thing said upon the subject of the America | this difference come to steam. the experiments are not The - which, arriving at Cowes, I should have so costly. The right trim of a vessel is said made all the noise was said by a easily found without expense, and what delandsman, that noble veteran soldier and pends upon this is soon remedied if defectlover of the sea- for what did he not ive, when its causes depend upon. results love that was truly English? - the Mar- apart from the lines of the hull. Our most quis of Anglesey. "If they are right, we beautiful yachts to the eye furnish no clue are all wrong," looking at the America as to their sailing qualities, just as the most she lay at anchor. We run steamers neck symmetrical racer is not the best qualified to neck with the American; in consequence for winning. What then shall we say of of their rivalry, we have been forced to lay the late race of the Henrietta and her comby our old wall-sided merchantmen; our petitors? Our general principles of naval sailing vessels are equal to theirs, and last architecture in this branch may be sound, longer. Yet, but for their rivalry, we but we may err in carrying them out. In should still trade with our old tubs. The the case of the America, both the hull and America gave us a fillip to carry our yachts sails of that yacht differed from our general up to the mark then existing. There, I ideas of the best forms. The most perfect fear, we stopped. Like the vessels of the bow is hardly yet decided upon as to its royal navy, we had been at the standard of configuration in aiding velocity, yet much thirty or forty years ago. Private yards depends upon this point. The curves are turned out the most splendid vessels, while various, but that of the least resistance is our navy yards had not surpassed the Cale- not fixed in practice. In wood there may donia, launched in 1810, nor the Canopus, be some difficulty of accommodating the a French model, taken at the battle of the material, but in iron there is none. Nile. Why was this? Because one acted resistances offered in going through or over under the rule of "leave well alone," and the water are not assigned. There is noththe other of "move onward "the one ing like the build of the yacht for ascer stimulated by rivalry and the desire of gain, taining these and similar points, such as the the other without stimulus, except as in the line of lowest resistance, and the most depresent case of a Yankee rival. It is now sirable point for the centre of gravity if it appear displaced. There was too much reason to fear that in times past construction depended generally upon the fancy of the builder in light vessels, and that the lines of beauty were fearful rivals of those which were best adapted for navigation. The overruling principle should be still to diminish resistance, for vessels of the same burthen and dimensions every way, and differing in form alone, rate their merits according to that law. The best are still what is called wedge-bottomed. Thus our yacht clubs are of considerable importance in a national sense. The American model continually improves. Some affect to undervalue that model, and declare that its speed depends upon its sails, and their stiffness under the breeze. This may enable the yacht to keep close to the wind, but it cannot be the cause of her superiority altogether. One said that the America sailed in a superior manner with the wind on the beam only, and another ascribed it to the mode in which the sails were connected with the spars. This is very natural, because nothing of moment is observed by the stranger so obviously as the rigging and cut of the sails. But we are much mistaken if the hull of the America did not possess points of comparison which had a considerable advantage over our own. It would The American pilot-boats have long been renowned, yet we had never heard of their being imitated here. The character of the American builders, in regard to light craft, was established long ago. It is forgotten now, perhaps, that at the close of the last unhappy war, in consequence of our landing parties on the defenceless parts of the American coast, they determined to retaliate. We landed. under a strong covering naval force; the Americans could not do that upon the English coast. They therefore began a number of very fast-sailing schooners, to contain a hundred men besides There were none of our vessels that could come up with them. They were to land upon different parts of our coasts, burn and destroy all they could, and in half a dozen hours be at sea again, before any force could be collected to meet them. Our little sea villages and fishing towns would thus have been at the mercy of a foe, purely from the better sailing quality of the enemy's vessels. the crew. Science and practice must ever agree, and yet in our larger naval architecture this was never yet the case. The first Admiralty report on steam was, that it could never be of use to his majesty or his heirs! The same rule applies to our yachts; with that is, if he possess a good and clear head. He will sometimes see an importance in what the common eye passes over as of little moment, and will reap the good effects. There is nothing with which we are concerned that it does not concern us to do well. It was a remarkable trait of Napoleon Bonaparte that he observed and mastered the details of everything. Nelson, when mortally wounded, and being carried below, seeing the tillerrope shot away, ordered a new one to be rove, though the more immediate duty of others to attend to it. be well to have the dimensions and lines ac- | tools in his hand A register of the sailing qualities of the vessels of the yacht club, and models, should be kept at Cowes and other club-houses. Repeated trials would ascertain the most excellent models and qualities. We must protest, however, against denominating a yacht the best because it is so in one mode of