'The commercial advantages of steam, as applied to the propulsion of ships, do not enter into the consideration of yachtsmen, sailing, as they do, for pleasure and not for profit. But the true yachtsman must be "to the manner born," for unless he is one of those who can, at their own convenience, wholly put off one class of occupation and take on another, he must be aut yachtsman aut nihil. The inland swell, whose acquaintance with the sea is measured by a month's stay, once a year, at Scarboro' or Brighton, may be taken with amateur yachting; but if he have no better adviser, let him procure "Vanderdecken's" (Mr. William Cooper's) Yarus for Green Hands, since republished as The Yacht Sailor, and after reading it, decide whether he has the surplus time, docility, and power of attention which will enable him to master the mysteries of the craft, and take the true position of owner and commander, instead of that merely of a passenger, on board a yacht of his own. If he have not, he had better start a steamer. Its first cost and the cost of working it are greater than in the case of a sailing yacht, the engines occupy a considerable portion of the best part of the "barkie," and it is possible that they may cause a slight vibration, and give out also a faint smell of inspissating lubricants. But the steamer is always in hand, and is in a greater degree independent of the weather. Its own motion will practically give an eight or ten-knot breeze when there is not a breath of wind stirring, and when, therefore, a sailing yacht would be lying becalmed. It can lay a course with the certainty of making 150 to 200 miles a day, can steam head to wind, ride the roughest sea, lay to, back, turn quickly, and within little sea room, and give a good screeching steam signal at night, or in a fog, a matter of no small importance as respects safety. More than all else, its management is easy and certain, and in this respect the steam bears much the same relation to the sailing yacht that a "trap" bears to a saddle horse, with the advantage that the steamer can go absolutely anywhere on the sea, whereas the dog-cart or the wagonette can only follow the established roads."