I conversed with complained of the want of labourers. They could give plenty of work to steady men, at a remuneration of L.20 per annum and their board. One farmer mentioned that the persons in his employment lived on the best of every thing, and were discontented if they got a dinner without a course of puddings or tarts!

has little means for escape. By good-luck, I caught the Canada, steam-ship, as it arrived in Halifax, and felt thankful when, after a toilsome journey, I found myself comfortably seated in its saloon. W. C.

THE IDEAL AND REAL, AFLOAT AND

ASHORE.

The profusion of food was everywhere remarkable; and it is dispensed with a liberality which gives the LONG before we had ever seen the ocean, we had an assurance that it is easily obtained. This abundance exceedingly vivid ideal of the men who battle with its is naturally attended by low prices. At the comfort-stormy waves; and this ideal is, we more than suspect, able hotel at Kentville, and also at Windsor, I had cherished not merely by school-boys, but by a large occasion to remark the cheapness of accommodation for travellers. For tea, bed, and breakfast, my bill was majority of all individuals whose avocations are not only three English shillings; and 5s. a day may be such as to bring them in frequent personal contact with said to be a fair average charge for living in these sailors ashore and afloat. We ourselves happened to .hotels, in which, though on a scale very inferior to be brought up in a country-town where the temporary what is seen in the States, everything is clean, neat, presence of a real blue-water tar was quite an event; and well managed. and the sudden apparition of one in the street would at any time cause all our school to suspend play, that we might gratify our curiosity. He had usually a red silk real Indian bandana jauntily tucked half in and half out the larboard pocket; the wide, snowy trousers of Russian duck, tightly bound at the waist with a broad black leather strap and polished steel buckle in lieu of braces, and falling in such amplitude as almost to hide the neat shoe; and the low, well-varnished tarpauling hat, with its broad, shiny brims brought well down over the eyes, and a yard or two of black ribbon floating bravely behind. We could hardly sufficiently admire this ship-shape rig-out; and the sailor himself, with his bold, bronzed hairy face, his reckless air, his rolling gait-so pleasantly suggestive of a ship at sea-and his tar-stained paws, with their fish-hooks of fingers, was to us the very beau-ideal of all that is manly and romantic. We knew not that this was his holiday, go-ashore attire, and thought he always dressed precisely the same, and looked the same daring hero. We believed implicitly all Dibdin told us, and felt a glow at heart when we read in his veracious pages that

From Kentville I proceeded in the stage, a long day's journey by Aylesford and Bridgeton to Annapolis. Much of the country we passed through, midway, was uncleared and swampy, and much consisted of poorlooking sandy plains, locally called the Devil's Goose Pasture. Here we saw geese and pigs browsing, in a state of greater contentment and obesity than could be expected after the account of the district by Sam Slick, who tells us that the plain hereabout is given up to the geese, which are so wretched poor, that the foxes won't eat them, they hurt their teeth so bad!' On the confines of this territory, and where the country was beginning to look a little better, the stage stopped at the house of a Scotsman, who had emigrated thirty years ago from Aberdeenshire, and in the course of that time had cleared a considerable tract of land, and formed a large establishment, including a handsome store, kept by his son. The success of this personage, now a wealthy squire in his way, offered a fine example of what any poor but industrious man may do in any part of the British American colonies or the States. He seemed gratified, during the few minutes the coach stopped, in having an opportunity of making the acquaintance of one of his countrymen. He spoke feelingly of Scotland, which he would like once more to see before he died; but he said he was now too old to think of so distant a journey.

Some miles beyond this point, we got into the valley of the river Annapolis, which we crossed at the thriving town of Bridgeton. The country was now green, beautiful, and devoted apparently to cattle-grazing. After a long ride, we arrived in the town of Annapolis, a place which has a historical, almost an antiquarian interest, in being the oldest European settlement in North America: it was planted by the French in 1605, and has endured the fate of being conquered, burnt, and rebuilt several times. It is situated at the head of an inlet of the sea, and at present derives some importance from being a point of steam communication, to and from St John's, across the Bay of Fundy. Unfortunately, it did not come up to this character on the present occasion. The first news communicated to us was, that a telegraphic message had just arrived from St John's, stating that the steamer was laid up for repairs, and that the mails would arrive by a pilot-boat. A sad disappointment this; for as I declined risking the passage of this dangerous bay in any kind of small boat, my proposed visit to New Brunswick was now impracticable. The advance of the season rendered every day precious. I could not risk delay. Not to lose time, there seemed to be only one line of procedure open, and that was to return to Halifax, and take passage to Boston in the next Cunard vessel touching there on its way from England. This retracement of my journey I immediately effected, with no other benefit than the painful experience that Nova Scotia, owing to its want of external communication, is a kind of trap from which the unwary traveller

Jack dances and sings, and is always content,
In his vows to his lass he'll ne'er fail her;
His anchor's atrip when his money's all spent ;
And this is the life of a sailor!

