Seas and Lands. Reprinted by permission of the Proprietors of the 'Daily Telegraph' from letters published under the title 'By Sea and Land' in that journal ... With illustrations

Front matter

SEAS AND LANDS 25aU*ntpnr £>W» BALI.ANTVNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON Frontispiece. our garden at azabl Seas and Lands REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF THE PROPRIETORS OF THE " DAILY TELEGRAPH " FROM LETTERS PUBLISHED UNDER THE TITLE "BY SEA AND LAND" IN THAT JOURNAL BY SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A., K.C.I. E., C.S.I. AUTHOR OF "THE LIGHT OF ASIA," ETC. ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEAV YORK: 15 EAST 16"' STREET 1 89 1 All rights reserved TO MY DAUGHTER, KATHARINE LILIAN ARNOLD, THE DEAR COMPANION OP MY WANDERINGS, XLbeee ffmges ARE DEDICATED. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAOE I. IN MID-OCEAN . . . . . . . I II. THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE 1 6 III. MONTREAL AND TORONTO 28 IV. NIAGARA 41 V. AMERICAN SOIL 58 VI. MEN AND CITIES 7' VII. BOSTON 84 VIII. HARVARD . 97 IX. OCEAN TO OCEAN 'IO X. SAN FRANCISCO l-7 XI.

THE PACIFIC . . . ■ . • ■ J4' XII. JAPAN '5° XIII. A JAPANESE CITY '73 XIV. RURAL JAPAN . • ■ • • . l86 XV. TEMPLES AND SHRINES 2°4 XVI. POETRY AND PLAYS 2I° XVII. A JAPANESE DINNER 23° XVIII. THE RANGE OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE . . . -244 XIX. SAKE AND TEA 258 XX. AT HOME .' 27' XXI. NATURE AND ART 2QI XXII. COURT AND COMMERCE 3°7 XXIII. THE JAPANESE HEARTH 321 XXIV. "KWAJl! KWAJI ! 337 XXV. DAILY LIFE 347 XXVI. MILITANT JAPAN CONTENTS. VIII CHAP PA"E XXVII. JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS 37° XXVIII. JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS (continued) . . . 380 XXIX. A JAPANESE EXHIBITION 393 XXX. THE JAPANESE SHAMPOOER 403 XXXI. A DAY IN FLOWERLAND 41 I XXXII. A JAPANESE HEALTH RESORT 420 XXXIII. THE DAY OP THE DEAD IN JAPAN .... 43O XXXIV. A JAPANESE LOVE-STORY 437 XXXV. ASCENT OF FUJI-SAN ....... 448 XXXVI. IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 464 XXXVII.

EASTERN FORTITUDE 474 XXXVIII. AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MIKADO .... 483 XXXIX. THE FIRST ASIATIC PARLIAMENT 494 XL. HOMEWARD BOUND 507 INDEX .... ro, |jj./ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE PAGE Our Garden at Azabu . Frontispiece The Hara-Kiri .... 222 Washington : The Capitol . 58 The Samisen .... 224 AVashington : The avhite House 62 At a Private Dinner . . . 23^ Philadelphia University . . 72 After the Banquet . . . 238 Philadelphia : Independence Hall 74 The Lotus of Buddhism . 256 Bringing Sake . . ... 258 New York : Elevated Railwat . 78 Tea and Tobacco 266 New York : Stewart's Store 80 Tea and Music .... 268 Boston : City Hall ... 84 Light Refreshment . .271 San Francisco .... 128. The Bath-house .... 280 The Hatoba and Grand Hotel. Yokohama . . . .158 AV" ashing 284 A Temple Gate .... 307 Yokohama 160 Road to Odawara . 310 The Musume ("And on her A Japanese Lady . . . 163 A Maid Servant .... 164 HEAD," &C.) . .321 Fuji-San 168 A Japanese Garden . -411 The One Hundred and One Steps 170 Japanese Coolies wearing Mino 449 The Castle Moat, Tokio . . 173 A Country AAtoman : Fuel and Japanese Children . . 176 Flowers .... 464 Rice Fields 193 A Bamboo Grove . 469 The Jinrikisha . 483 Temples at Shiba . . .197 The Red Bridge, Nikko 204 Ceylon, Colombo .... 520 Danjiro the Actor . . 220 Suez Canal 522 The American views are reproduced by permission from Photographs by Messrs. I. Frith d- Co. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Chapter I. In Mid Ocean

