Part 90

As to capacity for passengers, there are one hundred and sixty berths, aside from the accommodations for the people of the ship. As to strength of structure, the timbers are fitted side by side, and calked so tight that it was said the ship would float even before she was planked. Plates of iron six inches wide and an inch and a quarter thick, are let, obliquely, into the timbers at the distance of twenty-eight inches from the centers of each, and therefore they are twenty-two inches apart. These are crossed obliquely by other bars or plates of the same dimensions, which are let into the boards or planks that are nailed over them. Copper bolts, for twenty feet from the keel, pass through the plates of iron at their intersection, and in many other places, and copper sheathing covers eighteen feet of the lower part of the hull, the draught being nineteen feet, and twenty with the coal in. The ships of this line are as strong as wood, iron and copper can make them, and they hardly leak at all. They would bear long thumping upon the rocks before they would go to pieces. The movement of the machinery, and the stroke of the waves, produce scarcely a perceptible tremor, and not the slightest deviation in the deck from a right line can be seen, when viewed horizontally from stem to stern through its length of nearly three hundred feet. No opening of a joint is perceived even in the beams that form the capping of the gunwale; a knife-blade can not be passed between their contiguous ends.

The machinery rests on an iron bed-plate, on the keelson, or engine bed; and the bed-plate, which is cast in one piece, weighs forty tuns. The machinery is below, and is invisible from the deck, except through certain doors. A wave can hardly reach it at all, even should it break over the ship; and by closing the apertures above, the engine room is safe from flooding, while ventilation is secured by large tubes, having their orifices higher than the upper or promenade deck. The people below, on the level of the keelson, where there is little motion, hardly know when there is a storm above; they live in a comparatively quiet world of their own, and always in a tropical climate, even when among icebergs. The working of the machinery is admirable. It travels onward with the greatest ease and regularity; even with a heavy head-wind and opposing waves, it moves like clockwork, without apparent labor, throwing up its mighty arms and moving its ponderous levers as if there were no weight to be lifted, or _vis inertiæ_ to be overcome. By observations made up to the tenth day of one of the passages, there had not been the slightest leak of steam, nor had it been necessary to turn a screw, although for several days together there was a heavy head-sea, impelled by adverse winds. Except the effect of hidden flaws in the immense masses of wrought iron that form some of the principal moving parts, there seems to be little cause for anxiety, as the machinery appears to be, in general, equal to every emergency.

Danger from fire, is always a subject of anxiety; but in ships protected as the Baltic is, the danger is believed to be less than in a sailing ship. The engine room is lined with iron; the boilers and their furnaces are everywhere surrounded by that metal and by water, and no wood is in a position to be unduly heated. All lights, except those necessary to the management of the ship, are extinguished at eleven o’clock; many people are up all night, and are about in every place; there are fire-engines always ready to flood the ship, and they are adapted so as to be wrought both by hand and by steam power. The behavior of the Baltic as a sea-boat, is admirable in every variety of weather. This immense vessel rides upon the waves like a duck, and has, in general, a dry and comfortable deck, rarely shipping a sea, although the spray dashes over the forecastle in showers. The ship is warmed by steam tubes, passing under the marble tables. More than fifty persons are employed about the machinery, of whom forty-eight attend to the coal and the fires, and there are six or eight engineers. There are between thirty and forty servants, twenty or twenty-five sailors, and three or four supernumerary officers; in all, about one hundred and forty, besides passengers. The style and furnishing of the Baltic are elegant, rich enough for a nobleman’s villa. Of mirrors, large and small, there are about fifty; indeed, they are in such excess that a passenger can not look in any direction without meeting his own image or the faces of his companions. The tables of these steamers are amply supplied, and have the best attendance; and of luxuries, there seems to be no end. The saloons of these steamers are fitted up in superb style. Some of the table-covers are of beautiful variegated marble, and the panels around are finely decorated with emblems of the various American states. The cabin-windows are of beautiful painted glass, embellished with the arms of various American cities. There are large circular glass ventilators reaching from the deck to the lower saloon. There is a rich and elegant ladies’ drawing-room near the chief saloon, and there are berths for about one hundred and fifty passengers. Each berth has a bell-rope communicating with one of Jackson’s patented American annunciators. Crossing the ocean in one of these steamers, some one has said, is _no cross at all_!

