, Indo-China, the capital of Lower Cochin-China before the French conquest, is on the right bank of the Saigon or Don-nai River, 34 miles from the sea. The town was nearly destroyed by the French, and the present city dates practically from 1861. It has fine public buildings, modern shaded streets and zoological and botanical gardens; of educational institutions, the colleges of Chasseloup-Laubat and d'Adran are the most important. There is a large floating dock. The majority of the population is Asiatic, the Chinese element predominating. The town has an active trade with China, Siam, Singapore and Java. Considerable French and English goods are imported. The main exports are rice cotton, silk and hides. The great market is Cholon, three and one-half miles from Saigon. Pop. about 80,000; Cholon, 127,000.

SAIL, or SAIL-TAILED, LIZARD, a large agamoid lizard (Lophurus amboinensis) of the Philippines, Celebes, Java and neighboring islands, which takes its name from the tall sail-like crest bone upon the upper surface of

the tail of the adult, which is supported by a great lengthening of the spines of the vertebræ of that region; the tail otherwise is highly compressed, long and powerful. The lizard frequently exceeds three feet in length, is olivegreen, spotted and marbled with black, and has many curious folds of skin about the neck. It is strong and active and spends much of its time in trees, but when alarmed or chased rushes for water, dives to the bottom and endeavors to hide among the stones. It is defenseless and harmless, and its flesh, which is white and tender, is much liked by the islanders.

SAIL. See SHIP.

SAILCLOTH, a coarse, strong linen, cotton or hempen cloth used in making sails. The best is made of flax, and combines flexibility with lightness and strength. See SHIP.

SAILFISH, a large predaceous fish (Istiophorus nigricans) of the West Indian and neighboring waters, which is closely allied to the sword-fishes and of the same family as the spear-fishes (Tetrapturus). It reaches a length of six feet, has an elongated, much compressed body, covered with elongate scutes, and a powerful, deeply forked tail, while the dorsal fin is, relatively, of huge size and deeply notched outline, well simulating the appearance of a ship under sail as it appears above the water when the fish glides along the surface as it frequently does. The bones of the nose are prolonged into a "sword,” not so long as that of the sword-fish, but sharper, and they are an effective weapon in a school of small fish.

SAILING. See NAVIGATION; SHIP; SAILING VESSELS.

SAILING VESSELS. The first vessel of which history gives any description is the Ark, as built by Noah. Its proportions possess some interest, because, though not intended for a voyage, it may be inferred that it was constructed to float with as little motion as possible, considering that it "went upon the face of the waters" for about five months. Assuming a cubit to be about 21 inches, its length was 525 feet, its breadth 87 feet 6 inches and its depth 52 feet 6 inches. Its length is thus seen to have been six times its breadth, which proportion is about an average of all types of vessels. Its draft of water must have varied greatly during the period of its occupation, as 12 months' provisions must have formed a very large proportion of the original weight, and these must have been gradually consumed. It had three decks; but was fitted with neither masts, sails nor rudder.

Ancient History. The paintings and sculptures, as the early records of Egypt, show regularly formed boats constructed of sawed planks of timber, propelled by numerous rowers, and also by sails. These vessels were long galleys with one mast and a large square sail, which was sometimes of linen and sometimes of papyrus. The oldest authentic record as to these sailing vessels is the illustration of one of them used as a decoration on an Egyptian amphora (in the British Museum), judged by the best authorities to have been made about 6000 B.C. It is to be noted, however, that these boats could sail only with the wind, and that the science of tacking and sailing against the wind was unknown for, literally, thousands of

