snow petrel. It is said to breed on the New Shetlands in the South Pacific, and to rear its young in the snow. The upper part of its body and wings are grey, and white under.

December 7. - We now see more than a dozen birds of the albatross kind; if not of different species it must be, as I have before stated, difference in age that causes so great a variety in size and colour; some being not apparently more than four feet, whilst others are eight or ten feet across the wings; some purely white-others brown-and some nearly black,

One of these birds was shot in the morning, and another wounded and left to die a lingering death on the water. There is wanton cruelty and waste of life in this useless, aimless slaughter of creatures which you cannot obtain. Should any evil consequences follow the sacrilegious murder of the "bird of good omen," there will not be wanting many of our mariners to know whence our miseries are derived. It is a superstitious weakness akin to good. The Christian and the poetical philosophy of the New Testament and of Wordsworth, came strongly into my mind, of the sparrow not falling to the ground disregarded :-and of

"The Spirit that is in the boundless air,

That is in the green leaves among the groves,
Maintains a deep and reverential care

For the unoffending creatures whom he loves."

A dim Coleridgean superstitious feeling came over me, when in the afternoon our calm breezy heavens were hung widely with a dark and stormy drapery of clouds; and also when, shortly after, the wind got up, and we were enveloped, for a short time by a misty rain squall. It seemed that

"Suffering nature grieved that one should die."

A large black whale was seen by us in the afternoon; five or six birds, called whale-birds, making their appearance at the same time. They are about the size of the turtle-dove; in voice and shape they much resemble the swallow.

One of them settled on the point of the flying-jib-boom, and although several times driven thence by seamen attempting to catch it, it always returned to the same place. It is a very pretty and friendly bird. Its body is white, its tail forked, its head nearly black, its bill and legs dark-orange. It lingered with till the dusk, then disappeared. What with this bird. the whale, many species of petrel, the number and constant flitting to and fro of the albatrosses; and the coming hurry-skurry

us

about the prow of the ship of a rampant, leaping, racing shoal of porpoises-we were kept, during most of the day, in a state of lively excitement. Lat. 35° 48′ S., long. 10o 35′ W.

December 8.-Our fifteenth Sunday on the ocean. Public religious service was observed on board for a few sabbaths only, beginning with the first Sunday after the storm in the English Channel. To me it seemed the piety of fear; and with the sense of danger, the form of piety vanished. Many of the whalebirds have been twittering and chuckling about the rigging, and settling on the yards. They must be birds of a shore-haunting genus, that have followed the whale too far out, seaward, they have so much the appearance of weariness. There seems to me ample scope, a wide field for the naturalist, amongst the birdtribes of the ocean; especially in the vast expanses of the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Nor would it be unpleasant to have a vessel at one's command on a mission of the kind. Of course, our merchantmen never turn a jot out of their way, or linger a moment, to obtain any object scientifically interesting or valuable. Nor, indeed, though it seems hard to us, ought it to be expected; and indeed,

"How should these money-bags see east and west?"

For a day, the wind driving us westward, we were making for Tristan D'Acunha, the residence of Governor Glasse and his small community; but changing again, we leave it to the south

west.

we are making up for it.

Wednesday and Thursday we made little progress; yesterday and to-day vo-day We are now in lat. S. 36° 2', long. W. 7° 34′. At noon we were visited by the largest porpoises we have yet seen; the kinds, sizes and colours, are

various.

In the distance, to the north-east, a vessel is seen. If a whaler, as we suppose by its lying-to, it is occupied with a whale recently caught.

December 9.-Rough weather. One consolation we have in our dull ship; it is strong and tight, never leaking more than ten or eleven inches of water in the hold, even after a gale. This is well-and what is still better, our captain is, we made the discovery long ago; sober, active, anxious for the safety of the vessel and the crew; ever on the alert when there is the least appearance of danger; tenacious of his authority; as a sailor skilful, allowed to be so by those of the crew and passengers who know anything about the matter; and he has consequently the confidence of all on board; and as a man he is kind and gentlemanly.

The weather is now chill enough for an English autumn; but perhaps this feeling we are indebted for to tropical latitudes. We owe to the southern icebergs the cold of winds which are blowing thence. West longitude 4°.

December 10.- Five whales seen.

The sea a lively animated

picture. Inspirited by the weather, I wrote

UPON THE OCEAN GOD IS NEAR.

Upon the ocean God is near-
The wing of the Most High,
In calm and storm, a gracious form,
Broods over sea and sky.

His love is breathed in every wind,
His voice in every wave;

His life, His light, in the stormy might

Of ocean's billowy grave.

His bow of promise we behold,
As gorgeously arrayed
As when, amid a world destroyed,
'Twas first to man displayed.

His gentlest creatures, dove-like birds,
Rest on our wandering barque;
They seek our vessel as the dove
The life-preserving Ark.
The banner of his love, the sun,
Shines on us day by day;
His presence nightly in the moon
Illumes our watery way.

