barred and guarded harems, and by quiet
cemeteries with their turbaned dead. By the
tomb of the Lesbian admiral, Barbarossa, the
conqueror of Algiers; and past the palace of
Sardanapalus.  Past diplomatic Therapia and
cockney Bujukdère. So out into the Black
Sea, as the moon rises mournfully and mistily.

The captain, a gaunt, melancholy Don
Juan, I see, has been alarmed by the recent
accidents: so have we; and therefore it
is with some inward satisfaction—though we
would scorn to express it—that we see he is
making all taut and trim in case of sudden
storm in the night. Some light skirmishing
clouds to the northward look rather like
mischief; but suppose we go down stairs and
have some supper? We shall find, to be sure,
nothing but a powerful species of cheese.
But even that is better than nothing;
and a short pipe, with some brandy and
water afterwards, will quite warm our noses,
which are cold, and I am sorry to say have
been so for some time.

And here I wish to improve the occasion,
by hinting to the docile traveller that one of
the most dangerous things he can allow to
occur to himself in Turkey, is in any way to
get chilled. I would also suggest that the
nose, especially if long, is an excellent natural
thermometer, always at hand when you like
to touch it. Now, if the temperature of the
nose be colder than that of the finger under
ordinary circumstances—if it tingles or
misconducts itself in any way whatsoever—the
possessor of that nose, if a judicious man and
willing to be guided by the counsels of
experience, will immediately warm it either by
active exercise or by means of the most zealous
anti-teetotal remedies. I personally am
inclined to advise the latter method, supposing
the said proprietor of the said nose to have
already tired himself on the slippery deck ot
a Varna steamer, and being otherwise
disposed for rest, as we were.

We passed Burgash in the night, and were
dashing away merrily enough over waters
hardly disturbed by a ripple when I woke in
the morning. I was first up of our party;
and so I ought to have been, for I had slept
in far more agreeable quarters. They had
retired uncomplainingly to the dismal little
holes in the wall which the steward had
obligingly pointed out to them. I, on the
contrary, had taken that functionary aside,
and held sweet converse with him; till he
was thereby induced to make me up a
very little bed on one of the sofas in the
great cabin, where I had more leg and elbow
room, with better smells; though I am
bound to confess that the odour of the
powerful cheese we had had for supper was
perceptible during a part of the night—say till I
got used to it, and went to sleep.

We had a pretty good breakfast, the
steamer cook being a deacon of his craft;
ham, fish, beefsteaks, caviar, macaroni, and
the sort of things it requires a traveller's
appetite to put under his waistcoat at ten
o'clock in the morning. The steamer library
was also remarkably good and very
well chosen. There were just the kind
of books that give spice and zest to a
journey in a half civilised country. Cooper,
Scott, Washington Irving (the kindest,
gentlest, most amusing of all the rovers that
have ever written). There were also Leake's
Travels in Greece, and the transactions of
some German antiquarian society, for those
fond of solid things when sea-sick.

I do not know that anything occurred
during our voyage worth notice, except that
we met with immense flocks of migratory
wild ducks bearing with quivering flight and
outstretched bills away for the marshes of
Bulgaria and the Principalities. We had a
discussion with one of the officers about our
fare, however. I note it, because the same
thing has occurred to me before on these
Lloyd's boats, and cries loudly for notice. We
had neglected from want of time to take our
passage at Constantinople, and consequently
had to pay on board. The officer, an ill-
conditioned fellow, if there ever was one,
determined to turn this circumstance to account,
and mulcted us of precisely two shillings in
every Turkish pound above the legal exchange
at Varna or Constantinople. This wants sadly
looking into; and therefore it is well to be
explicit, and add that the officer, whose
misconduct was very gross, was not one
of the stewards, who are apt enough
to do such things, but one of the superior officers
appointed by the Company. It has been
objected to these kind of details that they
show something like a settled intention to
complain. Well, so be it, a traveller who
only complains of things really complainable
cannot complain too much. The fact is, few
people will take the trouble to complain, and
therefore folks should be the more obliged to
those who will.

It is said that Varna has about it a dirtiness
peculiarly its own, but I incline rather
to the opinion that it is merely Turkish dirtiness,
and that there is nothing whatever
remarkable about this little military hothouse.
We landed not without some difficulty
and danger. The note of military preparation
was pealing everywhere. Officials
belonging to the commissariat, and unused
to riding, were holding on to the
pommels of their new saddles, and jogging
about uncomfortably in many directions.
Officers were conversing in groups and
in astounding uniforms, supposed to
to be that of the body guard of his majesty
the King of Candy, in whose service they had
been, and from whom they had obtained
all sorts of impossible ranks and decorations.
I never saw so many colonels and
generals at once in all my born days.

It was pleasant to see many a rollicking
Irishman or canny lad from beyond the
Tweed, who had obtained an introduction