South-westerly squalls and blinding sheets of rain, relieved occasionally by gleams of pale, umvilling sunshine, were troubling the busy tide-way of the Mersey when we embarked, on Thursday, August 22, at Liverpool, for Quebec and Montreal. Those who take this very interesting route to the American Continent forego the swift passages made to New York by the great racing vessels Avhich fly across in little over six days. On the other hand, the traject from land to land by the St. LaAvrence line occupies only five days — at least Avith anything like fair weather — and at its termination there is, further, the delightful voyage up the great Canadian river, some 700 or 800 miles of quiet and picturesque navigation. True, also, upon this Canadian track, should the nights be dark, there is always some risk from icebergs in and about Belleisle Straits, and a certain amount of anxiety must haunt the captain, if, as is generally the case, fogs cover the Gulf of the St. A LaAvrence.

But during the summer and early autumn months the attractions of the Dominion route are pre-eminent, and our good ship Avas full to the last berth Avith Transatlantic tourists returning from the Paris Exhibition, with homeAvard-bound Canadians, and emigrants. On a fine and Avell-found steamer these lastmentioned people no longer suffer as in the old bad days of sailing ships. Yet they still go through so much misery of all sorts that one marvels how some among them ever plucked up courage for the adventure. They come on board, croAvded together in the steam tender, like the herds of red and black oxen Avhich are seen crossing from Birkenhead to Liverpool, or vice versd, in those capacious cattleboats Avith the bluff boAvs. Frightened women, tearful children, and moody men — nobody Avould suppose them to be modern Pilgrim Fathers — were starting to fill up the waste fields of a mighty empire, and to make, with luck and industry, their fortunes.

Nobody cheers them with music or any sign of public approval and encouragement. They look as melancholy and uncared-for as the doomed cattle ; and might almost be going to as tragic a destiny. In ancient Greece the intending colonists marched doAvn to the sea's edge with pipes and dances, the " Prytanis " going proudly first with the sacred fire from the municipal earth, girls bearing floAvers and foliage, and boys portions of the paternal soil, Avhile libations and offerings Avere joyously made to Deities of Land and Water. No painter or poet could elicit any gay Greek colour or grace of hope and gladness out of these dejected and dis jointed groups, unless it Avere from the Scandi navian contingent, which seemed cleaner, brighter, and more composed than the Irish, Scotch, and English. These, especially the Celts, melt into pathetic hopeless grief when the hour, of parting arrives ; and truly it Avas a sorrowful time for many among them when, heavily as the. chill showers fell, there were more tears than rain-drops on their faces.

One kneAv, besides, that there was so much coming for them to suffer upon the rough sea, and in the unaccustomed ship-life. The Mersey was all grey and Avhite with wind-lashed waves as the anchor was got up and the creAv hauled in the gangway away from the puffing, snorting steam tender. It looked, indeed, as if evil weather Avas brewing for us all outside the bar. War being at the moment raging between Admirals Tryon and Baird, the Cyclops and Gorgon, coast-defence ships, lay in the river guarding the seven wealthy miles of Liverpool docks from the arrogant invader, Avith the aid of a flotilla of torpedo-boats. Even these, hoAvever, were all moored high up the fairway, avoiding the stress of the Avet and wild south westerly gale outside. Yet it proved not nearly so bad at first for the emigrants as might have been expected.

Down to Crosby Light the estuary was sufficiently protected, and, running out for the south end of the Isle of Man and toAvards the north passage betAveen Ballycastle and the Mull of Cantyre, the Avind softened a little, and the great steamer— too heavy with coal and cargo to yield much to the short billoAvs — made no very formidable movements. Grievous, of course, was the havoc which sea-sickness, folloAving upon soitoav, wrought even thus upon the poor emigrant families. Children were soon prostrate, mothers reduced to limp maternal help lessness, and fathers sometimes not greatly better. But there Avere no Avaves breaking over the vessel to soak them to the skin — they had all good shelter from cold and spray under the after-deck, and in the morning had gained a little respite from their first hard sea lesson, as we threaded a passage under the heights of Slieve Slaght and the basaltic crags of Dunaff Head, entering Lough Swilly to pick up the Londonderry mails.

