next victimised by snuff compounded largely of cayenne pepper being forced into his nostrils, and when half choked was made to smell a villainouslooking smelling-bottle. The doctor then turned him over to the barber and his assistants, who seated him on a high block, with his back to the bath. This was the funniest part of the whole, from the supreme gravity with which the shaving operation was performed and the ludicrous struggles of the victims. With lather made of molasses and currypowder, a great paint-brush for a shaving-brush, and a jagged wooden splinter for a razor, the lather stuffed into the mouth whenever it was opened to breathe or cry for mercy, the shaving was really a barbarous process, and it was a relief when Neptune's four imps, who were splashing in the water, caught the plastered wretch from behind and threw him head over heels into the bath. Once there the treatment varied. The weaklier men were only soused once or twice, but others were knocked down over and over again, and their heads held under the water, so that all we could see was a pair of spasmodically agitated feet; and when at last they were allowed to stagger out, blinded and choking, the bo'sun played on them with his hose. The utmost good-humour prevailed, and some of the acting was capital, specially that of the doctor, who bent forward elegantly, with an interested, polite smirk, kept his left hand in the tail pocket of his coat, dangled a copious white pocket-handkerchief in his right, spoke in bland, re-assuring tones, and completely acted the popular professional humbug, the dear man "of drawing-rooms and chronic invalids.

After the shaving, the "medley," the great saturnalia of the day, should have begun, by turning the hose, without respect of persons, on every one bold enough to be on deck. The captain had prudently retreated from the main-rigging into his cabin, and most of the ladies into the saloon; and I, wishing to see the fun out, was just drawing up the hood of my mackintosh so as to be prepared for the worst, when the contents of a bucket were discharged upon the unprotected back of my neck by some rogue perched upon the cross-jack yard-arm. Neptune and Amphitrite left the throne, their imps seized upon the hose, and the fun was about to become general, when the crew came into collision with the priggishness of one passenger and the violent temper of another, and as any interference with passengers is illegal the captain was obliged to interfere and order the men forward. The holiday and its sports were thus brought to an unlucky termination; there was no more fun for the rest of the voyage, and no further good feeling between the crew and passengers.

We crossed the equator in long. 25° 9′ w., and ran on the same tack as far as long. 31° 0' w. before in lat. 26° 30′ s. the ship was put about on a south-east course. From a glance at the map it will be seen that our former course carried us in an exactly opposite direction from Melbourne, our destination, and any antique navigator, accustomed when bound for the east to beat his way down mid-Atlantic, would have supposed that we were making for the Brazils.

"The shifting

Currents of the restless main,"

some of them "shifting" no longer, but as constant as the Trades, have been subjected to such careful observation during a series of years (observations

systematised in connection with sailing directions in the "South Atlantic Directory ") that navigators are now able, as much by means of constant currents as of constant winds, to shorten the Australian passage by two months. The wide space of calms, or "Doldrums," lying between the N.E. and S.E. "Trades," is properly a triangle rather than a zone, with its base resting on Africa, and its apex stretching towards Brazil. It is obvious that a ship crossing this triangle of calms at its narrowest part must escape most of the detentions incident to the latitude; and it has been well known for many years that the south equatorial current, a monstrous tropical drift, popularly supposed to occupy about the same area as the s.E. Trades, was capable of assisting vessels in a westerly direction. A terrible bugbear it was, however, and because a few dull sailors, falling to leeward of Cape St. Roque, found difficulties in beating up against it. it was long shunned as a danger. It was indeed said to be in consequence of a disregard of its tendencies that the King George and other transports, which fell to leeward of San Roque during the last century, were lost; and even so lately as 1848 Keith Johnston, in his magnificent "Physical Atlas," warns vessels against crossing the equator anything to the west of 23° w., lest the westerly drift should hamper them on the northern coast of Brazil. More recent and extensive observations, however, have proved that it is perfectly safe to get all the advantage that may be gained by crossing the line even west of 30° w., as the current, which has so obligingly aided ships to cross the "Doldrums" at their narrowest part, slackens, or even dies away, so that the old bugbear of San Roque may be cleared without the slightest difficulty.

Starting in the Gulf of Guinea, this drift proceeds westwards on both sides of the equator till near San Roque, where it divides, and its northern branch, after skirting Guiana, flows through the Caribbean Sea, and emerges from the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic. In mid-ocean its rate and persistence may be safely calculated upon, its extreme velocity being twenty-four miles a day. When it takes a southerly curve its speed decreases gradually to a minimum of six miles a day. We took very great advantage of it, and the White Ben, while absolutely becalmed, was drifted on her westerly course on several occasions from twenty to twenty-two miles a day.

