iles an hour, and another steamboat on the Forth
of Clyde which made seven miles an hour in 1789, and the "Charlotte
Dundas" in 1802, which drew a load of seventy tons over three miles
against a strong gale. Something, however, was wanting and the idea
of successful navigation was abandoned in Britain till after the
invention of Robert Fulton which made steam navigation an assured
fact.

"How necessary it is to succeed," said Kosciusko, at the grave of
Washington, and this is also as true in the story of invention as in
the struggle for freedom: "That they never fail who die in a great
cause though years elapse, and others share as dark a doom. They but
augment the deep and sweeping thoughts which overpower all others and
conduct the world at last to fortune."

It was the writer's privilege in 1891, to deliver the unveiling
address of a monument to Symington at his birthplace, Lead Hills,
Scotland. In the tribute then paid to the genius of the great
Scotchman who had done so much for invention in many directions, he
said the difference between Symington and Fulton was this: "Each
worked diligently at the same idea, but it was the good fortune
of Fulton, so far as the steamboat was considered, to make his
'invention' 'go.'"

* * *

I see the traditions of my fathers are true; I see far,
far away the big bird again floating upon the
waters, so far my warriors that you cannot see it, but ere two
autumns have scattered the leaves upon my grave, the
pale face will claim our hunting grounds.

_Aepgin, King of the Mahicans._

* * *

To quote from a British writer, the "Comet" of Henry Bell on the Clyde
in 1812, was the first example of a steamboat brought into serviceable
use within European waters, and the writer incidentally added that
steam navigation in Britain took practical form almost on the spot
where James Watt, the illustrious improver of the steam engine was
born. The word "improver" is well put. It has much to do with the
story of many inventions. The labor of Fitch was far-reaching in
many directions, and it detracts nothing from Fulton's fame that the
experiments of Fitch and Symington preceded his final triumph.

Rumsey's claim to the idea of application of steam in 1785 does not
seem to hold good. General Washington, to whom he referred as to a
conversation in 1785, replied to a correspondent that the idea of
Rumsey, as he remembered and understood it, was simpl