years, during which vessels sailed if the wind was favorable, and unshipped the mast, and set the oarsmen at work when it was contrary. The Hebrews in the time of Solomon must have possessed vessels of considerable size, as mention is made in the sacred writings of that date of stately ships, and of voyages made to bring trees of considerable size to be used in the building of the temple. The Phoenicians about 1200 B.C. had sailing vessels which did not differ in any important respect from those of the Egyptians, but they seem to have developed the art of sailing to a considerable degree. Later they were connected with the Hebrews in their maritime expeditions, and this people appear to have been the most enterprising in navigation of all the nations of antiquity. Herodotus tells us of their feat of circumnavigating the continent of Africa in 604 B.C. They started from the Red Sea, passing Ophir on east coast of Africa, then rounded the Cape, and keeping by the west shore they entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Straits of Gibraltar, and arrived in Egypt in the third year of their expedition. Little doubt exists of the Phoenicians having been the discoverers of the art of sailing, as their skill in evading Nebuchadnezzar at the siege of Tyre for 13 years shows that they possessed more than a superficial knowledge of navigation. They were also engaged in concert with other nations in wars with the Greeks: and it was from them the latter nation learned in their conflicts what they knew of ships and navigation. The fact of the Grecian mariners making use of the screw pump to discharge water from their vessels' holds would lead to the conclusion that their vessels were no mere sloops; yet the relative placidity of the waters in which they sailed suggests that their vessels were sailing boats rather than sailing ships. An evidence of the want of strength in the construction of these ancient vessels is the fact of their being bound around the outside with heavy ropes. They were sometimes carried as part of the vessel's outfit, and used as necessity required. Out at sea and in heavy weather, they were made use of. There were sometimes as many as 8 or 10 bands running fore and aft of the vessel. The Greek warships were strengthened to withstand the shock of ramming by the addition of longitudinal timbers secured to the exterior of the hull. At this period it was the custom of mariners to draw their fragile vessels out upon the shores at the approach of autumnal storms, and to leave them there till mild weather came again in the spring.

Roman Galleys.- The Romans in the early stage of their history paid little attention to navigation, until it was forced upon them by the necessity of competing with their rivals, the Carthaginians. The galleys of this period ranged from a single bank up to five banks of oars. The oars in these large galleys were arranged in sets or banks; the number of these could be increased to any extent by giving increased length to the galley. The trireme, or three-bank galley, appears to have been generally open, in the waist where the rowers sat, with decks or platforms at both ends for the soldiers. The galleys of greater size than the three tiers appear to have been always decked

vessels. At the time of the First Punic War the Roman fleet is said to have consisted of 330 vessels, cach containing 300 rowers and 120 soldiers. The triremes were each 105 feet long and 11 feet wide, and the quadriremes were 125 feet by 13 feet.

Viking Ships. Of much sturdier build were the ships of the Norsemen, designed to sail the turbulent waters of the northern seas. The custom of burying noted Vikings in the boats which they commanded has preserved under great burial mounds a number of specimens of these early ships. One of these, found in England, was 48 feet long, 9 feet 9 inches beam and 4 feet depth of hold. Another, unearthed in Norway, was 45 feet 6 inches in length, about 14 feet beam and 4 feet deep. The famous Gogstad ship, exhumed in 1880, was 79 feet 4 inches long, 16 feet 6 inches beam, 6 feet deep amidships and 8 feet 6 inches deep at bow and stern. All of these vessels were of cak, clinker-built and caulked with moss or hair of some animal. They have been decided by antiquaries to belong to the 3d century. The remains of a much larger vessel, prodigious for its time, were found in the Orkneys. It was 130 feet in length and had a depth of hold of about 15 feet. This vessel is regarded as belonging to the latter part of the 9th century, and is believed to have been one of the ships with which the Vikings conducted raids on the coast of England. These raids served to stir Alfred the Great (848-890) with a spirit of rivalry and he proceeded to build ships twice as large as those of the enemy, but of the same type. It is noteworthy, however, that he failed to find seamen of experience in his own kingdom, but was compelled to hire them in Holland. Under Athelston, the grandson of Alfred (895-941), it is known that a considerable merchant trade was carried on with France and Flanders by English sailing ships; and it is recorded in history that King Edgar (944-975) had a fleet of some 4,000 sailing ships stationed as a guard around the entire coast of Great Britain.

The expedition of Richard Cœur de Lion (1157-99) to the Holy Land led to the remodeling in some respects of the English sailing craft, through the adoption of some of the developments in construction of the ships of the Mediterranean, which were much larger as to hull, and carried taller masts and a larger area of sail. But these improvements in the English ships were chiefly those for warlike purposes and the more important features of the Mediterranean vessels seem to have been overlooked, or at least neglected, for they did not appear in the English ships until the 15th century.

