last reached shore, where sailor with a rough ship's knife and rude surgical knowledge, saved his life by hacking off both legs at the knee, and here we find him moving cheerfully about on his stumps. The dry humour of the sailor, the contemplative habits life on ship board produces, and the wonderful simplicity which every sailor has in his composition, are exemplified powerfully in the decorations of the wards-occupations which the patients have been allowed to undertake for themselves. Your English sailor is very loyal : there are scores of evidences of this, and one of them, a white cross, wreath, and inscription to the memory of "Albert the good," is admirably done. Of course Nelson's famous motto is not forgotten, and equally of course, though the groundwork of scroll or flag may be white, or gold and silver leaf, the letters are true blue. In one small ward a German youth has decorated the entire room, and with a taste and skill amazing for a sailor lad. He enters to be complimented, and takes off his cap; then he remembers he has just had his head shaved smooth as a Dutch cheese, and claps the hat on again in hot haste. Very original is this boy. He went all the way to Jerusalem to learn English. In Hamburg, his native place, he heard other boys and occasionally travellers say that there was a good school there where English was taught. Thereupon, seizing his opportunity, he worked his passage from Hamburg to Alexandria, took ship to Jaffa, and induced the German Consul to forward him to the Holy City. And he evidently does not think there is anything remark able in this singular method of acquiring the English language. Without lingering further over the wards, with their hearts, anchors, crosses, and quotations on every hand, we may transcribe the composition of a poetical A.B., the names introduced being those of two medical officers of the hospital: May the efforts of our surgeons with success Lord crowned be. in prosperity or danger oh may they remember thee. Smith may plant and Glanville water may their lives on earth be honored then in Heaven rest in peace. The reader will scarcely be prepared to learn that this, the only National Seamen's Hospital we have, receives but a lukewarm support, and scarcely that from our large seaport towns. To utilize the 300 beds which the hospital accommodates, £5,000 per year is required; yet the annual subscriptions do not exceed £1,400, and the bulk of this comes from the city of London. Most of the European sovereigns have from time to time given donations, and the Khedive and the King of Burmah have by gifts recognized the claims of the hospital. It is almost incredible that the wealthy shipowners of Great Britain, whose men so largely partake of its advanta es, do not occasionally SHAKESPEARE'S CLIFF, DOVER. To the westward of the town, and separated from the heights by a deep valley, rises the lofty and majestic head of Shakespeare's Cliff, 350 feet above the surge that laves its sea-worn base. Its altitude has often been reduced by falls of cliff seaward, and therefore we may say that in Shakespeare's time its summit was considerably higher than at present. Shakespeare, in his tragedy of "King Lear," describes this towering precipice in the following lines : "Come on, sir; here's the place: stand still. How fearful trade! The crows and choughs that wing the midway air MISCELLANEOUS. RULER OF THE (CHANNEL) WAVES.Boyton, vice Britannia, superseded.— Punch LORD SHAFTESBURY AND OUR SAILORS.— At a meeting at Camberwell on behalf of the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society, presided over by the Earl of Shaftesbury, his lordship said: "This was a Society which would, he felt sure, commend itself to all their feelings, and which demanded all their sympathies. Indeed, he knew no class of men towards whom their interests should be more excited than towards these mariners, who were perpetually engaged upon our coasts, or traversing the seas upon their lawful vocation in her Majesty's navy or in the mercantile marine. These people had a peculiar class of temperament, they had strong tendencies and affections, and they had strong tendencies and religious feelings. (Applause.) It was unnecessary that he should remind them of the benefits the country generally derived from its mariners, and the dangers these mari. -Guide to Dover. ners faced. "Yes," added his lordship, Lord Shaftesbury went on to say that was remaining at home would make some provision for their children should they themselves be cast away on their long voyage. He believed that a large proportion of these men not only went to sea but to war, and undertook many of those duties and engagements, fortified by the conviction that there were tender and generous hearts in England who would not leave their widows and children to be cast upon the surface of society without showing them a sympathizing face, and extending to them a helping hand. He had had a great deal to do with sailors, and knew of no race who would make a greater return than they would for any sympathy and kindness manifested towards them. (Applause.) WIDOWS' PENSION FUND, R.N.-Some time ago a number of seamen and marines at Portsmouth held meetings to take into consideration the desirability of forming a club to provide a pension fund for their widows and orphans. The results of such meetings were submitted to the Admiralty, and the following cir. cular has been issued by their lordships: "With reference to the subject of the proposed fund for the widows and or. phans of seamen and Marines, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have been pleased to notify as follows, viz.: It is estimated, from the returns which have been received, that upwards of 22,000 men would be prepared to join the fund. It has been decided not to wait for the arrival of the returns which have been called for from the Pacific, East Indies, and China, but to refer the question at once for the opinion of an actuary, without which it would not be prudent to proceed further. My lords have consequently referred the whole matter to Mr. Finlaison, the actuary of the National Debt Commissioners, and have requested him. to report 1. Whether the payment of 6s. a-year by, say 22,000 men, would be sufficient to form a fund out of which pensions of £24 a-year could be awarded to widows, &c., as proposed. 