Of which popular quotation we only wish the two first
lines were one-half as true as is the third! How many
of us, in those happy days, talked of how we should
like to be sailors, and how we secretly vowed that
we would be sailors, and not stupid, plodding, prosaic
tradesmen, or merchants, or lawyers, or doctors, as
our parents and guardians so absurdly and cruelly
intended! How we used to gloat over Marryat,
Cooper, and Tales of Shipwreck and Adventure at Sea!
How we almost quarrelled among ourselves as to
whether Dick Fid in the Red Rover, or Long Tom Coffin
in the Pilot, was the highest conceivable specimen of a
sailor! Our own private predilection was, if we recol-
lect aright, decidedly in favour of Long Tom; and we
are not at all ashamed to confess having a sincere
admiration of that renowned hero even at this day.

Let us consider further what is the ideal sailor of
There

the popular faith. And, first, for Jack at sea.
he is in his element-in his own peculiar sphere-in
his glory.

Alert in his duty, he readily flies

Where the winds the tired vessel are flinging, Though sunk to the sea-gods, or tossed to the skies, Still Jack is found working and singing.

Let cannons roar loud, burst their sides let the bombs,
Let the winds a dread hurricane rattle,
The rough and the smooth he takes as it comes,
And laughs at the storm and the battle.

All this has a good deal of truth; but Jack afloat has the easiest, jolliest, happiest, and most enviable life that can be conceived. When there is a fair wind and all sails set, he has nothing in the world to do but to freshen his quid, spin yarns with his merry messmates, overhaul his old love-letters, and enjoy the picturesque and romantic scenes around, or muse on the sublimity of the ocean over which he is sailing. Ah! who can tell how many an adventurer the popular idea of Saturday Night at Sea,' and 'Sweethearts and Wives,' has sent for a sailor?

'Twas Saturday night, the twinkling stars
Shone on the rippling sea;

No duty called the jovial tars,

The helm was lashed alee.

The ample can adorned the board;

Prepared to see it out,

Each gave the girl that he adored,

And pushed the grog about.

Delightful picture that! is it not? Then, what must the reality be?

Next, let us look at Jack ashore. He is an impersonation of everything that is generous, eccentric, manly, merry, and reckless. He

Pays his score,

With spirit on shore,

And that's all the use of a guinea.

contempt of four-post bedsteads and feather-beds, which he deems effeminate and unship-shape.

