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SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY
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AMERICAN IMPROVEMENTS.
[The very recent publication of the ninth volume of the Encyclopaedia
Americana[6] enables us to lay before our readers the following
interesting notices, connected with the national weal and internal
economy of the United States of North America.]
_Navy_.--Since the late war, the growth and improvement of our navy
has kept pace with our national prosperity. We could now put to sea,
in a few mouths, with a dozen ships of the line; the most spacious,
efficient, best, and most beautiful constructions that ever traversed
the ocean. This is not merely an American conceit, but an admitted
fact in Europe, where our models are studiously copied. In the United
States, a maximum and uniform calibre of cannon has been lately
determined on and adopted. Instead of the variety of length, form,
and calibre still used in other navies, and almost equal to the Great
Michael with her "bassils, mynards, hagters, culverings, flings,
falcons, double dogs, and pestilent serpenters," our ships offer flush
and uniform decks, sheers free from hills, hollows, and excrescences,
and complete, unbroken batteries of thirty-two or forty-two pounders.
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