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that the father did not make the voyage,) who enjoyed the first land, (whether it were island or main has been doubted), and descried in the Western Atlantic, "Prima Vista," certainly possessed more practical good sense than he who thought he could improve the name by altering it to Newfoundland, as if time were never to grow old! It is surprising that such a misnomer should have been tolerated beyond the day. The re-discovery, if such it could be called, (the name implies as much) could not warrant such an appellation. The supercession was unjustifiable under any circumstances, and an insult to the memory of Cabot, which has been most disgracefully and ungratefully neglected.

If it should be urged that Prima Vista belongs to some part of the coast of Labrador, then we may claim St. John, for the island as named by Cabot; the principal harbour retains that name. Why not then call the island generally Cabot's Land? The fear of confusion, depend upon it, Sir, is, to be somewhat vulgar, "All my eye and Betty Martin." Has any resulted from calling "Plymouth Dock," by the more euphonious "Devonport," or, " New Holland," "Australia," &c. &c.! MISNOMER.

QUARANTINE REGULATIONS.

[The following extract, from the Malta Chronicle, places in a very strong light some of the absurdities of the existing Quarantine Regulations at that emporium of Quarantine, Malta.]

We have much satisfaction in being able to announce that the subject. of the Quarantine Regulations, has of late engaged the attention of many influential persons, and we are led to hope that ere long the whole topic will undergo a complete revision, and that these regulations will be modified in a manner more conformable to the spirit of the age, and to the increased activity in the Naval and Commercial world. It is not our present purpose to go into the whole of this much vexed question, but merely to point out one of its flagrant absurdities, the removal of which is so perfectly simple and safe that the alteration could not alarm the most timorous on the score of contagion, while it would prove of the greatest advantage to the public service at large, and a great boon to many persons in private life.

The sole avowed purpose of the Quarantine system, is to prevent the transmission of disease, and chiefly of the Plague, from place to place; and it would be idle to deny that this is an object of great importance. But it is no less obvious that the measures adopted in this view should be so contrived as to cause the smallest possible amount of inconvenience to the public and to individuals. Now, we have no hesitation in saying that this principle is, on many occasions, altogether lost sight of, and that great inconvenience, loss of time, heavy expences, and other evils, are produced by the present system, in a manner having so little reference to the real object as to be fairly called, not only wanton departures from common sense, but positive infractions of the liberty of the subject. The inconveniences of the Quarantine laws naturally divide themselves into three branches; one of which only we propose at present to

touch upon. These are, first, the loss of time, frequent loss of market, and various heavy expenses, incurred by merchant ships, while detained in quarantine durance: secondly, the trouble, privations, expense, and loss of valuable time, and frequent injury of health, to which travellers, and all other persons, unaccustomed to imprisonment, are subjected, when moving from east to west in the Mediterranean: thirdly, the great inconvenience to the public service of the state, caused by the quarantine imposed on Her Majesty's Ships, an inconvenience which is not only directly injurious to the service, but one which is indirectly productive of no small mischief by the very natural dissatisfaction which it often gives rise to among the officers and crew of Her Majesty's Ships.

It is with this branch of the subject that we propose at present to deal, but only with one particular point of it, which we select because we cannot doubt that we shall have the sympathy and concurrence in all respects of every rational minded person, in our recommendation that so manifest an inconsistency should be done away with.

A certain number of days of quarantine discipline, after leaving a suspected port, are considered essential to security against infection. For example eighteen days for a ship coming from Beyrout, twenty-two from Alexandria, five from the Ionian Islands and Patras, twelve from Tunis, and so on. Now, without entering at present into the questions which regulate these distinctions, which may or may not be well grounded, we come at once to the anomaly which stares every one in the face at Malta. We allude to the local regulation which refuses to allow the time a ship of war has been at sea on her passage to count as a part of the required time. On what principle this can be refused we cannot conceive, unless it be alleged that in the interval, that is during her passage, the ship may have held intercourse with an infected ship, or touched at an infected port. But if this be all, can it be doubted that a formal report, under the hand of the captain and surgeon, would prove amply sufficient to allay the scruples of the most timid?

