obtained sights for our chrouometers, thus completing all observations connected with the Syrian survey.

I now commenced obtaining a few deep sea and other soundings along the coast of Egypt. A fresh breeze springing up, I anchored under Kara Burún, Damietta, till it moderated, when we steamed to Port Said, for the purpose of observing what changes had taken place since 1860 in the coast-line, &c.

At Port Said little change has taken place. The same wooden jetty or pier still exists, partly filled with stones. A small island has been constructed some distance from the end of the pier by screwing in iron piles, connected together by braces, so as to form a species of crate, into which stones have been thrown. Vessels are now able to lie alongside and discharge. This is performed by a small steamengine. In short, steam-power is brought into play wherever prac ticable.

The sand is gradually forming a spit on the west side of the pier, growing out, as the space between the piles became filled with stones. This I have always anticipated. On the East a strong current was running out of Lake Menzaleh, which tended to keep a deep channel near the solid part of the pier, but banks were being formed further

out.

M. de Lesseps had arrived the evening before, and conducted us over the whole establishment, which appears beautifully organized. The workshops and steam appliances are on a very large scale,-steam hammers, lathes, planes, and circular saws, in full work; and these now managed by Arabs. There is also a large foundry, besides stores full of material. The town actually contains upwards of 300 houses, with many building, and a population of 4,000 souls, consisting of Arabs, French, Maltese, Italians, Hungarians, Greeks, &c.; but, strange to say, the French are fewest in number.

The canal is cut to within a few metres of Lake Timsah, and on the 18th the waters of the Mediterranean are to be let into the Lake. The depth actually cut is only three feet. From what I could learn their dredges are not of sufficient power; they are expecting twenty-six more from France.

The fresh water canal is finished to Lake Timsah, and by next June M. de Lesseps told me he hoped to have it supplying Suez. I am now rating my chronometers, and intend examining the Main Pass again. I shall not leave this before the end of the month. I remain, &c.,

A. L. MANSell.

To Rear-Admiral Washington, F.R.S., Hydrographer.

EVENINGS AT HOME AT THE NAUTICAL CLUB.-The King of the Sandwich Islands and his Book-The Amsterdam Canal-The Pacific Railway-The Chairman's Address-The Wrecks and the Lifeboats-The "Alabama" and her Friends-American Sympathy-An Episode on the Ocean-American Celebration of the Prince of Wales's Majority Royal Courtesy Rightly Recognized.

There, exclaimed Rodmond, as he entered the Club-room, there's work becoming a king! Tamehama the Third, the royal ruler of the Sandwich Islands, translating the episcopal prayer-book into his native language. And it is said that no one is better fitted for the task than his Majesty, whose knowledge of both languages is not surpassed by that of any foreigner.

Something worth greeting the arrival of the new Bishop (Stanley) with, which event came off on the 11th of last October, returned the Secretary.

Verily, continued Rodmond, some of our European kings may take a lesson from the example of his simple-minded Majesty of the Sandwich Islands.

So Mynheer Van Dunk will have a canal, observed the Commodore to make his Amsterdam more accessible to the world. It is said the canal is to be thirteen miles long, 200 feet wide, and twenty-four feet deep, and will shorten the distance from Amsterdam to London, and all ports south of the Texel, by about eighty miles; so that vessels will be enabled to reach the sea in a few hours, whereas the present journey over the Simluger and the North Holland Canal now occupies several days, and sometimes weeks.

It is an old project, said Albert, started some ten years ago. But they want a million of money, and Messrs. Croker and Burn, the engineers (what ominous names for a large scheme), will be very glad to see their favourite scheme taken up with the guarantee of 4 per cent. from the Dutch Government. But progress is the order of the day, and when Mynheer goes to work he does it in earnest. He has a better chance of success than M. Lesseps, on another score besides that.

