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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75818 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
+
+OF
+
+POPULAR
+
+LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART
+
+Fifth Series
+
+ESTABLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, 1832
+
+CONDUCTED BY R. CHAMBERS (SECUNDUS)
+
+NO. 152.—VOL. III.      SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1886.      PRICE 1½_d._]
+
+
+
+
+SEALSKIN COATS, ALIVE AND DEAD.
+
+
+The ladies of England, who, living at home at ease, shield themselves
+from the inclemency of our not very rigorous winters in their elegant
+sealskin coats, think little, and know less, of the curious animal
+from which their beautiful garment is taken, and of the peculiar
+circumstances of its habitat and capture. Nor can their ignorance
+be deemed much of a reproach, seeing that until recently, even
+scientists were accustomed to regard the fur-seal as but a variety of
+the hair-seal, not unknown on the shores of Scotland, and abounding
+in the North and West Atlantic. But the two are quite dissimilar in
+their individuality and character, and as Mr H. W. Elliott, of the
+Smithsonian Institute of the United States—to whom we are chiefly
+indebted for the substance of this article—says, ‘the truth connected
+with the life of the fur-seal, as it herds in countless myriads on the
+islands of Aleutian Alaska, is far stranger than fiction.’ Mr Elliott
+spent three years in continuous observations on the spot, and is the
+first to afford us a complete and trustworthy view of the strange
+eventful history.
+
+The fur-seal formerly abounded in the southern hemisphere on the
+borders of the Antarctic Circle; but reckless killing has well-nigh
+exterminated it there, and now, one may say that the only habitat of
+commercial importance is in that portion of the North Pacific which
+washes the Aleutian division of Alaska; and even here, the range
+is practically confined to four comparatively small islands. These
+islands were discovered by the Russian navigator Pribylov in 1786,
+and are still called by his name. They lie about two hundred miles
+due north of the group usually called the Aleutian Islands, off the
+western extremity of the Alaska peninsula. The Pribylov Islands rest
+in the very heart of Behring Sea, but far enough south to be free
+from permanent ice-floes, and thus to escape the ravages of the polar
+bear; while also far enough from the mainland and inhabited islands to
+be free from the attacks of the primitive races. Thus the seals had
+collected and bred there for countless ages, undisturbed by beast or
+man, until the Russians first broke in upon their preserves. They have
+been the objects of constant attention and pursuit ever since.
+
+There are three kinds of seals. The _Phoca vitulina_ is the common
+hair-seal, which may often be seen on our north-western shores, which
+the fishing-vessels of Dundee, of Hull, of Peterhead, and of Greenock,
+go out to Greenland and Labrador to catch every season for the sake
+of the oil—the skin being of little value—and specimens of which,
+alive or stuffed, we may fairly assume every one of our readers has
+seen somewhere or other. There is probably not an aquarium of the
+country which has not a family of them. Then there is the _Eumetopias
+stelleri_, which the Russians call ‘Seevitchie,’ and which is known
+to our mariners as the ‘sea-lion.’ This and the walrus, which may be
+considered akin, are found in all the circumpolar regions. Lastly,
+there is the _Callorhinus ursinus_, called ‘Kantickie’ by the Russians,
+which is the true fur-seal, and which is the subject of our sketch.
+It has no generic affinity with the others, and is of quite different
+habits. As has been said, it is now found only on four islands of
+Behring Sea.
+
+Of the fur-seal, it has been said that there is no known animal on
+land or water which can take higher physical rank, or which exhibits
+a higher order of instinct, closely approaching human intelligence.
+The male fur-seal is in his full prime at six or seven years of age,
+and will then measure from six and a half to seven and a half feet
+from snout to tail. He will weigh between four hundred and six hundred
+pounds—the latter weight, however, being found only in older animals,
+and not very frequently. He has a small head, with a muzzle and jaws
+not unlike both in size and form to those of a pure Newfoundland dog.
+The lips, however, are firm, and pressed together like those of man,
+and the large eyes of blue-gray are capable of expressing both soft and
+fierce emotions. On the upper lip he has a long moustache of grayish
+bristles, which are often long enough to extend over his shoulder. He
+swims with his head high over the water, and on land walks with an
+undulating carriage and head erect. If frightened, he will run as fast
+as a man, but not very far—thirty or forty yards sufficing to exhaust
+his wind. The hind-feet are longer than the fore-feet or flippers, and
+in shape are very like the human foot elongated to twenty inches or so,
+and with the instep flattened. There are three toes on the hind-feet;
+but the fore-flippers are fingerless hands some eight or ten inches
+broad.
+
+The female fur-seal is from four to four and a half feet in length
+from snout to tail, lithe in form, without the heavy covering of fat
+round the shoulders which the male has, and with beautiful, gentle,
+intelligent, dark-blue eyes. She will weigh from fifty to a hundred
+pounds, according to her condition. Her manners are as amiable as her
+eyes, and she never fights with her neighbours, as her quarrelsome lord
+and master does. The cow-seal has but one voice—a sort of bleating
+half-way between the cry of a calf and that of an old sheep—and this
+is used for calling the young, which, curiously enough, are known as
+‘pups,’ although the mothers are ‘cows,’ and the fathers ‘bulls.’ The
+male seal, however, has four voices. One is for battle, and resembles
+the puffing of a labouring locomotive; another is a hoarse loud roar;
+a third is a sort of low gurgle or growl; and a fourth, a sort of
+chuckle, half-hiss, half-whistle. The breeding-grounds are called
+‘rookeries,’ and there, during the season, the din of roars, puffs,
+growls, and whistles from countless thousands of vigorous ‘bulls,’ is
+ceaseless, and in volume has been compared to the boom of Niagara.
+
+It is odd that the breeding-place of ‘bulls’ and ‘cows’ should be
+called ‘rookeries,’ but so it is. The first to arrive at these
+rookeries are the bull-seals, and the season begins about the first of
+May. As it is ‘First come, first served,’ and as there is an unwritten
+law among them that a bull requires a clear space of from six to eight
+feet square for the accommodation of himself and family, there is much
+scrambling and fighting for plots, and the late arrivals may be driven
+away without being allowed a landing-place at all. They fight with
+great strength and courage—only the adult males, however—running at
+each other with averted heads, and then seizing each other with their
+teeth. The battles are often long, and the wounds severe; but these
+soon heal; and an adventurous ‘bull’ thinks nothing of forty or fifty
+desperate combats in a season. While fighting, they utter both their
+roar and their whistle, the hair is sent flying in all directions, and
+the eyes gleam with angry fire. It is said that in a seal-fight there
+is always an offensive and a defensive party, and that if the latter
+is beaten, he simply vacates his position to the victor, who does not
+follow his foe, but lies down on the conquered territory and gives vent
+to his chuckle.
+
+Although the cows are amiable, they are not particularly demonstrative
+to their infants, which are born immediately after the females are
+located in the rookeries. Twins are very rare, and mothers always
+suckle their own young. The pups do not know their own mothers, and if
+separated from them, will take with the greatest alacrity to the first
+kindly cow which will console them with her rich creamy and abundant
+milk. The pups, for the first three months after birth, are jet black
+in colour, and bleat in a minor key after the fashion of the cows. At
+birth, a pup will weigh three or four pounds, and measure twelve or
+fourteen inches in length. Curiously enough, the pup-seal cannot swim,
+and even if he is several weeks old, will helplessly sink, if thrown
+into the water. But about the second week of August begins one of the
+most curious episodes of seal-life—the education of the young. By the
+time he has counted six weeks or so of life, the pup-seal begins to
+feel an inclination to play on the margin of the sea, where, as the
+waves flow and recede, the shore is alternately covered and uncovered.
+The baby-seal finds that thousands and thousands and tens of thousands
+of his fellow-babies have been smitten with the same curiosity about
+the sea almost simultaneously with himself, and that the beach is
+swarming with tumbling, floundering, gurgling, whistling, playful, yet
+nervous young animals. By-and-by, one plucks up courage to try a plunge
+in the deeper surf; others follow; one gets carried beyond his depth,
+and in frantic struggles to reach the shore again, discovers that he
+has a power of locomotion even in the water. It is but feeble; and when
+a kindly wave chucks him out of harm’s way on to the rocks, he is blown
+and exhausted. But he takes a short sleep, and then has another go; and
+after a few more efforts, finds, to his great delight, that he is even
+more at home in the water than on the land. For the next few weeks
+the coast-waters of the islands are black with the little fat bodies
+revelling in their new-found power, and gamboling among the breakers
+like children on the grass. It used to be believed by the old sailors
+that the parent seals drove their young ones into the water and taught
+them forcibly to swim; but more recent and careful observation places
+it beyond doubt that the parents take no part whatever in the process
+of education, but leave the young ones to learn the battle of life for
+themselves.
+
+By the time the breeding season is over, all the young seals have
+become able-bodied swimmers. By this time, too, the pups have grown
+to thirty or forty pounds-weight, and have changed the black coat of
+infancy for the thick, gray, hairy coat of youth. At this age, the
+coats of both male and female are similar; indeed, not until the third
+year do they assume their permanent differences. The outer coat of the
+full-grown bull is of a dark-brown colour, and the hairs are short and
+crisp; beneath, like the down under the feathers of a bird, is the
+close, soft, elastic fur, so esteemed by man, or rather woman. The
+full-grown cows, as they come into the rookeries at the beginning of
+the season, are of a dull, dirty-gray colour, which, after they have
+been a short time on land, changes to a rich steely gray on the back,
+and snow-white on the chest and belly; but after a few weeks the white
+changes into a dull ruddy colour, and the steel gray into a brownish
+gray. The breeding season is over by the end of July; the families
+begin to break up, and the rookeries to be disorganised during August.
+By the middle of September, all order and distinction is lost, and the
+young ones have commenced life on their own account. By the end of
+October, all the mature seals have left the islands; and by the end of
+November, even the youngest have disappeared.
+
+Whither? That is one of the conundrums of nature, as is also the
+question, where do the seals die? It is certain that none perish from
+natural causes on the islands, and all that is known of their doings
+elsewhere is, that they seem usually to shape a southern course. They
+are lost in the vast mazes of the Pacific, not to be seen of man again
+until the following summer. They have natural enemies in sharks and
+other submarine animals of prey; but it is not thought that their
+numbers suffer much diminution on this account. Their own food is fish,
+and Mr Elliott has calculated that an adult male seal will consume
+forty pounds, and an adult female ten to twelve pounds, per day, of
+fresh fish. Taking, with the young ones, an average of ten pounds per
+day each, and the numbers annually frequenting the rookeries of the
+Pribylov Islands—which have been ascertained by careful measurement and
+estimate at about four millions and three-quarters—we have a total of
+six millions of tons of fish consumed every year by the fur-seals! The
+figures are stupendous, but they seem beyond doubt.