In these days of rigorous responsibility, to say nothing of the publicity and certainty of detection in the event of any such report being otherwise than strictly correct, it is surely a most unworthy reproach on the character of naval men, to hesitate to receive their official declaration, on a simple matter of fact, as well known to every man and boy on board, as to the captain himself. In former times this privilege existed, and men-of-war were released from quarantine the moment they completed the required number of days, counting from the date of sailing from the suspected port. This reasonable allowance was withdrawn, it is said, in consequence of some captain having abused the indulgence and failed to communicate that on her passage she boarded a vessel from a suspected place. If this were true, it ought to have been dealt with very differently. The captain ought to have been brought to a courtmartial, (as he would be now, most assuredly,) and if found guilty, he should have been punished. Instead of which, for the last twenty years, and upwards the whole naval force in the Mediterranean, arriv ing at Malta, from the Levant, are positively punished for this alleged, and probably imaginary, offence, of one officer! The consequence is,

that whatever be the length of passage, however healthy the ship may be, or however exact her discipline and state of cleanliness, the beginning of her quarantine takes date only from the time of her arrival at Malta!

This most unfair and utterly needless regulation affecting her Majesty's ships and packets, brings along with it some great practical absurdities.

In the first place, the regulation which prevents the days at sea, or the passage of one of her Majesty's ships, being counted as part of the quarantine time at Malta, does not apply either to Gibraltar or to England, at both of which places pratique is given the moment the requisite time has been completed, counting the passage from Malta as part of the time required to make up the quarantine commenced at Malta. On what possible principle, can the same privilege be denied to Her Majesty's ships arriving at Malta, the head-quarters of the navy in the Mediterranean.

The next anomaly has arisen from the superior speed of steam vessels, and as it is one which presents the matter in a very striking light, we shall illustrate it by several recent examples, to the correctness of which we pledge ourselves.

H. M. Steam ship Stromboli left Beyrout on Saturday afternoon the 28th of August last, and reached Malta on the 2nd of September, on which day her quarantine commenced. As this lasted eighteen days, she obtained pratique on the 19th.

H. M. Ship Powerful sailed from the same place, Beyrout, on the morning of the next day, viz. Sunday the 29th, but instead of being only five days on her passage, as the steamer was, she was twenty days; that is to say, she anchored in Malta on the 18th of Sept.; but having been seen from Valetta on the evening before, her quarantine period took date from the 17th. It also lasted eighteen days, so that she did not get pratique till the 4th of October, that is fifteen days after the Stromboli had been released; though the two ships sailed from the same port within a few hours of each other, neither of them held any intercourse with other ships in the interval, and were both perfectly healthy all the time!

Again, H. M. S. Rodney left Alexandria on Tuesday the 21st of September last, and arrived at Malta on Monday the 4th October, when her quarantine of twenty-two days commenced, so that she was not released till Monday the 25th October. Meanwhile the Oriental (a private company's steamer) left Alexandria five days after the Rodney; but, by reason of her superior speed, she reached Malta on the 30th, when the quarantine of her passengers, who remained here, commenced. They got pratique on the 19th, that is after twenty days confinement. But the Rodney's officers and crew were kept till the 25th or six days later, though they had sailed five days before the

Oriental.

This is inconsistent enough, it may be thought, but we are at a loss to conjecture by what principle of extra unfairness it happened that the unfortunate people of the Rodney, merely for being in Her Majesty's service, should have twenty-two days of this irksome surveillance, not ENLARGED SERIES.-NO. 12.-VOL. FOR 1841.

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including the time passed at sea, when the passengers by a private steamer had only twenty, including the time they passed at sea.

We shall give only one more instance out of the many we could cite. H. M. S. Inconstant left Beyront on the 20th September, and the Phoenix steam-frigate on the 26th that is six days after her. The steamer arrived here first, and thus got pratique on the 25th October, but the Inconstant will not be released till the 27th.

