ying capacity of the steamer, in
itself, economical and expeditious.

This latter policy has arisen under the Appropriation Act of April, 1871,
which limits the minimum cargo to two hundred tons, and the minimum average
speed of three miles per hour. But these limitations must cover a superior
economy of freight transportation to that by the former trials with steam.
Else, they are worthless; else, they are failures, as in 1862, and their
general introduction impracticable.

As in the steamers _Byron_, _Baxter_ and _Newman_, _there is nothing
mechanically new_, in variation from the _Viele_, _Sternburg_ and
_Ruggles_--these trios being _respectively mechanical counterparts of each
other_; the paddle-wheels of the _Byron_ and _Viele_, the twin-propellers
of the _Baxter_ and _Sternburg_, and the common propellers of the _Newman_
and _Ruggles_, being respectively identical--the economical features are
easily considered.

The first trio can carry 200 tons at good speed; the second can carry 180
tons, and tow 240 tons; total, 420 tons, at good speed.

To the first trio, two boats of each class must be altered; two sets of
machinery must be furnished; two corps of engineers maintained, and coal
for two round trips must be supplied, with incidental expenses to two
steamers, to move 400 tons of freight.

To the second trio, only one boat of each class is to be altered; one set
of machinery furnished; one corps of engineers maintained, and coal for one
round trip supplied, with the incidental expenses, to move 420 tons of
freight.

The costs of alterations and adaptations of the first trio are two-fold
those of the second; the cost of machinery greater to the first trio than
to the second; the costs of engineers two-fold to the first trio; the costs
of coal about the same to each, with greater incidental expenses to the
first than to the second _per tons of freight moved_.

The differences in the two trios are in their _steam capabilities and in
their times_; the second requires about one day extra on the canal, as
possibly due to the locking of the tow, though no extra time is required
where both locks of the pair are ready. But the extra twenty tons of
freight more than pays the extra time.

The times of transit or rates of speed to the two eras are very nearly
alike, the steamers of the first having _greater steam capabilities_, as
due to their boat in tow, whilst those of the present era have reduced
their steam cap