North of this there is the important Guinea, or equatorial counter-current, setting to the eastward, very useful in counteracting the effect of the great westerly drift and in preventing ships which cross the equator in the "fashionable" meridians before alluded to from being hampered in the neighbourhood of Cape San Roque. Its mean temperature is from 78° to 83°, and its mean annual velocity between fourteen and twenty-six miles a day, strongest in the summer months.

The only other current of much interest is the southern "connecting current," a drift running to the E. or E.N.E. from Tristan d'Acunha, with a supposed average of ten miles a day, and strong enough to run (between 30° and 40° s.) for 2,000 miles beyond the Cape of Good Hope.

The Agulhas Current is too far to the northward to interfere with ships making the great southerly sweep, which ours made, but it deserves mention as it is a permanent current generated by the great drifts of the Indian Ocean, and setting into the Atlantic

round the entire southern extremity of Africa. It varies in its velocity in different periods and situations from one to five miles an hour, and occasionally carries ships west even against north-westerly gales. Besides these there are the South African current, a cold stream, setting along West Africa till it loses itself in the south equatorial current, near the equator; the Brazilian "stream currents," which are of no account on Australian voyages; and the antarctic currents, by which the surface waters in that zone, between 55° and 65° s., set towards the south pole. The last, besides being little known, do not affect the highways of commerce.

The wind system of the South Atlantic is as carefully mapped out as the current system, and Maury's wind and current charts are to Atlantic voyagers what Murray's handbook is to Switzerland. The popular notion of five wind belts, or zones, in this great ocean may be accepted as an approximation to the truth. 1. The south-east "Trades," blowing from south-east to north-west in the open ocean, between lat. 30° to 25° s., and lat. 2° s. to 5° N., according to the season. 2. The variable winds, or "monsoons, on the Brazil Coast. 3. Variable winds, or "monsoons," on the African Coast. 4. Variable winds and calms near the tropic of Capricorn. 5. The anti-Trade, or "Passage Winds," equalling the "Trades" themselves in importance to navigation. These, "the brave west winds," separated from the south-castTrades" by the "Calms of Capricorn," girdle the earth from that region as far south as navigation is practicable. They vary between northwest, and south-west with a supposed mean direction of about west, and this is found in the line of its greatest force about 45° s., but shifts to some extent with the seasons. It is this noble and reliable wind which leads modern navigators so far to the southward on Australian voyages, enabling them to "run down their easting" with certainty and rapidity, and forms such an obstacle to the attempts of vessels to round Cape Horn for Pacific ports during the southern winter. Those certainties are in striking contrast to the caprices of the North Atlantic north of the "Horse Latitudes," where, so far as winds go, every voyage is, to a certain extent, experimental, though the monitions of the barometer may be relied upon, and an accurate and continual attention to its readings is enjoined on all navigators.

After spending many months on the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, where, taking the temperature of the water, noting the readings of the barometer, and paying attention to other indications of weather, were going on both by night and day, the navigation of the South Atlantic appeared almost slovenly. One wearied of the daily barometric wave, meaning nothing, and of the steady low barometer of the "Doldrums." Indeed, as an indication of weather it seems practically disregarded in high southern latitudes, for the mean of all observations on its height between 55° and 60° s. is 29.24 inches only, or six-tenths lower than in the same latitude north; so low that its fine weather monition in the south would be taken as the harbinger of a gale in the north.

The compass plays strange antics, but even these, somehow or other, obey known laws, and if a passenger studies. Maury's wind and current charts, and the South Atlantic Directory," and is able daily to find the ship's position on the chart, he comes to feel himself as much at home on the South Atlantic as a

stranger does in England, aided by Bradshaw's Railway Guide, and the reign of law" has a very special interest there as elsewhere.

By methods which approximato roughly to the truth the extent of sea surface is estimated at 155 million square miles, or nearly three-fourths of the surface of the earth. A glance at a map of the globe shows what a large part of this briny whole is occupied by the vast, deep, landless South Atlantic, with the equator for its northern, and the antarctic circle for its southern boundary, and the meridians of Cape Horn and Agulhas, prolonged to the antarctic circle, denoting its eastern and western limits. The true meteorological division between it and the North Atlantic, and the separation between the wind and current systems, lie however between 5° and 10° north of the equator.