+
+As to the now approximately known number of seals, there is no reason
+to believe that it is any greater than it was when the islands were
+first discovered; and while the number will not be decreased by the
+present method of capture, it is not thought that it will increase. The
+supply of fur-seals, then, may be taken as a fixed quantity, with a
+known annual yield to man. That yield is restricted by the law of the
+United States to one hundred thousand skins per annum. The government
+holds the islands for the State and leases the right of capture to a
+Company, who are permitted not to take a larger number than that just
+mentioned. They employ the natives of the Aleutian Islands, who work
+in gangs, under their chiefs, and receive forty cents, or one shilling
+and eightpence, for every ‘pelt’ or hide they hand to the Company’s
+officials. Government officers, again, keep a separate tally; so there
+is a double check upon the Company, who cannot easily, even if they
+wish, exceed their prescribed rights. As the annual birth-rate is
+about one million, of which one half are males, the number annually
+abstracted by man can have no appreciable effect in reducing the supply
+or in affecting the natural increase. The average natural life of the
+male seal is believed to be from fifteen to twenty years, and that of
+the female, about ten years, so that deaths by man on the rookeries,
+and from submarine foes during the winter, suffice to keep the race
+within the bounds now known.
+
+The men operate only on the haunts of the ‘bachelor’ seals. It is
+presumed that about two-thirds of the males are not allowed to land
+on the rookeries by the stronger and abler remanent, so that the
+wants of man can be supplied without interfering with the operations
+of the breeding-grounds. When the ‘bachelors’ are dozing about the
+shores in the early summer, the natives get in quietly between them
+and the sea. The seals on perceiving the men turn to run inland, and
+are easily driven to the appointed killing-grounds. Three or four men
+can easily guide and secure as many thousand seals, and the driving
+is done leisurely, for if the animals become overheated, the fur is
+injured. The men therefore allow them to rest from time to time, and
+renew the drive by clattering and shouting, to startle the seals to
+fresh exertions. They move with the docility of a flock of sheep, and
+only the old bulls ever show fight. These last will occasionally make
+a stand and act on the defensive; but as they are of little value
+commercially, the bellicose oldsters are allowed to drop out and go
+their own ways. It is only the animals between one and five years old
+which are desired, for after the fifth year, the fur deteriorates, the
+undergrowth becoming shorter and coarser. The thickest and finest pelts
+are those of the third and fourth years. Beneath the skin is a dense
+layer of oily blubber, which, unlike the blubber of the hair-seal, has
+a very offensive odour.
+
+The work of catching and pickling the pelts occupies June and July,
+by which time the Company will have secured its legal number of one
+hundred thousand, or as many short of the number as circumstances have
+confined them to. After July, the seals begin to moult, and the skins
+become of less and less value as the season advances. Altogether, three
+hundred and ninety-eight persons are employed annually on the Pribylov
+Islands in this work.
+
+After the ‘catch’ is ended, the skins are taken in the Company’s
+steamers to San Francisco, and thence nearly all or about nine-tenths
+are shipped to London, for London has the monopoly of the preparation
+of these furs for market. The skins as they come into England are
+very different in appearance from what we see on the backs of our
+lady-friends. They are indeed very unattractive; and all the coarse
+stiff outer hair has to be carefully extracted before the rich
+under-fur is seen. This last is then dyed and dressed. It is hurried
+or defective dyeing and dressing which accounts for the variation in
+prices of the finished furs, for there is little difference in the
+original quality. The more careful and skilful the work of the furrier,
+therefore, the dearer becomes the sealskin jacket.
+
+The Alaska Commercial Company’s lease of the islands is for twenty
+years from the 1st of May 1870, and they pay the government a rental of
+eleven thousand pounds per annum for the islands, and a tax of eight
+shillings for each sealskin, ten and sixpence for each fur-seal skin,
+and fifty-five cents for every gallon of oil, shipped. The Company is
+also bound to supply the inhabitants with a stipulated quantity of
+dried fish, firewood, and salt; to maintain a school on each island for
+the education of the natives; and not to sell or give any ‘distilled
+spirituous liquors’ to the natives. We believe that the Company has in
+only one year (1881) taken its full number of skins, the usual number
+shipped being from ninety to ninety-five thousand. Between 1870 and
+1881, the Company had paid the United States Treasury nearly three and
+a half millions of dollars in rent and royalty.
+
+
+
+
+BY ORDER OF THE LEAGUE.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Consumed by conflicting emotions, and torn by a thousand hopes and
+fears, Maxwell set out on his journey to Rome. At any hazards, he was
+determined to commit no crime, and trusted to time and his own native
+wit to show him a way out of the awful difficulty which lay before him.
+All the old familiar country he passed through failed to interest him
+now; he saw nothing but his own fate before his eyes; and the Eternal
+City, which had once been a place of mystery and delight to him, now
+looked to his distorted fancy like a tomb, every broken statue an
+avenging finger, and every fractured column a solemn warning.
+
+It was night when he arrived and secured apartments—the old ones he had
+occupied in his student days, the happiest time in his life, he thought
+now, as every ornament recalled this silent voice or that forgotten
+memory slumbering in some corner of his brain. He could eat nothing;
+the very air of the place was oppressive to him; so he put on his hat
+and walked out into the streets, all alive with the citizens taking
+their evening walk, and gay with light laughter over flirtations and
+cigarette smoke. He wandered long and far, so far, that it was late
+when he returned; and there, lying on the table, was a sealed packet,
+bearing the device of the Order, and in the corner two crossed daggers.
+He groaned as he opened it, knowing full well the packet contained the
+hated ‘instructions,’ as they were called. He tore them open, read them
+hastily, and then looked out of the window up to the silent stars. And
+it was Visci, his old friend Carlo Visci, he was sent here—to murder!
+The whole thing seemed like a ghastly dream. Visci, the truest-hearted
+friend man ever had; Visci, the handsome genius, whose purse was ever
+ready for a fellow-creature in need; the man who had sat at his table
+times out of number; the student who was in his secrets; the man who
+had saved his life, snatched him from the very jaws of death—from
+the yellow waters of the Tiber. And this was the friend he was going
+to stab in the back some dark night! A party of noisy, light-hearted
+students passed down the street, some English voices amongst them,
+coming vaguely to Maxwell’s ears, as he sat there looking on the fatal
+documents, staring him in the face from the table.
+
+‘Et tu, Brute!’
+
+Maxwell looked up swiftly. And there, with one trembling forefinger
+pointing to the open documents, stood the figure of a man with a look
+of infinite sorrow on his face, as he gazed mournfully down upon the
+table. He was young—not more than thirty, perhaps, and his aquiline
+features bore the marks of much physical suffering. There were
+something like tears in his eyes now.
+
+‘Carlo! is it possible it is you?’ Maxwell cried, springing to his feet.
+
+‘Yes, Fred, it is I, Carlo Visci, who stand before you. We are well
+met, old friend; you have not far to seek to do your bidding now.
+Strike! while I look the other way, for it is your task, I know.’
+
+‘As there is a heaven above us, no!’ Maxwell faltered. ‘Never, my
+friend! Do you think I would have come for this? Listen to me, Visci.
+You evidently know why I am here; but sure as I am a man, never shall
+my hand be the one to do you hurt. I have sworn it!’
+
+‘I had expected something like this,’ Visci replied mournfully. ‘Yes, I
+know why you came. You had best comply with my request. It would be a
+kindness to me to kill me, as I stand here now.’
+
+‘Visci, I swear to you that when I joined the Brotherhood, I was in the
+blackest ignorance of its secret workings. When I was chosen for this
+mission, I did not even comprehend what I had to do. Then they told me
+Visci was a traitor. Even then, I did not know it was you. Standing
+there in the room, I swore never to harm a hair of your head; and,
+heaven help me, I never will!’
+
+‘Yes, I am a traitor, like you,’ Visci smiled mournfully. ‘Like you,
+I was deceived by claptrap talk of liberty and freedom; like you, I
+was allotted to take vengeance on a traitor; and like you, I refused.
+Better the secret dagger than the crime of fratricide upon one’s soul!’
+
+‘Fratricide! I do not understand.’
+
+‘I do not understand either. Frederick, the man I was detailed to
+murder—for it is nothing else—is my only brother.—You start! But the
+League does not countenance relationships. Flesh and blood and such
+paltry ties are nothing to the friends of liberty, who are at heart the
+sternest tyrants that ever the mouth of man execrated.—But what brings
+you here? You can have only one object in coming here. I have told you
+before it would be a kindness to end my existence.’
+
+‘But why? And yet, when I come to look at you again, you have changed.’
+
+‘I have changed,’ Visci echoed mournfully—‘changed in mind and body. My
+heart is affected, diseased beyond all hope of remedy. I may die now,
+at any moment; I cannot live four months.’
+
+They sat down together, and fell to discussing old times when they were
+happy careless students together, and Maxwell did not fail to notice
+the painful breathing and quick gasping spasms of his friend, altered
+almost beyond recognition from the gallant Visci of other days.
+
+‘Salvarini advised me to come here. You remember him; he claims to be
+a true friend of yours,’ Maxwell observed at length. ‘He said it would
+gain time, and enable me to form my plans.—But tell me how you knew I
+was in Rome. I have only just arrived.’
+
+‘I had a sure warning. It came from the hand of Isodore herself.’
+
+‘I have heard much of her; she seems all-powerful. But I thought she
+was too stern a Leaguer to give you such friendly counsel. Have you
+ever seen her? I hear she is very beautiful.’
+
+‘Beautiful as the stars, I am told, and a noble-hearted woman too. She
+is a sort of Queen of the League; but she uses her power well, ever
+erring on the side of mercy. She has a history, report says—the old
+story of a woman’s trustfulness and a man’s deceit. Poor Isodore! hers
+is no bed of roses!’
+
+‘And she put you on your guard?’ Maxwell asked. ‘Come, there must be
+some good in a woman like that, though I cannot say I altogether like
+your picture. I should like to see her.’
+
+‘I should not be surprised if you did before many days. She is the one
+to protect you from violence. With her sanction, you could laugh the
+mandates of the League to scorn. Had I long to live, I should sue for
+her protection, and wherever she may be, she would come to me. Even
+now, if she comes to Rome, see her if you can and lay your case before
+her.’
+
+‘And shield myself behind a woman! That does not sound like the
+chivalrous Visci of old. She is only a woman, after all.’
+
+‘One in a million,’ Visci answered calmly. ‘If she holds out her right
+hand to you, cling to it as a drowning desperate man does to a rock; it
+is your only chance of salvation.—And now it is late. I must go.’