" Green," truly, as any emerald, does Erin appear to one who passes up this northernmost inlet of the island, between Coleraine and Donegal. On the western side of the lough many pretty mansions and villas, all snoAv white, deck the verdant wood lands and hanging meadows. Inland rise the Scalp Mountain and Mamore Pass on the left, and on the right the Knockalla Hills, and, far off and massive, the Glendowan and Derryveagh Ranges, overhanging Mulvoy Bay and Milford, where Lord Leitrim was murdered. The anchorage for mail steamers is far aAvay from Londonderry, but Lough SAvilly, which leads thither, naturally calls to mind the famous siege of the city in 1689, Avhen the Irish army of King James, under Rosen and Hamilton beleaguered the place during more than one hundred days, but could not force the gallant Protestant garrison to succumb, although famine and pestilence Avere their close allies, and the traitorous Lundy, Avho was the Governor of the city, attempted to sell the gates.

That post, as all have read, was taken out of his false hands by a renoAvned and valiant parson, the Rev. George Walker, Rector of Donaghmore, whose courage and piety preserved the faithful Derry. Up these waters proceeded to her rescue those stout merchantmen of Kirke's relieving fleet, the Phœnix and Mountjoy, Avhich, filled Avith stores, broke through the chains and booms placed across the Foyle, and brought comparative abundance to Londonderry, and despondency, ending in despair, to the besieging forces. The blockade was thus triumphantly ended on July 30, 1689; and a volume in the ship's library supplies to hand the eloquent passage in Avhich Macaulay writes of the famous siege and fortunate relief. " Five generations," says his History of England, " have passed away, and still the wall of Londonderry is to the Protestants of Ulster what the trophy of Marathon Avas to the Athenians.

A lofty pillar, rising from a bastion which bore during many Aveeks the heaviest fire of the enemy, is seen far up and down the Foyle. On the summit is the statue of Walker, such as when, in the last and most terrible emergency, his elo quence roused the fainting courage of his brethren. In one hand he grasps a Bible ; the other, pointing down the river, seems to direct the eyes of his famished audience to the English topmasts in the distant bay. Such a monument Avas Avell deserved ; yet it was scarcely needed ; for, in truth, the whole city is to this day a monument of the great deliver ance. The Avail is carefully preserved, nor Avould any plea of health or convenience be held by the inhabitants sufficient to justify the demolition of that sacred enclosure which, in the evil time, gave shelter to their race and their religion."

"The summit of the ramparts forms a pleasant Avalk. The bastions have been turned into little gardens. Here and there among the shrubs and flowers may be seen the old culverins Avhich scattered bricks cased with lead among the Irish ranks. One antique gun, the gift of the Fishmongers of London, was dis tinguished during the 105 memorable days by the loudness of its report, and still bears the name of 'Roaring Meg.' The cathedral is filled with relics and trophies. In the vestibule is a huge shell — one of many hundreds Avhich Avere thrown into the city. Over the altar are still seen the French flagsta\res taken by the garrison in a desperate sally ; the Avhite ensigns of the House of Bourbon have long been dust, but their place has been supplied by neAv banners, the work of the fairest hands of Ulster.

The anniversary of the day on which the gates were closed, and the anniversary of the day on which the siege was raised, have been doAvn to our own time celebrated by salutes, processions, banquets, and sermons. Lundy has been executed in effigy, and the sword said by tradition to be that of Maumont has, on great occasions, been carried in triumph." How is it possible that a race with such memories could ever alloAv themselves to be governed from Dublin, or to take laws and to bear taxation at the hands of the less industrious and less educated moiety of the Irish community 1 The mails duly arrived, and were brought alongside in the tossing steam-tug ; the anchor Avas got up out of the waters rendered so illustrious by the fortitude and patriotism of Ulstermen, and our good ship screAved her way forth from Lough SAvilly, and, rounding Fanad Head, coasted for awhile along by "Frenchman's Rocks," and the huge cliffs of Horn Head, Avhich toAver 620 feet above the restless surf, to the sound running betAveen Tory Island and the promontory which bears the emphatic title of "The Bloody Foreland."

The black rocks of that evil-named cape, and the high white lighthouse on the isle, which has christened a great historical party, were the last landmarks for us of Ireland. If it be forbidden "to speak disrespectfully of the Equator," prudence must combine with politeness to repress any expressions of discontent or disgust at an ocean. While you are writing you are its waif and stray. Otherwise it Avould be a positive relief to the voyager imprisoned upon the dull, disconsolate, and inhospitable surface of this sub-Arctic sea to utter but a small part of the personal feelings with Avhich its gloomy violence and hideous lack of life and colour and its bitter blasts of spiteful, icy Avind, fill his mind. Justly did Lord Beaconsfield dub it a " melancholy ocean," and ascribe to its dreary contiguity most of the troubles of tearful Erin.

