then read it, and found that it was a brief
account, drawn up by Christopher Columbus,
in fourteen hundred and ninety-three, of his
American discoveries up to that time. It was
addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella. It stated
that, according to the writer's judgment, the
ships could not survive another day; that they
were between the western isles and Spain; that
two similar narratives were written and
thrown into the sea, in case the caraval should
go to the bottom: in the hope that some
mariner might pick up one or other of them.
There is nothing outrageously improbable in
this story; for it is within the bounds of a
reasonable possibility that Columbus may have
written such a parchment, may have inserted
it in a cedar keg, which may have become so
incrusted with marine shells as to be shielded
from destruction, which may have floated
upon a little-used coast, and which may
have been wedged in between two rocks
so tightly, as to have remained untouched
and unmoved, and probably unseen, for three
hundred and fifty-eight years. All this may
be so, and yet it would not be prudent to give
full credence to the story without some
corroboration. There has been something like
corroboration, however, of a curious kind.
Captain D'Auberville's narrative was given
in the Louisville Varieties, whence it was
copied into the Times. Shortly after its
appearance in the great leading journal, Mr.
Morier Evans writes to the editor of the
Times, stating that he has in his possession
an old volume of voyages, containing an
account of Columbus's voyage in February of
the year above named, in a very dreadful sea
near the Azores. There occurs in the narrative
this passage: "The admiral finding
himself near death, to the end that some
knowledge might come to their Catholic Majesties
of what he had done in their service, he
wrote as much as he could of what he had
discovered on a skin of parchment; and
having wrapped it up in a piece of cerecloth,
he put it into a wooden cask and cast it into
the sea, all the men imagining it had been
some piece of devotion."  Mr. Evans thinks
that this passage is some support to Captain
D'Auberville's story. The subject is curious
enough to deserve further scrutiny; and
especially would it be right and proper that
the barnacle-covered keg and its precious
bit of parchment should be preserved in some
public establishment—even some museum in
Spain, which the rest of the world knows
nothing about.

Reverting to the bottle-voyages, we will
suggest that it might be a good plan for
emigrants to make use of this peculiar kind
of ocean-postage. It could do no harm to
any living being, and it might render service
or afford satisfaction to many. Eighty-eight
thousand persons went from the United
Kingdom to Australia in the year eighteen
hundred and fifty-two. We think it not
a very improbable supposition that there
were at least eighty-eight thousand bottles
in the many hundred ships which conveyed
these persons: bottles which had had
something to do with wine, or brandy, or pale ale,
or stout, or pickles. What became of these
bottles? Were they broken or sold to be
used again? If broken, might they not,
instead, have been taken, one by each of the
emigrants; might not these emigrants have
employed some among their weary vacant
hours on ship-board in concocting little
budgets of information—those who could write
acting as secretaries for those who could not;
might not these little packages have been
sealed into the bottles, and launched at
regular intervals throughout the duration of
the voyage; might not some of these bottles
—say one in ten, or even one in a hundred—
have ultimately reached the hands of those
who would have willingly transmitted the
information through some consul or agent to
England; and might not the history of each
bottle-voyage have given some pleasure to
private individuals, and some useful information
to navigators, who want to know all that
can be known about currents, and tides, and
winds?

There has lately arisen a bottle-question
of some interest. A bottle has been picked
up on the northern coast of Siberia. The
Russian government having given orders
that a good look-out should be kept for any
stray information coming from Sir John
Franklin, this bottle was sent to the authorities.
It contained nothing, nor could any
one at first say for what purpose it had been
employed. Some time afterwards, however,
it was discovered that the bottle was one of
those which the Norwegian fishermen employ
instead of corks, to float their nets. As the
Norwegian fishermen do not go to the Siberian
coast, how did the bottle come there? If
it floated round the coast, past the North Cape
and the White Sea and Nova Zembla, it
would surely indicate a current flowing in
that direction; and this current might
possibly have something to do with the north-
eastern route to the Arctic regions, advocated
by Mr. Peterman. All these may be only
possibilities, not probabilities; yet ought we
to be thankful to a common green bottle, even
for being instrumental in suggesting such
thoughts.

CHIPS

READY WIT.

As an instance of a correspondent who
thoroughly understands a joke, and possesses
a quick wit and a happy comprehension, we
cannot resist the temptation that is upon us
to print the following genuine letter:

"Sir,—I happened this afternoon to take
up the last number of your Household Words,