anxiety! The whole of the enormous weight bore upon the cable, the cordage, and machinery, which quivered and cracked in all their parts. Their tenacity, however, was equal to the strain, and so ingeniously were the mechanical powers applied, that eight men in the rear of the descending column were suffi. cient to accelerate or retard its descent. For two minutes the obelisk was suspended at an angle of 30°,-but, finally, it sank majestically and in perfect safety to the bed of the inclined plane.J

On the following day the much less difficult task of getting the obelisk on board the ship was performed. It only occupied an hour and a half to drag the column down the inclined plane, and (through the open mouth in front) into the hold of the vessel. The section of the suspended bows was then lowered to the proper place, and readjusted and secured as firmly as ever by the carpenters and other workmen. So nicely was this important part of the ship sliced off, and then put to again, that the mutilation was scarcely perceptible.

The obelisk, as we have seen, was embarked on the 1st of November, 1831, but it was not until the 18th of August, 1832, that the annual rise of the Nile afforded sufficient water to float their long-stranded ship. At last, however, to their infinite joy, they were ordered to prepare every thing for the voyage home. wards. As soon as this was done, sixty Arabs were engaged to assist in getting them down the river, (a distance of one hundred and eighty leagues,) and the Louxor set sail.

After thirty-six days of painful navigation, but without meeting with any serious accident, they reached Rosetta; and there they were obliged to stop, because the sand-bank off that mouth of the Nile had accumulated to such a degree, that, with its present cargo, the vessel could not clear it. Fortunately, however, on the 30th of December, a violent hurricane dissipated part of this sandbank; and, on the 1st of January, 1833, at ten o'clock in the morning, the Louxor shot safely out of the Nile, and at nine o'clock on the following morning came to a secure anchorage in the old harbor of Alexandria.

Here they awaited the return of the fine season for navigating the Mediterranean; and the Sphynx (a French man-of-war) taking the Louxor in tow, they sailed from Alexandria on the 1st of April. On the 2d, a storm commenced, which kept the Louxor in imminent danger for two whole days. On the 6th, this storm abated; but the wind continued contrary, and soon announced a fresh tempest. They had just time to run for shelter into the bay of Marmara when the storm became more furious than ever.

On the 13th of April they again weighed anchor, and shaped their course for Malta; but a violent contrary wind drove them back as far as the Greek island of Milo, where they were detained two days. Sailing, however, on the 17th, they reached Navarino on the 18th, and the port of Corfu, where, they say, they were kindly received by Lord Nugent and the British, on the 23d of April. Between Corfu and Cape Spartivento, heavy seas and high winds caused the Louxor to labor and strain exceedingly. As soon, however, as they reached the coast of Italy, the sea became calm, and a light breeze carried them forward, at the rate of four knots an hour, to Toulon, where they anchored during the evening of the 11th of May.

They had now reached the port whence they had departed, but their voyage was not yet finished. There is no carriage by water, or by any other commodious means, for so heavy and cumbrous a mass as an Egyptian obelisk, from Toulon to Paris, (a distance of above four hundred and fifty miles.) To meet this difficulty they must descend the rest of the Mediterranean, pass nearly the whole of the southern coast of France, and all the south of Spainsail through the Straits of Gibraltar, and traverse part of the Atlantic, as far as the mouth of the Seine, which river affords a communication between the French capital and the ocean.

Accordingly, on the 22d of June, they sailed from Toulon, the Louxor being again taken in tow by the Sphynx man-of-war; and, after experiencing some stormy weather, finally reached Cherbourg on the 5th of August, 1833. The whole distance performed in this voyage was upwards of fourteen hundred leagues.

As the royal family of France was expected at Cherbourg by the 31st of August, the authorities detained the Louxor there. On the 2d of September, King Louis Philippe paid a visit to the vessel, and warmly expressed his satisfaction to the officers and crew. He was the first to inform M. Verninac, the commander, that he was promoted to the rank of captain of a sloop-of-war. On the following day, the king distributed decorations of the legion of honor to the officers, and entertained them at dinner.

The Louxor, again towed by the Sphynx, left Cherbourg on the 12th of September, and safely reached Havre de Grace, at the mouth of the Seine. Here her old companion, the Sphynx, which drew too much water to be able to ascend the river, left her, and she was taken in tow by the Heva steamboat. To conclude with the words of our author: "At six o'clock (on the 13th) our vessel left the sea for ever, and entered the Seine. By noon we had cleared all the banks and impediments of the lower part of the river; and, on the 14th of September, at noon, we arrived at

Rouen, where the Louxor was made fast before the quay d'Harcourt. Here we must remain until the autumnal rains raise the waters of the Seine, and permit us to transport to Paris this pyramid, the object of our expedition." This event has since happened, and the column safely erected on its pedestal.

American Steamers.

The following extract from a late London work, "Stevenson's Engineering in North America," may not be uninteresting to most of our readers :

"The steam navigation of the United States is one of the most interesting subjects connected with the history of North America; and it is strange that hitherto we should have received so little information regarding it, especially as there is no class of works, in that comparatively new and still rising country, which bear stronger marks of long-continued exertion, successfully directed to the perfection of its object, than are presented by many of the steamboats which now navigate its rivers, bays, and lakes.

