work, the gears being disengaged from the main shaft in rotation and the horses taken out and put in while the gear is standing.  The horses are bought at the place of departure in the south of Russia and resold at the destination, usually Nishny-Novgorod, at a fair profit, the capstan boat carrying fodder and provender for the attendants.  The capstan is accompanied by a steam launch which carries the anchor and hawser forward in advance of the capstan.  The latter has a diameter of as much as 5 in., and is two to three miles in length.  The anchor is dropped by the tug and the hawser carried back to the capstan, where it is attached to one of the rope drums, and the boat with the barges attached to it towed along by the horse gears described above winding on the hawser.  The advance continues without interruption day and night, the launch taking a second anchor and hawser forward and dropping the anchor in advance of the first by a hawser’s length, so that when the capstan has wound up the first hawser it finds a second one ready for attachment to the rope drum.  The launch receives the first hawser, picks up the anchor, and passes the capstan to drop it again in advance of the anchor previously placed, and carries the hawser back to the capstan, and so on.  A capstan tows twelve or more barges, placed in twos or threes beside and close behind each other, with a load of a million pounds, or about 16,000 to 17,000 tons.  From Astrachan and the mouth of the Kama the capstans make during the season from the beginning of May to the end of July in the most favorable case two journeys to the fair of Nishny-Novgorod; after this time no more journeys are made, as the freights are wanting.  At the end of the up-stream journey the horses are sold, as mentioned before, and the capstan towed down stream by the steam launch to Astrachan or the Kama mouth, where meanwhile a fresh lot of barges has been loaded and got ready, a new supply of horses is bought, and the operation repeated.

Besides these horse capstans there are steam capstans which are less complicated and have condensing steam engines of about 100 horse power, the power being transmitted by gearing to the rope drum.  The rope drum shaft projects on both sides beyond the boards of the boat, and for the return journey paddle wheels, are put on to assist the launch in towing the clumsy and big capstan boat down the river.  The steam capstans tow considerably larger masses of goods than the horse capstans and also travel somewhat quicker, so that the launch has scarcely sufficient time to drop and raise the anchors and also to make double the journey.  We do not doubt that this system of towage might with suitable modifications be advantageously employed on the large rivers in America and elsewhere for the slow transport of large quantities of raw materials and other bulky merchandise, a low speed being, as is well known, much more economical than a high speed, as many of the resistances increase as the square and even higher powers of the velocity.