A man must be, indeed, fond to passion of the sea if he can take pleasure in passing over such a cold, leaden-hued, sullen, sleepless, wild, and wind scourged expanse as stretches, screams, foams, rolls, and rages round the ship Avhere these far from un measured Avords are being written. If the wet and chilly gale does not bloAv right ahead, pelting the pale waves against the steamer's stem, so that her whole vast Aveight of 5300 tons comes every minute squattering doAvn into the inky Avaste, churning it into green and Avhite sea-cream for furlongs, then that same hard, cold wind shifts a point or two nortfiAvards or southwards, so as to sweep one side or the other of the deck bare of shivering and staggering passengers. The inky waves dance high on either side, as if to see how we like it, but instantly have their crests lopped off and torn into spindrift by the wind, and sent in clouds of thin salt mist astern.

Black are these billoAvs, not "darkly, deeply, beautifully blue," as the ocean out of soundings should be ; for the steamer has now gone clear of that long gradual slope of the sea bottom Avhich stretches out 230 miles from Ireland, and Avhich only falls six feet in the mile throughout all the distance. She has, indeed, logged nearly 1000 knots by this time, and there must be two or three miles of salt water under her keel, yet the ugly, wind-lashed, weltering North Atlantic keeps its sad leaden-hued look, vainly hissing and hoAvling, as it Avere, at the brave pro gress of our stout steamship. Not that the weather is so very particularly bad for such an ocean. Our excellent captain merely enters it day after day as " strong head winds and heavy sea." Old hands at crossing say that the passage is, indeed, rather a fair one for the latter part of August, and the ship accomplishes each tAventy-four hours her 320 miles on an average.

Christopher Columbus Avould never have had the desire to traverse a sea like that which has wallowed and spumed under us from the Bloody Foreland to the present longitude, where the quartermaster is dipping the thermometer overboard, to see if the Polar current has yet been reached. The ocean seen, and conquered for its beauty and light and mystery by the grand Genoese, was that bright expanse Avhich stretches in majesty and splendour from the sunny coast of Cadiz ; and carries the glory of the orb "West from Numancos and Bayona's hold " to the lovely Antilles and the lively Caribbean main. That Avas the vast Avater originally named after the golden Atlas Range, and the graceful Atlantides, the immortal Ladies of the Wave : not this mournful, waste, desolate, and sailor-hating wilderness of Avild grey crests and wandering winds, Avhich pinch and scourge the faces of the poor emigrants, and freeze the Avarmest blood, and flap spray and coal smoke into the eyes, and make the chairs of many fair passengers dis mally vacant at table, dinner after dinner.

Our emigrants are particularly touching. The men, and some of the children, have found their sea legs, but many of the women still remain limp and listless bundles of spray-soaked gowns and Avraps, cowering into the corners Avhere the wind can perse cute them least. They Avill never find the heart to come back over this murky waste until they have made fortunes, and can take cabin berths like ladies, and have beef-tea brought to them at all hours by attentive stewardesses. If anything like reckless terms have been employed above about the ugliness, the cruelty, and the stupid sombre violence of the North Atlantic, it Avas chiefly because of the brutal and bitter way in which it has added to the sorrows of these simple and honest exiles. They are of all sorts and conditions as regards place of origin, and will look better, no doubt, ashore, Avith their hair no longer blown about like toAv, and their hands and faces, which have been unwashed for days, restored to decent cleanliness.

The sea has taken, for the moment, all the coquetry and smartness out of even the Irish lasses. One of the SAvedish maidens has tied her white pigtail up Avith a rope-yarn, the rude gale having stolen her cherry-coloured ribbon. A Belgian matron, too miserable to be particular, wore one stocking blue and one green yesterday, and her children will evidently not see soap and water until the St. Lawrence is reached. Yet it was exemplary to note hoAv the Methodists and Moravians among this suffering and self-banished croAvd picked up their self-respect and courage, and shook off the depressing demon of mal de truer on Sunday afternoon, Avhen an improvised service of hymns and prayer was held by some clergymen upon the main deck. One by one, all, except the most dilapidated and forlorn, drew toAvards the little congregation, standing bareheaded under the driving sea-clouds.

The voice of him who read the supplications, and pronounced a brief discourse to his some what shattered batch of empire-builders, could hardly be caught, except occasionally, in the gusts of chill wind. But Avhen an enthusiastic worshipper, with an accordion, made his instrument give forth the tune of " Shall we gather at the River?" all seemed to know it, and struck in Avith a chorus as sweet as it was dauntless, Avhich fairly vanquished the unkind wind and uncivil howling billows — so that from end to end of the great steamship one could hear the voices of these men and women — nay, even of the children, heaped about on the tarpaulins, all raising together the pious refrain of hope and faith. "Yes!" rang out the chorus, " we'll gather at the River — the Golden River! that flows by the Throne of God."

