ention to them. His thoughts were
almost entirely engrossed by subjects connected with his navy. He
found, as he had expected from what he heard in Holland, that the
English ship-carpenters had reduced their business quite to a system,
being accustomed to determine the proportions of the model by fixed
principles, and to work, in the construction of the ship, from drafts
made by rule. When he was in the ship-yard he studied this subject
very attentively; and although it was, of course, impossible that in so
short a time he should make himself fully master of it, he was still
able to obtain such a general insight into the nature of the method as
would very much assist him in making arrangements for introducing it
into his own country.

There was another measure which he took that was even more important
still. He availed himself of every opportunity which was afforded him,
while engaged in the ship-yards and docks, to become acquainted with
the workmen, especially the head workmen of the yards, and he engaged a
number of them to go to Russia, and enter into his service there in the
work of building his navy.

In a word, the Czar was much better pleased with the manner in which
the work of ship-building was carried on in England than with any thing
that he had seen in Holland; so much so that he said he wished that he
had come directly to England at first, inasmuch as now, since he had
seen how much superior were the English methods, he considered the long
stay which he had made in Holland as pretty nearly lost time.

After remaining as long and learning as much in the dock-yards in and
below London as he thought the time at his command would allow, Peter
went to Portsmouth to visit the royal navy at anchor there. The
arrangement which nature has made of the southern coast of England
seems almost as if expressly intended for the accommodation of a great
national and mercantile marine. In the first place, at the town of
Portsmouth, there is a deep and spacious harbor entirely surrounded and
protected by land. Then at a few miles distant, off the coast, lies
the Isle of Wight, which brings under shelter a sheet of water not less
than five miles wide and twenty miles long, where all the fleets and
navies of the world might lie at anchor in safety. There is an open
access to this sound both from the east and from the west, and yet the
shores curve in such a manner that both entrances are well protected
from the ing