Another scheme in hand is the Pacific Railway, said to be fairly launched, a grant of six millions of dollars in U.S. bonds being made to the company. The route, continued Albert, will be by way of Sacramento, Washoe, and the Salt Lake. The stock subscribed on the first day was 400,000 dollars. The railroad will pass over the Sierra Nevada, where there is an unbroken ridge from base to summit, so that the grade will not exceed 105 feet per mile. The expense of construction is estimated at 88,000 dollars per mile. In order to prevent the snows of the Sierra Nevada from interrupting traffic, engines will be kept on the summit, with snow-ploughs to run over the line when snow begins to fall.

That's Yankee like,-ready at all points; what with their war, the

NO. 1.-VOL. XXXII.

G

railroad, and the Atlantic Telegraph Cable, they have enough on their hands, said Rodmond.

Yes, said Albert, say what you like, they are a great people, worthy of the stock whence they sprung, and their true motto is "Onward."

The Chairman, taking up the last word, observed their duty too was onward." He was glad to welcome his friends around him to discuss the progress of events. Change was the ever constant type of worldly matters, like the flowing and ebbing of the tide, which keeps the affairs of old ocean in healthy action, so does the progress of worldly events stimulate and encourage us all in our duties; and while we see, even in the order of nature, that change and progress are ever on the wing, we are reminded on every hand of the truth of the motto "Idleness is the root of all evil."

But alas, continued the Chairman, the elements of our atmosphere have been anything but idle lately. About a year ago we heard of deluges in America and China,-a few months ago the Cape colonists suffered equally, and now it has come to our turn in Europe. Accounts from France speak of the same, and we have within a few days ourselves gone through a succession of storms, with their usual attendants-high tides, deluge, devastation, and wreck. There would be fearful accounts of our shipping. But before he went further they would clear off the effects of the former gales, which the Secretary of the Life-Boat Institution of this country had recorded. The Secretary read the following report:

An interesting communication was read from the Hon. C. F. Adams, the American Minister at this Court, stating, in reference to the valuable services rendered by the Lytham and Southport lifeboats a few weeks ago to the crew of eighteen men of the ship Annie E. Hooper, of Baltimore, U.S., that he had been instructed by the President of the United States of America to present £100 in his name to the National Life-boat Institution, and £31 to the crews of the lifeboats, in addition to the rewards, amounting to £15 10s., previously granted to them by the society. The committee acknowledged their high appreciation of the munificence of President Lincoln in

this case.

A reward of £4 was given to the crew of the Padstow lifeboat for rescuing, under peculiar circumstances, the crew of four men of the sloop Loftus, of Padstow, which, during very thick weather, was wrecked off that place on the 9th of November. The weather was so thick at the time that the vessel could hardly be seen; but they pushed on through the heavy fog, provided by the institution with one of Dent's liquid compasses. The lifeboat reached the vessel, and took off her crew of four men, and safely brought them on shore. Mr. Shea, the officer of coast-guard, was in the lifeboat on this as on many previous occasions, and has assisted in saving twenty-five lives in her. As we stated in our last number, with the special permission of the late Prince Consort, the Padstow lifeboat is called the

Albert Edward, after the Prince of Wales, who is also the Duke of Cornwall.

A reward of £6 was voted to the crew of the neighbouring lifeboat at Bude Haven, belonging to the society, for saving the crew of the smack Mary Elizabeth, of Porthleven, which, in a heavy sea breaking fearfully on the coast, was found disabled on the 14th November. Mr. W. Maskell stated that "the sea was running in high enough to test the capabilities of any lifeboat in England, and in rollers very different indeed from the seas which break along our south and eastern coasts. But strong arms and good courage carried the lifeboat through the surf, which at times seemed almost to overwhelm her. Outside the surf the boat was in safer water, but had two miles to pull along a lee shore, the wind blowing dead and strong upon it. In three-quarters of an hour she reached the wreck, and took off the crew of two men and a boy. This was about a mile from the shore, opposite a reach of sand called Widemouth Bay. The sea was rolling in upon this sand in long waves, breaking first at least quarter of a mile out. But it was scarcely possible to pull back to the harbour against wind and tide, and the sea was more dangerous at its entrance, on account of the state of the tide, than when the boat started, and hence the crew determined to run the boat at once for Widemouth. She made a slight pause outside, as if the men knew it would be at the peril of their lives, and then dashed in safely. She was buried in the seas as they passed her, but she behaved admirably, and at last on one great sweeping wave ran in upon the sand. The lines of the boat were caught, she was hauled up, and the shipwrecked crew were saved." A reward of £4 10s. was also voted to the crew of the Kirkcudbright lifeboat for saving the schooner Ellen, of Liverpool, which, in heavy weather, had struck on Kirkcudbright Bar on the 13th November, and was saved from destruction entirely by the lifeboat. The boat had been recently sent to this place through the munificence of a benevolent gentleman (N.L.) resident in Manchester.

