run from story to story, down to the lower decks, which are filled with a cargo of wheat, flour, and other merchandise which we are taking from the United States to our customers in Japan and China. The whole interior of the ship including the Machinery is incased in a shell of steel not much thicker than your little finger, and it is this alone that keeps out the sea. It is in this shell that we are to travel over more than four thousand miles of water without once coming in sight of land. We tremble a little as we think of the dangers, but the captain says that the loss of life on big ships is comparatively small, and that we are really much safer than we should be on land.
Soon after leaving, we go down below the decks to see the mighty machinery which is noiselessly but steadily forcing our great vessel on its way through the ocean. The engineer tells us that his engines represent twenty thousand horse-power, and that it would take a compact line of two-horse teams more than twenty miles long all pulling at once to equal their force. He shows us the fuel that is daily required to feed them, and says it takes several thousand tons of coal to make the steam for each voyage. It is a big dwelling house that uses twenty tons of coal in one year. Our steamer burns several hundred tons every day, and enough in one voyage to supply a hundred such homes with fuel all the year round. Indeed, many a large village does not use so much coal in twelve months as we shall consume in the two weeks we are traveling.
We stay awhile, far down in the hold, watching the half-naked Chinese shoveling the coal into the furnaces. It is hot, and the perspiration stands out on their yellow skins as they throw the black lumps into the fire. There are thirty-two of them so employed, and they are divided