In coming from the North Atlantic, with its short and almost overcrowded highways, island health resorts, tropical archipelagoes, erratic wind systems (so far as its extra tropical regions are concerned), and innumerable harbours, one's first feeling on crossing the line is that of having emerged upon the desert. The scarcely broken coasts contain no deep and mountain-guarded harbours. There are no archipelagoes, and few islands, and the few bear names little known, and to our ears somewhat outlandish, and are usually so repulsive and inhospitable in appearance that one's great desire is to give them as wide a berth as possible. The immense area of waters is of little importance as compared with that of other seas, and one extensive portion is frequented only by whalers. While the North Atlantic, measured round its principal sinuosities, has a total shore of 54,000 miles, that of the South Atlantic is only 9,300, or about a sixth. On its vast highways few dangers exist, and the various meteorological difficulties which are met with in the North Atlantic give place to a very reliable wind and current system, easily understood and applied to navigation. There are few dangerous rocks, except the coral reef of Las Rocas, on which the Duncan Dunbar was lost, and this is easily avoided.

In the earlier part of our voyage, and for a fortnight in the neighbourhood of the equator, we exchanged ocean courtesies with from two to fourteen ships daily, and had the satisfaction of overhauling every vessel bound in the same direction as ourselves. Now and then we came close enough to ships to speak with their captains without a speakingtrumpet, to compare chronometers, and give and receive news; but from the day we crossed the parallel of 12° s. we never saw a sail till we made Cape Otway in Australia.

We were, however, fortunate enough to get a very near view of the Brazilian Island of Trinidada, which, from its height of 2,000 feet, is visible fifty miles off. After several weeks of shifting brine, diversified only by a hazy glimpse of Madeira, even the Martin Vaz rocks were welcome as being solid; and when the blue of distant Trinidada changed into grey, and the grey into green flecked with the warm hues of the living earth, "most weary seemed the sea, weary the oar, weary the wandering fields of barren foam." The crevices among the rocks were shady with shrubs, goats were skipping upon grassy cliffs, and streams swollen by recent rains dashed impetuously into the sea. We had a near view of a passage forty feet broad, fifty high, and 420 long, tunnelled by the sea through a bluff

800 feet high; and as the sea was moderate we saw through the well-engineered archway the only bay on the island, and a picturesque rock shaggy with trees. Besides this, the "Monument," a cylindrical detached rock 850 feet high, with large trees growing on its summit; and the "Sugar Loaf," a conical rock 1,160 feet high, also capped with trees, rejoiced my eyes. While we hung about the island nearly becalmed, torrents of rain fell, and a cascade, whose height is estimated at 700 feet, tumbled in white fierceness over the rocks into the greedy sea, while on the land tropical ferns and mosses, and all the graceful greenery born of heat and damp, were lavishly expanding their moistened and redundant frondage where no eye rejoiced in it. The Portuguese once had a settlement on Trinidada, and on their departure bequeathed it a legacy of hogs, goats, and cats; but though it is fertile, and upwards of six miles in circumference, it is now uninhabited, and being surrounded by rough coral rocks, with a nearly continuous surf breaking over them, landing is precarious, and the abundant supply of water is rarely resorted to by ships, except in the emergency of extreme scarcity.

17 under double-reefed

In the midwinter of the southern hemisphere, just within the great belt of the passage winds, "while running down our easting topsails, rigging and sails stiff with ice, huge seas piled up in green, snow-crested mountains, squalls frequent, and the mercury hanging about 27°, at daybreak of a most tempestuous day a huge cone of snow, with surf dashing over its base, rose close to us out of the mountainous seas, a ghastly thing, the type of solitude and desolation, the island of Tristan d'Acunha, of which an interesting account was given in the "Leisure Hour" (No. 1141). This island, even at a distance, must be a most striking object, but as we ran the channel between it and Inaccessible Island, which presented only a bluff of most forbidding aspect, 1,840 feet high, we got a good view of it, at least as good as could be got while holding on with frozen hands to frozen rigging, blinded with freezing spin-drift, between the shocks of pitiless seas, which were for ever piling themselves between the ship and the solitary snow peak.