A gentle lady, leaning upon the rail overhead, and watching this service of praise performed in dis regard of the elements, dropped kindly tears under the stress of tender and human thoughts inspired by the spectacle of adventurous hearts united for one exalted moment in an ecstasy of belief. Assuredly Sophocles Avas right when he said, " Many things are wonderful— but none is so Avonderful as man." Coming past the Bloody Foreland we were in danger of being made captives of Avar. We Avere chased for a time by one of the armed cruisers from Admiral Baird's fleet. The pursuing vessel had very much the appearance of the Calypso, and put out to catch and capture us from behind Tory Island. But she AAras a long Avay to leeAvard Avhen she first sighted the steamer ; which, albeit no racing liner, can easily do her fourteen knots ; so, after an angry spurt of half-an-hour, during Avhich she could not come Avithin cannon range, as Ave would not heave-to, and as " a stern chase is ahvays a long chase," our enemy put his helm doAvn and let us go on our watery road in peace.

Two whales, bloAving afar off, diversify for an hour the immense monotony of this heaving black wilderness of waters, over Avhich a chilling and detestable north-westerly breeze is now fast turn ing into a positive gale. They are not quite the only visible inhabitants of the dark sphere on which we float, for every day we see playing round the ship and skimming up and down the Avave holloAvs, companies of lovely little terns and sea swallows, the latter no larger than thrushes. These fearless people of the waste have not by any means followed us from the land, living, as gulls often will, on the Avaste throAvn from the vessel. They are vague and casual roamers of the ocean, who, spying the great steamship from afar, have sailed close up, to see if we are a rock or an island, and Avill then skim away again on their own free and boundless business.

Yonder tiny bird with purple and green plumage, his little breast and neck laced with silver, is distant a thousand miles at this moment from a drop of fresh water, and yet cares no more for that fact than did the Irish squire Avho " lived twelve miles from a lemon." If his wings ever grow weary it is but to settle quietly on the bosom of a great billow and suffer it for a time to rock and roll him amid the hissing spindrift, the milky flying foam, and the broken sea-lace, Avhich forms, and gleams, and disappears again upon the dark slopes. When he pleases, a stroke of the small red foot and a beat of the wonderful wing launch him off from the jagged edge of his billoAv, and he flits past us at 100 knots an hour, laughing steam and canvas to scorn, and steering for some nameless crag in Labrador or Fundy, or bound, it may be, homeward for some island or marsh of the far-away Irish coast.

Marvellously expressive of power as is our untiring engine, which all day and all night throbs and pants and pulses in noisy rhythm under the deck, what a clumsy imperfect affair it is compared to the dainty plumes and delicate muscles which will carry that pretty, fearless sea-swallow back to his roost. Our steamer is to make the land at Belleisle, entering the Straits betAveen Labrador and New foundland, and, after passing through these, will cross the Gulf of St. LaAvrence, and thread for 700 or 800 miles the great river of the Dominion. This land-fall and the approach by the Belleisle Straits are held dangerous by all navigators because of fogs and icebergs Avhich are constantly encountered there together. A A-essel of the line — the Montreal — Avas quite lately cast aAvay on the rocks of the Straits, and our admirable and very popular skipper, Captain Lindall, will be all to-night on the bridge, and all to-morroAv night also, conning his ship and taking heed for the 800 sleeping folk Avho make her a small floating town.

Rolling and toss ing on this gloomy, chilly, and unlovely ocean day after day, there must be few amongst our company Avho do not by this time long to see the light gleaming at Belleisle — icebergs or no icebergs. To morrow, if the sea-gods favour, we shall be in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But let it not be imagined for a moment that the unfriendly gales and uncomfortable rollers have suppressed the spirit of making the best of things Avhich is common to the Anglo-Saxon blood, Avhether it flows in British or American, or "Blue-Nose" veins. The North Atlantic has not prevented — except very occasionally — our resolute promenading on the deck, our concerts in the saloon, our games at quoits and deck shuffle-board, nor the alternating hymns and Avaltzes of the pilgrim fathers, sisters, cousins, aunts, &c, who throng the after part of the ship.