+
+Despite his own better sense, Maxwell began to dwell upon the fact
+of gaining assistance from the mysterious Isodore. At meetings of
+the League in London, he had heard her name mentioned, and always
+with the utmost reverence and affection. If she could not absolutely
+relieve him from his undertaking, she could at anyrate shield him from
+non-compliance with the mandate. Full of these cheerful thoughts, he
+fell asleep.
+
+He found his friend the following morning quite cheerful, but in the
+daylight the ravages of disease were painfully apparent. The dark rings
+under the eyes and the thin features bespoke nights of racking pain and
+broken rest.
+
+Visci noticed this and smiled gently. ‘Yes, I am changed,’ he said.
+‘Sometimes, after a bad night, I hardly know myself. It is cruel, weary
+work lying awake hour after hour fighting with the grim King. But I
+have been singularly free from pain lately, and I am looking much
+better than I have been.’
+
+‘There might be a chance yet,’ Maxwell replied with a cheerfulness
+wholly assumed, and thinking that this ‘looking better’ was the nearest
+approach to death he had ever seen. ‘An absence from Rome, a change of
+climate, has done wonders for people before now.’
+
+Visci shook his head. ‘Not when the mainspring of life is broken,’
+he said: ‘no human ingenuity, no miracle of surgery can mend that.
+Maxwell, if they had deferred their vengeance long, they would have
+been too late. Some inward monitor tells me I shall fail them yet.’
+
+‘You will for me, Visci, you may depend upon that. Time is no object to
+me.’
+
+‘And if I should die and disappoint you of your revenge, how mad you
+would be!’ Visci laughed. ‘It is a dreadful tragedy to me; it is a
+very serious thing for you; and yet there is a comic side to it, as
+there is in all things. Ah me! I cannot see the droll side of life as
+I used; but when the bloodthirsty murderer sits down with his victim
+tête-à-tête, discussing the crime, there is something laughable in it
+after all.’
+
+‘I daresay there is,’ Maxwell answered grimly, ‘though I am dense
+enough not to notice it. To me, there is something horribly,
+repulsively tragic about it, even to hear you discussing death in that
+light way.’
+
+‘Familiarity breeds contempt. Is not that one of your English
+proverbs?’ Visci said airily.—‘But, my good Frederick,’ he continued,
+lowering his voice to a solemn key, ‘the white horseman will not find
+me unprepared, when he steals upon me, as he might at any moment. I am
+ready. I do not make a parade of my religion, but I have tried to do
+what is right and honest and honourable. I have faced death so often,
+that I treat him lightly at times. But never fear that when he comes to
+me for the last time’——
+
+Maxwell pressed his friend’s hand in silent sympathy. ‘You always
+were a good fellow, Visci,’ he said; ‘and if this hour must come so
+speedily, tell me is there anything I can do for you when—when’——
+
+‘I am dead? No reason to hesitate over the word. No, Maxwell; my house
+is in order. I have no friends besides my brother; and he, I hope, is
+far beyond the vengeance of the League now.’
+
+‘Then there is nothing I can do for you in any way?’
+
+‘No, I think not. But you are my principal care now; your life is far
+more important than mine. I have written to Isodore, laying a statement
+of all the facts before her; and if she is the woman I take her for,
+she is sure to lose no time in getting here. Once under her protection,
+you are safe; there will be no further cause for alarm.’
+
+‘But it seems rather unmanly,’ Maxwell urged.
+
+‘Unmanly!’ echoed Visci scornfully. ‘What has manliness to do with
+fighting cowardly _vendetti_ in the dark? You must, you shall do it!’
+he continued vehemently; but the exertion was too much for him, and
+he swayed forward over the table as if he would fall. Presently, a
+little colour crept into the pallid face, and he continued: ‘You see,
+even that is too much for me. Maxwell, if you contradict me and get me
+angry, my blood will be upon your head after all. Now, do listen to
+reason.’
+
+‘If my want of common-sense hurts you as much as that, certainly. But I
+do not see how this mysterious princess can help me.’
+
+‘Listen to me,’ Visci said solemnly. Then he laid all his schemes
+before the other—his elaborate plans for his friend’s safety, designs
+whose pure sacrifice of self were absolutely touching.
+
+Maxwell began to take heart again. ‘You are very good,’ he said
+gratefully, ‘to take all this infinite pains for me.’
+
+‘In a like strait you would do the same for me, Fred.’
+
+‘Yes,’ Maxwell answered simply. ‘How Salvarini’s words come back to me
+now! Do you remember, when I wanted to throw my insignia out of the
+window that evening, the last we all spent together?’
+
+‘I recollect. It was two days before little Genevieve disappeared,’
+Visci answered sadly.—‘Do you know, I have never discovered any trace
+of her or Lucrece. Poor child, poor little girl! I wonder where she is
+now.’
+
+‘Perhaps you may see her again some day.’
+
+‘It has long been my dearest wish; but it will never be fulfilled now.
+If ever you do see her once more, say that I’——
+
+‘Visci!’
+
+As the last words fell from the Italian’s lips, his head hung forward,
+and he fell from his chair. For a moment he lay motionless, then raised
+his face slightly and smiled. A thin stream of blood trickled down his
+fair beard, staining it scarlet. He lay quietly on Maxwell’s shoulder.
+
+‘Do not be alarmed,’ he said faintly. ‘It has come at last.—There are
+tears in your eyes, Fred. Do not weep for me. Do not forget Carlo
+Visci, when you see old friends; and when you meet little Genevieve,
+tell her I forgave her, and to the last loved and grieved for
+her.—Good-bye, old friend. Take hold of my hand. Let me look in your
+honest face once more. It is not hard to die, Fred. Tell them that my
+last words——Jesu, mercy!’
+
+‘Speak to me, Carlo—speak to me!’
+
+Never again on this side of the grave. And so the noble-hearted Italian
+died; and on the third day they buried him in a simple grave under the
+murmuring pines.
+
+No call to remain longer now. One last solitary evening ramble, Maxwell
+took outside the city wall ere his departure. As he walked along
+wrapped in his own sad thoughts, he did not heed that his footsteps
+were being dogged. Then with a sudden instinct of danger, he turned
+round. The feet that followed stopped. ‘Who is there?’ he cried.
+
+A muffled figure came towards him, and another stealthily from behind.
+A crash, a blow, a fierce struggle for a moment, a man’s cry for help
+borne idly on the breeze, a mist rising before the eyes, a thousand
+stars dancing and tumbling, then deep, sleepy unconsciousness.
+
+(_To be concluded next month._)
+
+
+
+
+THE PLEASURES OF RUIN.
+
+
+There must be many people to whom the above heading will be at once
+suggestive of the famous chapter upon Snakes in Iceland; but to the
+philosophical mind—and it is marvellous how philosophical one can
+become under adversity—there are certain compensating advantages in
+the state of ruin, which, if not quite so intense as the Pleasures of
+Hope, or Memory, or Imagination, do much to reconcile us to the change
+in our circumstances. The first feeling is one of extreme relief that
+the whole thing is over and we are out of suspense. The smash has
+come; writs and summonses have blossomed into sheriffs’ officers, and
+the auctioneer, whose fell and inexorable hammer has made short work
+of our goods and chattels; our wealthy friends have said that they
+knew it would come to this; and Jones, who used to look dinners and
+five-pound notes at us whenever he met us formerly, now crosses over
+to the opposite side of the street. The cheap lodgings in the shady
+neighbourhood have become hard and ineradicable facts, and we can look
+about us at last and endeavour to make the best we can of the position.
+
+You now have a newly acquired sense of freedom and independence
+to which perhaps you have long been a stranger. It is no longer a
+question of whether you shall dine at the _Bristol_ or the _Blue
+Posts_, but in all likelihood the choice will lie between the _diner du
+jour_ in Leicester Square, a chop, or Duke Humphrey. Nor, if you be a
+married man, need you now vex your soul with the proper precedence of a
+brigadier-general, an Indian judge, a colonial bishop, and a resident
+commissioner from the Punjab, as has happened in the days gone by when
+you gave a dinner. Nor will the varying merits of asparagus soup and
+turtle, salmon mayonnaise and aspic of lobster, truffled turkey and
+oyster-stuffed capon, and all the rest of it, come between you and
+your night’s rest. Again, your circumstances are such that you are no
+longer harassed by the touters for subscriptions, male and female, and
+you find it therefore needless to discuss the comparative merits of the
+claims put forward by the friends of the Cannibal Islanders for French
+mustard, and by the friends of the Mayor of Little Pedlington for a new
+pump in the market-place in honour of that excellent cheesemonger and
+municipal chief.
+
+When you go to the theatre or opera, you are no longer compelled to
+pay fifty or a hundred per cent. for the privilege of receiving your
+ticket from an agent, and you go to the pit, where, if the orange peel
+and ginger beer and nuts are a bit of a nuisance at first, you are
+not long in getting used to it; and at anyrate you are permitted to
+hear the piece without being bored by one of Smith’s ‘good stories’
+during Patti’s chief _aria_, or while Irving is giving some fine piece
+of declamation. You discover sources of gratuitous amusement which
+indifference has hitherto hidden from you. That glorious rotunda in
+Bloomsbury, the British Museum Reading-room—the mausoleum of the mind
+of the world—gives you opportunities for study and recreation of which
+you have never before thought of availing yourself; and the treasures
+of South Kensington and the National Gallery, which you have hitherto
+neglected as ‘slow’ and ‘bad form,’ are now a source of delight to
+you. The only fault that you can now find with the latter institution
+is, that it spoils you for all the modern galleries about Pall Mall
+and Piccadilly. You have a feeling of proprietorship now in the royal
+parks, which you never had when you sauntered in the Row, or attended
+the meet of the Coaching Club at the Magazine, or dawdled about the
+Mall in St James’s Park on a Drawing-room day. You don’t attend these
+‘functions’ now, for, though they are open to you as to the rest of
+the world, you feel yourself rather out of the race. But you often
+enjoy the air in the higher ground of Hyde Park, which you will come to
+consider as bracing as the Sussex Downs; nor are you to be persuaded
+that Burnham Beeches has a much finer show of trees than Kensington
+Gardens.
+
+But the time when you do really and thoroughly enjoy the Pleasures
+of Ruin is when that delectable moment comes—which it inevitably
+will, sooner or later—when a temporary, or, let us hope, it may be a
+permanent, change in your fortunes takes place. Your book has found
+a publisher; your picture a buyer; some one pays up an old debt; or
+an unknown relative mentions your name in his will. Whatever it may
+be, the keen appreciation of the benefits we formerly enjoyed which
+our vicissitudes have taught us, and the knowledge we have acquired
+of the dingier side of nature, give a remarkable zest to our return
+to a brighter life. And if a man has good health and good spirits, he
+will find that it is as true that ‘hope springs eternal in the human
+breast,’ as that when things are at their worst they mend; and if he
+is of an extra-hopeful disposition, he will welcome the increased
+depression of his fortunes as a sure forerunner of a change of luck.
