The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

SELWYN EDDY is the name of the steamer that marked an era in the history of the company, because she was, when launched, the largest boat on the lakes. She still remains the largest carrier of her size on the lakes to-day, and only lacks 150 tons of carrying as much as a boat 18 feet longer and having 3 feet more beam, at a deeper draft. On ordinary draft she has carried 139,820 bushels of wheat and 141,500 bushels of corn, believed to be the largest grain cargoes ever carried on the lakes. This cargo would fill 279 freight cars and make up trains aggregating over two miles in length. She is owned by Eddy Bros., the company that purchased the E. C. Pope. Her dimensions are 360 feet over all, 42 feet beam and 24 feet deep. The engines are 22, 35 and 56 inches by 42 inches stroke, which is two inches less than the E. C. Pope's engines. The two boilers are 14 feet, 2 inches diameter by n}4 feet long and allowed 165 pounds pressure. On account of having no sheer she is known as a "straight back." With the exception of wooden sheathing, she is a sister-ship to the Harvey H. Brown. The Harvey H. Brown, under construction during the winter of 1893-94, at the Wyandotte yard, was launched in March and went into commission at the opening of navigation. As to dimensions and arrangement she is practically a duplicate of the Selwyn Eddy, but her boilers are fitted with the Howden hot draft system, and thus an excellent means of comparison of the advantages of this system is afforded. There is represented in her bottom, however, a departure that ought to be, it seems, in view of strandings the past few seasons, quite generally adopted. It consists of sheathing the bottom up to above the turn of the bilge. This practically makes the bottom composite. The following clause from the insurance tariff for wood and iron hulls shows how it is valued by the underwriters: " Deduct from double bottom metal steamers, having bottom sheathed with wood not less than four inches thick, 25 cents." A full report of the H. H. Brown's performance is given in the foregoing pages, and the comparison of fuel consumption with that of other lake steamers will be interesting to men who pay the fuel bills.