from the dock-side, before loud cries of
lamentation arose, not for parting friends,
—that sort of grief is reserved for less
genteel conveyances,—but for parcels mislaid,
and umbrellas left behind. Perspiring
passengers and porters held up their hands on
the quay, despairing for a moment, and then
disappearing to hire one of the wary boatmen,
who every week gather a fair harvest
from the great Too-late family. A short
quarter of an hour's gliding by the lovely
scenery of the Solent brought us alongside the
Bella Donna. The style of getting on board a
large steamer from a small steamer has
considerable advantages, both in dignity and
comfort, over the small boat and rope-ladder
system of emigrant ships; where, with a short sea
and wobbling boat, climbing up an unsteady
machine with efforts worthy of those of a
street mountebank, becomes the necessity of
passengers, without exception to age and sex;
all of whom "must climb who never climbed
before;" and not only climb, but hold on for
their lives. We were better off.

When the Mouse ran alongside the Bella
Donna, a sort of big door was opened in the
side of the latter (excuse want of nautical
knowledge), leading to the lower deck. The
court was ready ranged in rows, to receive its
king, the captain; on one side the officers in
blue uniforms and gold lace; on the other, a
selection from the crew, in white trousers and
blue Jerseys, with "Bella Donna" embroidered
in red on every chest. Among these
were two negroes, of the blackest, fuzziest
type; evidently impressed with the dignity
of their office and the unaccustomed magnificence
of their costume. After the captain, the
passengers followed pell-mell, and were
soon widely dispersed, the new voyagers
madly shrieking for the steward and stewardess.

Leaving them to their confusion, I mounted
to the deck; where, from bow to stern, a clear
promenade, long enough for exercise in a pony
chair, extended without break or step—a vast
improvement in comfort on the old style of
lofty picturesque poop. Man-of-war discipline
prevailed. The whiteness of the planks, the
neatness of every arrangement, must be something
frightful to the tobacco-chewing sections
of the one hundred and fifty passengers whose
acquaintance with dirt has been so close and so
protracted, that they have acquired an affection
for it. Two operations of a very different
character were going on simultaneously. On
one side passengers, escaped from the luggage
department, were busy, choosing their light
reading for the voyage from a parti-coloured
collection transplanted from a railway station;
—the stock of which had gone off with
extraordinary briskness. On the other, the captain
mustered his crew and engineers, a formidable
array; for the officers and crew made up more
than fifty; six engineers had under their
command twenty-four firemen, eighteen coal
trimmers, and a couple of mechanics. Stewards
and servants made up a round dozen,
beside a quarter of a hundred waiters to
minister to the wants of a hundred and fifty
passengers. As for the freight, besides two
hundred tons of stores to be consumed on
the voyage, and five hundred tons of cargo,
there were some thirteen hundred tons of
coal for the insatiable demands of the stoke-
holes.

From the quarter-deck, I made my way
amidships to look into the farm. I found it
well stocked. In separate pens, pigs grunted,
sheep chewed the cud; while fowls, ducks,
geese, and turkeys occupied long coops, in
marvellous profusion. There is no department
in which improvement is more needed
than in sea-going pens and coops. If every
sheep had its separate stall divided off by
stout open rails, and if the coops for poultry
were subdivided so as not to have more than
four or five in each division; if, in addition,
the grain-troughs were kept always full
of food, and a tin fountain of sufficient
size were attached to each water-trough,
a large per centage of the poultry now
destroyed during every voyage by over-crowding
and fighting for water, would be saved,
and all would be kept in good condition. Already
poultry mortality had begun to take place,
and the sheep, if they had been penned
separately, would have avoided many bruises,
without any loss of space.

From the stock-farm I descended to the
kitchen, without halting in the long luxuriant
dining-room, surrounded by softly-cushioned
sofas. The kitchen is a sort of cage of iron,
placed on the lower deck, nearly amidships;
there I had the pleasure of seeing the French
chef, a first-rate artist, attended by his
myrmidons at work,—and of learning how, within
a section scarcely twelve feet square, dinners of
many dishes worthy of the renowned artists of
the Boulevard Italien and Palais Royal,—could
be prepared, dished, and transferred to the
hands of the twenty-five waiters; who, in full
livery of blue coats with metal buttons, and
white continuations, perform the part of
genii of ancient story; and, at the appointed
signal—no matter whether rubbing a sonorous
ring, or ringing a bell— lay out the feast.
To appreciate the capabilities of mechanical
skill and cooking talents of a high order in
triumphing over confined space, and in defying
time, the steam kitchen of a steam-ship must
be visited. The commander-in-chief, like
Field-marshal Governor Crusoe, is monarch of
all he surveys. He plans the whole, but does
not disdain to execute details; thus, those
who have on one day luxuriated over his best
dish, a matelotte à la Macédoine, fricandeau
de poulet, a vol-au-vent, or a Mayonnaise
d'homard, may the next see him hard at
work chopping the vegetables destined to
form a delicious potage, with the rapidity
and neatness of a machine; while keeping
an eye on his ovens, his steamers, his
braisières, his boilers, and issuing curt
directions to his second in command.