+
+
+
+
+COUSIN GEORGE.
+
+
+IN TWO CHAPTERS.—CHAP. II.
+
+All went well in the Smethby circle, indeed things had never before
+gone so smoothly in that not unprosperous group. Harriet, it is true,
+did not get more manageable in the Robert Crewe direction; she was
+perfectly ready to flatter and please the Australian cousin, and had
+an eye to the main chance as keen as others; but the young doctor was
+not to be jeopardised. Thus Harriet might be regarded as an exception;
+so, of course, might Mr Crewe; but after all, as he does not actually
+appear in our narrative, he need not count for much.
+
+There were frequent indications that the ridiculous disguise, the
+absurd plea of poverty, at first put forth by Styles was being
+gradually discarded—was ‘peeling off,’ Mr Joe said, with a happy
+touch of description. But Mr Smethby would not see all these
+indications—pretended not to notice any flaws; he would humour his
+cousin just as long as the latter chose.
+
+The proposed investment was still in favour, was about to be made,
+indeed; and so earnest was Cousin George in the matter, that when
+Smethby said he had given notice at the bank for his money, he
+confidentially told him that if there was any difficulty about getting
+it, his friend would advance the sum for a week or two—or for a year,
+if Smethby would like it. The latter thanked him, but declined. Of
+course he could see through this, as he had seen through the other
+flimsy screens.
+
+The bank was good enough, he explained, and so it was, for the money
+was duly paid to him; and it was proposed that they should go up to
+town together, Smethby and Cousin George, where the latter would see
+his friend’s broker and arrange for the purchase of this stock.
+
+In a confiding mood, not usual with him, Smethby had proposed that
+Styles should send a cheque up, or go up with it by himself, if going
+up were necessary; but the latter declined to do this. He seemed to
+have a strange dislike to cheques or drafts, and as he said: ‘It was
+not their way at the diggings; a man liked to look after his own
+business there.’ So Cousin Nick must go with him.
+
+He, Cousin George, had also asked Harriet what kind of bracelet she
+preferred; for his friend had desired him to consult some lady’s taste,
+as he, the friend, was thinking of making a little present. Harriet was
+not proof against this temptation, so explained that amethyst bracelets
+with amethyst pendants—or sapphire and diamonds, if she _did_ have her
+choice—was what she liked. Cousin George, with a highly expressive
+wink on hearing this, said his friend would be much obliged by her
+opinion. He should perhaps see him on the next day but one when he,
+Styles, and her father went to London.
+
+‘All which means, my dear,’ said Smethby, when he had a chance of
+whispering to his daughter, ‘that this farce is about to end. He means
+to present me with the whole of these twenty thousand shares, and you
+will have a present also. Beyond this, you will have an offer in plain
+language—his language has already been plain enough to show what he
+means; so, be a sensible girl, and don’t lose a chance the like of
+which will not occur again, if you live for a hundred years.’
+
+Harriet did not reply; there was indeed a recurrence of the pouting and
+flouncing; she could not resist the jewelry; but when Robert Crewe was
+endangered, she exhibited some of the old perverseness.
+
+In the morning, Cousin George took a stroll into the town, as was his
+habit. Smethby knew quite well that his eccentric relative went to the
+post-office, whither his letters, as every one knew, were directed.
+No one, however, pretended to suspect anything like this arrangement,
+which was just as shallow and easily penetrated as his other schemes.
+On his return, he was in higher spirits than usual; a little fitful,
+perhaps, but certainly more jocular and fuller of sly allusions than he
+had hitherto allowed himself to be. This was evidence enough, to such
+a man as Smethby, to show that the end of the scheme was approaching.
+He broached a capital joke—he undoubtedly so considered it—in the way
+of a question as to what his cousin Nick would have thought of and
+said to him, Styles, if he had come back from the diggings loaded with
+shiners—‘Not one or two, Nick, but some scores of thousands, eh!—what
+then, Nick?’ he exclaimed.
+
+Smethby was of course acute enough to seize such a palpable chance,
+so replied with the utmost heartiness and frankness, that, delighted
+as he should have been at such good fortune, it never could have made
+any difference in his feelings to his old friend and cousin, George
+Styles. The latter grasped his hand at this, and seemed for the moment
+almost overcome by his feelings. He was indeed about to say something,
+which Smethby expected would prove a clearing-up avowal; but he checked
+himself, and saying abruptly, ‘No; wait a day or two,’ turned the
+conversation.
+
+Yet, all through the day, there was an uneasiness in Cousin George’s
+manner which could not escape the attention of those around him; and he
+took several short strolls in the open air to soothe his nerves, which,
+he admitted, seemed rather shaky. On the last occasion that he took his
+saunter, it was in the twilight, and in the glance which he naturally
+threw around him before entering the house, he could see, standing in
+relief against the clear summer sky, the figures of two men, who were
+apparently conversing earnestly as they paused on a knoll not far from
+Mr Smethby’s residence.
+
+Then Styles went in, and found the lamps were just lighted, the
+curtains were drawn, while his host and his daughter, evidently in the
+best of moods, were awaiting him. With a decision which was almost
+like abruptness, Styles began about the visit to London on the morrow.
+He explained, as he had done before, that until the transaction was
+completed, he did not want any one, not even the broker, to know that
+the stock was not entirely for his friend, who had promised to take
+over all the disposable shares; and that was why he had asked Mr
+Smethby to provide money instead of a cheque for the payment.
+
+‘I understand,’ smiled Smethby; ‘and, as you know, I have arranged to
+get notes in the morning. But here is the cheque, if that would suit
+you—you can have it to-night, if you like.’
+
+‘No; O no!’ returned Styles; but the response came so slowly, that it
+seemed as if he had hesitated before deciding. ‘There will be no use in
+that; so long as I can see the broker alone, that will do.’
+
+‘Just as you please,’ said Mr Smethby. As he paused, a ring at the
+street door was heard.
+
+‘And now a word or two about that little villa my friend thought of
+buying at Richmond,’ resumed Styles. ‘I had a letter this morning’——
+
+‘If you please, sir,’ said the maid-servant, appearing at the door, ‘a
+gentleman wishes to see you.’
+
+‘To see me, or to see Mr Styles?’ asked her master. Another ring was
+heard at the street door as he said this.
+
+‘I believe I want to see both of you,’ said a voice behind the
+servant, which voice being deep and harsh in its tone, and coming so
+unexpectedly, made each person in the room start; ‘so I shall take the
+liberty of coming in here,’ continued ‘the gentleman;’ then, suiting
+the action to the word, he pushed past the attendant, and came close to
+the table which filled the centre of the room.
+
+All looked at him in amazement; while, before any one spoke, Mr Joe
+and Mr Brooks, who had called just then to have a chat with Mr Styles,
+also entered, and gazed at the stranger with as much astonishment as
+was shown by their friends. The stranger was an elderly, grizzled, but
+powerfully built man, with hard features, high cheek-bones, indented
+nose, square jaws, hidden by his stiff iron-gray beard, and moustache.
+
+‘You are Mr Smethby—Nicholas Smethby, I believe: in fact, I know it,’
+said the man.—‘But may I ask who this is?’ pointing to Cousin George as
+he spoke.
+
+‘I really do not know what your business here is, or why you make this
+inquiry,’ returned Smethby, a good deal nettled by the intrusion;
+‘but I certainly am Nicholas Smethby, and this gentleman is Mr George
+Styles. Have you any business with either of us?’
+
+‘Did you ever see George Styles look like a cross between a
+skittle-sharp and a stage smuggler?’ continued the visitor, ‘which is
+what this fellow looks like.’
+
+‘Do you mean’—— began Cousin George, but he spoke falteringly; while Mr
+Joe and Mr Brooks, who stood behind the stranger, could see that the
+speaker turned pale.
+
+‘Yes; I do mean,’ interrupted the visitor; ‘and I mean a good deal
+more than that, as you will find.’ He flourished an ugly-looking stick
+which he carried, as if to give emphasis to these words.—‘As for you,
+Nick Smethby, I am surprised and ashamed to think you could be such a
+fool as to mistake a fellow like this for your own cousin—for _me_!’
+
+Here every hearer started in reality; and Smethby, drawing a long
+breath, looked from one to the other with an expression which clearly
+showed that he did not mean to contest the announcement.
+
+‘Do you think,’ resumed the new-comer, ‘that a man, after twenty years’
+beating about the diggings, which I have had, could look as young as
+he did when he started? which is pretty nearly what this fellow does,
+in spite of his make-up.—I have come back with enough to pay you your
+loan, Nick, but I have been down very low in my time. I have fought
+two battles in the colonial ring, and I am going to show this fellow,
+presently, how I won them.’
+
+‘All this is dreadfully mysterious!’ exclaimed Smethby; ‘yet one thing
+is clear enough: I will swear you are my cousin George Styles. But
+then, who is this?—Yes, who are you, you impostor?’ he cried, turning
+sharply upon his guest, who gasped once or twice, as though trying
+to speak, but was paralysed by the new-comer, from whom he could not
+remove his eyes.
+
+‘Don’t trouble yourself about him yet,’ pursued the second Styles. ‘I
+will just say what I have to say, and then I will get it all out of
+him; you will see that. I fancy, however, I am only just in time. Is
+it true that you have agreed to go up to London with this person and
+invest a lot of money among his confederates?’
+
+The ‘first cousin,’ as he may fairly be called, groaned at this;
+while Mr Smethby uttered, as well he might, an ejaculation of intense
+astonishment at finding his intentions and plans thus known to a man
+whom he had not seen for twenty years.
+
+‘I see you are surprised, Nick, and that our customer there feels he
+is bowled out,’ said the stranger. ‘But after all, there is nothing
+to wonder at in the matter. I inquired my way at the station—having
+learnt your address from your old office—and a gentleman who overheard
+me, kindly offered to show me the place. I told him who I was; and he
+was just as much as flabbergasted as you are; but he was delighted
+as well. He told me all about this’—— The speaker paused while he
+cast a look of utter contempt at his predecessor, and then went on,
+evidently unable to find an epithet suitably strong. ‘He told me he was
+a doctor, by name Robert Crewe.’ (It was now Harriet’s turn to start
+and change colour.) ‘We walked together to a point just below here,
+where he turned off at the brow of a hill. He not only told me about
+the impostor who was taking my name, but pointed him out as he slunk
+in at the gate.’ (The unlucky cousin remembered, and groaned audibly
+as he did so, the two men whom he had seen in converse on the rise
+in the road.) ‘So here I am; and the first thing I mean to do is to
+collar this fellow, and thrash him until he has not a sound inch of
+skin on his carcase.—But don’t you turn pale, my dear.’ This was said
+to Harriet, and the speaker raised his cap with a sort of reassuring
+politeness. ‘Though I have come straight from the mines, I do not
+forget what is due to a lady; and I shall take the fellow outside to
+have his thrashing, and he shall have it now.’ With this, he made a
+stride forward, and thrusting his huge hand inside the man’s collar,
+clutched him with a grip which might have been of iron, and with a
+single tug pulled him to his feet; but the victim seemed unable to
+stand, and sank back on his chair all of a heap.