2. If not, what subscription would be necessary to secure such benefits. 3. The utmost in the way of pension or gratuity which could be given to widows, &c., in consideration of a subscription of 6s. a-year, as proposed. The proposition to give one day's pay on joining the fund has also been referred to him. His report will be com. municated to the fleet and Marine divisions as soon as possible." THE PATRIOTIC FUND.-This fund, the produce of subscriptions begun in 1854, reached eventually the large amount of £1,460,861, and there have been upon the books nearly 10,000 widows and or. phans of soldiers and seamen. It appears from the report issued by the Commissioners, showing the state of the Fund at the end of the year 1873, that the sums expended upon its beneficent object to that date amounted to £1,303,386, and that the number of beneficiaries was diminished to less than 4,000, and the year's charge to £58,596. Mr. Finlaison estimates that the balance left of the Fund will suffice to meet the requisite outlay, and leave a net surplus of above £30,000 disposable for general purposes. The decrease in the numbers assisted has been greatly owing to children having grown up to provide for their own subsistence. There were in 1873, 331 girls in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Girls, and 279 boys in the Asylum for Boys. The 'Captain' Relief Fund account for 1873 shows allowances amounting to nearly £5,000 paid to widows, orphans, and relatives. This last subscription gave occasion for suggestions for raising a general Royal Naval Relief Fund, for rendering assistance in cases of distress among the relatives of seamen in the Royal Navy who die on active service. The Patriotic Fund Commissioners expressed their willingness to undertake the administration of the proposed Fund. SEA COOKERY.-The efforts of the Admiralty to provide each man-of-war with a competent chef de cuisine are not attended with the success that could be desired, and we hear that considerable difficulty is experienced in obtaining candidates for entry at the Naval School for Cookery at Portsmouth. This is a matter of some importance, since it has been authoritatively stated that while the scale of victualling allowed to the seamen is quite sufficient for the maintenance of health and strength in all climates, the mode in which it is cooked leaves much to be desired. The old system of appointing cooks was conducted much after the fashion of an election to an almshouse or charitable institution, choice being made from among old pensioned seamen. Thus it was that he who had lost an eye or a leg or two was selected in preference to the man who had all his limbs and senses about him. The maxim seemed to be that the most battered was the best cook, and though the idea of helping those most in need was good for the cook, it was bad for those whose rations were entrusted to his inexperience. At no time does the appearance of "salt horse" lead one to suppose that it will furnish a nourishing or savoury meal; but it is a fearful thing when it has been so served that the nutriment has completely vanished, and nothing but a dish of stringy chips remains, and when the usual "follow" of plum-pudding is of the consistency of glue. A few weeks of this existence on a station like the Pacific makes piping to dinner a mockery, and does not add to the comfort or contentment of the men. Considering that the Admiralty undertake to instruct men in the art of cooking, it is somewhat surprising that more candidates do not come forward, and thus acquire skill in a calling which they could exercise on shore after a turn in the navy. If, however, men will not enter from the shore, it will be easy to obtain volunteers from the lower deck, and seeing that more than two years have now elapsed without adding many efficient cooks to the fleet, we should recommend that the service itself supply this want.— Globe. OCEAN CIRCULATION.-Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S., delivered a lecture last year to a numerous audience in the New Museums and Lecture Rooms at Cambridge, on some results of the of voyage theChallenger.' He stated that the theory which he advocated, and which was concurred in by some eminent physicists, was, that ocean circulation was effected by means of an upper stratum of warm water flowing from the equator to the poles, and a lower stratum of cold water flowing from the poles to the equator, and the replacing the water which was continually flowing towards the poles. The lecturer demonstrated, by the aid of several diagrams constructed from data furnished by the Challenger' Expedition, that his theory was borne out by the facts ascertained during the voyage. It was found that from the surface temperature down to 40 deg. the temperature of the Atlantic decreased rapidly, but below that the decrease was very slow. The portion of water below 40 deg. was, he argued, the polar stratum, the upper stratum being equatorial water flowing towards the pole. In the Mediterranean and other seas where no polar water could enter, the temperature below the surface film was uniform to the bottom. At the equator, where the bottom water was being continually, as it were, pumped up, the temperature of surface water sank in 300 fathoms from 78 deg. to 40 deg. This, he predicted, would be the case, and therefore supported his theory. In the South Atlantic a stratum of water below 35 deg. was discovered, ard this was accounted for by the fact that the entry of polar water was there unlimited, while the entry of polar water into the North Atlantic was chiefly restricted to the narrow channel between Greenland and Iceland. The idea that the Gulf Stream, or more strictly the Florida |