STEAM NAVIGATION. 431

the general ignorance which prevails in these king- doms respecting British America and the seas of the Atlantic, could have retarded the progress of a com- pany, incorporated with such privileges, and with such reasonable prospects of success.

As to the dangers of the Atlantic, they are far from

being so formidable as people generally 1mag1ne It has been my fate to have crossed that ocean several

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times, at. all seasons of the year, and sometimes du1 mg the most tempestuous weather; and I feel perfectly safe in saying that the sea, in the Irish or English channel, or in the Gulf and River of St Lawrence, or even in Lake Ontario, is lrnuch more dangerous for steam-ships to navigate during stormy weather, than that of the main ocean. A In December 1825, I left the Gulf of St Lawrence on board of a merchant ship; the weather was so tempestuous that the topsails were close-reefed half the passage , and in fifteen days we were safely at anchor in the Cove Of Cork. I left Cork 1n January for Liverpool, in a steam—ship, commanded by an experienced officer, who was for some time on board of one of our ships of war on Lake Ontario. We were in the Channel during a very heavy gale, and a more abrupt difficult sea for a ship to plough through, I never witnessed. Thenlong high swell of the Atlantic, which I had just crossed in such bad weather, was nothing to it; yet the steam-ship worked over it with amazing ease. The commander agreed with me in considering it much more dan- gerous than that of the ocean ; and that the sea on