+
+Harriet uttered a scream as the real Cousin George bent over the man,
+evidently intent upon dragging him out by main force; while Mr Joe and
+Mr Brooks seized his arm, and urged him not to be violent—Joe at the
+same moment briefly introducing himself and his brother-in-law.
+
+‘I am glad to see you again, anyhow, young Joe,’ returned Styles. ‘I
+remember buying you a drum the last time I was in your company.—But you
+had better let me settle this fellow at once.’
+
+‘Spare me!’ whined the man. He could not speak comfortably with such a
+grip on his collar and with such knuckles buried in his neck.
+
+‘Why, what I am going to do is real mercy to you!’ retorted his captor.
+‘You will be sore for a week or ten days, and then be as well as ever;
+but if I give you over to the police—— Well, as you seem to dread a
+simple licking so much, we will go to the police. Come on!’
+
+Another tremendous tug here dragged up the unfortunate creature, who
+broke into most despairing petitions, imploring that they would not
+give him up to the police—_they_ knew him, he said.
+
+‘Why, confound it! you do not suppose you are to be let off scot-free,
+after such a game as this, do you?’ exclaimed the other, whose
+astonishment was so clearly genuine, that Joe and Brooks could not
+repress a smile.
+
+‘I will confess everything; I throw myself on your mercy!’ urged the
+man; ‘but don’t give me up to the police. I am sure to get it hot, if
+you do.’
+
+‘So you ought!’ ejaculated Styles.
+
+‘I think if you were to quit your hold on his neck, he could speak
+freer,’ said Mr Joe; ‘and I should really like to know how all this
+came about.’
+
+‘Ah! so he might,’ assented Styles, acting on the suggestion. ‘I can
+easily catch hold of him again when I want him. I’ll bet he does not
+give us the slip.’
+
+In spite of the threat conveyed in the last speech, the culprit’s face
+visibly brightened after Joe’s remark. Mr Smethby had remained silent
+all this time, being not only confused with the unexpected revelation,
+but a little ashamed, possibly, of his own management, which was so
+over-cunning as to make him a readier prey to the swindler.
+
+‘Well, go on,’ was the rough command of Styles. ‘Who are you? Where do
+you come from?’
+
+‘My name is John Smith,’ began the man. A furtive leer which he cast
+upon the company as he said this, might have been involuntary; but
+certain it is that none of those who saw it believed he was speaking
+the truth. ‘I had got into trouble,’ he continued, ‘and wanted some
+money for a fresh start. While I was at my wits’ end to get this, a
+pal—a friend—who knew I had been in a difficulty, said’ (he paused
+here, and glanced at Smethby)—‘he said there was a flat to be had at
+Valeborough, if he was properly worked.—No offence, I hope, sir. It was
+not me who said this; it was my friend.’
+
+‘It was correct enough, whoever said it,’ replied Smethby, to whom the
+remark had been addressed.
+
+‘He knew a lot about the family affairs here,’ continued Smith: ‘he had
+scraped about and picked the particulars up, till he thought he had got
+quite enough to enable a man to act as the cousin they had not seen for
+twenty years; but he owned he had not got the headpiece to keep the
+game up for any time; so I was to be the cousin; and he was to be a
+friend who knew me, and was to manage—as he did very well—to get hold
+of Mr Smethby, as if by accident, and tell him all about the good luck
+of his old friend Styles, and how he was going to try on a game with
+his cousin Mr Smethby.’
+
+‘I never thought I was such an idiot; but go on,’ said the host.
+
+‘We raked up some money between us,’ resumed Smith; ‘but it was a hard
+job to get enough, as of course I had to be pretty liberal; but luckily
+this gentleman would not let me spend much.—However, I got a letter
+this morning, saying that Ben—my friend—could not send another penny,
+and that unless I could make a haul at once, the thing must burst up.
+But the business was nearly ripe. I had prepared the way for persuading
+my cousin, as I called him, to invest a lot of money, by dropping a
+pretended letter from my stockbroker, which I knew they would find and
+read. In fact, there was no difficulty all through; and I had arranged
+for a visit to London to-morrow, so I was in hope that’——
+
+‘That you could make the haul,’ said Smethby, as the other paused. ‘How
+did you mean to do it, when I should be with you? I was to go to the
+office, you know.’
+
+‘I meant to take you to a place where you would wait in a room, while
+I went into what you would think was only an inner office, but which I
+knew had a way out,’ answered Smith. ‘In fact, if I had once touched
+the money, there would have been an end of it.’
+
+‘And your friend with the villa and the bracelets?’ asked Smethby.
+
+‘All put in to make it seem more natural,’ said the man. ‘But I have
+not robbed your place of a pennyworth ever since I have been here, I
+assure you. I hope you will take that into consideration.’
+
+He went on a little further, until he was interrupted by Styles, who
+led him to the door—no force was now wanted—and telling him that he
+would give him in charge to the nearest policeman if he ever saw him
+again, pitched him out on the dark road, and then returned to the
+circle he had left.
+
+At first, Smethby was terribly chopfallen, but recovered ere long,
+and joined in the laugh with which first ‘Cousin George’ and then the
+others reviewed the past. Harriet was not the noisiest of the party,
+but she was not the least happy, and ‘Cousin George’ appeared to have
+taken a great fancy for her.
+
+Styles paid his debt to ‘Nick Smethby’ that night, to prove, as he
+said, that he was not another impostor, and said, besides, that
+while he should not bother about amethyst bracelets or diamonds and
+sapphires, yet, if that young doctor had the courage to get married
+within three months, and a few hundreds would help him to get into
+practice, why, he George Styles, had enough for such a purpose, and
+Harriet should take care of it, until it was wanted.
+
+Altogether, although rougher and coarser than the first cousin, this
+second edition was a great improvement; and settling down as he did in
+Valeborough, he was a regular visitor, not only at Mr Smethby’s but
+at Dr Crewe’s, when the latter set up his own house, after an early
+marriage to Miss Harriet.
+
+And improvident and wild as George had once been, he was steady enough
+in his friendships now, so he never left the little circle; and when
+he died, his property—a good deal less than the hundreds of thousands
+attributed to the first cousin—went to the children of Dr and Mrs
+Crewe, with which cluster of young people he had always been a great
+favourite.
+
+
+
+
+AIR AS A MOTIVE FORCE.
+
+
+In a recent number of the _Journal_ we touched on the various methods
+of transmission of power, and showed how steam had been laid on
+in mains in the streets of American towns, and a house-to-house
+distribution thus effected. Loss has been found, however, to result
+from leakage and condensation, and these defects have militated against
+the system. Water under pressure has obtained extended application in
+this country where power was required in docks and warehouses; but up
+to the present time, a motor has not been introduced satisfying the
+necessary requirements of economy sufficiently to render the system of
+commercial value for supplying small power either for domestic purposes
+or to the lesser industries. Bursting of pipes, through frost or other
+cause, might result in serious damage, moreover, in dwelling-houses.
+
+The problem of transmission of power may possibly find a solution in
+electricity in the future; but as regards the present, suffice it to
+say that the cost of production of such agency entirely precludes
+it from entering into the field of competition. Attempts now being
+made, in Paris and Birmingham, to distribute power by rarefied air
+in the former, and by compressed air in the latter city, possess no
+slight interest. In each case, the method adopted differs in no way in
+principle from that of the systems already touched on. Central pumping
+stations, furnished with boiler and steam-power, supply the requisite
+energy; whilst the transmitting medium—steam, water, or air, as the
+case may be—is distributed through the principal mains, which feed in
+their turn the lesser arteries of the system supplying the individual
+consumer.
+
+In the case of rarefied air, though, theoretically, a pressure of
+fifteen pounds per square inch could be obtained, in practice it is
+found advisable to work at a pressure of about ten pounds, without
+approaching nearer to an absolute vacuum. Three classes of motors
+are employed to convert the vacuum in the mains into useful work;
+suffice it to say, however, that whilst differing in the details
+of construction, the principle involved throughout is the same, and
+consists essentially of modifications of the steam-engine to the
+requirements of air-pressure. Payment is made according to the power
+absorbed by each consumer, an ingenious arrangement actuating as
+counter, indicating how much work is actually done, irrespective of the
+number of revolutions made by the motor. Even where gas is available,
+the cost of engines for using it has not unfrequently militated against
+its adoption by the smaller industries; hence the Parisian Company
+for the distribution of power by rarefied air has elected not only
+to supply power but to lease out the motors as well. Their customers
+embrace such users of small power as hat-block makers, jewellers,
+wood-turners, comb-cutters, stay and clothing manufacturers, dentists,
+butchers, &c. The cleanliness of this system, and its excellent
+ventilating capabilities, should form an argument in its favour. Not
+only is all smell from combustion, as in the case of the gas-engine,
+avoided, but, by drawing at every stroke a given quantity of air from
+the room, the motor directly produces ventilation.
+
+Time alone can show whether the system will prove a commercial success;
+in any case, its promoters could hardly have chosen a better field for
+its introduction than Paris, a city containing upwards of a million
+persons engaged in the minor industries already indicated, and which
+require small motive power.
+
+
+
+
+A NINETEENTH-CENTURY PIRATE.
+
+
+It is not likely that many of our readers will have heard of a certain
+Captain Hayes, who a few years ago was one of the most notorious
+desperadoes among the numerous ‘beachcombers’ and other questionable
+characters who infested the South Pacific. A few instances of this
+worthy’s escapades in the paths of fraud and villainy, drawn from
+_Coral Lands_, by H. S. Cooper (London: R. Bentley & Son), may be of
+interest, and will also show how, up to a comparatively recent period,
+a determined character could pursue a career of actual crime and piracy
+in the Eastern seas with impunity.
