HAVING now brought the subject of navigation down to the commencement of modern discovery, and thus cleared the way to the introduction of what may be called modern

navigation, our remaining space shall be devoted more thoroughly to a miscellaneous collection of the countless anecdotes of adventures, the discoveries and shipwrecks, that crowd the pages of maritime history; and, in fulfilling this task, special regard shall be had to the distinctive peculiarities of ships of different kinds and countries.

Preliminary to this, however, we will conduct our young readers (of course with their permission) to the dock-yards, where ships are modelled and moulded, and launched, and loaded with the rich and varied freights which they are destined to carry far and wide across the stormy seas.

THE DOCK-YARD.

If we were a maker of riddles, we would ask our reader, "Why is a ship like a human being?" and having added, "d'ye give it up?" would reply, "Because it commences life in a cradle," but, not being a frabricator of riddles, we don't ask our reader that question. We merely draw his attention to the fact that ships, like men, have not only an infancy but also have cradles, of which more hereafter.

Let us enter one of those naval nurseries, the dock-yard. What a scene it is! What sawing, and thumping, and filing, and grinding, and clinching, and hammering without intermission, from morn till noon, and from noon till dewy eve! What a Babel of sounds and chaos of indescribable material!

That little boy whom you observe standing under the shadow of yonder hull, his hands in his pockets (of course,) his mouth open (probably), and his eyes gazing up fixedly at the workmen, who cluster like bees on the ribs and timbers of yonder infant ship-has stood there for more

than an hour, and he will stand there, or thereabouts, for many hours to come, for it happens to be a holiday with him, and he dotes on harbours and dock-yards. His whole being is wrapped up in them.

And this is natural enough. Most boys delight to gaze on incomprehensible and stupendous works. Let us, you and I, reader, follow this urchin's example, keeping our mouths shut, however, save when we mean to speak, and our eyes open.

There are ships here of every shape and size, from the little coasting vessel to the great East-Indiaman, which, in its unfinished condition, looks like the skeleton of some dire megatherium of the antediluvian world. Some of these infant ships have an enormous shed over them to protect them from the weather; others, however, are destitute of such protection, for ships like men, it would seem, are liable to vicissitudes of fortune, while the "great ones " of the dock-yard world are comfortably housed, the small ones are not unfrequently exposed to the fitful buffetting of the rude elements even from their birth.

There are ships here, too, in every state of progression. Here, just beside you, is a "little one" that was born yesterday. The keel has just been laid on the blocks, and it will take many a long day of clinching, and sawing, and hammering, ere that infant assumes the bristling appearance of an antediluvian skeleton. Yonder is the hull of a ship almost completed. It is a gigantic infant, and wears an aspect of a very thriving child; it evidently has a robust constitution and a sturdy frame. Perhaps we may re-visit the dock-yard to-morrow and see this vessel launched.

Besides these two, there are ships with their ribs partially up, and ships with their planking partially on, and

in a more distant part of the yard there are one or two old ships hauled up high and dry to have their bottoms repaired and their seams re-pitched, after many a rough and bravely fought battle with the ocean waves.

Now that we have gazed our fill at the general aspect of the dock-yard, let us descend a little more to particulars. We shall first tell of the,

There are two kinds of docks, usually constructed with gates

Nature and use of docks. dry and wet. A dry dock is to admit or shut out the tide. When a ship arrives from a long voyage, and needs repair to the lower part of her hull, she must be got out of the water somehow or other. This object is frequently attained in regard to small vessels, by simply running them gently on the flat sand or mud beach of a bay or harbour, so that, when the tide retires, they shall be left dry. But it would be dangerous as well as inconvenient to do this with large ships, therefore dry docks have been constructed for this purpose. They are so built that when the tide is full the dry docks are also full. When thus full of water, the gates of a dry dock are opened, and the large ship is dragged slowly in, after which the gates are shut. The tide then retires, but before this takes place, the ship has been propped up on all sides with timbers, in such a way that she stands upright, "upon an even keel," and thus, the pressure on her hull being equally distributed, she is not damaged. Then the water is let out by means of sluices in the gates, or it is pumped out, and the ship left dry. When the tide returns, the gates and sluices are all shut, and its entrance into the dock prevented, until such time as the ship is repaired, when water is let slowly in. As the vessel floats, the props and supports fall away, the gates of her hospital are opened, and off she

goes again, in all the vigour of recruited health to wing her way over the billows of the great deep.

A wet dock is somewhat similar to a dry dock, the chief difference being that ships, while in it, are kept floating in water.

Docks are not only used, however, for repairing and building ships, they are also used for loading and unloading them, and as ships are arriving and departing from them almost constantly, the busy, bustling, active scene they present is always agreeable and interesting.

The principal docks of the United Kingdom are as follows:

Docks on the Thames, namely,
East and West India Docks;
London Docks; St. Kath-
erine's Docks; Commercial
Docks; Victoria Docks.
Southampton Docks.

Liverpool and Birkenhead Docks.
Bristol Docks.
Hull Docks.
Glasgow Docks.
Dundee Docks.
Leith Docks.

So much for docks in passing. Let us now turn our attention to the process of,—

BUILDING A SHIP.

As we think it highly improbable that any of our readers intend to become either ship carpenters or ship architects, we will not worry them with technical explanations. To give an easily understood and general idea of the manner of building a ship, is all we shall attempt. The names of those parts only that are frequently or occasionally referred to in general literature shall be given.

The term ship is employed in two significations. In familiar lauguage it denotes any large or small vessel that navigates the ocean with sails. In nautical language it