large black hole in which their less fortunate or
less fastidious brethren were compelled to
repose. However, they were looked upon as
"Steerage," notwithstanding. Where there are
niggers—that is to say, everywhere—the
mulattoes are lightly esteemed.

On the whole, "Steerage," disregarded as he
was by the aristocracy, did not perform the
most uncomfortable voyage. Indeed, I strongly
suspect that he got through his fortnight, and
the wind that blew dead against us during
the whole of that time, more easily than many a
proud "passenger."

Sea-sickness, with all its faults, is still an
occupation, and, indeed, so completely absorbs
the mind and body as to render any other
occupation superfluous. For the first two or three
days, thanks to an unfavourable wind, which
kept the ship in a perpetual roll, our time
was well filled up; and when we had begun
to grow acclimatised to the Atlantic, and the
breezes gave, instead of taking away, our appetite,
we were pleased at the recovery of an almost
forgotten sensation. Moreover, mixed though
select assembly as we were, composed of
Englishmen, British Americans, citizens of the
United States, and Germans, we were new to
each other, and had much to ask and much to
answer on topics of general interest. Rarely
have anecdotes been listened to with more
profound attention, rarely have indifferent jokes
gone off with so much brilliancy. Folks were
on board who had never heard the name of
the facetious Miller, and a venerable "Joe,"
long deemed defunct in the old country, could
be resuscitated like a rising sun. A certain
amount of "chaff," too, was not only
tolerated, but encouraged, and there was a general
freedom of discourse which harmonised
admirably with the sense of liberty inspired by the
aspect of the boundless sea, and with those
levelling principles that, inapplicable to "Steerage,"
firmly bound together us oligarchs of the
Upper and Lower Ten. I may instance the
case of some oarsmen of Canada, who, having
acquired great kudos at some European
regatta, were joyously returning home to
commemorate their triumphs, and who, in the
presence of ladies, used expressions which, though
by no means uncommon in the nautical world,
were carefully avoided by the late Mr. T. P.
Cooke, when he idealised the character of the
British sailor. Yet these expressions, which,
on shore, beyond the extent of a certain radius
to be carefully measured from the Tower of
London, would have been as startling as a
discharge of musketry, gave no offence whatever.
A boatman, who had his cabin in the right
place, and dined in the saloon, was still one of
the fraternal oligarchy, and was as fully entitled
as anybody else to talk in his own way.
Indeed, as these same oarsmen had really
distinguished themselves in their calling, and were
extremely merry, good-natured fellows, affording
much diversion to us all, I am by no means
sure that if our floating Venice had been
provided with a Golden Book, their names would
not have stood rather high on the aristocratic
list. Prejudices of caste and sect were utterly
annihilated, save that one sentiment which
excluded "Steerage" with such iron force; and
if "Steerage" did not, by some unfortunate
accident, struggle beyond bounds, not a frown
under any circumstances ruffled the oligarchic
brow. Among the persons who derived pleasure
from this state of freedom, none, I am
sure, felt more hearty enjoyment than an
American clergyman, with puritanical views,
who had just "done" Italy, France, and
England, and was on his way back to one of the
northern cities. He was one of the best
informed and most gentleman-like men I ever
saw in the course of my life, and he maintained
his dignity to the last. Nevertheless, his pleasant
smile, and the dry humour, somewhat of
the Scottish kind, with which he encountered
spirits of a "faster" school, showed how
perfectly he could sympathise for the while with
the free citizens of a temporary republic, whose
utterances must frequently have grated on his
own moral convictions. To the more rational
mirth of the voyage he was unquestionably
the ablest and the steadiest contributor. He
could converse fluently on any given subject,
literary or political; and his chair, on deck,
was the acknowledged focus round which were
gathered all the best talkers on board. Let
me add, that this effortless display of erudition,
intelligence, and amiability was made under
circumstances of extraordinary and physical
difficulty. Our excellent "guide, philosopher,
and friend," was, without exception, the worst
sailor on board: never being entirely free from
a sea-qualm during the whole of the voyage.

Long before we were half way across the
Atlantic our last stories had been told, our last
stock of information interchanged, our last joke
fired off. Some of us had books, but one
cannot read all day; and, in the case of many
persons, the sea is unfavourable to study. Even
the amusement of guessing what we should have
for dinner, lost its zest after a while. The three
meals per diem, which we were allowed, were so
exceedingly substantial, savoury, and abundant,
and withal so liberally seasoned by breezes,
which kept the heartiest of us always hungry,
that the more thoughtful of our body began
seriously to calculate whether a man, who was
weary of his troubles on land, and was in the
receipt of a moderate income, might not reasonably
make up his mind to pass the rest of his
life on board the good ship Odin, and banish
from his mind all consciousness that there was
a world beyond. But among the truly
admirable qualities of the food, variety was not
included; and after a very few trials in the art
of permutation, we came back to precisely the
same dinner as that from which we started.
Guessing, under these circumstances, soon
becomes a dull and unprofitable exercise.

Vigorous efforts were made to lull time, and
to break the ever-increasing monotony of existence.
We boldly assumed the virtue of self-
enjoyment, though we had it not. We screwed