Such are the present ocean steamers; and yet even these immense structures will soon be thrown in the background by steamers of still vaster dimensions. For the Edinburgh Journal gives an account of an immense iron steamer, now (1855) being constructed for the Australian trade, which will far surpass them. The actual measurements of this leviathan vessel are, six hundred and seventy-five feet long, eighty-three feet wide at her greatest breadth of beam, and sixty feet deep in the hold, forming four decks. She will be furnished with paddle-wheels and a screw, the former of a nominal power of one thousand horses, the latter of sixteen hundred horses; but practically, the combined power may be estimated at three thousand horses. The four cylinders in which the pistons are to work, are the largest in the world; each of them weighs twenty-eight tuns. When they are lying on the ground, a man, with his hat on, may walk through them without touching the upper side. The engines, when erected and put together, will be upward of fifty feet in hight. The weight of the entire machinery will be about three thousand tuns, and of the hull, ten thousand tuns, making thirteen thousand tuns. She will carry several thousand tuns of coal and merchandise, sixteen hundred passengers, and her measurement capacity gives about twenty-five thousand tuns’ burden! Notwithstanding, her draught of water will be but small, not exceeding twenty feet when light, and thirty feet when fully loaded. She will carry five or six masts, and five funnels. Her cost will be about eighteen hundred thousand dollars. She will carry coal enough for a voyage round the world, and is built upon a model to insure great speed. Her ordinary speed is expected to be eighteen or twenty miles an hour. She is expected to make the voyage from England to Australia in thirty days, and return by Cape Horn in thirty days more; thus making the circuit of the globe in two months.

More wonderful still, it is said that Mr. Vanderbilt, of New York, is about building an immense steamer, which is to be eight hundred feet in length, and of corresponding proportions throughout, which of course will surpass even the huge steamship just described. Where the rivalry and enterprise in this matter are to end, who can tell?

CHINESE JUNKS.

As in perfect and wonderful contrast to the magnificent floating palaces just described, we close the subject of navigation by a view of the clumsy Chinese junk, which is represented in the cut below. The Chinese, though neither a savage, nor a barbarous people, are still, in most respects, very unlike other civilized nations. In houses, dress, furniture, equipage, worship, indeed, in most of the actions, feelings, and opinions of life, they are a peculiar people. They have, in fact, struck out a civilization of their own. Their religion, their literature, their arts, are all Chinese, and nothing but Chinese. It is curious to observe that although, for many centuries, they have been a cultivated people, and have even preceded the Europeans in many useful and ingenious discoveries, they seem to stand still at a certain point, beyond which they are not capable of improvement. There they remain, century after century; and, while other nations have surpassed them, they still conceive that they are the most learned, civilized and polished people in the world. All other nations they conceive to be barbarians, and hold them in supercilious contempt. And the Chinese vessels may serve as a sample of their national character. We give above a picture of one of their junks, which shows some ingenuity, and no little industry; yet how clumsy, how ineffective is it, in comparison with a Yankee steamboat! The Chinese can go, by dint of rowing, three miles an hour, while we go fifteen. This is about the difference between the energy of the Chinese and the civilized people of Europe and America.

[Illustration: CHINESE JUNKS.]

THE ARTESIAN WELL OF GRENELLE.

Artesian wells, or fountains, are made by boring in the earth to a great depth, till at last water rises to the surface, and often with such force as to form abundant and elevated jets. The name _artesian_ is derived from Artois, a province of France, where especial attention has been given to this means of obtaining water; though it appears from sufficient evidence, that wells of this kind were well known to the ancients. Olympiadorus, who flourished in the sixth century at Alexandria, states that where wells were dug in the oases of the desert to the depth of two, three or five hundred yards, rivers of water gushed out from their orifices, of which advantage was taken by agriculturists to water their fields. The oldest artesian well known in France, is at Lillers, in Artois, and is said to have been made in 1126. In the great desert of Sahara, water is said to have been obtained in this way; and the Chinese, we are told, have practiced it for thousands of years. Artesian wells are now common in Europe and in the United States. The artesian well of Grenelle, is a famous fountain of this kind, and as such is worthy of notice. It is not far from the Hotel des Invalides, and was undertaken chiefly with reference to the great slaughter-houses in its vicinity. It was begun January first, 1834, and the boring was prosecuted during seven years and two months. It opened with a diameter of twelve inches; at the depth of thirteen hundred feet it was contracted to six inches. Water was struck at the depth of eighteen hundred feet, and the entire depth is two thousand feet, or nearly two-fifths of a mile. The water rose at first in a fine thread, but soon after it came so rapidly as to injure the machinery. It rose to the hight of one hundred and twelve feet above the surface; high enough to flow into the attics of the most lofty houses in Paris, and into many of its towers. The entire depth of the boring is five and a half times the hight of the dome of the Hotel of the Invalids, and more than five times that of the cross on the summit of St. Paul’s, in London. In a diagram of the strata, seen in section, the cathedral of Strasburg, and the church of St. Peter, at Rome, are figured at the bottom on the level of the subterranean fountain, and they appear very humble, compared with the great distance to the surface of the ground.