"It would be improper to compare the present state of steam navigation in America with that of this country, for the nature of things has established a very important distinction between them. By far the greater number of the American steamboats ply on the smooth surfaces of rivers, sheltered bays, or arms of the sea, exposed neither to waves nor to wind; whereas most of the steamboats in this country go out to sea, where they encounter as bad weather and as heavy waves as ordinary sailing vessels. The consequence is, that in America a much more slender built, and a more delicate mould, give the requisite strength to their vessels, and thus a much greater speed, which essentially depends upon these two qualities, is generally obtained. In America, the posi tion of the machinery and of the cabins, which are raised above the deck of the vessels, admits of powerful engines, with an enormous length of stroke being employed to propel them; but this arrangement would be wholly inapplicable to the vessels navigating our coasts, at least to the extent to which it has been carried in America.

"But perhaps the strongest proof that the American vessels are very differently circumstanced from those of Europe, and therefore admit of a construction more favorable for the attainment of great speed, is the fact that they are not generally, as in Europe, navigated by persons possessed of a knowledge of seamanship. In this country steam navigation produces hardy seamen; and

British steamers being exposed to the open sea in all weathers, are furnished with masts and sails, and must be worked by persons who, in the event of any accident happening to the machinery, are capable of sailing the vessel, and who must therefore be experienced seamen. The case is very different in America, where, with the exception of the vessels navigating the lakes, and one or two of those which ply on the eastern coast, there is not a steamer in the country which has either masts or sails, or is commanded by a professional seaman. These facts forcibly show the different state of steam navigation in America,—a state very favorable for the attainment of great speed, and a high degree of perfection in the locomotive art.

"The early introduction of steam navigation into the country, and the rapid increase which has since taken place in the number of steamboats, have afforded an extensive field for the prosecution of valuable inquiries on this interesting subject; and the builders of steamboats, by availing themselves of the opportunities held out to them, have been enabled to make constant accessions to their practical knowledge, which have gradually produced important improvements in the construction and action of their vessels. But on minutely examining the most approved American steamers, I found it impossible to trace any general principles which seem to have served as guides for their construction. Every American steamboat builder holds opinions of his own, which are generally founded, not on theoretical principles, but on deductions drawn from a close examination of the practical effects of the different arrangements and proportions adopted in the construction of different steamboats, and these opinions never fail to influence, in a greater or less degree, the built of his vessel, and the proportions which her several parts are made to bear to each other.

"The voyage between Albany and New York is now generally performed in ten hours, exclusive of the time lost in making stoppages, being at the astonishing rate of fifteen miles per hour. They have effected this great increase of speed by constantly making experiments on the form and proportions of their engines and vessels,-in short, by a persevering system of trial and error, which is still going forward; and the natural consequence is, that, even at this day, no two steamboats are alike, and few of them have attained the age of six months without undergoing some material alterations.

"These observations apply more particularly to the steamers navigating the eastern waters of the United States, where the great number of steamboat builders, and the rapid increase of trade, have produced a competition which has led to the construction of

a class of vessels unequalled in point of speed by those of any other quarter of the globe. The original construction of most of these vessels has, as already stated, been materially changed. The breadth of beam and the length of keel have in some vessels been increased, and in others they have been diminished. This mode of procedure may seem rather paradoxical; but in America it is no uncommon thing to alter steamboats by cutting them through the middle, and either increasing or diminishing their dimensions as the occasion may require. It is only a short time since many of the steamboats were furnished with false bows, by which the length of the deck and the rake of the cutwaters were greatly increased. On some vessels these bows still remain; from others they have been removed,-subsequent experiments having led to the conclusion, that a perpendicular bow without any rake is best adapted for a fast-sailing boat. When I visited the United States in 1837, the 'Swallow' held the reputation of being one of the two swiftest steamers which have ever navigated the American waters, and this vessel had received an addition of twenty-four feet to her original length, besides having been otherwise considerably changed. Before these alterations were made on her, she was considered, as regards speed, to be an inferior vessel.

"The inferences to be drawn from these facts are, that the great experiment for the improvement of steam navigation, in which the Americans may be said to have been engaged for the last thirty years, is not completed, and the speed at which they have succeeded in propelling their steam-vessels may yet be increased; and also that, in the construction of their vessels, they have been governed by experience and practice alone, without attempting to introduce theoretical principles, in the application of which, to the practice of propelling vessels, by the action of paddle-wheels on the water, numerous difficulties have hitherto been experienced.

"There are local circumstances, connected with the nature of the trade in which the steamboats are engaged, and the waters which they are intended to navigate, that have given rise to the employment of three distinct classes of vessels in American steam navigation, all of which I had an opportunity of sailing in and particularly examining.

This class

"These steamboats may be ranged under the following classifi cation:-First, those navigating the Eastern waters. includes all the vessels plying on the river Hudson, Long Island Sound, Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and all those which run to and from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Norfolk, and the other ports on the eastern coast of the country, or what the Americans call the sea-board. Second, those