Merchant Ships. It is generally supposed that ships intended only for merchant purposes were first built by the Genoese, and that not until the beginning of the 14th century were sails first used by that people. The fishing boats were the small beginning from which sprang the sailers and the larger sail vessels of a later period. But it is an indisputable fact that long before this time ships of three decks and of 600 or 700 tons, of Italian build, were sailing the Mediterranean with both freight and passengers. In England, as early as 1344, many vessels of this character were in service. In the middle of the 15th century many large ves

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sels were built in England, but they were mostly naval vessels. Prior to this the compass had come into more general use, and it was now possible to engage in longer voyages. The discovery of America and the passage around the Cape of Good Hope were early fruits of these improvements. The Portuguese employed vessels of small size in their voyages of discovery, but the Spaniards built larger vessels and long maintained a superiority in this respect. England was far behind the Peninsular nations in commercial enterprise at the opening of the 16th century, but under the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1533-1609) the merchant marine of England was relieved of many oppressive laws and the coasting trade of the British Isles was reserved exclusively for British ships. And not only did the coasting trade flourish, but English shipping began to contest successfully with that of Italy, Spain and Portugal for the carrying trade of the world. Moreover, a distinct change appeared in the design of English ships in the abandonment of the high Spanish poop and forecastle prevalent on the vessels which sailed the Mediterranean. Meanwhile the French had not been idle, and while their merchant ships were few and small, they were building war vessels which compared well with those of Spain and England, though leaning in type toward the Spanish models. The Cordeliere of 700 tons and the Grand Louise of 790 tons were as large as any ships afloat.

The Spanish Armada, which visited English waters in 1588, comprised 130 sailing vessels of all sorts, with a total tonnage of 60,000. Some 60 of these were galleons of the largest type. The wrecking of one of them on the western coast showed it to be of 900 tons. At this time the "treasure-ships" of Spain, 100 feet in length and 34 feet in breadth, were making regular voyages across the Atlantic for the gold and silver of the New World. More light on the shipping of those days is afforded by the record of the carak Madre de Dios, captured by the English in 1592. This vessel was 165 feet in length, 46 feet 10 inches beam and drew 26 feet of water. The height of her mainmast was 121 feet and her main yard was 106 feet long. Her capacity was 1,600 tons, by far the largest known up to that time.

For

The Dutch ships of this period were distinctive in model owing to the shallow waters in which they sailed. They were low and of comparatively wide beam and large sail area. their smaller craft the Dutch had already developed the fore and aft rig, and were using both the sprit sail and sprit topsail on their galleons. It is to be noted in passing that the Dutch galleons were at this time determinedly engaged in the first polar explorations on record the endeavor to find a northeast passage to China (1594, 1595 and 1596). From the earliest times the Dutch had been fishermen and accomplished navigators, and while their war fleet was small, their merchant fleet grew apace and by the early part of the 17th century they controlled the coasting trade as far south as Portugal and were successfully monopolizing the East India trade of Britain. The English merchant marine was in a very depressed condition. Internal discords had put a damper on the enterprise of the merchants, and as the island was not yet famed for its manufactures,

commerce dropped with every disaster to trade. The British East Indies Company was formed under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth (1599) and some great ships were built for this trade, the largest being the Trade's Increase of 1,200 tons. From this time onward the British made every effort to control the shipping trade of the world. The Dutch were their principal competitors, and had, without doubt, the best-built and best-manned fleet and had established colonies in South America, to which their ships made regular voyages. The British policy was to build larger ships than those of any other nation and in this they surpassed the Dutch, but the French excelled them. The Sovereign of the Seas, built in 1637, was the largest of the British ships at this period. She was 170 feet long, 48 feet beam and 19 feet deep and measured 1,683 tons. The largest Dutch ships at that time were the White Elephant of 1,482 tons and the Golden Lion of 1,477 tons. The French had the Soleil Royal of 1,946 tons and the Royal Louis of 1,800 tons. The English continued to build larger vessels and in the early 18th century had the Royal George of 2,047 tons, and in 1765 launched the Victory, Nelson's famous flagship of 2,162 tons. capture by the British in 1792 of the French Commerce de Marseilles of 2,747 tons aroused new emulation of the French shipbuilders, and the direct result of this impetus was the Caledonia, launched in 1808, a vessel 205 feet in length and of 2,616 tons.