So seen, Tristan d'Acunha presented an abrupt elevation, terminating in a height of 1,000 feet in a table-land, on which is placed a volcanic cone 8,300 feet in height, at the top of which is a crater 2,000 feet in circumference, now a lake with a shore of cinders. We did not see the solitary and perilous landingplace, near which are grouped the houses of the few simple and virtuous people to whom it owes its romantic interest, and except for a grey streak or patch here and there, the whole island, from the surges which swept its base to the red morning cloud which kissed its crest, was pure white with snow. It was altogether a scene of howling horror, whose desolation could hardly be surpassed.

and their roll majestic; the scenery among them is grand, and the Australian-bound trader finds herself followed for weeks by these magnificent rolling swells, driven and lashed by the brave west winds furiously." So "driven and lashed" was the gallant White Ben, tearing eastwards at an average speed of 290 miles a day; sometimes scudding under nearly bare poles, thrice having new topsails split, twice owing to a shift of wind lying to for three days in a sea of appalling magnitude, then wafted by gentler gales into more genial regions, till, on our seventysixth day out, at the very hour indicated the previous morning by the captain, we sighted Cape Otway in Australia Felix. Welcome, Greater Britain!" I exclaim, with De Beauvoir, "oh, miracle of navigation!"

NATURAL HISTORY ANECDOTES.

WOOD-PIGEON OR STOCK-DOve.

I

I HAVE generally found it asserted in my readings, that the common wood-pigeon or stock-dove cannot be tamed; such, however, is not the case. Some years ago I became possessed of quite a young bird of this kind, which I determined to rear. fed it in the usual manner adopted with this description of bird, until it learned to peck for itself. When strong on the wing it evidently desired its liberty, and one fine Sunday morning on opening the door it suddenly flew out, and was quickly lost to sight. Of course I gave up every hope of seeing it again, but in the afternoon on going out I was very much surprised to find that it had returned, and was perched on a neighbouring barn. I quickly changed my coat for the one I generally wore, and with seed in my hand I called it down to me with the notes I had been accustomed to use when I fed it. It was pleased to return, and was put in tho house as before. Now, instead of keeping it confined, I gave it its liberty every day, and although its wings were not cut yet it never failed to return, and would, when within hearing, come at the call. This was all the more strange as it was in a small country village, and therefore in the midst of many of its own species. It grew to be quite a large and a very handsome bird, indeed equal to any seen in their wild state. Ripon.

ANECDOTES OF DOGS.

E.

Some fifteen years ago my uncle had a dog, a cross between a sheep-dog and a Newfoundland, named "Turk," a most sagacious animal, who seemed to understand much that was spoken to him, besides the routine phrases of command usually uttered to dogs. One day whilst my uncle was talking to a miller at Horley Mill, the hat of the latter blew off into the mill-head and sank to the bottom in about nine or ten feet of water. So, calling Turk, my uncle pointed to the water, saying, "Hie, in there, good dog, fetch the hat." No sooner said than done, in plunged the dog, and after two or three dives brought the hat safely to land.

One hot day in summer a friend took the dog out for a walk to the river, where, thinking he would like a bathe, he undressed and plunged into the

water. No sooner, however, did he begin to splash about than the dog, evidently thinking he was drowning, plunged in to the rescue, and despite of his efforts brought him to the shore. This Turk repeated every time he dived from the bank, until at last he was compelled to give up bathing any more that day. No amount of explanation could make the dog understand that the bathing was voluntary. One day when riding to market, my uncle took Turk with him. After he had ridden about two miles on his way, he suddenly remembered that he had left his riding-whip hanging up in the stable. So he ordered the dog to go back and fetch it. At first Turk refused to go (evidently thinking it was only a ruse to get rid of him), on which my uncle, guessing the cause of the dog's hesitation, turned his horse's head towards home, saying, "No; I will wait for you, old fellow," when away galloped the dog. Rushing into the stable he jumped up, knocked the whip off the hook, and brought it to his master in his mouth.

Afterwards, when walking with a friend through the fields, my uncle purposely (to try the dog) dropped his stick unperceived by him. After he had gone about a mile farther on, he said to Turk, "Stick lost, find it." Away went the dog, but when he arrived at the place where the stick had been dropped it had gone. It happened in the meantime that the postman, who passed by shortly afterwards, saw the stick and picked it up, taking it away with him. When the dog got to the place where the stick had been dropped he scented the man who had picked it up, and followed him. Overtaking the postman, he rushed at him, growling fiercely and showing his teeth. The man, naturally alarmed at his behaviour, held out the stick to defend himself. This was just what the dog wanted, for, jumping up, he snatched the stick out of his hand and galloped off after his

master.

My grandfather had a couple of young pointer pups, about three or four months old (just able to walk), named "Shot" and "Pouch." One day my father saw them pointing at a butterfly settled on a daisy in the garden. He said it was a very pretty sight, and a wonderful instance of acquired habits becoming hereditary instincts. There was "Shot" "Shot" with his tail straight out, his paw raised, his nose stretched out pointing at the butterfly, and his whole frame quivering with excitement, whilst a little behind was "Pouch" backing him up, in the same attitude.