A reward of £11 was voted to the crew of the Teignmouth lifeboat of the institution for saving, during the tempestuous night of the 18th November, two out of three men of the smack John, of that place, which had struck on the bar, the sea sweeping in heavy rollers over her. The piercing cries of the poor men having been heard, the lifeboat was launched as soon as possible. In the meantime one of the men on the wreck had thrown himself overboard with an oar, and was instantly drowned. The other two men were brought ashore in the lifeboat in a state of complete exhaustion.

It was reported that the Lytham lifeboat had been the means of bringing to a port of safety the sloop Mart, of Stranraer, which, in a fog, had been abandoned on the Salthouse Sandbank, Lancashire, on the night of the 15th November.

It was stated that one of the institution's lifeboats stationed at Dundee Harbour had assisted in bringing safely to port the schooner James Dowell, of Newcastle, which had become waterlogged in a heavy storm on the night of the 1st November.

Rewards amounting to £58 were also voted to the crews of the hfeboats of the institution stationed at Palling, Aldboro', Margate, Carmarthen Bay, Dundalk, and Arklow, for putting off with the view of rendering assistance to vessels which had signals of distress flying, but which did not afterwards require their services.

The silver medal of the society and £3 were voted to Thomas King, master of the smack Paragon, of Harwich, and £18 to his crew of six men, for their long and great exertions, extending over two days, in rescuing, during a gale, four out of six persons from the schooner Thrifty, of Goole, wrecked on the 19th October on the Long Sand. This was one of the most daring and persevering cases of saving life on record. Captain Jackson, R.N., Inspecting Commander of the Coast Guard, thus reports,

"On the evening in question the Thrifty took the ground on the S.W. end of the Long Sand in a gale from the S.W. About noon on the following day (Monday) the smack Paragon, having sighted the wreck, closed with her, and tried to get the crew off; but, after two attempts, in both of which her boat failed and was nearly swamped, the smack was obliged to give it up. She then tried to give assistance by running to seaward of the sand, but in doing so she shipped a sea, and was obliged to run for Harwich, where she arrived about ten p.m. On Tuesday, about one a.m., the crew having got dry clothes and some refreshment, started again and reached the vessel about daylight, and about nine o'clock succeeded in rescuing the shipwrecked crew. The next day was occupied in getting the body of the mate's wife from the masthead of the wreck. I may say that the exertions of the smacksmen on the occasion were most praiseworthy, and that they seriously damaged their boat, the crew of which also incurred much danger in trying to reach the wreck. It is particularly worthy of notice that in bravely persevering in their exertions through three days these men lost many chances of making good salvage, several of the smacks of this port and that of Colchester having received more than £100 for salvage during this very gale."

Various other rewards were voted for saving life from wrecks on different parts of the coast.

During the past month the institution has sent two lifeboats to the coast; one to Tynemouth, in Northumberland, and the other to Fleetwood, in Lancashire. The cost of both boats had been severally presented to the institution by a benevolent lady and gentleman.

Some beautiful verses and music on the lifeboat, composed by a clergyman, were submitted to the meeting. The author hoped by their sale to raise the cost of a lifeboat. They are published by Boosey of Holles-street. (See advertisement.)

The Rev. W. Jackson, of Heathfield, and the Rev. N. M'Gachen, of Portsmouth, had recently been delivering lectures on the lifeboat and her work.

The committee expressed their deep regret at the lamented death