sailing. Nothing must rest in this way upon generals. One yacht will be the best sailer with the wind on the beam, another with the wind aft, and so on. We know that changes of model alter the sailing qualities, but we want to know how those changes operate, so that they may be applied to render the vessel more perfect. A yacht club registering the dimensions of the different vessels, the trim, the configuration of the hull, the quantity of canvas, the rate of sailing with every wind, would tend very much to the information desired. This was not done formerly, and we are strangers.to the topic at present, as far as practical observation goes. But we are told that the yacht clubs are idle things, and worse than useless; that they are mere child's play, mere cockboats, that keep the sea only in fine weather. This we flatly deny, and the Americans have nobly proved in the Henrietta and her consorts. Members of the clubs have made very interesting cruises in their "cockboats," as some affect to denominate them who know nothing of the matter. There is no class of vessels more seaworthy. Not only do we apply this to the larger yachts He because vessels from a hundred to four hundred tons speak for themselves - but to the smallest, that are entered. All are capable of keeping the sea. It is astonishing how securely and well, under good management, let the spirited Americans proclaim to us. Few are aware that a boat only sixteen feet and a half long, nine wide, and five and a half deep, actually came to Europe safely from Diu, in the western peninsula of India. James Botello, in a boat of the above dimensions, reached Lisbon in the reign of King John, with four companions, but no pilot or seamen. was obliged to put to death several men be-. cause they mutinied. The boat was imThe Americans said that if we came up mediately burned by the order of the King with the America, or if we possessed her, of Portugal, lest it should be known in they would try to build something that Europe it was possible to perform so long should beat us still. That is the true prin- a voyage in so small a vessel. The ocean ciple of all improvement- never leave well navigation by boats would furnish a wonalone. They might or might not be success-derful history of perils encountered, and ful in such a case, but we trust that the final security. Take the case of the unannunciation will prevail not only with our worthy Captain Bligh. Our yacht clubs yacht builders, but that our yacht owners are not the less useful or amusing from their will study the subject a little more, and in small dimensions. The only disadvantage place of the club-rooms spend time in the is sustained by those who choose to encounbuilders' yards. Indeed, one or two had ter a sea navigation in the confined space already begun to alter their vessels, and which is alone permitted them where the orders had gone to America for boats to be dimensions are restricted -a matter of built and sent over. We never heard the taste and adventure alone. We have ourresult. An idle man of fortune, fond of selves encountered some rough weather in a sailing, should study the Yankee model, man-of-war's jolly-boat, and never experiand, theoretically master of it, he will quick- enced any danger beyond that to which ly become experienced, without taking the larger craft would have been amenable. Let our yachts of all dimensions, then, be | hoisted sail, and kept a good look-out to multiplied. The amusement is so unim- clear the Shambles, a hard sand lying off peachable, so scientific and manly, while the south-east part of the Isle of Portland, with prudence the cost need be very little compared with that of a stable of hunters for thick-headed squires following a yelping pack of dogs after a harmless hare. There is no exhilaration more fresh than that imparted by the seabreeze, no spirit-elevation more gladdening, none more manly and innocent. Alas! that with us the days when we in little ploughed the wave! They have passed away. The voyage to the solitary rock or green-turfed islet, and the hearty repast on the edge of the breaking surf, cannot be forgotten. Its memory is still grateful. distant about three miles from the Bill. From twelve to fifteen feet of water only are over this sand at low tide. The sea continued to run high, but the boat shipped no water. It was soon perceptible that the ebb tide was carrying the boat rapidly towards the danger. In order to avoid so terrible a disaster it became necessary to shake the reef out of the sail, but in order to do this the helm must be abandoned, and the boat would inevitably broach-to. The alternative was horrible. The boat was soon borne bow on towards the fatal sands. The waves were observed ahead, white with. It may not be amiss to close these ram- foam, and breaking tremendously. The bling remarks with a tale of our boyhood. moment was as awful a one as could be enThe incident occurred when we were accus- countered by man, and not the less so from tomed to pull an oar until our hands were the impossibility of doing anything with blistered, not up a river, but on the stormy the reasonable chance of preserving existWest of England coast. The impression ence. The clearance of the Shambles to the story made can never be obliterated. the eastward or westward became no longer It has, no doubt, been published subsequently, though we have not met with it. The hero of the story lived near Bridport, we well remember. He was a gentleman of fortune, and kept a cutter rigged yacht, in which he often cruised along the south-west ern coast. The name of Weld is familiar in Dorsetshire, and was connected with yacht-sailing long before clubs for this purpose were established. Mr. Weld's yacht used to take its station at Weymouth whenever George III. and the royal family visited that watering-place, and one or two other yachts kept by other individuals did the same. The Alarm cutter, of the Royal Yacht