The

The First American Ships.- This continent having been fitted by nature in supplying it with an abundance of good timber, vessels have been built upon our shores from the first year of actual settlement. The first ship constructed was for the purpose of carrying a small band of settlers back to England, who were discouraged with their prospects after the first winter. The vessel was built in 1607 at Stage Island, near the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. It was a staunch and excellent little vessel of 30 tons, a two-master, named Virginia. She is believed to have been about 30 feet long, 13 feet beam and 8 feet deep. She subsequently made a number of voyages between America and England. The next vessel built was at New York in 1614 by Capt. Adrien Blok, who had lost his ship Tiger by fire while lying in Manhattan River. His new vessel was named Onrust (Restless) and was 38 feet keel, 442 feet long over all and 11 feet beam. This vessel was employed for several years in exploring the Atlantic Coast from the 38th to the 42d degree of latitude. Block Island was visited during one of the excursions and took its name from Adrien Blok. With the exception of fishing boats and shallops, there is no record of the construction of any other boats until 1631. In that year the 30-ton bark Blessing of the Bay was launched at Medford, Mass., for the use of the Massachusetts colony. In the course of the season this vessel made several coasting trips and soon after visited Manhattan Island and Long Island. It is thought the vessel was lost with a load of furs and fish in 1633 off the capes of Virginia. By 1635 there were six of these small sailing vessels regularly employed in the trade with England. In 1636 the Desire of 120 tons was built at Marblehead and put into the fishing business,

Early Shipbuilding.— Shipbuilding at this time appears to have received its impulse from the same cause which threw the colonists upon their own resources for the supply of many of the necessaries of life. They had been hitherto supplied with all but their corn and fish by the many emigrant ships which had yearly added to their numbers. A suspension of this emigration, brought about by the civil wars in England, and the diminished intercourse caused thereby, left them dependent on mercantile enterprise alone, which the state of navigation then rendered precarious in the extreme. Governor Winthrop then said, "The general fear, of the want of foreign commodities, now our money was gone, and things were like to go well in England, set us on work to provide shipping of our own: for which end Mr. (Hugh) Peter, being a man of very public spirit and singular activity for all occasions, procured some to join for building a ship at Salem of 300 tons, and the inhabitants of Boston, stirred by his example, set upon the building of another at Boston of 150 tons. The work was hard to accomplish for want of money, etc., but our shipwrights were content to take such pay as the country could make." He speaks in another place of the Trial of 160 tons, as the first ship built at Boston. She sailed for Bilboa on 4 June 1642, laden with fish, "which she sold there at good rate, and from thence freighted to Malaga." Thus early began the profitable trade to distant ports from New England, and by 1676 the colony of Massachusetts owned 200 vessels of from 30 tons to 50 tons; 200 of from 50 tons to 100 tons, and 30 above 100 tons. An early and successful prosecution of the business of shipbuilding could have been more reasonably expected of none of the first colonists of America than of the settlers of Manhattan. Holland was at that period, and long after, in the enjoyment of the carrying trade of the world. Though not possessed of a foot of timber, she built and armed more ships than all the rest of Europe. Planted by this commercial people, and by merchants and capitalists of Amsterdam, then the mercantile metropolis of Europe, exclusively for the purposes of trade, it appears somewhat surprising that the facilities afforded by the new territory for shipbuilding were not made available to a greater extent by the parent nation. But the administration of a privileged mercantile association, such as the West India Company, which, in 1621, was invested with a monopoly of its trade, was unfavorable to the development of the resources of the colony. About 1630 the carrying trade between Holland and America, and the trade with Brazil, where the company had sustained losses equivalent to "one hundred tons of gold,” were thrown open to the colonists and private ships were for the first time entered at Amsterdam and publicly advertised for New Netherlands. Other restrictions, which had fettered commerce, were soon after removed and the trade of the world with the exception of that to the East Indies, and the trade in furs, were open to the colonists. In 1678 the shipping owned in the port consisted of three ships and 15 sloops and other small sailing vessels. In 1694 the shipping had increased to 60 ships and 102 sloops. This was on account of a monopoly of exporting flour and biscuits from the

province. South of New York during colonial times there was little or no construction of vessels. New England developed her large shipping interests through the fisheries that were at her door and the coasting trade maintained by the latter extended as far south as the West Indies during these early days. It might be said the fisheries were the cause of the large merchant marine of New England. Between the years 1674 and 1714 a total of 1,332 vessels were registered as built in New England yards, in many cases by men drawn from English shipyards. Of those built, 239 were sold to foreign owners.

