A Floating City, published in 1871, enjoyed a popularity almost equal to that of Round the World in Eighty Days. The "Floating City" was the direct result of the trip which the author actually made to America in 1867, on the largest iron ship ever built. He gives us a faithful picture of the natural and usual incidents of an ocean voyage of those days, enlivening these by introducing a romance aboard ship. The pictures of the "Great Eastern," are of course exaggerated, not so much in words themselves as in the impressions they convey. But the pictures of New York and of Niagara are the genuine imprint made upon the great writer by his visit.