ATTACHMENT OF A PIGEON.

W. C. C.

J. H., Wood Lawn, Oxford, writes:-"I see that 'Canary Goldie' (L. H. March) died at the age of fifteen years, and its owner wondered if it was an unusual age. I have a green and gold canary, hatched in the spring of 1860. He has been a splendid singer, is now alive and well, and is a great pet; he will flutter his wings and chatter away to the persons who feed him, but this year his song has wholly ceased. I will let you know when my bird dies, but I trust the time is yet distant."

Darieties.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT GLASGOW.-The forty-fifth annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science commences its sittings at Glasgow on the 6th September. Sir Robert Christison, M.D., Bart., was to have been president, but declined the honour on account of his advanced Edinburgh Professors appointed in pre-Victorian times! The years. Long life to him! Ultimus Romanorum, last of the chair will be filled by Professor Andrews, M.D., F.R.S., of Belfast. This is the third time the Association has visited Glasgow, the first time in 1840, when the Marquis of Breadalbane presided, and the second in 1855, under the presidency of the Duke be read and discussed in the various sections, this meeting is exof Argyll. Apart from the routine business, and the papers pected to be a large and successful one, the great commercial and manufacturing capital of Scotland possessing many points of special attractiveness, while the excursions-no unimportant feature in the annual meetings of the parliament of science— will reach to places of historical interest as well as of grand and picturesque scenery.

man.

to

IRISH CHARACTER.-The following communication explains itself:-" You will excuse me, I hope, for troubling you with some remarks on the article on Bulls, Irish and Otherwise,' in the Leisure Hour' for July. I am a working man, and not much of a scholar, but read a good deal, and observe what is around me. I have worked with Irishmen, and been a great deal in their company, and from what I have noticed of them I think that they are the most quick and the wittiest people in the world. They are, I might say, a very peculiar race of people, especially in any kind of an argument with an EnglishI have often thought that had they more education they would beat my own countrymen in an argument. As it is, enter into an argument with an Irishman, let him be ever so ignorant of the subject, and he will grapple with you, and try to baffle you. If you think that you have beaten him, he will gradually shift his quarters, and attack you on another point. I should think that they are most fitted for soldiers and lawyers. You can compare them to nothing so much as a fire. You try to extinguish a fire, and it breaks out somewhere else. It (a fire) gives you a great amount of work to do to get the upper hand of it, and it is the same with Irishmen. They are very good to work with if you only let their religion and country alone. If you are liked among them, you can chaff with then as much as you like; if otherwise, you must be careful. I could, if it was not for fear of troubling you too much, give you many instances of the ways of argument adopted by them. I think that the favourite way of entering into an argument is to advance backwards, or sideways, to the subject in dispute. In spite of all their cleverness they are, as the writer on Bulls' remarks, too quick in their ideas. I have heard a great many blunders from Irishmen, but it is no good noticing anything, as they will only tell you that an Irishman is always allowed to speak twice, and an Englishman till he is understood. I think that the writer on Bulls' must be an Irishman, speaking, or rather writing, in favour of my friends, the Irish."

6

ALPHABET OF COMMERCIAL VIRTUES.-At the last meeting of the Church of England Young Men's Christian Association, the Rev. Canon Titcombe, in his speech, drew from "an imagi mary box on the table an alphabetical list of virtues and good qualities, which, he said, ought to be characteristic of all Christian young men. His collection of "parcels" was as follows, and he briefly but pithily expatiated on each :-Affability, bravery, caution, decision, enthusiasm, fidelity, gratitude, humility, industry, joyousness, kindness, liberality, manliness, naturalness, obedience, prayerfulness, quietness, reserve, self-consecration, truthfulness, unsuspiciousness, virtue, and watchfulness. The Lord Mayor, who presided, then gave a short address, at the outset of which he wittily supplied the last three letters of the alphabet omitted by Canon Titcomb, and applied them to that gentleman, as standing for his "extraordinary wise-'ead" (X. Y. Z.). He commented ou some of the points in the Canon's address, and referring spe cially to the second "parcel," he said it often required the exercise of the highest bravery or pluck on the part of a young man to resist the temptation to obtain money in a dishonest way. He spoke very earnestly about the disastrous effects of taking the first step in a downward course, and expressed his interest in, and best wishes for, the success of the Society.