+
+Of the antecedents of Captain (or ‘Bully,’ as he was commonly dubbed)
+Hayes, little is known before 1858, when he appeared in the Hawaiian
+Islands, having landed from the ship _Orestes_. After a short stay at
+Honolulu, he left for San Francisco in the beginning of 1859; and a
+few months afterwards reappeared in command of a brig bound for New
+Caledonia. Having entered a closed port without having first passed
+the custom-house, the sheriff arrested him and took possession of
+the brig. Captain Hayes put all the blame on his first officer, and
+was virtuously indignant with him for misinforming him as to the
+necessity of first entering at the custom-house at Lahaina, at the same
+time treating the sheriff with unbounded courtesy and every mark of
+respect. He at once agreed to proceed to Lahaina, and seemed delighted
+to find it was the sheriff’s duty to accompany him thither. When,
+however, the ship was clear of the land, Hayes ‘changed his tune,’
+and coolly informed the sheriff he had no intention of going near the
+custom-house, and that he (the sheriff) could either remain on board
+and pay for his passage to New Caledonia, or find his way back to port
+the best way he could. The sheriff found himself completely outwitted,
+and was perforce obliged to take to his small boat—luckily, still
+alongside—and managed to reach the land with considerable difficulty,
+having the melancholy satisfaction of seeing his late prisoner laughing
+at him over the taffrail as he resumed his course for the Southern
+Ocean. Next mail brought instructions to the United States consul at
+Honolulu for Hayes’ arrest; and it then became known that when last
+in the islands he had borrowed money from a confiding clergyman,
+with which he had gone to San Francisco and negotiated the purchase
+of the brig, fitted her out, engaged his crew and then set sail,
+paying nobody. His cruise at this time, however, did not last very
+long; shortly afterwards, his ship was wrecked at Wallace’s Island,
+the captain and his ‘chums’ escaping in the boat to the Navigators’
+Islands, leaving the rest of the crew to their fate. They ultimately,
+however, succeeded in getting safe to shore by means of a raft.
+
+Hayes was next heard of at Batavia in command of a barque; how
+obtained is not known. He succeeded in getting a cargo of coffee for
+Europe—which it would never have seen—when the Dutch East India Company
+got some information as to his antecedents, and were only too glad
+to get repossession of their coffee, losing the charter-money, which
+Hayes insisted on being paid before he allowed the cargo to be taken
+on shore again. Finding he had not much chance of doing any good—or
+evil, rather—at Batavia, Hayes resolved to depart in search of a fresh
+field for the exercise of his talents. Proceeding to Hong-kong, he
+succeeded in filling his vessel with Chinese coolies, and sailed for
+Melbourne. After a fair voyage, he was nearing the Australian coast,
+when he spoke a ship, and was informed that a tax had been imposed on
+all Chinese immigrants, and that he would have to pay fifty dollars
+per head on his passengers before he would be permitted to land them.
+This was rather a serious outlook for the captain, but, as usual, his
+inventive brain was equal to the occasion. He sailed calmly on, and
+soon arrived off his port of destination. Then he set to work to carry
+out the plan he had conceived. He coolly filled his ship half-full of
+water, hoisted signals of distress, and lay to, waiting the development
+of his ruse. He had not long to wait; his signals for assistance were
+perceived, and two tug steamers were soon alongside, proffering their
+services for the purpose of towing him into port. Hayes declared his
+ship would sink before she could be got into dock, as his pumps were
+choked and the water rising at a great rate. He implored them to take
+off his passengers, leaving his crew and himself to escape by means
+of their boats, should the barque not float till they returned. This
+the tug-owners agreed to do. The Chinamen were trans-shipped, and the
+steamers bore off, promising to return as speedily as possible to his
+assistance. They got their load of Chinamen safely landed, the owners
+paying the head-tax, and steamed back to bring in the ship; but she was
+nowhere to be seen, having, as they supposed, gone down with all hands.
+No such fate, however, had befallen the gallant captain. No sooner were
+the tugs out of sight, than he pumped his ship free of water, and lost
+no time in putting a good few miles between him and Melbourne, inwardly
+chuckling, no doubt, at the clever way he had duped the antipodeans and
+got his Chinamen landed at others’ expense. Some time after this, Hayes
+speculated in another cargo of Chinamen; but this time he landed them
+without trouble and without paying anything, having gone through the
+formality of getting them all made British subjects before he sailed!
+
+For a few years after this, Captain Hayes was little heard of, except
+at some of the South Pacific islands, where he occasionally turned
+up, ostensibly pursuing the avocation of an honest trader. By-and-by,
+however, he resumed his old habits, and for a couple of years or so
+he made raids on several of the island groups, robbing and destroying
+the stations of the traders and native villages. Eventually, he was
+arrested by the British consul at Upolu. As luck would have it, at this
+same time a certain friend of Hayes, Captain Pease or Peace, arrived
+at Upolu in his brig the _Leonora_. On some pretence or other, Hayes
+obtained leave to go on board; and when next morning dawned, the brig
+was invisible, having sailed during the night with him on board as
+a passenger. In due time, the _Leonora_ arrived at Shanghai, and by
+some dodge or other, Hayes managed to get Captain Pease put in prison,
+passing himself off to the authorities as the owner of the brig. He
+next got on board the supplies he was in need of, and set sail, as
+usual paying for little or nothing. Hayes once more was in command of
+a good ship, with a crew who asked no questions, and in a position
+to resume his fraudulent career. His first port of call was Saigon,
+where he was chartered to take a load of rice to Hong-kong and other
+intermediate ports. At the first port of call, the owner of the rice
+went on shore to try and effect a sale. Hayes took this opportunity of
+leaving the owner behind, and set off for Bankok, where he disposed of
+his cargo at a good price, and departed once more for his favourite
+hunting-ground—the South Pacific.
+
+Hayes some time after this was again without a ship, having imprudently
+intrusted his vessel to the care of his first officer, who treated
+the ‘Bully’ to a dose of his own game, and went off with her, leaving
+him in a quandary on one of the South Pacific islets. Hayes was now
+forced to change his play, and accordingly came out in a new character.
+Pretending to be converted from his evil ways, he completely got the
+better of the American missionaries, and obtained command of a small
+schooner belonging to the Mission. At the first favourable opportunity,
+as may be supposed, he disappeared with the schooner, and arrived
+at Manila. Here, however, his fame had preceded him, and on being
+recognised, he was promptly arrested, and put in prison. The captain’s
+game seemed now about up; but his good luck had not yet deserted him.
+Once more adopting the religious dodge, he turned a devout Catholic,
+and so talked over the priests, that, although there was evidence
+enough to hang him and a dozen others besides, he got off, and was next
+heard of at the scene of his first escapade, San Francisco, where he
+stole a smart schooner called the _Lotus_, and once more was off for
+the Sunny South.
+
+On another occasion, Hayes was captured by the U.S. steamer
+_Narraganset_, which had been commissioned to look out for him. He was
+not many days on board the war-ship, when, by his affable manners and
+gentlemanly behaviour, he so won over the sympathies of the American
+officers, that they became convinced he was a most worthy individual,
+and set him free, actually supplying him with a new set of sails and
+other articles he was in need of!
+
+On another occasion, Hayes called at Levuka, the capital of Fiji, to
+obtain supplies for a lengthened cruise. The goods were sent on board,
+and the bill rendered, payment being expected next morning before
+he sailed; but when the day dawned, the captain, as usual, was off.
+Unfortunately for him, however, in this instance the wind failed him,
+and the merchant was able to overtake the ship in a rowboat.
+
+The captain was not at all put about when the merchant came on board;
+said ‘he presumed he would have letters for him to post, and would be
+delighted to be of use.’ The merchant was rather taken aback at such
+coolness in an absconding debtor, and mildly hinted at payment of his
+account.
+
+‘Why,’ exclaimed Hayes, ‘you were paid yesterday!’
+
+The merchant assured him that he was mistaken.
+
+Hayes expressed astonishment, and ordered up one of his officers.
+‘Didn’t I give you the cash to settle this gentleman’s bill?’ he
+asked indignantly; and then the ‘Bully’ opened the vials of his wrath
+upon the innocent seaman, who was cunning enough to see the captain’s
+object, and held his tongue. Seeing, however, that there was no sign of
+a breeze springing up, he was forced to pay for his supplies, no doubt
+very much chagrined at having to be honest for once in his lifetime.
+
+After a long career of robbery and bloodshed—for he gets the name of
+having perpetrated several murders—Hayes at last met his deserts at
+the hands of one of his officers, whom he had defrauded and ill-used
+in a most disgraceful manner. No doubt, the secret of his eluding the
+hands of justice for so long a time was his particularly pleasing
+manners and appearance. He was by no means a common ruffian, but the
+reverse, having a handsome face and figure, and bestowing a deal of
+care and attention on his personal appearance. His urbanity of manner
+and conversational powers were of the most fascinating description,
+and he could entertain a friend or knock him on the head in an
+equally charming style. When he first appeared in the Pacific, he was
+accompanied by ‘Mrs Hayes,’ and was seldom without a female companion,
+several of whom are said to have been among his victims. He was
+possessed of great natural abilities. If he had only turned his talents
+into a proper channel, he might have made a good position for himself
+in the world.
+
+
+
+
+THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS.
+
+
+Mr C. Tankerville-Chamberlain, late acting consul at Panama, gives a
+hopeful account of the progress of M. de Lesseps’ giant undertaking,
+the construction of the Canal across the Isthmus, which is very
+different from the description of the state of things lately published
+in the American newspapers. He believes that the great work will be
+actually completed in about three years’ time. The line of the Canal,
+forty-six miles in length, has been divided into five sections, which
+have been handed over to five responsible and solvent contractors,
+who are bound under heavy penalties to complete their work by the end
+of 1888. The holders of railway stock and many others in America are
+interested in believing, and trying to make others believe, that the
+Canal is a failure and cannot succeed. That it will be a financial
+success, must remain an open question, for the expense already
+incurred, added to that which is to come, constitutes a larger sum than
+has ever yet been sunk in a single engineering undertaking.
+
+A proposal is now on foot to connect by means of a submarine tunnel the
+defences of Portsmouth with the forts on the Solent and with the Isle
+of Wight, and it is probable that preliminary borings will be made to
+ascertain the practicability of the scheme. It has been before proposed
+that a fort should be built half-way between Stokes Bay and Ryde, on
+a bank which rises to within eight feet of high-water mark; but the
+scheme was abandoned because of the difficulty of finding fresh water
+for the garrison. The tying together of this proposed fort and the
+other defences would at once obviate this difficulty, and would at the
+same time relieve our expensive ironclads from the duty of protecting a
+spot which has always been looked upon as of great importance.
+
+Among all the wonderful things which were exhibited in the late
+Colonial and Indian Exhibition, there was nothing more remarkable than
+the vast variety of different woods—strange to European eyes—which were
+shown in some of the Courts. These woods seemed to exhibit every shade
+of colour and every variety of grain. In one Court in particular could
+this be well remarked, for the different samples of wood were cut into
+the shape of books and highly polished, each pseudo volume bearing its
+own name. Messrs A. Ransome & Co. lately invited a number of colonial
+visitors—engineers, builders, and others—to their large works at
+Chelsea, in order that they might demonstrate the applicability of some
+of these woods to various purposes. About forty different varieties
+were subjected to the operations of tree-felling, cross-cutting,
+sawing, planing, moulding, mortising, tenoning, and boring; while
+various articles, from casks to doors, were actually made and
+completed before the visitors’ eyes. The exhibition not only formed an
+illustration of the suitability of many colonial woods for employment
+in this country, but it also showed to what a marvellous pitch of
+perfection wood-working machinery has been brought by Messrs Ransome.