The flow of the water was equivalent to six hundred gallons in a minute; five hundred thousand gallons in twenty-four hours; and the quantity thus far is not diminished. Some time after the opening of the well, it flowed bountifully over the top of the tube, and with a force that would doubtless have raised it to the full hight, although at that time the upper part of the tube had been removed for repairs. It had collapsed, and a new tube was about to be inserted; the old tube was twenty-one inches wide at the top and seven at the bottom; but the new tube was to be reduced to five inches. It is now, and was formerly, made of galvanized iron. The temperature of the water, at first, was eighty-three and three-fourths degrees of Fahrenheit, and it is now stated to be eighty-five degrees; a degree of permanent heat far exceeding that of midsummer in Paris. Indeed, it is so warm, that it does not answer for the use of the slaughter-houses, as was at first proposed, and they are compelled to resort to water from other sources. It was quite warm to the touch, when a hand was immersed in it. The labor attending this boring was immense; and great difficulties were encountered. The boring instrument broke several times, and fell in. This happened at the depth of thirteen hundred and thirty-five feet, and it required incessant labor during fourteen months to recover it. The government, at whose expense it was prosecuted, was, at times, nearly discouraged.

Quite recently, in boring an artesian well in Livingston, Alabama, an _egg_ was brought up from the depth of three hundred and thirty-five feet below the surface, of which distance, three hundred feet were through the solid rock. The egg was completely petrified, and perfect in shape, except in one place where the auger had defaced it. How it came there, and in what remote age, it might puzzle the wisest geologist or philosopher to tell!

THE BANYAN-TREE.

The banyan, or burr tree, the _ficus Indica_ of Linnæus, a picture of which is given in the cut beyond, claims our particular attention. It is considered as one of the most curious and beautiful of Nature’s productions in the genial climate of India, where she sports with the greatest profusion and variety. Each tree is in itself a grove, and some of them are of an amazing size, as they are continually increasing, and, contrary to most other animal and vegetable productions, seem to be exempted from decay: for every branch from the main body throws out its own roots, at first in small tender fibers, several yards from the ground, which continually grow thicker; until by a gradual descent, they reach its surface; where, striking in, they increase to a large trunk, and become a parent tree, throwing out new branches from the top. These, in time, suspend their roots, and, receiving nourishment from the earth, swell into trunks, and shoot forth other branches; thus continuing in a state of progression so long as the first parent of them all supplies her sustenance.

[Illustration: THE BANYAN-TREE.]

A banyan-tree with many trunks, forms the most beautiful walks, vistas and cool recesses, that can be imagined. The leaves are large, soft, and of a lively green; the fruit is a small fig, of a bright scarlet when ripe, affording sustenance to monkeys, squirrels, peacocks, and birds of various kinds, which dwell among the branches.

The Hindoos are peculiarly fond of this tree; they consider its long duration, its outstretching arms, and overshadowing beneficence, as emblems of the Deity, and almost pay it divine honors. The Brahmins, who thus “find a fane in every sacred grove,” spend much of their time in superstitious solitude under the shade of the banyan-tree; they plant it near the _dewals_, or Hindoo temples, improperly called pagodas; and in those villages where there is no structure for public worship, they place an image under one of these trees, and there perform their morning and evening sacrifice. These are the trees under which a sect of naked philosophers, called Gymnosophists, assembled in Arrian’s days; and this historian of ancient Greece, says Forbes, in his “Oriental Memoirs,” affords a true picture of the modern Hindoos. “In winter the Gymnosophists enjoy the benefit of the sun’s rays in the open air; and in summer, when the heat becomes excessive, they pass their time in cool and moist places, under large trees; which, according to the accounts of Nearchus, cover a circumference of five acres, and extend their branches so far, that ten thousand men may easily find shelter under them.”

