one of the windows, and would have landed
on a sofa if, poor creature, she had not broken one
of her legs. The two swans tried to avail
themselves of the opening made by their landlady the
cow, but fell down heavily and broke their long
necks. I had a suspicion that we had them
afterwards for dinner, if so, they were horribly
tough.

A gentleman who attempted to go down the
staircase, slipped on the brass placed there to
prevent slipping, and, landing under a table,
broke his nose. Broken, noses became quite
the fashion on board; I noticed a great many
of them; and being fond of my own nose, took
very great care of it.

When we left Liverpool, I, and several
gentlemen on board, had expressed a desire to see
the leviathan in a storm. Our wish was now
gratified. The captain was on the bridge roaring
orders. The chief engineer joined him
there and made a suggestion, as I was told,
about half speed, from which his superior
dissented. The consequesnces suddenly
followed; there was a horrible crash, and afterwards
a curious grating sound. The port
paddle was disabled and greated, against the side
of the ship, which now became quite frantic.
We were tossed up and down seven or eight
times each minute; sometimes the leviathan
forming an angle of forty-five degrees with the
level of the sea. One of the passengers had a
tall stag-hound on board, and, instead of securing
him somewhere, he allowed him to be on deck.
The poor brute, frightened almost to death,
knocked against masts and gunwales; his claws
becoming sore and bleeding in the attempt to
stand still. He took refuge in one of the staircase
houses, but its cruel occupants turned him
out.

Presently the scene became sublime. The seven
hundred feet-long ship flew up and down, right
and left, like an eggshell. The waves concentrated
all their power to crush the proud leviathan.
They played with her as girls toss a ball;
but her ribs are too stout and well knit to break;
though, to the dismay of every soul on board, the
rudder post, a column of solid iron twelve inches
in diameter, snapped asunder like a lucifer-match.

It is true the screw still worked; but with one
paddle only, the Great Eastern resembled a lame
duck. She rocked with fearful velocity, and
the sea dashed furiously over her deck. Our
state began to become alarming. To steady
the ship, the jib-sail was set. We heard a
succession of reports like gun-shots; the ropes
of the sail had broken, and the sail itself was
split into ribbons. Food was out of the question.
In pantry and dining saloon we heard the
clinking of plate and glass, as if a hundred
bulls were enjoying themselves in one china shop.
I succeeded in getting a bottle of stout and
some biscuit, and in carrying it off to my cabin.
Tying myself by means of a scarf to my sofa, I
tried to dine on this simple fare. One of my
slave-dealing neighbours had a box filled with
large hard pears; on opening this box the
pears jumped and ricocheted like cannon-balls
into my cabin; one struck my leg, another almost
broke my cabin window. This I had screwed
close the day before, because the spray of the
wheel came into my cabin and soaked my sofa.

The storm increased; but I cautiously went
on deck again to see how matters looked. Our
only paddle had become disabled and its engine
stopped. I saw many anxious faces, but none
of those dramatic storm scenes described in sea
novels. We all behaved very well; and if my
polite friend with the patent life-belt, and my
Oxonian, were a little frightened, they did not
show it much.

By-and-by, while again in my cabin, my attention
was attracted by a curious sound coming
from the dining saloon; it was as if rocks were
there, shifted to and fro by an angry surf,
and amidst that noise was to be heard, now
and then, the jingling of glass and china.
To set my mind at rest, I got up again and
blundered to the sofa of a neighbour's cabin,
from which I could look through a window
opening into the dining saloon. All the heavy
dining tables, which had been fastened only by
very small nails to the floor, were on their backs.
Their polished surface was gliding along the
smooth carpet, as if it were on ice. Chairs
rushed madly amongst the legs of tables, or
got entangled amongst themselves and broke
each other's legs. A large board, suspended
over a dining-table, jumped with all its glasses
and decanters into the midst of the wooden
revellers. The black serious stove in the middle
had been rocking itself about, like a bear
preparing for a dance, and the heavy candelabra,
swinging on their gilt chains, beat time. Now
and then, the mad dancers paused for a moment,
as if reflecting what new figures they should
execute next. Then, all at once, went rushing, like a
regiment of horse charging a square of infantry,
against the nicely-turned rails protecting the sky-
lights of the intermediate deck. These snapped
like glass. The stove rolled amidst the wreck,
and, the rails being quite demolished, chairs,
plates, knives, forks, teapots, and covers, were
hurled down into the intermediate deck into
the water, which stood there about a foot deep.

Early next morning I ventured on deck.
The captain had been there all night, and they
were trying to make a steering apparatus by
means of a large spar, weighing four tons. By
this means the captain hoped to be able to get
again in the track of passing vessels, out of which
we had been drifted. Water had entered the
ship through the portholes, by tons, and the
pumps were at work. Besides the noise they
made, we heard sounds of all kinds below, and
nobody knew what to make of them. Some
tallow-casks and the enormous chain-cable had
broken loose somewhere, and were bumping
against the ship's sides.

There was an attempt made for breakfast;
but without success, for neither tea nor coffee
was to be had, and nothing but hard biscuits
in open boxes lashed here and there. Some
chambermaids and nurses entering the dining-
saloon with longing eyes, reminded me of the