"By and by, when we got below the town, the river grew wider, and the banks were sloping, but they were paved all the way with large stones. This was to prevent their being washed away by the swell of the steamers. There were a great many steamers going up and down, which kept the water all the time a-swashing against the banks.
"I went up on the bridge where the captain stood. There were good steps to go up, on the side of the paddle box. Rollo would not go. I had a fine lookout from the bridge. The captain was there. He told me a good many things about the river. He said that the river used to be only five feet deep, and now it was almost twenty, all the way from the sea. They dug it out with dredging machines.
"I asked him what they did with the mud. He said they hauled it away, and spread it on the land in the country. They made a railroad, he said, on purpose to take the mud away to where it was wanted.
"Presently we began to come to the ship yards. There was an immense number of iron ships on the stocks, building. The workmen made a great noise with their hammers, heading the rivets. There seemed to be thousands of hammers going at a time.
"The steamers all sloped towards the water, and pointed down the stream. I suppose that this was so that when they were launched they might go down in the middle of the channel, and not strike the bank on the opposite side.
"We met a great many steamers coming up. One I thought had just been launched. She was full of workmen. There were a great many women running along on the bank, where it was green, trying to keep up with her. They were almost all barefooted. I suppose they had been down to see her launched. I wish we had been a little sooner.
"When I came down from the bridge I looked into the hold to see the engine. I wanted to go down, but I was afraid that Rollo would call it a careless thing. Besides, I could see pretty well where I was. There were three cylinders. Two acted alternately, and the other at the half stroke. I thought this was a very good plan; for now the engine never can get on a poise. All these cylinders were inclined. The boiler was perpendicular. I never saw one like it before.
"After a while we got below the ship yards, and then there was nothing more to see, only some green grounds, and some mountains, and a castle on a rock. Then we landed at Greenock, and came home by the railroad. But Rollo is going to write about this.
"The most careless thing that Rollo did was that he came very near leaving his umbrella on board the boat at Greenock."