+The demonstration is likely to lead to a great shipment of colonial
+woods to this country, many of which are plentiful, and therefore cheap.
+
+The colossal statue of Liberty, which has been presented by the French
+Republic to the Republic of America, and which, with the pedestal, is
+over one hundred and fifty feet in height, is, at the time we write,
+nearly completed. When the statue is quite finished, it is proposed
+to illuminate it at night in a very novel manner. The female figure
+of Liberty holds aloft a torch, which will be furnished with eight
+electric arc lamps, each of six thousand candle-power, the rays from
+which will be thrown upwards towards the clouds. At the same time,
+several other lamps of similar power will shine on the statue itself,
+causing it to stand out in strong relief from its dark surroundings.
+
+A correspondent of the _Times_, quoting a letter recently received
+from Sydney, New South Wales, gives an account of the extraordinary
+instinct shown by ants and other insects which live in and on the
+ground. Some months ago, the natives of a certain district predicted
+the approach of floods, and left their low-lying camping-grounds for
+the higher country. The floods came as predicted, several weeks later;
+and the natives said that their sole information regarding them was
+gathered from the insects, which had built their nests, &c. in the
+trees, instead of, as usual, in the ground. The correspondent asks
+whether this forecasting providence of the ant is recorded by any of
+our travellers, and whether any explanation of the fact can be given.
+
+Here are two more natural-history notes recorded by correspondents. It
+is pointed out by one that, owing to our backward spring this year,
+the swallows on their arrival were kept so short of food that quite
+two-thirds of their number died of famine; hence the unusual plague of
+flies that we have experienced during the summer. He pleads that the
+little mud nests which are seen clinging under the eaves of so many
+houses in country and suburbs should be protected from injury, for if
+it were not for the swallows, flies would constitute a veritable pest.
+
+In answer to this, another writer points out that sparrows will
+sometimes prevent the swallows building, and will often drive the
+rightful owners from their nests. This fact he has ascertained by
+direct observation. He also remarks that the swarms of flies this year
+may be due in great measure to the scarcity of wasps, which destroy an
+immense number. The scarcity of wasps in his particular neighbourhood
+is fully accounted for, one of his friends having destroyed no fewer
+than sixty-seven of their nests. His plan of procedure is, as far as
+we know, as novel as it is simple and effective. Tow soaked in spirits
+of turpentine is thrust into the wasp’s nest at night, and the hole is
+afterwards filled up—presumably with earth.
+
+We are so accustomed to wonderful news from the land of Niagara, that
+we are not much surprised to learn that the largest photographic
+negative ever produced has been taken by an American worker. The glass
+plate upon which the colossal picture was taken measured sixty by
+thirty-six inches, and weighed more than eighty pounds. The coating
+with sensitive material of such a plate was in itself a very difficult
+undertaking, while for its development after exposure in the camera,
+over three pailfuls of fluid had to be cast over its surface while it
+was lying in a specially constructed tray. The photographer succeeded
+in obtaining a good picture, as well as a silver medal to reward him
+for his enterprise.
+
+A French journal says that flowers may be preserved with all their
+natural brilliancy and freshness by dipping them into a mixture
+made as follows: In a well-corked bottle, dissolve six drachms of
+coarsely powdered clear gum-copal; add the same quantity of broken
+glass, and fifteen and a half ounces (by weight) of pure rectified
+sulphuric ether. The flowers should be dipped into this varnish-like
+fluid four or five times, allowing them to remain in a current of air
+for ten minutes between each immersion. This plan, if it does not
+interfere with the delicate texture of the petals, should be of use to
+flower-painters, who often have to hurry their work unduly because of
+the perishable nature of their models.
+
+Mr Graber has lately made some curious observations upon the effect
+of light upon eyeless animals, a Report of which appears in the
+Proceedings of the Vienna Academy. He put a number of earthworms into
+a box, which was provided with an aperture at one side, through which
+light was allowed ingress. The result of many experiments showed that
+the worms sought the darkest part of their temporary prison, and that
+at least two-fifths of their number shunned the light. Experimenting
+with rays of different colours by means of stained glass, he found that
+the worms exhibited a marked preference for red light.
+
+According to the _American Druggist_, an alloy which will solder
+glass, porcelain, and metals, or one to the other, can be made in
+the following manner: Copper dust, made by precipitating the metal
+from a solution of bluestone by means of zinc, is put into a mortar
+and treated with strong sulphuric acid. To this mass, formed by the
+copper and acid, is added a little more than twice as much mercury, the
+addition being made with constant stirring. The amalgam thus formed is
+washed with warm water to remove the acid, and is afterwards cooled.
+When required for use, it is heated, and worked in a mortar until it
+becomes as soft as wax, and in this state it will cling tenaciously
+to any surface to which it may be applied. It is applicable more
+especially to those substances which will not bear a high temperature.
+
+A year ago, Mr J. W. Swan of Newcastle described before the North
+of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers an electric
+safety-lamp which he had invented for the use of miners. This
+lamp, although efficient, had no means of detecting the presence of
+firedamp. In an improved lamp which the same inventor has produced,
+this deficiency is supplied, for a firedamp indicator forms part of
+the lamp. This indicator is based upon one invented some time ago, and
+consists of a coil of platinum wire which can be switched on to the
+current which supplies the lamp and brought to a red-heat. If firedamp
+be present, the wire becomes far hotter, and therefore brighter than it
+will in pure air; and in one form of lamp a similar coil, shut up in a
+glass tube containing air, is provided, for the sake of comparison. In
+another form of indicator the hot wire is made to explode the charge of
+firedamp submitted to it, of course in a closed chamber, thus forming
+a partial vacuum, which acts upon a column of liquid in an attached
+gauge tube. By this means the exact percentage of fiery gas present can
+be accurately noted. It may be hoped that these improved appliances
+may come into common use; but of course electrical fittings are
+somewhat expensive, and this is the initial difficulty in introducing
+improvements which would lead to much saving of life.
+
+In these enlightened times, when books without number are published to
+instruct even the youngest scholars about the nature of common things,
+it seems almost impossible to realise the ignorance which existed and
+the nonsense which was written even as lately as the last century
+concerning matters of the most elementary kind. So-called facts in
+natural history of the most ludicrous kind were handed down from writer
+to writer and accepted as the exact truth by all readers. Here is a
+specimen of chemical knowledge which dates from the year 1747, and
+is due to the pen of one George Adams. He naively remarks that ‘some
+people have imagined that the sharpness of vinegar is occasioned by the
+eels striking their pointed tails against the tongue and palate; but it
+is very certain that the sourest vinegar has none of those eels, and
+that its pungency is entirely owing to the pointed figure of its salts,
+which float therein.’ There is probably some confusion here between
+the sourness of vinegar and the acidity of sour paste, which latter is
+accompanied, as even young microscopists know well, by the development
+of innumerable so-called eels.
+
+At a recent meeting of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, Dr
+Alfred Hill, the President, delivered an opening address, which dealt
+with the important subjects of the disposal of house-refuse and the
+best method of treating sewage. The employment of destructive furnaces
+for getting rid of dry house-refuse was strongly recommended. The
+efficient disposal of sewage is of course a far more difficult problem
+to solve, and one which has now for a number of years troubled the
+minds of many. Dr Hill is in favour of the sewage-farm principle, which
+has been so successfully tried at Birmingham. He showed that the system
+had not proved a nuisance to adjoining residents nor yet injurious to
+health. It was also a profitable system, for in the city referred to,
+twenty thousand pounds had been realised during the past year by the
+sale of stock and produce from the sewage-farm. He believed that if
+a similar system were adopted for the metropolitan area, the sewage
+which is now allowed to poison the Thames might realise in meat, milk,
+and vegetables two hundred thousand pounds.
+
+Mr Thomson Hankey has lately pointed out a new use for sugar, which,
+however, is not new, but it is so little known that he has done good
+service in calling attention to it. In the preparation of mortar and
+cement, the addition of a certain quantity of unrefined sugar will
+give the mixture extraordinary hardness and tenacity. In India, sugar
+has been used for this purpose from time immemorial, and walls built
+with mortar of this description will defy all ordinary methods of
+destruction. Plaster of Paris will also set much harder if about ten
+per cent. of sugar be added to the water with which it is mixed. With
+plaster of Paris, it might be mentioned, the addition of alum has much
+the same effect.
+
+At one of the recent meetings of the Iron and Steel Institute, M.
+Gautier of Paris read an interesting paper on ‘The Casting of Chains
+in Solid Steel.’ In the course of this paper, he pointed out that in
+order to compete successfully with wrought-iron in chain-making, the
+steel employed must be quite solid and absolutely free from blowholes,
+and it is most necessary to adopt a quick method of moulding the
+chains. In the process which has been adopted by Messrs Joubert and
+Leger of Lyons, these difficulties have been successfully overcome. The
+process combines chilled casting with instantaneous removal from the
+moulds, after which the chain is finished and annealed in oil. By this
+method he claims that better chains can be manufactured than those of
+wrought-iron, with the advantage of greatly diminished weight.
+
+The deposition of dust and smoke by the passage of electricity has
+been more than once adverted to in these pages, more especially in
+connection with the collection of lead-fume. Messrs King, Mendham,
+& Co. of Bristol have recently constructed a convenient piece of
+apparatus for illustrating this phenomenon. It consists of a jar capped
+at the top with a cover, through which protrudes a rod furnished with
+a ball. This rod terminates inside the jar in a point; and a similar
+pointed wire, which finds a termination outside the lower part of the
+jar, is opposite to it. Below, there is a small combustion box, in
+which a smouldering piece of brown paper will soon fill the jar with
+smoke. Thus filled, the jar is connected by its brass terminals to a
+Wimshurst Electrical Machine. When the handle of the machine is turned,
+an electrical discharge takes place between the two pointed wires; and
+the smoke, after being violently agitated, disappears, leaving the air
+in the jar perfectly clear.
+
+The Simplex Ironing Machine, which is invented by Mr S. Bash, and which
+has been examined and approved by the leading tailoring establishments
+in London and Paris, is designed to relieve workers from the heavy
+manual labour attending the use of pressing-irons. The simplex iron is
+suspended from a movable arm by a universal joint, and can be moved in
+any direction over the work and with any desired degree of pressure.
