* * * * *

A new torpedo-boat, the Holland, has just been launched at Elizabethport, N.J.

There has been a good deal of mystery all winter about the building of this boat.

Some said she was being built for Cuba; others that Spain had bought her.

No one was allowed to enter the yard where she was building, and the strictest secrecy was kept as to her make and shape.

At last she has been completed and launched, but the inventor, Mr. Holland, refuses to allow any one to look at his boat until he is quite satisfied that she is perfect.

He claims for her that she can be navigated as well under water as above it, and that she will ride on the surface of the waters, or plunge beneath them, at the will of her master.

The Holland is a gunboat, and will be armed with three kinds of guns:  one to fire on the surface of the water, a submarine gun to use under the water, and torpedo tubes.

In attacking a vessel, the Holland is intended to fire her surface-guns, and as soon as she has done such damage as she can with them, to sink down under the water.  She is then to make for the enemy’s vessel with her best speed, and when within a short distance of the foe, is to rise to the surface to take aim; and then, sinking again, to discharge her torpedoes.

As soon as this is done, she is to steam under the vessel, and fire her submarine gun into the unfortunate ship, which it is expected she will blow to pieces.

The Holland is to be tried in New York Harbor; then, as soon as her inventor is satisfied, a public exhibition will be given of her powers.

If she can accomplish what is claimed for her, she is at once the most wonderful and the deadliest invention of modern times.

Two or three of the foreign governments are watching the Holland with much interest.  Mr. Holland is not known to have made any arrangements about selling her, or the patent under which she is built.

It is to be hoped that when he is finally ready to dispose of her, the United States may be fortunate enough to become her purchaser.

If we have two or three such vessels as the Holland cruising near our harbors, it will simplify the problem of coast-defence very considerably.

* * * * *

On page 317, Vol.  I., of THE GREAT ROUND WORLD, we spoke of the explorer who was trying to reach the North Pole in a balloon.

This gentleman, Professor Andree, had his balloon in readiness for the attempt last year.

He waited from the 23d of June till the middle of August for a favorable wind to bear him northward.

While his party was still waiting, Dr. Nansen returned from his famous expedition, in which he reached a point within two hundred miles of the Pole.

After a few more days, it was decided that it was too late in the year to attempt the aerial voyage, and so Mr. Andree had to postpone the attempt.