APPENDIX.
UNION STEAM BOAT.
This boat, the most unique, and perhaps the most
splendid ferry-boat in the country, is a twin-boat, com-
posed of two hulls, each 76 feet keel, ll| feet beam, and
114 feet asunder. They are handsomely and substan-
tially built; and well bound together by beams fortified
with iron ; and the mould and execution do much credit
to the taste and skill of Mr Brown (of Perth), the builder.
The whole length upon deck is 92 feet, and the breadth
about 54. Thirty-two feet of the one end is left about
two feet lower than the rest of the deck, and railed in
for carriages and cattle ; and the doors at the middle of
this space are so constructed as to serve for platforms in
loading and unloading. Twenty-two feet in the centre
are occupied by the machinery, — an engine being in each
boat, and the paddle wheel acting in the canal between.
The engines are of fifteen horses' power each; and as
they are connected with the same wheel they act con-
temporaneously. As to the appearance and quality of
the engines, it is enough to say that they are construct-
ed by the Messrs. Carmichael, — eastings by Mr Straton of
the Dundee Foundry. So smoothly indeed do they work,
that there is hardly any tremor in the boat ; and, when
the doors which enclose the machinery are shut, there is
very little noise. The paddle-wheel has wooden floats,
and is so divided that though each half has only eight
floats the whole acts with the same smoothness as if it
had sixteen, and yet the power is not diminished.—-
Notwithstanding the immense size of the boat, she obeys
her helm very easily. There are two helms, each con-
structed of a rectangular iron plate, four feet and a half
in the horizontal direction, and three feet and a halt in
:Xhe perpendicular. The tiller of each is almost ten feet
M ,