possess some data on which to rest future
stores of knowledge. Already a portion of
the American navy has gone to the southward
in prosecution of this most interesting
inquiry, provided with every possible
requisite, and in charge of men of undoubted
ability and energy.

Before concluding this notice, it may be as
well to detail the plan of operations as carried
on in these deep-sea soundings. The cordage
found to be best adapted for the work, is stout
fishing-line, of equal strength throughout its
entire length. It should be oiled or waxed,
in order to prevent as much as possible any
degree of friction in passing rapidly through
the salt water. The line must be measured
off, and marked at every thousand fathoms
with silk thread of various colours, tied
tightly round it. The intervening hundred
fathoms are to be denoted by threads of
corresponding colours, but secured in a different
manner, so as to indicate from one to nine
hundred.

The weight employed for sinking the line
has been a thirty-two pound shot, slung in
canvas bands, and so secured to the line, that
any sudden jerk upon it will detach the one
from the other: the labour of hauling up that
weight at the end of a line, several thousands
of fathoms long, would be far too great: as it
is, the reeling up of the line itself is a task of
considerable magnitude, though the reel is
worked by cranks and fly-wheels, at which
three or four men are employed. Several
attempts were made by persons on board
these surveying ships, to raise one of the
thirty-two pound shot from the ground, when
on the bottom of the ocean, at a depth of
about three thousand fathoms; but although
it was easy enough to drag it along the smooth
bed, the strongest man in the vessel was
unable to lift it an inch. To regulate and
check the passing out of the line during the
descent of the shot, canvas friction-bands are
employed; otherwise the twine might flow
from the reel more rapidly than the shot
would sink it, and so become entangled on
the surface. It has been found by many
trials, that the weight descends with a steadily
decreasing rapidity, in exact proportion with
the depth attained by it: a knowledge of this
has enabled those employed in the soundings
to detect the existence of an under-current
at any depth below, for the action of such
current, though, perhaps, of not more than
half a knot per hour upon the great length of
line out, caused it to run off the reel more
rapidly than, according to the depth, it should
have done. In this way, by timing the
descent of the line at every hundred fathoms,
not only is it perfectly easy to detect the
existence of an under-current, but also to
determine its position, and, with some tolerable
accuracy, its speed. The five thousand five
hundred fathoms run out by the Albany, with
soundings, took two hours and forty minutes
in its descent, and required ten hours for
re-winding by four men, according to the
usual rate. This rate of descent, it will be
seen, was much less than that of the five
thousand seven hundred fathoms of wire-line,
which the officers of the Fancy passed out
without getting soundings, and which occupied
but one hour and a half in its fall, owing
to the smaller amount of friction with the
metal than the fibrous line.

Let us hope that what has been so well
begun by our friends across the Atlantic, may
be not disregarded by our own authorities,
but that similar researches may be made in
those seas which peculiarly form the highway
of our Oriental commerce. If these
things are worth the attention of a young
people like the Americans, how much more
so of the care of the British Government,
whose ships of war are floating in almost
every degree of longitude and latitude
throughout the watery world? In the vast
Indian Ocean there is, beyond doubt, a rich
harvest awaiting the labourer: the field so
often passed over is as yet unexplored. The
crude materials extracted from ships' log-
books go to show that in the Indian seas
there exists a gulf stream similar to that on
the Eastern coasts of America, having a
temperature often above blood heat.

In the system of aqueous circulation thus
detected, and in the prevailing winds of the
Pacific, are to be found the conditions which
cause the climates of the Atlantic States to
be repeated along the coasts of China; the
climate of Western Europe to be re-duplicated
in North-western America. In the tepid
waters of India which this stream conveys
towards the Fox Islands—the Newfoundland
of the Pacific Ocean—is to be found the
origin of the fogs of the North Pacific and
the European-like climate of Oregon. It may
readily be imagined that the storms which
take their rise near the western margin of
the Pacific Ocean will also follow this stream
in their course. The passage from China to
California, now made in fifty-four days, may
reasonably be reduced to thirty, if we obtain
an accurate knowledge of all these matters;
and in like manner, the voyage from
Calcutta or Hong-Kong to London might be
shortened by a week or two.

THE FIERY TRIAL.
A LEGEND.

"Go, carry to thy convent back
     That scarred and ugly face,
And sure the lady sisterhood
     Will thank thee for the grace.
If thoughts of beauty's fleeting bloom
     For such meek souls be fit,
Good sooth, they have their lesson here,
     Not delicately writ.

Our household portraits do they need
     The added charm of thine?
No; let oblivion drink the blot
     From our well-favoured line,"