So much for the ideal sailor, afloat, ashore, and when retired from his profession. Now for the other side of the medal. So far from Jack having a wonderfully easy and jolly time of it at sea, his life is one of conpline in all vessels of size-and work, be it said, in stant, prosaic work-performed under very strict discimany respects as monotonous as factory labour in Manchester. For ample details of the daily routine on shipboard, we would refer to a former paper.* He wears rough, tarry jackets, blue checked or woollen shirts-according to the climate-and coarse canvas in the merchant service and in the royal navy the men trousers, in most instances made by himself; for both are generally their own tailors, and make nearly all the common working-clothing they wear at sea. All able seamen pride themselves on their dexterity as tailors; and in the navy, cloth and canvas are served out to them at prime cost, to make their own jackets and trousers-the petty officers frequently even embroidering the anchors, &c., on their jacket sleeves, in clever style. Fine blue cloth go-ashore clothes are, of course, usually purchased of a professional Snip. They also wash their own linen, &c., at sea, and these prosaic duties they spare from their watch below, or on any occasion when have to perform as they best may, in the time they can all hands have a leisure hour. Saturday nights, with flowing cans, and all that sort of thing, are fast becoming mere matters of tradition; and nearly the only time when genuine salt-water yarns are, or can be spun, is on a Sunday, or in a dog-watch, and not very often even then, for comparatively few sailors can spin a really good yarn, although all like to hear one. As to Jack's personal appreciation of anything romantic and Having earned his money like a horse, at the hazard of heroic in his calling, depend on it, he thinks a great his life and limbs, he surely has a right to spend it like deal more of an occasional allowance of plum-duff than an ass; for although, as the truthful poet has already which he would perchance prefer the tricks of a street of the grandest and sublimest phenomena of ocean-to told us, he never will fail in his vows to his lass, it is conjuror and mountebank, as more interesting and just as truthfully told that a sailor never has a wife and entertaining; and he cares tenfold more about the family ashore to require support out of his canvas-bag. quality of his junk, and a quiet snooze in his hammock, The curious part of the story is, how he keeps his vows than for scenes that would enrapture poet and painter. to his lass, and yet never finds an opportunity of He dearly relishes fun and frolic, poor fellow, whenever redeeming them in the matrimonial way. The expla- he can indulge in a bit of skylarking, for it is a delightnation given by some authorities is, that he has a lassful relief from the severe and monotonous routine of in every port;' in this case, it would be unreasonable to his daily life; and he does his duty manfully, and is as brave and daring, when there is any necessity in the case, expect him to marry them all; and so he spends his life in a state of manifold constancy and chronic love. as we were in the days of Drake and Frobisher: but the hard reality of his daily lot generally deadens or Thirdly, there is the ideal retired sailor, who is destroys everything tending to a feeling of enthusiasm always called 'captain.' Smollett's Commodore Trun- for his profession, which he probably would gladly quit nion is probably the most perfect specimen of this rare for an easier berth ashore, were it in his power. We and curious animal. To those who are not familiar speak not of any exceptional cases, but of sailors in the with that celebrated character, we would briefly say may or may not be mere fancy-that the prodigious bulk; and we must also add our own belief-which that the retired sailor is popularly imagined to be a alterations and scientific improvements in the building thickset, grizzled, copper-coloured, obstinate, bigoted, and navigation of ships, have tended materially to rendogmatic fellow, knowing no more of life ashore than der the calling of a mariner still more commonplace, a four-year old child. He is redolent of the ocean, and matter-of-fact, and mechanical, than formerly. cannot possibly speak the language of ordinary mortals, but must interlard his discourse with sea-slang to such a degree as to be nearly unintelligible to landsmen. He lives in a house he has had expressly built of oak-timber and planks, to resemble as nearly as possible the hull of a vessel, the rooms being fitted precisely in the style of a ship's cabin, with beams, lockers, &c., complete; a mast being planted before the door, with cross-trees, shrouds, vane, and halliards to hoist a Union Jack on festivaldays. He growls continually about the hardship of being compelled in old age to live 'under gingerbread hatches ashore,' and subsists entirely on salt junk and hard biscuits, drinks daily a bucketful of grog, and regularly sings the Old Commodore every night before turning into his hammock-he having a proper sailor-like

As for Jack ashore, it is quite true that he not unfrequently does commit extraordinary freaks, and squanders his hard earnings in the most prodigal and eccentric fashion, but this is by no means so universally the case majority of instances has at least one wife ashore, and as is popularly imagined. The truth is, Jack in a perchance as many young Jacks as would man a jollyboat, to provide for and support out of his pay (to say nothing of clothing for himself-and a sailor wears out at all a respectable seaman, he does, to the utmost of an enormous quantity of personal apparel); and if he is his ability, save up his cash for them. So that, except in the case of young unmarried tars, and of reckless

Edinburgh Journal, No. 431, Second Series.
*Twenty-four Hours of a Sailor's Life at Sea,' in Chambers's

There is an item of scientific testimony on another point which must not be left unrecorded, as it is interesting to all who drink tea, or wish to drink it. Dr Stenhouse has analysed a specimen of roasted coffeeleaves received from Sumatra, and finds them to be richer in that peculiar principle, known as caffeine, than the coffee-berry itself, and than some specimens of Chinese tea. Theine and caffeine, it should be remembered, are identical. From this fact, the doctor considers that coffee-leaves are likely to prove an acceptable article of diet, at about one-twentieth of the price of the cheapest tea. Should it come into favour, there will be no fear of deficient supply, seeing that in coffee-bearing countries there are extensive districts that will produce leaves in perfection, but not the berries. In another analysis-of Xanthoxylum piperitum, or Japanese pepper-Dr Stenhouse has discovered a new crystal, to which he gives the name of Xanthoxyline; but the quantity experimented on was too small to enable him to determine its general properties.

