STEAM NAVIGATION. 431 the general ignorance which prevails in these king¬ doms respecting and the seas of the , 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 , they are far from being so formidable as people generally imagine. It has been my fate to have crossed that ocean several times, at all seasons of the year, and sometimes during 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 Lawrence, or even in Lake Ontario , is much more dangerous for steam-ships to navigate during stormy weather, than that of the main ocean. In December 1825, I left the Gulf of 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 in 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 . 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. The long high swell of the , 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