Club, formed afterwards at Cowes, belongs to one of the same family. He was cruising about off Weymouth, when a second yacht, cutter-rigged, began to contend with him which should first get back. The sea then rose high; Mr. Weld struck his topmast, hoisted in his boat, and made all snug. His rival, Mr. Sturt, struck his topmast also, but feared to hoist in his boat, from the high state of the sea. They were at this time about two leagues from the land. The boat still impeding the course of the yacht, and thus giving his opponent the advantage, Sturt proposed to one of his seamen, in order to get rid of the impediment, to jump into the boat and take it to Weymouth. The tar, seeing the state of the sea, wisely refused, and his master then proposed to go himself, leaving the race to He took a pocket-compass, got the mast stepped, cast off the painter, his crew. possible. By great exertion Sturt contrived to throw out all the ballast, that the boat might not sink when it got into the surf. There he sat, with the roar of the breakers in his ears and the foam leaping and jumping up ahead. He felt at that moment his case was hopeless, and began, in his despair, to sing or roar out the song, "Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer!" much as boys whistle through a churchyard at night to keep up their courage. A sea now struck the boat, and he was in the very jaws of death. A second on the quarter, and the boat broached-to, overset, and the waves rolled over and over her. He recovered the boat again by swimming to it as it lay on its side, and, clinging fast, got off his coat, then his waistcoat and shirt, though with great difficulty. He had now floated fifteen miles from land. A hollow sea continually broke over him. He still indulged a hope of life. Despair afterwards came upon him. Thoughts of his wife and children rushed into his mind, and at one time he thought he saw them. Then a determination to struggle to the last for his preservation arose. He continued to clear the boat of the mast and sails, though continually washed off. He then got upon the gunwale, and by his weight righted the boat and got in, but the waves continually overwhelmed him, and he had to regain the boat by swimming every time, until he became nearly exhausted, while the salt spray, getting into his eyes, nearly blinded him. Still no relief 3 T appeared, his distance from the land increased, and his spirits began to flag. The love of life was still uppermost, and he continued to maintain his contest with the waves, that as often washed him off and buried him in their foam, yet conscious that he could not maintain his situation much longer, having been two hours in the water. He now recollected that fishermen caught in a gale let a spar fastened to the boat's painter go ahead to break the violence of the waves; he therefore got the painter fast to a seat of the boat, in doing which he was so repeatedly buried beneath the the water that he nearly lost his breath. Sea-birds came and hovered round his head, and he even shouted to keep them off. When a heavy sea approached, he got away from the boat to leeward, holding the painter, and found that the boat broke the violence of the wave, so that only a part came over him, and this kept up his spirits a little. Still no sail was in sight, the sea rising, and evening approaching. He had been three hours in the water, when he saw two sails about a mile to leeward too far off to hail them. His strength continued to diminish, owing to his swimming off to avoid the seas, and then having to swim each time up to the boat again. It was four o'clock, and he had been in the water from twelve, when a brig came within half a mile. He made every exertion in his power to attract the attention of the crew, and succeeded, for he saw some of the men go into the shrouds to look. Whether they saw him or not, they continued their course, and left him to his fate. His heart sunk; his last hope seemed gone. He had drifted farther than ever from the land, the wind was rising, and the tide carrying him on fast to Portland Race. He got his wife's watch out of his fob, tied it to the waistband of his trousers, and then fastened them to the thwart of the boat, thinking they might lead to a discovery who he was, knowing well that the wind as it stood must drive his body on shore near Bridport, not far from his own house. Living or dying now seemed to become indifferent; all the terrors of death had ceased. He fastened the painter to his body, that it might drift with the boat. Thus he continued generally a couple of feet under water, sometimes toesed about, within the boat or on her bottom, washed off at times, and sometimes losing her for several minutes together. Yet his recollection did not fail him, nor his strength to the degree that might be expected, for he could always tread water long enough to see the boat, and then swim to her. It was about half-past four o'clock when he saw eight vessels to windward, standing towards where he was. This refreshed his spirits. About five o'clock, three or four passed without seeing him, or he being able to make them hear for the roar of the sea. Three more passed in the same way, and he was still unnoticed. What an anxious moment! Two more were coming up, being the last of the eight, and some of the crew of a brig saw him, they going aloft to make him out. The brig then tacked and bore towards him, but did not lower a boat, at which he felt an inconceivable dread come over him. She passed on, and only one vessel remained. It was getting dark, a high sea running, and Portland Race within two miles. He got on the boat's bottom and hailed the vessel, was washed off, but got on again. At last he was seen by some soldiers, and a boat lowered. At the sight, all his firmness forsook him, and he burst into tears! Retching came on from the quantity of salt water he had swallowed, but when the boat reached him he