Then there is Professor Gluckmann's contrivance jets proceeds, and alternating pairs of platinum in for effecting the long desiderated communication be-flames urged by the jets, a flame-battery might be tween the guard and driver of a train, which has been constructed, which would produce chemical decompo- | tried on the London and North-western Railway. The sition and all the usual effects of the voltaic pile.' In means employed are two constant batteries, one at such a combination as here described, we see a developeach end of the train, connected by wires enclosed in ment of electric power which suggests many novel and tubes of vulcanised India-rubber passing under the highly important results. carriages, and fitted with hooks to lengthen or shorten at pleasure. The connections are to be turned on' at either end before starting, and so long as the wire communication between the engine and guard's van is complete, no action takes place; the batteries remain quiescent, and the bells are silent; but the moment the communication is broken, either by design or accident, the bells commence ringing violently at both ends of the train, and do not stop until the communication is restored or the battery is exhausted.' Daniell's batteries are the kind made use of; and it is said that the apparatus will admit of signals being passed from any of the intermediate passenger carriages as well as from either end. Judging from a rough experiment, this contrivance will effect the purpose intended; but we think that what is wanted is something much more simple, and less liable to injury. The success of the vessels built by Ruthven for the deep-sea fishery off Scotland, has suggested schemes of hydraulic propulsion, which, though they may some day lead to practical results, are at present too wild for sober attention. Ericsson, with sturdy perseverance, has been improving his caloric engine, and now we are told his vessel will erelong make the voyage from New York to Havre at the rate of nine knots an hour. The question of heat as a mechanical power is diligently discussed in many quarters, and with fruitful consequences. A paper by Mr Rankine, read before the Royal Society, 'On the Geometrical Representation of Heat, and the Theory of Thermodynamic Engines,' while defining the theory, shews how it may become available in practice. It is one that will greatly interest engineers and makers of machinery, for the conviction that a motive-power more economical than steam will have to be found grows stronger and stronger.

M. Foucault has made a communication to the Académie that will surprise some people. He has long held with Faraday, that liquids have a conducting power proper to themselves, and independent of all chemical decomposition; and starting from this fact, he makes a pile or battery without metal plates, using only such chemical liquids-the choice of such is great -as do not precipitate one another. Should this discovery bear the test of further investigation, a new field will be opened to students of electrical science. Here we may add that Faraday, as usual, opened the course at the Royal Institution with a lecture; but not being prepared with any especial researches of his own, he took for his subject certain electro-telegraphic phenomena-the results of those ingenious practical applications which, he said, delight and encourage the philosopher by their almost daily recurrence, while they reward him who reduces them to practice. He had eight miles of wire, half of it under water, to operate on, and shewed the complete identity, if further proof were needed, of static and galvanic electricity. The most striking experiment was the firing of gunpowder by the charge accumulated in one of the submerged coils, even after its disconnection from the battery.

The Society of Arts were to open their meeting-room to a council of masters and operatives from Manchester and Preston, the object being to hear what could be said on both sides, or any side, anent strikes and lockouts,' with the view, if possible, of arriving at a clear knowledge of the facts and principles involved in the questions at issue.' The president of the society, Prince Albert, has suggested to them the desirability of forming a gallery of a series of authentic portraits of distinguished inventors, either in art or science.' Here the intention is, to transmit the likenesses of ingenious individuals down to posterity, and thereby furnish a source of encouragement to them while living. A collection of such portraits would certainly be valuable and interesting; but in too many instances the painting would be the only encouragement' the inventors would get, for how rarely do they themselves derive any profit from their inventions! At the winding-up of the smoke-prevention discussion instituted by the same society, one of the speakers truly observed, that the mere abolition of smoke from factories would be nothing unless the thousands of dwelling-house chimneys were forbidden to smoke. Instead of rising into the atmosphere, he would have all the smoke led downwards by a series of fumiducts to some great central reservoir, there to be collected and utilised. This would not be impossible if Rumford was right in his estimate, that hundreds of tons of coal were always floating above London in the form of smoke. He said, moreover, that servants never knew how to put coal on a fire-a truth repeated in other words by another of the speakers at the discussion, when he said that, by proper stoking, the use of machinery to regulate a fire might be dispensed with. Another proposed to lay a tax on every chimney caught smoking. Perhaps the last would be the most effectual way of abating the nuisance. We may, however, mention here, that Prideaux apparatus for the consumption of smoke, tried a short time since at Portsmouth, has the advantage, while effecting its main object, of keeping the furnace-doors cool also, the radiant heat being taken up by the air that rushes in. The result is a saving of from 10 to 20 per cent. of coal, and the engine-rooms may be kept as cool as the captain's cabin.' What a relief to those who tend steam-engines!

Mr Grove has added another to the important series of facts with which he has enriched electrical science namely, that the flame from a blowpipe is from twenty to thirty times more electric than an ordinary flame; and he has come to the remarkable conclusion, that there is a voltaic current, and that of no mean inten- We find in the proceedings of the Académie, a report sity, due to flame, and not dependent on thermo- concerning a new construction of oven introduced with electricity. He believes, too, that by attaching to a satisfactory result into the hospices civils at Paris. It powerful pair of bellows a tube from which a row of the oven-is paved with large square slabs of terra