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34. for this very reason. It would seem that the government rules should make some recognition of these unwritten rules in order to wipe out any and all chance of mistakes. It would be all right if each man were sure that the other meant, just what he said on his whistle, but as it is the one man must look out for not only his 'own safety but to the other's as well. Here is another practice that is very wrong; 'the overtaken vessel blowing three short blasts in answer- ing the signal for side given by the overtaking vessel. If the overtaken vessel does not deem it safe for the overtaking vessel to pass she must sound the alarm signal and not the check whistle. Although the over- taking vessel may understand the meaning of the signal if any trouble came of it the vessel ahead would hayes uo law to. stand upon and neither would the vessel astern, for that matter. Both could be found equally at fault. INFLUENCES OF THE ATMOS- PHERE. The question "What controls the direction of the wind" has often been asked. There are many answers. There are primary and wide-reaching influences, and there are local influ- encesme Acseam example Of the: -pri- marty cause, consider the rotation of the earth, taken in connection with the fact that atmospheric air is a fluid. The earth rotates on its axis from west to east at the rate of more than 1,000 miles an hour on the equa- tor, and less toward the poles, at which it is stationary. Now, if there were no physical facts to modify*the effects of the facts that the earth ro- fatesmoOn tis axis) and that the air is a fluid, the wind everywhere on the earth would seem to blow continually from the east, for the reason that the surface of the revolving earth would leave the air behind as it whirled around, very much on the same prin- ciple as the air suction at the rear of a fast moving train. The terrible hur- ricanes in the West Indies have a ve- locity of not much more than 100 miles an hour. The greater portion of the globe would be rendered unin- habitable for man by the violence of the wind, were it not that there are other physical facts to be considered than those of the rotation of the earth and the gravity of the air. dite catth has not only a motion on its own axis (rotation), but a mo- tion round the sun (revolution). The earth's orbit or path, may be com- pared to a race-course on which it. Tre Marine REVIEW makes the dizzy speed of 500,000,000 miles a year. A man racing on horse- back is apt to lose his hat if he does mot tie it on, and it 1s for this very same reason that the earth, rushing through space at the rate of 1,100 miles a minute, does not leave its at- mosphere behind. It is because of the law of gravity; the weight of the at- mosphere ties it down to the earth, so that it moves along with the earth to a certain extent, and is not lost like a man's hat on horseback, in the earth's race around the sun, and not converted into a raging tempest by the earth's daily rotation on its axis, though there is possibly an altitude at which its general tendency is to stand still, or to respond reluctantly to the rotation of the earth, which would seem to make it blow from the east. The force of inertia being neutral- ized in these respects by the force of gravity, other causes operate to pro- duce and control the direction of the wind, the most powerful being heat and cold; and these are modified in turn by the configuration of the con- tinents--by the distribution of land and water. When the sun shines on the land it quickly raises the tempera- ture of the surface. When it shines on the water its influence is not as a rule so quickly appreciable, for the water is not at rest like the land, and absorbs heat to a greater depth. Its surface usually radiates less heat than land in summer and more in winter. 'It is the pressure of the air that causes the wind. Cold air is heavier than warm air; dry air lighter than moist air. The heavier air displaces the lighter, and this makes the motion of the atmosphere called wind. There are permanent centers of high pres- sure on the great oceans which play an important part in determining the paths of traveling storms. But every hill and mountain and plain, every desert, every forest, every lake and every river on the earth, as well as the oceans, tend continually to mod- ify the temperature or the humidity of the air in its vicinity, and with each modification of temperature or humidity there is a shifting of the air --a wind. The change from day to night and from night to day in every part of the globe tends to raise a breeze by modifying the temperature Of the ati: Wind directions are in a very large proportion due entirely to local influ- ences; and that generally they are quite separate from general circulatory erecta (ince aS a matter of course, is not applicable to the trade winds, which originate and for the most part _ er work and motive power. company is repairing another of this blow in portions of the earth where there is little land and much water. Winds from large water areas are much more frequent on the Pacific coast and on the east coast of the Gulf of Mexico than on the Atlantic coast or the great lakes. This is not remarkable when the vast extent of the Pacific is compared with the rela- tively smaller expanse of the Atlan- tic coast and the great lakes. The subject of winds and their cause is one of absorbing interest. DELIVERED EVERY BOAT. The Great Lakes Engineering Works of Detroit delivered every boat in 1907 that it contracted to deliver, notwithstanding that the company lost five months by strikes and their ef- fects. Lhe bulk freighter Jacob TD. Kopp and the package freighters Bur- lington and Bennington were mot contracted for delivery during 1907, but for delivery at the opening of navigation in 1908. The steamer Kopp is already completed. Wm. J. Woodside, ship broker, has moved to 25 California street, San Francisco, Cal. The Newport News Ship Building & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va., recently repaired the Baltimore, Ches- apeake & Atlantic Railway Co.'s steamer Maryland. Several new plates in her bow were necessary as well as a new stem. The damages were sus- tained in a collision with the U- S. torpedo boat Shubrick. ie sPelly = Diy Dock Cor, South Brooklyn, N. Y., recently completed repairs and alterations to the iron steamship Caribbee. She has been converted into a molasses tank car- rier as has also a steel barge for the same owner, Daniel Bacon, of New York. The cargoes of these vessels will be pumped out at the port of de- livery. Tregarthen & Walsh, New York, have almost completed the general overhaul of the steamboat Thomas S. Brennan, owned by the department of charities and corrections of the city of New York. She has been in dry dock since Sept. 1 receiving hull join- The same department's boats, the Massassoit, her hull and upper works being given a general overhaul. John W.- Sulli- van, foot of East Ninth street, New York, is giving the engine and boilers of the Massassoit attention,