We cannot go where God is not
In goodness ever nigh;
Thus when we sleep upon the deep
We move before His eye.

This evening we passed the meridian of Greenwich, having come, driven on by strong winds, since yesterday 184 miles: good bye to the west longitudes! Our south latitude is 37° 40′. This part of the ocean belongs to the vast and almost illimitable "fishing grounds" of the southern hemisphere: consequently we have had about us nearly a dozen whales to-day; some of them near, and sending up abundantly their watery steam into the sky.

Our barque is seldom without the pleasant companionship of many and various aquatic birds; from the magnificent albatross to the little stormy petrel, a martin-like bird; or, as it is called by seamen, Mother Carey's chicken. The grey or snow petrel is more common now. There are many other species of the same genus. Of terns many kinds. The pretty dove-like whale-birds grow also more abundant.

December 11. Strong stormy winds: compelled to take in much canvas. What albatrosses we now see are nearly white. A large black bird, very like a domestic hen, seen; it is called the Capehen. A current sets in against us strongly in this part of the ocean from the south, so that when we seem going forward six knots an hour, we do not in reality advance more than four. To-day, as heretofore, our young passengers have amused themselves cruelly with shooting our confidential and beautiful visitors the whale-birds. "You wretches," exclaimed our chief mate; "you may depend on't you'll have a gale of wind for killing those birds, before you get to Launceston!" A graceful superstition protects the robin-redbreast; I wish the mate's denunciation might prevail to protect these. East longitude

3° 5'.

December 12.- We have not come all this way for nothing; there are now near us a kind of large fish called sea-devils. The very whales seem to shun us, on what account they can best judge. Wind variable, air cold.

December 13.-Cloudy and cold.

December 14. Many changes in wind and weather in a little time: sails furled, then shook out again: one moment the day bright and warm, then dark and rainy. Although it is summer time, on the sea the air is cold. In the tropics the thermometer ranged from 80° to 96°. Here it is seldom lower than 60°, or higher than 66°. On land the reflection would be stronger, and it would be consequently much warmer, if not intolerably hot.

We have had for more than a week a long rolling swell from the west and south-west. The motion of the ship is intolerable. Up we go, and down again, rocking and rolling. Long. 11° 40′ E., lat. S. 37° 30′.

December 15.-On land there is a chime of sabbath bells in most Christian lands, and here upon the waters wide and deep there may be piety and worship, but it is without any outward indication. Silence seems the universal principle; nor can solitude and silence find a more absolute empire for their sovereignty than the ocean. E. long. 13° 30′.

December 16.-Lastevening thesky presented the most wonderful appearance; the shapes, the whole character and colouring of the sky and clouds at sunset, must certainly have been peculiar to this latitude of the southern hemisphere. Such azure clouds, and purple, clouds the usual colour of the sky itself, whilst the cope of heaven was purple above, and round the horizon to some height it was a pale green, and in other places a reddish saffron, with here and there pale golden lines immediately next the sun, with other lines of the liveliest lake imaginable. Then the clouds all round the horizon had a gorgeous and various colouring; the cope of heaven being in fact all one rich sunset. This perpetual pageantry of the sky takes away considerably from the weariness and monotony of long ocean-wandering. Many and loud are the murmurers, who complain of many things which never trouble me. That of which I most complain is, during a long sea-voyage, the utter, grave-like ignorance in which we are kept as it regards intelligence of what is passing on land. We are dead to the world; severed from its various and thrilling interests. From port to port not to linger, not to visit us at sea, friendly intelligence is wafted on the wings of the wind. knows," I have sometimes said as a ship has gone by us, "but that vessel may bear within it news of life or death, grave or lively matter, food for smiles or tears; for others it must, and may for us."

"Who

On Sunday night at nine o'clock, leaning with the doctor over the ship's gangway, we speculated on the position of the ship; whether it was stationary, had a backward or a forward motion, so thoroughly did we seem becalmed. Now there is no doubt as to our progress. Then the heavens and the ocean were dark and silent as the grave. Now what a change! at six o'clock twenty sails fluttered in the breeze; in an hour's time ten of them have been taken in, and others reefed. The winds are up, and wail and whistle through the shrouds. The spray dashes over the bulwarks, intimating a fearful night.

December 17.-Soon after midnight the gale had somewhat abated, and the clouds blown separate in the heavens revealed through many a chasm myriads of stars burning brightly, and over the weather-bow of the vessel Venus large and lustrous; a most resplendent spectacle. To-day we are in 18° east longitude, in the longitude of Cape Town, to the south of it two degrees. In the morning we were becalmed, and a boat was lowered, partly that some of the passengers might have the pleasure of sailing about the ship, and also to take up some aquatic birds. Hitherto what had been shot had, with a few exceptions, fallen overboard, and been lost. Now they were enabled to procure some stormy petrels-a white-breasted petrel, somewhat like a lapwing; also

E