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vessel owners but also by the railways as regards competitive points. So, by 1861, many steamboats and sailing vessels were being offered for sale or otherwise changing hands. Even the Royal Mail Line steamers, controlled by the Hon. John Hamilton, were feeling the pinch. The Kingston News, April 5th, 1860, remarked: "We are glad to learn that the Grand Trunk Railway and Mr. Hamilton have concluded an arrangement which will put a stop to that extreme and unwise competition which has heretofore prevailed during the season of navigation." The arrangement referred to was evidently of small avail, for an advertisement in the paper of April 1st, 1861, reads: Sale of Valuable Steamers. Tenders are invited for the purchase or charter, for the season of 1861, of the PASSPORT, KINGSTON, and CHAMPION, or either of them. They are well-known as unsurpassed in speed or in accommodation by any vessels on Canadian waters. The steamers are thoroughly found in all respects, and are now receiving their customary spring outfit. The purchaser or charterer would be charged with the cost thereof. Payment if well secured, would be taken in three annual payments of a sale, or quarterly if a charter is effected; one-fourth in either case being paid in cash at completion of bargain. Tenders will be received up to the 9th day of April next. (Signed) D. Prentiss, C. Hamilton and A. Campbell, Assignees. All communications to be addressed to Clark Hamilton, Esq., at Kingston. And, the News of April 12th, 1861, says: "The steamers PASSPORT, KINGSTON and CHAMPION were sold on the 10th instant for the sum of $80,000,00 to the Inland Navigation Company. Overton S, Gildersleeve is the principal stockholder in this enterprise. It is proposed to increase the capital of the Company to $200,000.00, and to stock the Line by the addition of the steamers NEW ERA, MAGNET and BANSHEE." A later advertisement shows the name of the new holding company to be the Canadian Inland Steam Navigation Company, and the steamers operating four trips a week between Hamilton, Toronto, Kingston and Montreal, calling at Cobourg and Port Hope both ways. The boats maintaining the service were the KINGSTON, CHAMPION, MAGNET, PASSPORT and NEW ERA. For the next few years the principal control of the Line was apparently centered in the Gildersleeve office at Kingston; with Mr. Hamilton superintending matters at Montreal. The steamers of the Company wintered at both ports. The affairs of the concern must have improved, for arrangements were made for the construction of another iron-hulled steamer - the GRECIAN - which made her maiden run at the opening of navigation in 1864. The business relations between members of the Gildersleeve and Hamilton families had been friendly and intimate for many years. There is a feeling that Overton Gildersleeve was perhaps actuated by a desire to assist Mr. Hamilton in reaching a solution of financial difficulties, when he promoted the stock company to buy in the Royal Mail Line steamers. Be that as it may, as conditions gradually improved Mr. Hamilton assumed more control, and again took the Line over about the mid "eighteen-sixties." A re-organization must have then taken place, with change of name, for the News, March 25th, 1868, has an announcement, reading: "The Canadian Navigation Company (Royal Mail Line) will have the steamers SPARTAN (built 1865), GRECIAN, CORINTHIAN (built in 1865 by C. F. Gildersleeve for Port Hope-Rochester route), MAGNET, KINGSTON and PASSPORT; with -27-