+This pressure is brought about by the aid of a pedal attachment. There
+is also provision made for pressing long seams, a movable table being
+made to travel to and fro beneath the gas-heated iron. The inventor
+claims for his method a saving in fuel and more rapid and efficient
+work.
+
+A new explosive has been invented by a Russian engineer, M. Rucktchell,
+about which some very curious particulars have been published, while
+the nature of the compound remains the secret of its discoverer. The
+explosive gives a penetrative power to projectiles ten times greater
+than gunpowder. It emits neither smoke nor heat, and its discharge is
+unaccompanied by any report. If this be true, can the compound—whatever
+it be—be called an explosive? But this wonderful product is to be
+utilised in the arts of peace as well as those of war, for it forms
+the motive-power for an engine constructed by the inventor, an engine
+for which he claims superiority over steam and gas engines. It will be
+remembered that an engine of much the same character was invented a few
+years ago in America. Its motive-power was a secret from everybody. The
+necessary and inevitable Company was formed to buy up the inventor’s
+rights, and then—nothing more was heard of it.
+
+Mr W. F. Dennis has been exhibiting at Millwall, London, a continuous
+wire-netting machine, which is a great improvement on former
+contrivances of this kind. The machine works from bobbins of wire
+only, not from bobbins and spools, as in the older machines, and these
+bobbins contain a sufficient length of wire to keep the machine at work
+for a whole day. In a day of ten hours, a single machine will produce
+three hundred and fifty yards of wire-netting twenty-three inches in
+width. The machine in question occupies a space of eleven by eight
+feet, by six feet in height. Nor is it confined to the production of
+netting from soft metal, for hard bright steel and iron wire can be
+used, producing a most rigid product. The consumption in Europe of
+wire-netting is estimated at forty million yards per annum, and the
+possibility of producing it of a rigid character, hitherto thought to
+be impossible, is sure to increase its fields of usefulness.
+
+
+
+
+OCCASIONAL NOTES.
+
+
+WOODITE.
+
+Woodite, a newly invented preparation of caoutchouc—so called from
+the name of its inventor—is attracting considerable attention at the
+present time. In woodite are united the useful elastic properties of
+india-rubber together with the advantages of immunity from injury by
+fire or salt water. The specific gravity of woodite is only one-tenth
+that of iron or steel; whilst the cost of the new material, as compared
+with these metals, is estimated to be as three to seven, or rather less
+than one half. Such facts fully explain the importance attached to the
+proposition now being made to utilise woodite as a protection—either
+internal or external, as regards the vessel’s skin—to men-of-war and
+torpedo boats. Experiments recently made to ascertain the behaviour of
+woodite under fire were as satisfactory as conclusive, and established
+the interesting fact, that the caoutchouc closed up again so thoroughly
+and instantaneously, after the passage of the shot, that no leakage
+resulted, though the vessel was pierced below waterline.
+
+The value of a material possessed of such qualities for naval purposes
+cannot be overestimated; whilst in a variety of other ways, woodite
+appears likely to play a not unimportant part in the near future. In
+the construction of lifeboats, a material so buoyant and indestructible
+cannot fail to be of service; whilst for lining quay walls, harbour
+entrances, piers, landing-stages, and the numberless cases where it
+is desirable to moderate the force of impact, woodite should be found
+of the greatest value. In the case of a collision at sea, a vessel
+fortified internally or externally with woodite would be more likely to
+remain afloat, than, _cæteris paribus_, one not similarly protected.
+
+In an age when every effort is made to secure the requisite buoyancy
+in our huge floating citadels, heavily laden with ponderous armour and
+gigantic ordnance, a material combining buoyancy in so high a degree,
+with its other advantages, cannot but be destined, in the opinion of
+competent judges, to play a brilliant part; whilst its future in the
+more peaceful arts cannot fail to be equally commensurate with its
+merits.
+
+
+TRAVELLING ARRANGEMENTS ON THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.
+
+A passenger by the Canadian Pacific Railway gives an interesting sketch
+of the travelling arrangements on this latest trans-continental line.
+We learn that the locomotives have a haul of about one hundred and
+twenty to one hundred and thirty miles in each division of the line,
+when they are changed, and fresh ones put on. The continent is crossed
+from Montreal to Vancouver, in British Columbia, in five days and
+fourteen hours; and this will soon be reduced to one hundred and twenty
+hours. Good time is kept. The first east-bound trans-continental train
+that was met in transit, passed Sudbury, going eastward, at 4.17 P.M.,
+after being about five days on the journey. Before its arrival, there
+was some curiosity to learn whether it was in time, and bets were made
+on the time it would arrive. This train, after travelling a distance of
+two thousand five hundred miles, arrived only fifteen seconds behind
+time. The railway route from Montreal to Vancouver covers two thousand
+nine hundred and nine miles; and the through sleeping-coaches attached
+to the train run the entire distance without change, which is a great
+comfort to the traveller. Every week-day, a train starts from each
+end of the line, leaving the eastern terminus at Montreal at eight
+o’clock in the evening, and the western terminus at one o’clock in
+the afternoon. On Sundays, the trains do not start; thus making six
+trains each way every week. The west-bound train is called the Pacific
+Express; and the east-bound train the Atlantic Express.
+
+The Pacific Express, in which this correspondent travelled, was made
+up of five coaches. At the head was the luggage, mail, and express
+coach, which carried the baggage. The next is the colonists’ coach, a
+third-class carriage with seats arranged so that they can be turned
+into a double tier of berths on each side for sleeping accommodation.
+The train carries passengers at three rates. The ordinary American
+first-class passenger coach follows the colonists’ coach, which
+usually takes local travellers along the line. Following this is
+the dining-coach, which usually accompanies the train only from
+seven o’clock in the morning till nine o’clock at night. Following
+the dining-car is the through sleeping-coach, which is constructed
+with six sections on each side. In the aggregate, twenty-six persons
+can be given sleeping accommodation in this car; while at one
+end, toilet-rooms and a bathroom are provided. At the rear of the
+sleeping-coach is a large open apartment with a good outlook, which can
+be used as a smoking-room, and where passengers may have a view of the
+line passed over.
+
+
+OVERHEAD TELEGRAPH WIRES.
+
+This arrangement of wires has always been considered as a disfiguring
+and dangerous eyesore, and at last our quick-sighted cousins ‘across
+the water’ have determined that the nuisance shall be forthwith abated.
+In New York, Washington, St Louis, Chicago, and other great cities
+of the United States, legislative decrees have been issued for the
+compulsory abolition of all overhead wires, which will in future be
+conducted underground in tunnels beneath the pavement, and by this
+means a great improvement will be effected in the matter of street
+architecture, and some dangers to passengers will be removed. Many
+instances have been known in America where, from violent storms of wind
+or snow, the telegraph posts have been blown down, occasioning injury
+and even death to passengers. All this will be avoided by the new
+arrangement.
+
+
+ANGRY BEES.
+
+As a supplementary note to the article on ‘Bees and Honey’ which
+appeared in No. 135 of the _Journal_, a correspondent sends us the
+following:
+
+    ‘A painful instance of the terrible consequences of provoking bees
+    is connected with one of the loveliest sights in India, the famous
+    Marble Rocks of Jubbulpore. These rocks form a gorge through which
+    the great river Nerbudda flows, and the marble formation extends
+    for about a mile. The dazzling walls which shut in the river are
+    studded with pendent bees’ nests, and for any one proceeding in
+    a boat down the narrow channel to disturb the bees is a fatal
+    proceeding. If any warning were required, it is given by a tomb
+    which stands on the outskirts of the village just above the gorge,
+    to the memory of one who was stung to death in this beautiful spot.
+    Actuated by a foolish impulse, he fired his rifle at one of the
+    nests, whereupon the bees came down on him in such numbers that
+    he attempted to save himself by jumping overboard. The relentless
+    insects, however, still pursued him, with fatal results. I quote
+    the story from memory, but believe it is to be found in detail in
+    Forsyth’s charming work, _The Highlands of Central India_.
+
+    ‘A friend once told me that as he was driving near a village some
+    miles from Jubbulpore, he and his servant and horse were attacked
+    by bees without any real provocation. The enemy crowded round in
+    such numbers that the situation became serious. After receiving
+    several stings, and finding the horse, too, becoming restive, my
+    friend resolved to save his own life and that of his servant,
+    both of which were really in jeopardy, at the risk of a little
+    discomfort to other people. Accordingly, he whipped up his horse
+    and made for the village, a cloud of bees keeping up with the
+    trap without the least effort. When the village was reached, the
+    bees, as my friend anticipated, found so many other objects of
+    interest, that they distributed their attentions with less marked
+    partiality than hitherto. In other words, the cloud left the trap
+    and scattered among the villagers, who were, however, so numerous,
+    that two or three stings apiece probably represented the total
+    damage. The expedient was not, perhaps, a charitable one, but, in
+    the circumstances, was, I venture to think, justifiable.’
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The PUBLISHERS have pleasure in intimating that next year will appear
+in this JOURNAL an Original Novel, entitled_
+
+                             RICHARD CABLE,
+
+_by the distinguished Author of the well-known works of fiction,
+‘Mehalah,’ ‘John Herring,’ ‘Court Royal,’ &c._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A BRIGHT DAY IN NOVEMBER.
+
+
+    A Summer hush is on the golden woods;
+    The path lies deep in leaves—the air is balm;
+    No sound disturbs these silent solitudes,
+    Save some faint bird-notes, which, amid the calm,
+    Seem like the sad, sweet song of one who grieves
+    Over a happy past—yet with a strain
+    Of Hope, which sees amid these yellow leaves,
+    Bare boughs all clothed with Spring’s young buds again.
+
+    Even thus, most gracious Lord, in Sorrow’s hour,
+    When Life seems saddest, and our hopes decay,
+    Thou sendest comfort—as, in wood or bower,
+    Some humble flower remains to speak of May;
+    Some gleam of joy lights up the wintry scene;
+    Some tender grace returns to bless and cheer;
+    And though our trees no more are clothed in green,
+    Bright days may light the closing of our year.
+            J. H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Conductor of CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL begs to direct the attention of
+CONTRIBUTORS to the following notice:
+
+  _1st._ All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339
+    High Street, Edinburgh.’
+
+  _2d._ For its return in case of ineligibility, postage-stamps should
+    accompany every manuscript.
+
+  _3d._ To secure their safe return if ineligible, ALL MANUSCRIPTS,
+    whether accompanied by a letter of advice or otherwise, _should
+    have the writer’s Name and Address written upon them_ IN FULL.
+
+  _4th._ Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied by a
+    stamped and directed envelope.
+
+_If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to
+insure the safe return of ineligible papers._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON,
+and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_All Rights Reserved._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text.
+Page 764: Naraganset to Narraganset.]
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75818 ***