LETTER XI.

JOTTINGS ON THE OCEAN.

A Sabbath at Sea-Peculiar color of the Sea-Water-Thick Fog-Torches Burning-A Gale, most sublime Sail-The Stormy Petrel-An Unsleepable Calm-Another Ocean Sabbath-A Wreck fallen in withDrove of Sea-Cows-First Glimpses of Europe-The New World oldest -A realising sense of distance from America-Iceland-Parallels of Climate-The Chimneys of Neptune's Palace-Impromptu of a FellowPassenger on Taffrail-A View, with Ladies, from the BowspritSunset at Sea-Land ho!-The English Plymouth and Ed lystone LightHouse Cornwall and Devonshire Counties-France on the rightQueen's Sea-side residence, Isle of Wight-Delightful Scenery-Pilot on board-Dover and Calais-Julius Cæsar's Castle-Duke of Wellington's Castle on the Downs-Watering Places-Estuary of the Thimes-Scenery on the River-Sheerness-Gravesend-Woolwich Greenwich-Arrival in London.

SUNDAY, July 13.- The worship of God on the sea has some suggestive elements of devotion that are not to be found on the land. Who does not feel here that heaven is heaven? and that the earth is not? at least it has disappeared, and the sea only is beheld, fittest emblem of inconstancy and doubt, calculated to make one feel nearer to his Creator and more dependent upon His power and mercy. "An undevout philosopher is mad"; and yet we have a great many philosophers who sneer at the humble Christian's faith and devotions.

I have worshipped God "in my closet" this day—that is, in my state-room, alone; and Oh! how sweet and full, and free is secret devotion! There is in that no motive

for insincerity or hypocricy, and this is why our Saviour so specially enjoined it on us all.

Though there are no public religious observances on board the ship, I am glad to notice that the Sabbath is never profaned by plays or unnecessary work. Even the roughest and profanest sailors feel that there is a respect due to the holy Sabbath, which they must not altogether disregard.

At noon, 150 miles east of Newfoundland, in the midst of the misty Banks. This P. M. one of Cunard's steampackets for Liverpool passed us. With the exception of steamers, our ship has outsailed every vessel of the forty that left the St. Lawrence in our company.

July 14.- Waters on the Banks have a peculiar shade of green, like indigo blue that would be green - very beautiful, wish some painter or dyer could imitate the color. It is unusual to see them so clear in this region generally they appear muddy. Fog so thick that it condenses ⚫upon the canvas and ropes and makes the sails and rigging rain smartly on deck. July 15. Fog so thick that the look-out is of no use; there is no seeing the vessel's length. By night, ship always has a lantern in her fore rigging; and on such nights as these, torches are burned every few minutes. The wind is high, and ship bends down to it as if she would go over. We go ten knots, i. e. ten miles, per

hour.

July 16. A young gale from the south nearly abeam; carried away jib stay, and sail and ropes streamed to leeward like ribbons before the wind. Ship leaps over the huge seas like a sea-bird, and flies ten miles per hour. I have sailed in pleasure-boats on ponds; I have

sailed in packets on the American coast; but never did I enjoy so sublime and glorious a sail as to-day — in a magnificent ship, under full canvas, upon the broad and boundless ocean whose seas run mountains high; this is an ecstacy of pleasurable excitement in the sailing line worth a whole voyage hither to enjoy. Horace Greeley would condemn it. He has a reason for his reasoningin his stomach, viz.: he is sea-sick. Old Neptune extorts no tribute from me; he treats me as a friend, and I am bound to speak well of his dominions. ly 1500 miles from Boston.

We are now near

July 17.. Numerous sea mews large handsome birds-about the ship. They seem to challenge our acquaintance. The stormy petrel is seen every day, but mostly in storms. This bird is not seen on land or rocks, and was never known to alight and close its wings except in death. There is a mystery about this bird. Sailors dare not kill one, for fear of "bad luck." It is black and white, with some yellow-brown, and is handsome to look at, but offensive to the smell when taken. It skims over the surface of the water perpetually, like swallows over fresh rivers and ponds. I know not where they make their

nests.

July 18.- Half-way to-day across the Atlantic. Favorable winds and splendid sailing. A steamer paws her way through the waters like some enraged animal on the land, insulting the face of old ocean with every dash of her unnatural wheels: our ship sails she goes of her own accord like "a thing of life." Where am I? Neither in American nor Europe.

July 19.-A new verse last night in our nautical chapter perfectly calm, with a heavy sea rolling. Oh!

how the tall masts did slat the rigging like whips; and what an unsleepable noise the flapping sails did make! Well, we like to see life in all its aspects. In the P. M. heavy rain. It has rained, more or less, every day since we left Quebec; yes, every day, without an exception.

SUNDAY, July 20. This is an Ocean Sabbath. The watery shrines of Nature's Temple are filled with what the Psalmist calls "things creeping, innumerable," and all in their appointed ways bear testimony to the goodness of God, for "all Thy works praise Thee." In the profound silence and awful solitude of this place, man can no longer be called the High Priest of Nature. He directs not the worship of the monsters of the deep; that worship here was never influenced nor corrupted by pride or hypocrisy. The devotion of ocean caves is not unaccompanied by music-it is the unwritten music of the spheres, heard in the roar of mighty winds and the responsive thunder of the breaking waves. The floor of this Temple is like the Apocalyptic sea of glass, emblem of purity itself, and the arching heavens, from the horizon to the zenith, constitute its holy dome. In course of the service to-day, the incumbent clouds have shed tears from compassionate skies, as if in grief over the sins, and the thousand nameless ills that sin has brought into our world. At other times, the glorious sun has looked out from azure fields, as if preaching a sermon to teach us that there are light and rest above all the clouds and storms of earth, and to call our thoughts up to higher heights, and fix our hopes, where infinite goodness reigns over all.

A ship was seen to-day in the distant horizon, like a mere speck upon the ocean. And what are we us-but mere specks upon the great ocean of life, depend

any of

ing upon such unseen causes such winds

in motion — making the awful voyage from time to eternity, - from a wicked world as it is, to a holy heaven, as we hope it may be. "There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest." May God teach us so to worship him on our passage thither, that we may be prepared, when reaching our journey's end, to join with ready and glad zeal the heavenly hosts in everlasting praise to Him that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb that was slain for human redemption.

July 21. At 4 A. M. fell in with a wreck - lat. 47°., 55m. N., lon. 26°. W.; both masts carried away - one yet lying on the deck; bowsprit standing; appeared to be filled with water; sea breaking over her; was about 200 tons, and a brig; painted with ports; run ship under her stern, but could not make out her name; there were three stars on her stern, perhaps, therefore, an American ; — looked like the hull of a good vessel; no person on board; may have been wrecked some time. Alas! there were anxious hours in that brig; whether crew were saved or not, have no means of telling. Could old ocean speak, what a tale of terrors would she relate!

Passed a drove of sea-cows, quietly grazing in the green pastures of the deep. At our approach they started in a body for a race with us. They scud just under the surface, occasionally breaking water in their haste. They appeared about as large as Christmas hogs-black, with white bellies.

July 22. Have got my first glimpses of Europe today; but they were, as Milton would say, "aery ones. Going on deck shortly after sunrise, I found the whole canopy of the heavens covered with clouds, all but a low