On the banks of the Narbudda, in the province of Guzzerat, is a banyan-tree, supposed by some persons to be the one described by Nearchus, and certainly not inferior to it. It is distinguished by the name of the Cubbeer-Burr, which was given to it in honor of a famous saint. High floods have, at various times, swept away a considerable part of this extraordinary tree; but what still remains is nearly two thousand feet in circumference, measured round the principal stems; the overhanging branches, not yet struck down, cover a much larger space; and under it grow a number of custard-apple, and other fruit trees. The large trunks of this single tree amount to _three hundred and fifty_, and the smaller ones _exceed three thousand_. Each of these is constantly sending forth branches and hanging roots, to form other trunks, and become the parents of a future progeny. The Cubbeer-Burr is famed throughout Hindoostan, not only on account of its great extent, but also of its surpassing beauty. The Indian armies generally encamp around it; and, at stated seasons, solemn _jatarras_, or Hindoo festivals, to which thousands of votaries repair from every part of the Mogul empire, are there celebrated. It is said that seven thousand people find ample room to repose under its shade. It has long been the custom of the British residents in India, on their hunting and shooting

## parties, to form extensive encampments, and spend weeks together, under

this magnificent pavilion, which affords a shelter to all travelers,

## particularly to the religious tribes of the Hindoos. It is generally

filled with a variety of birds, snakes and monkeys, the latter of whom both divert the spectator by their antic tricks, and interest him by the parental affection they display to their young offspring, in teaching them to select their food, to exert themselves in jumping from bough to bough, and in taking, as they acquire strength, still more extensive leaps from tree to tree. In these efforts, they encourage them by caresses, when timorous, and menace, and even beat them, when refractory.

THE WEDDED BANYAN-TREE.

Among the varieties of the banyan, or burr tree, is the _peipal_, or _ficus religiosa_, which is not uncommon in Guzzerat, and causes a singular variety of vegetation. It may be considered as belonging to the order of creepers, and often springs round different trees, particularly the palmyra, or palm. The latter growing through the center of a banyan-tree, looks extremely grand. The peipal frequently shoots from old walls, and runs along them, so as to cause a singular phenomenon of vegetation. In the province of Bahar, one of these trees was seen by an English traveler, on the inside of a large brick well, the whole circumference of the internal space of which it lined, and thus actually became a tree turned inside out. A banyan-tree thus inverted is uncommon; but the general usefulness and beauty of this variety, especially in overshadowing the public wells and village markets, can only be known by those who live in a sultry climate.

THE COCOA-TREE.

Of all the gifts which Providence has bestowed on the oriental world, the cocoa-tree is the one most deserving of notice. The blessings which are conveyed to man, by this single production of nature, are incalculable. It grows in a stately column, from thirty to fifty feet in hight, crowned by a verdant capital of waving branches, covered with long spiral leaves: under this foliage, bunches of blossoms, clusters of green fruit, and others arrived at maturity, appear in mingled beauty. The trunk, though porous, furnishes beams and rafters for the habitations; and the leaves, when platted together, make an excellent thatch, as well as common umbrellas, coarse mats for the floor, and brooms; while their finest fibers are woven into very beautiful mats for the rich. The covering of the young fruit is extremely curious, resembling a piece of thick cloth, in a conical form, as close and firm as if it came from the loom; it expands after the fruit has burst through its inclosure, and then appears of a coarser texture. The nuts contain a delicious milk, and a kernel sweet as the almond: this, when dried, affords abundance of oil; and when that is expressed, the remainder answers to feed cattle and poultry, and make a good manure. The shell of the nut furnishes cups, ladles, and other domestic utensils; while the husk which incloses it is of the utmost importance: it is manufactured into ropes, and cordage of every kind, from the smallest twine to the largest cables, which are far more durable than those of hemp. In the Nicobar islands, the natives build their vessels, make the sails and cordage, supply them with provisions and necessaries, and provide a cargo of arrack, vinegar, oil, jaggree or coarse sugar, cocoa-nuts, coir, cordage, black paint, and several inferior articles, for foreign markets, entirely from this tree.

Many of the trees are not permitted to bear fruit; but the embryo bud, from which the blossoms and nuts would spring, is tied up to prevent its expansion; and a small incision being then made at the end, a cool pleasant liquor, called _tarre_, or toddy, the palm-wine of the poets, oozes out in gentle drops.

THE REINDEER SLEDGE.

The reindeer is a native of Greenland, and the cold climates of the extreme north. To the Greenlander he supplies the place of the horse, the locomotive, and the steamboat to us, as may be seen in the cut, which illustrates the mode of traveling in Greenland. The reindeer is swift of foot, sharp-sighted, and of acute smell and hearing. His flesh supplies the Greenlander with food; while his skin, with its thick, warm hair, affords material for his tent, his bedding and his clothing. The bones and antlers, or horns, are worked into implements for domestic use, for fishing and hunting, and the tendons are split into threads for various purposes. The speed of the Greenlander on his sledge, is said to rival that of the locomotive on the railroad.

[Illustration: THE REINDEER SLEDGE.]

THE UPAS, OR POISON-TREE.