d, cedar, or mulberry wood, or else
of baked clay. They are used for many purposes: on State occasions, to
tell the hour during the night, to scare away evil spirits as well as to
invite visits from good spirits, and to play the 'Amens' at the end of
verses in the Confucian services. Tiny drums are also carried by pedlars
when hawking their wares. Etiquette insists that on any occasion when
the Emperor is present all drums must be muffled by being rolled in
folds of cloth.

HELENA HEATH.

MARVELS OF MAN'S MAKING.

V.--THE _GREAT EASTERN_.

[Illustration]

Hard tasks bravely done, are never wholly done in vain; but sometimes
they have been carried out too soon. This was the case in the building
of the _Great Eastern_ steamship. Fifty years ago there was no place in
the shipping world large enough to accommodate her properly, and Mr.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who spent hard years of toil planning her
construction, was nearly half a century ahead of his fellow-men. Time
has proved that his ideas were correct.

The monster ship was first thought of by him about the year 1852, for it
was then that he laid his schemes before the Eastern Steam Navigation
Company, and explained to them why large ships would be more profitable
than small.

'When sending a vessel from London to Calcutta,' said he, 'she will go
much more cheaply if she does not have to stop on the way to take in
coal. Now, I propose to build ships capable of carrying enough coal to
take them round the world; or at any rate to Calcutta and back.'

[Illustration: The Great Eastern]

He also made it clear that there is not so much risk with a large ship
as with a small, for damage which would be enough to sink the latter
would have but little effect upon the former. Mr. Brunel had already
proved his skill in designing iron ships, for even at the time of which
we are speaking, the _Great Western_ was steaming between England and
America, and the _Great Britain_ had been upon the rocks on the Irish
coast, suffering little damage by the collision.

His plan was to build the hull with a double skin, leaving a space of
some feet between them, so that if the outside one was burst through,
the water failed to get past the inner coat.

The Directors of the Company agreed with his views, and in December,
1853, work upon the _Great Eastern_ was begun.

At Millwall, in the Isle of Dogs, in the shipyard of Messrs. Scott
Russell & Co., the foundations were