The Schooner. In 1745 Andrew Robinson of Gloucester, Mass., built a vessel with a square stern, which was fitted with two masts, bearing a sloop sail on each, and a bowsprit with jib. She was sharp on the bottom and on being launched sped over the water so fast from the impetus gained by descending from the ways as to elicit from a bystander the remark, "See how she scoons." Scoon was a word used by plain people to express the skipping of a flat stone over the surface of the water when skilfully thrown; and the builder of the vessel, having been somewhat at a loss for a name for the new rig, seized upon the trifling incident and replied, "A scooner let her be," and twomasted vessels, with jibs, and fore and aft sails have since been called by that name. This vessel was probably used in the fisheries. The schooner proved to be a very economical vessel to run, with fewer men to her sail area than any other type of sailing vessel. The largest schooners were those sent to the Grand Banks, and for many years after 1800 about 70 sailing vessels were sent annually to the Grand Banks, chiefly from Cape Ann. These early vessels were from 20 to 40 tons.

Colonial Merchant Marine.- Before the Revolutionary War our merchant marine was in a prosperous condition and took nearly first rank with us. By 1760 from 300 to 400 trading vessels were being built annually in the different provinces. In 1769 alone, 389 ships with a tonnage exceeding in the aggregate 20,000 tons were turned out of American shipyards. Of these, 113 were square-rigged and a large proportion of the remainder were schooners. Few of these exceeded 200 tons. During the War of the Revolution the whaling and fishing fleets suffered seriously from raids by English cruisers. Foreign trade in our vessels suffered the same fate. A large part of the merchant and fishing fleet was employed during the war in privateering and it became a profitable field for them at times, as small armed sloops frequently captured large merchantmen under the British flag. The larger privateers built during the war, when the conflict was over, were converted into merchantmen and sent to the East Indies to trade. The Baltimore-built schooner took high rank as a privateer during the war. The 16 years that followed ending with the War of 1812 were perilous times for American shipping. England excluded us from a profitable trade with the British West Indies and the same interests led to the searching of our merchant vessels for British subjects, the capture and confiscation of our vessels and cargoes and a detention of a large number of them for evasions of the British law. The American merchant fleet which had increased to a total

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registry of 848,307 tons in 1807 fell to 769,054 tons in 1808, under the restrictions of the American embargo laid at the insistence of Great Britain. The repeal of the embargo in 1809 brought the tonnage of the merchant fleet to 910,059 and in 1810 it reached its high-water mark for many decades to come at 984,269 tons. Then came on the War of 1812 that lasted for nearly three years, during which many privateers were constructed that subsequently pursued the peaceful pursuit of trade. A change in the form of our sailing vessels now began to appear, giving them better entrance lines, and cutting off those high poop decks that had been such a fixture on large vessels for many

years.

The Carrying Trade.- Prior to the War of 1812 our coastwise trade was carried on by no larger sailing vessels than those that were schooner rigged, while our foreign trade was most largely carried on in foreign-built bottoms. Before 1812 a few sailing packets, or vessels carrying both passengers and freight, were brought into the transportation business, and cleared from port on regular days in each month, and were operated between special points only. At this time, however, there were many American-built whalers making three-year voyages to the Pacific from Massachusetts harbors and not a few had gone as far as Bering's Sea. The average tonnage of these daring vessels was less than 300 tons. When the war ended there were only a few small British ships in the packet service between England and America, and very few between America and other parts of the world. Soon after the peace, however, a large number of lines came into existence as a natural outgrowth of the rush of emigration from Europe to America, and the general expansion of ocean travel and trade. The carrying of passengers was a profitable business and there was considerable competition among shipping merchants to get the most business for their vessels. None but the best and finest vessels could be used in this trade and the old-fashioned freighting vessels with their small cabins and houses and poop decks, were subjected to many changes to adapt them to the passenger business. The merchants at most all our coastwise ports, from Portland, Me., to New Orleans, La., soon saw the advantage of these packets for our coastwise trade and regular established lines were soon in operation that remained as carriers until the coastwise steamship lines began operations in 1847, when these lines of sailing vessels gradually withdrew from business. In this trade brigs, schooners and barks were used, while in the foreign service ships and barks only were placed in service.

Packet Lines. It was at New York the packet business between Europe and America mainly centred. There were lines from other ports, but New York was the pioneer, always kept the lead and had the largest number and finest vessels for the service. In 1816 Isaac Wright and Company of New York founded the famous Black Ball Line, so called from the 1ound black circle in a white field, which was adopted as the pennant of the ships. There were at first four vessels in this line, each of 400 tons, and named Pacific, Courier, Amity and James Monroe. This line was subsequently owned by Goodhue and Company, Charles H.