And if it be thought that we starve, because " the stormy Avinds do bloAv," here is the dinner menu for one day of the voyage, Avhen it was really a hard north easter, with a driving sea, and the " fiddles " were on every table : — August 24. — Soups — Julienne, mutton broth. Fish — Cod and oyster sauce. Entrees — Stewed kidneys, haricot ox tail, fricassee rabbit. Joints — Roast beef and horse radish, roast lamb and mint sauce, roast turkey and cranberry sauce, roast goose and apple sauce, boiled mutton and caper sauce, boiled fowl and parsley sauce. Entremets — Ox tongue and vegetables. Vegetables — Boiled and baked potatoes, green peas, vegetable marrow. Pastry — Sago pudding, apple, plum, and rhubarb pies, rock cakes. Dessert — Plums, pears, melons, grapes, oranges. Coffee. Some apology is, moreover, now due to the North Atlantic, for, as the brave ship has drawn nearer the American shores, the Avild Aveather has greatly relaxed, and the dark waves have run in pleasanter measure, and with more grace of colour, under a sky not wholly without patches of azure and gleam ings of sunshine ; so that society on board has largely resumed its gaiety and content, and both forward and aft we are all inclined to forgive the " many-sounding sea." In Mid-Atlantic, Aug. 26, 1889.

Chapter II. The Gulf Of St

LAWRENCE. "Ice on the starboard bow!" The watch on the forecastle sang this out early in the day before our steamer made the Belleisle Lights, and many on board had then their first opportunity of beholding that lovely but terrible peril of the sea— a floating ice berg. This particular specimen glimmered on the distant surface like a huge sea-beryl, with a pale greenish gloAv, and Avas perhaps as large as Salisbury Cathedral, Avith five or six times as much bulk below Avater as what was visible. Near to it floated some smaller hummocks and pieces of floe— the avant garde of the frosty flotilla which might now be expected upon our path. Save for this danger of icebergs, and of the fogs which too frequently beset the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it is per fectly evident to any competent observer that this route Avould become not only a favourite highAvay to the New World, but Avould formidably and per manently threaten the popularity of the direct roads pursued by other lines.

The icebergs are a great draAvback, and they are unfortunately most to be expected in those summer months when alone the navigation is open. The first heats of the brief but hot Arctic sunshine set in rapid motion the glaciers of Labrador and Greenland. These vast storehouses of gathered and con solidated snow glide to the edge of the tremendous ice-precipices of the Winter Lands, and, falling over them in monstrous masses, crash into the deep Avater with shocks which send thunder-peals through the still Polar air, and perturb the ocean far and near with rolling waves. Then, committed by so awful a launch to the southward - going currents, the great broken glittering mass goes solemnly sailing away in the unwonted sunshine. As it floats, the water, warmer than the air, melts its loAver portion gradually, and detached pieces also fall from the visible part, until equilibrium becomes destroyed, and the colossal block capsizes with a second shock, startling the ocean for leagues around.

But a vast number of these bergs are flat, and there are, besides, immense detached fields or floes Avhich carry on their surface, without upsetting, boulders of rock, and mud, and detritus, scraped up by the cosmic chisels of the ice, and these, it is believed by many geologists, have borne from the Frozen circle, and deposited on the banks of Newfoundland, the vast deposits Avhich have created those extensive shallows — the feeding ground of fish, and the breeding place of mists. The loftier bergs drive slowly doAvn inside and outside the Gulf of St. LaAvrence, and haunt it with phantoms of destruction. Very weird, indeed, it is to catch, in the rays of the stars or new moon, or in the faint tAvilight B never absent from the rim of the sea, that pallid ghostly glare, as dim as a corpse-light, Avhich draws from the look-out man this sudden cry of "Ice on the Aveather bow."

The distant aspect is as though a gleam of greenish phosphorescence shot, afar off, from the ocean-depths ; but very soon, the gaunt and glittering berg displays its splintered pinnacles and ledges of snow-clad crystals, and shoAvs its fantastic shape full to the mariner. The clouds take no such variety of forms with which to engage the imagination. Sometimes it seems a sea-temple of sculptured ice which floats by, all complete with dome, and porch, and arcliAvays. Sometimes it is of haystack outline, as if the spirits of the Pole had been harvesting their glassy crop of Avinter. Sometimes you might swear it was a full-rigged ship frozen to white death, or a fortress of the impregnable north, cut adrift from the Arctic ramparts. But, met with in the darkness, and not, perhaps, perceived until the glare of the ship's lamps is reflected back from its stealthy and silent onset, what peril can be more deadly ?