had recovered himself. even so full of presence of mind as to loose his trousers and throw them into the ship's boat. He then tried to get in, but his strength failed him, and he was pulled in by the legs When once in the boat, he was able to steer her to the ship. His limbs were benumbed, he was sorely bruised, had a violent pain in the side, dizziness of the eyes, weakness, and a great inclination to sleep. He had been five hours and a half in the sea. The vessel reached Portland Roads the same evening, about eight o'clock. He spon recovered, and a day or two afterwards presented the master of the vessel with a piece of plate, and gave five guineas to each of the boatmen. He was We received from the United States a copy of the log of the Henrietta the other day. It is only another proof of what may and can be done by a people who will not be ruled by precedent, and the notion of leaving "well" alone because "better" is a novelty. Our antecedents never instructed their offspring in this belief. As doubt is generally the parent of truth, just so it would seem that daring is the parent of success. CYRUS REDDING. From Macmillan's Magazine. A DULL LIFE. I THINK there is no country in the world so dreary and oppressive as the country round New Orleans. It is a vast swamp, below the level of the Mississippi, covered with cedars, not evergreen, but deciduous; and when I was there in the early spring, there was not a single leaf upon them. For miles these dreary forests extend, with almost always the same aspect, except, perhaps, for a few miles the trees may be bathed in yellow slimy mud half-way up their trunks, where some lake or river has been swelled and risen for a time some ten or fifteen feet higher than usual. Natural scenery, untouched by man, has, almost everywhere in the world, some beauty; not always a lovely, graceful beauty, but a beautiful dreariness, or a beautiful wildness, or a beautiful quaintness, or a beautiful luxuriance. Here, in this swampy, slimy Louisiana, there is ugly dreariness, ugly wildness, ugly quaintness, and the country often struck me as absolutely ugly, and, with its alligators basking in the rivers, as almost revolting, somewhat as if it were a country in a geological period not prepared for man's appearance. We were in New Orleans in 1858, and the state of society was not more pleasant to contemplate than the natural scenery; the moral atmosphere was as offensive as the swamp miasma. Every day we heard of murders and assassinations in the streets, and crime ruled in society. The fear of vengeance from criminals very often prevented the injured from seeking the protection of the law-in fact, the state of the city was almost lawless. The aspect of the streets was quiet enough, perhaps, with the exception of a few drunken Irish and Germans, whom I saw sometimes absolutely rolling on the pavement; but it was impossible to speak to any person without hearing of recent crime, and the daily papers were crammed with revolting records. I detested New Orleans; I detested the great Hotel St. Charles, with its 800 people sitting down to table together; and I detested the conversation I heard there at dinner, and in the immense drawing-room crowded with fine ladies. Fine gives no idea how fine these planters' ladies were; indeed, much more extravagantly dressed than crowned heads in old countries, and some wore more jewels in the early morning than a princess would wear in any evening in England. Everything I saw in New Orleans disgusted me. I could not visit the slave auction or slave depôts without suffering with horror for days after; and I could not look at the daily paper, with its little black running negroes heading innumerable advertisements of runaways, without feeling sick with sympathy for the sufferings of these human beings so indicated. In fact, I never lost the feeling of the presence of slavery. It met me everywhere; its influence was felt everywhere: in the book-shops, by the glaring absence of cer tain books; in the pulpit, by the doctrines doctored to please the congregation; in the cars, by the division of white and black; in the schools, from the absence of every child supposed to have a tinge of black blood; in the evening, by the gun to send all coloured people home- everywhere, at every time, the presence of slavery was heavy upon me. The conversations at that time, in almost all groups of people, were directly or indi rectly about slavery and the infamy of the North; this infamy all connected with the peculiar institution. One evening we went to the only scientific society in the city-a poor, struggling, ill-supported associationand the interest of the lecture I heard there turned, too, on slavery. It went to prove that the Egyptians had negro slaves, and that these African races from all time had been servants, and always ought to be, and always would be. There was quite enough in this city to make the heart of man sad; and though the country around was sad too, there is always the sky when one is out of the narrow streets. So I often used to go by the railway to different points in the woods, or on the Lake Ponchartrain, to get the refreshment of the beautiful blue sky and the gorgeous setting sun. of One day I went to Carrolton, a collection of white wooden villas, with green verandahs and gardens, very ugly and utterly uninteresting, but it is on the very verge the uncultivated, untouched forest swamps. It was, in fact, one of the few places where it was possible to get a view of that melancholy country, and so one day, very near to Carrolton, I encamped with my sketching umbrella, &c., to make a view of the monotonous wall of deciduous cedars which rose beyond the one field which had been cleared, and cultivation attempted, but unsuc cessfully; and this field, which was my foreground, was now a swamp covered with rank grass, dwarf palm, and dead stalks of tall plants. The trees beyond were leafless, |