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5. In 1821 an iron ship, put together in a London dock, steamed down the Channel to Havre. The application of iron armour to vessels of war became an object of rivalry between France and Britain. These ironclads, as they have been called, came into practical use during the Civil War in America.

6. English constructers arm their vessels with solid plates of rolled iron, strongly backed by planks of teak strengthened with iron bars, and defended within by an iron skin. Iron armour has been recently applied also to forts; but the contest between cannon and iron-plating is not yet over. A shot-proof turret, or cupola, revolving on a pivot, is generally placed on the ironclad or iron fort. The gun within, and its port-hole, can both be turned in any direction.

7. Steel cannon, not cast but built ring by ring, are now made, capable of throwing enormous conical steel shells with such force as to 'penetrate iron plates six inches thick. Steel has also been applied with success to the armour plating of ships of war.

8. In small guns or fire-arms remarkable changes and improvements have been made. The old flint musket, throwing its round leaden bullet, received a percussion lock, which proved a great advantage; but it has undergone further and more 'momentous changes, by which it has become a breech-loading rifle, capable of sending a conical bullet with remarkable precision and force to a very great distance.

9. These advances, and the introduction of the

railway, the electric wire, and even the balloon into the field of war, have made the modern battle-field a scene with conditions but slightly resembling those of even Waterloo and Austerlitz.

10. But we must thankfully remember that the modern applications of iron have not been confined to the science of destruction. In addition to the railroads, locomotives, and steamboats already noticed, vast bridges of iron, such as the Britannia Tubular Bridge across the Menai Strait (1850), and the Victoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence at Montreal,

[graphic]

PART OF THE VICTORIA TUBULAR BRIDGE.

both the work of Robert Stephenson, have been constructed of this metal. It has been applied also to building purposes, of which the Crystal Palaces, the first erected for the Great Exhibition of 1851, have been the most notable examples.

11. The secret of the north-west passage from

Europe to the Pacific Ocean has been solved by two independent explorers. The earlier was Sir John Franklin, who left England in 1845 with the Erebus and the Terror, but was frozen up with his ships, and perished with all his associates. The relics of the expedition were found at the mouth of

[graphic][merged small]

the Great Fish River in 1857. Captain Robert Maclure, in the Investigator, sailed, after much delay and peril of life among the ice, from Behring Strait into the Atlantic (1851).

12. In Africa, the basin of the Zambesi has been explored by David Livingstone, a medical mission

ary, who has dispelled the 'delusion that the portion of Africa north of Cape Colony is an arid tract of barren sand. In one of his journeys he discovered on the Zambesi the Victoria Falls, a cataract larger than Niagara. He then explored Lake Nyassa (1859), and everywhere found a fertile land, inhabited by tribes of some advancement, but blighted by the evil influences of the slave-trade.

13. The Nile has also received its share of attention from explorers, of whom two have been most distinguished. Captain Speke, an Indian officer, penetrated the continent from Zanzibar, and discovered (1858) a vast lake, which he named Victoria Nyanza. As Speke and his 'intrepid companion Grant were descending the Nile after this triumphant result of their toil, they met Mr. (afterwards Sir Samuel) Baker. Accompanied by his wife, Baker pressed up the stream, and was rewarded by the discovery (1864) of another lake of colossal size, the Albert Nyanza.

14. The most successful explorer of Australia was Captain Sturt, who traced the course of the tributaries of the Murray (1829), and in 1847 penetrated the sandy interior of the island. A tragic interest hangs over the expedition of Burke and Wills in 1860-61. After having penetrated. almost to the northern shore of the island continent, they retraced their steps, but reached Cooper's Creek, five hundred miles north of Adelaide, too much exhausted to proceed. There they died of starvation.

15. The general use of gas in dwelling-houses—— the increasing use of the electric light in public

places---the advance of photography (first applied to taking portraits in 1839)—the adoption in domestic life of the sewing-machine, invented by Elias Howe of Massachusetts-may be noted as steps of progress.

16. Provident habits among the working classes have been encouraged by the establishment of savings banks, and the increased facilities afforded by insurance companies. Emigration to the colonies clears the land of its surplus hands; while the poor-houses, under Government control, minister to the wants of those who are unable to support themselves.

a-chieve-ment, feat; exploit.
cor-re-spond-ence, interchange of
de-lu-sion, false notion. [letters.
ex-pand-ed, spread.

in-de-pen-dent, not connected.
in-ter-ven-ing, coming in.
in-trep-id, brave.

| mar-vel-lous, wonderful.
mo-ment-ous, important.
pen-e-trate, pierce.

pro-pelled', driven forward.
re-cov-er-y, getting back.
ri-val-ry, competition.
sub-ma-rine', under the sea.

72.-SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

[Sir John Franklin was born in Lincolnshire in 1786. He set out on his third and last expedition in 1845, and the fate of the brave band was unknown till 1857, when the relics of the expedition were found by Captain M'Clintock. From these it appeared that Franklin had died on board his ship in 1847, and that the survivors abandoned their ships in 1848, intending to proceed overland to the Great Fish River.]

1. The Polar clouds uplift—

A moment and no more-
And through the snowy drift
We see them on the shore;
A band of gallant hearts,1
Well-ordered, calm, and brave,
Braced for their closing parts—
Their long march to the grave.

2. Through the snow's dazzling blink,
Into the dark they've gone :—

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