To persons resident at Malta it is needless to state the excessive inconvenience which is caused to the public service by this protracted quarantine imposed so despotically, and unreasonably on Her Majesty's Ships. But to persons at a distance we may be allowed to mention that the whole action of the naval service is benumbed and retarded by the interference of the quarantine. To return worn out stores, and to get on board new ones, are rendered by it affairs of infinite trouble. Indeed it may be said that the whole course of a ship's refitting is often materially counteracted, and much of that promptitude and energetic activity which characterise such a process elsewhere, is necessarily damped by the confinement and multifarious other restrictions of the quarantine.

(To be continued.)

SURVEY OF THE GOLD COAST OF AFRICA.By Captain Vidal, R.N. . Twelve chronometers were provided by the Admiralty, ten of which were embarked in the Etna, and two in the Raven. To those of the Etna, a small cabin was appropriated on the lower deck, near the after hatchway, in which was a massive oak table secured to the lower deck by copper knees, and free in every part from the surrounding bulkheads. This table was divided into compartments, lined with cotton wadding, covered with coarse woollen cloth, and each watch was secured within its own compartment by a packing of the same material. With a view to secure all possible care and uniformity in the handling of the chronometers, they were placed entirely under the management of one person, my assistant, Mr. Church * To avoid any interference with the occupations of the day, they were wound and compared every morning at six o'clock, and whenever observations were made for the critical determination of time, they were again compared at noon. On such occasions, the pocket chronometer employed in the observations, was compared with the standard watch before and after the morning observations were made; at noon, also, and again before and after the afternoon observations.

At Portsmouth, the chronometers were rated by transits of the sun, but as rapidity of movement was deemed a very important consideration, the method by equal altitudes of the sun was adopted at all the succeeding stations, as most simple and expeditions.

The sextant and artificial horizon were the only instruments required for this purpose; they admitted of easy conveyance, and immediate application, and with careful management were susceptible of

Now Lieutenant Church, R.N.

great accuracy. To promote this latter ohject, two observers were employed and several instruments, the indexes of which were fixed at different altitudes, and left untouched, merely timing the contacts of the upper and lower limbs of the sun, in his passage from and return to those altitudes.

Lastly, in reference to the chronometers employed on this occasion, their rates having been carefully determined at the first and last stations of the series of meridian distances, measured via Sierra Leone and Fernando Po, the resulting longitudes were corrected for change of rate, on the supposition that such change had taken place uniformly in the interval between the times of rating.

The latitudes of the chronometric stations were not observed at the times of measuring the meridian distances, that the pocket watch might be exclusively devoted to the latter observations, and also, because we could not then afford the time they would necessarily require. These, therefore, and indeed the latitudes of all the principal stations, were determined as we arrived at them in the regular course of the survey, and are without exception, derived from circum-meridian observations of stars, situated to the north and south of the zenith. Sextants and artificial horizons were here also, the instruments generally used in taking these observations, but occasionally a repeating circle was employed. There were usually two observers, sometimes three. The chronometers were rated during a period of eight days, by transits of the sun, at the observatory in Portsmouth yard, after their embarkation. The vessels sailed from England on the 18th of December, and reached Madeira on the 7th of January, after a long and boisterous passage.

By observations obtained at the house of Mr. Veitch, the consul, the longitude of that spot, from a mean of eleven chronometers, was found to be 16° 54′ 9′′ west, the interval between the observations in England and those at Madeira being twenty days.

From Madeira, to Mr. Bartlett's, the British consul at Santa Cruz, Tenerife, in an interval of seven days, the meridian distance was 40° 13' east, from Tenerife to Quail Island. Porto Praya in seven days, 7° 16′ 8′′ west from Quail Island to Sandy Beach, on Crawford Island. Isles de Los in nine days, 9° 42' 7" east, and from Crawford Island to the North Battery, at Sierra Leone, in two days 33° 58′ east. From these measurements, the longitude of the several places stand thus:

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The preceding observations had mainly for their object to verify the positions of those places visited on the run out, which had been determined by Captain Owen, when in command of the Severn, in 1822, and the Eden, in 1827, especially off Sierra Leone, as on its meridian depend all the longitudes of the west coast of Africa included in this survey.

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