the Dublin University Magazine, in which the per-story-when the cook at the Jesuits' College at sons are mentioned by name, a powerful dog, called La Flèche required the spit turned, the dog that Tiger, long cherished a grudge against a friend should have been on duty was nowhere to be of his owner for having set a stout bulldog at found, and when the man would have employed him. Tiger had fought well, but had to succumb another, it bit at him and ran away. In a little to the superior strength of his opponent. He while, however, this latter animal reappeared, determined to revenge himself upon the instigator driving before him the one that would have of the fight; for a long time he could not find evaded its duty, which he forced to enter the an opportunity, although he daily took up his wheel and go on with the work. Anecdotes of post outside the offender's abode, and let him the dignified and even magnanimous way in know pretty plainly what his intentions were. which large dogs avenge themselves for insults One morning his master heard a scuffle on the upon smaller members of their species, are exceedstairs, followed by a scream. He ran to the ingly numerous, and generally too well known door and opened it, when in bounded Tiger, and for citation here. Dr Hancock, in his Essay on took refuge under the sofa, whence he usually Instinct, alluding to one of these instances, in retreated when he had committed any offence. which a Newfoundland dog dropped a troubleHe was followed by his master's friend, pallid some cur into the quay at Cork, and then, when it and bleeding, and with his clothing torn. The was struggling for life, plunged in and saved it, dog had seized him suddenly, and avenged his remarks, that it would be difficult to conceive wrong. Tiger was dragged out of his place of any punishment more aptly contrived or more refuge, and received from his owner a severe completely in character; adding, that 'if it were chastisement, which he bore, however, with stoical fully analysed, an ample commentary might be patience. But henceforth he appeared to deem written in order to show what a variety of comhis honour satisfied, and in future made every parisons and motives and generous feelings entered effort to conciliate the man against whom he had into the composition of this act.' A very inteso long entertained spite. resting instance of the sagacity with which these Newfoundland dogs act, and the way in which they retain their resentment, is afforded by Mr Watson. He tells how a gentleman on arriving at his country-house, in the neighbourhood of London, discovered that he had brought with him a key that would be needed during his absence. He had with him a Newfoundland dog that was accustomed to carry things, and to it he intrusted the key. On its way to town with the key the poor creature was attacked by a butcher's dog, but attempted no resistance, and only used its powers to get off with its charge. It delivered the key safely; and then on its way home stopped deliberately before the butcher's shop until the dog again came forth, when he attacked it furiously, and did not leave off until he had killed it. There have been occasions when this longcherished desire for revenge has been gratified in a far more serious manner. The Rev. John Selby Watson, in his highly suggestive work on the Reasoning Power in Animals, alludes to the following tragic occurrence, that hap pened at St-Cloud, in the neighbourhood of Paris. A large Newfoundland dog was kept tied up during the hot weather, and every morning a servant-maid, as she passed, thinking to do it a kindness, threw a quantity of water over the animal. The dog appeared to consider this daily deluge as an insult, but being tied up, it was unable to manifest its resentment. One day however, the brute was released; and no sooner did the unfortunate servant present herself, than it sprang at her with intense ferocity, and before she could be rescued, killed her. It has already been seen that dogs will try to avenge themselves upon human beings as well as upon animals; whilst the instances on record where they have inflicted punishment upon other dogs are very numerous. In his Encyclopædia of Rural Sports, Blaine furnishes the following anecdote. I had in my kitchen,' says a certain Duke, 'two turnspits, one of which went regularly every other day into the wheel. One of them, however, not liking his employment, hid himself on the day on which he should have worked, so that his companion was ordered to enter the wheel in his stead. But the dog hung back, crying and wagging his tail, and making signs to those present to follow him. Being curious to see what he would do, they put themselves under his guidance, when he led them straight to a garret where the idle dog was hid, and immediately fell upon him and killed him on the spot.' It this case, it can scarcely be considered that the dog was prudent in the revenge he took-although, for the matter of that, human beings rarely are-as he probably had, for a time at least, to take the place at the wheel of his slain companion. In a somewhat similar anecdote given by Jesse, the injured brute acted with more forethought. On one occasion-so goes the Elephants are proverbial for the retaliatory means they adopt in repayment of injuries or insults inflicted upon them; in many instances, their deeds of vengeance have quite an air of poetic justice about them. We recently recorded one of the most singular cases on record (No. 977), in which an elephant avenged herself on two individuals who had separately abused her. And who has not heard of that characteristic story related by Monsieur Navarette, of the Macassar elephant upon whose skull the driver had cruelly cracked a cocoa-nut; in return for which, the insulted animal availed itself of the first opportunity of revenging the offence by breaking a cocoa-nut on the man's head, and by so doing killed him! Many similar instances are related of terrible vengeance inflicted by these creatures upon those who injure them; but in some cases their revenge takes a ludicrous turn. The tale of the Delhi elephant and the tailor is too well known to call for recapitulation. Another anecdote is related of an elephant that was known as the 'fool,' but which proved the injustice of that cognomen by the revenge it practised upon a quartermaster, who, irritated at its persistent refusal to carry more than a certain weight of baggage, flung a tent-peg at its head. A few days later, as the animal was Chambers's Journal, Jan. 13, 1883.] A REMINISCENCE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 31 going through the camp, it overtook the quarter-will be new to many of our readers. Il Rosso, master, and seizing the man with its trunk, a disciple of Michael Angelo, resided in Florence, lifted and deposited him in a large tamarind in a house overlooking a garden belonging to tree, leaving him to get down as he best some friars. Il Rosso possessed an ape which could. Elephants, indeed, are very sensitive to insult, and would appear frequently to be more annoyed at anything derogatory to their dignity than at actual pain. In a well-known work on natural history styled The Menagerie, it is stated that as an elephant was passing through the streets of London, a man seized it by the tail; an indignity that so offended it, that it grasped him with its trunk, and placing him against some iron railings, kept him prisoner, until persuaded by the keeper to let him go. Captain Shipp has recorded in his Memoirs that an elephant drenched him with dirty water for having put cayenne pepper on its bread-and butter. The Rev. Mr Watson gives a very curious story in illustration of this animal's wonderful long memory of a wrong suffered. One of those pests of society, 'a practical joker,' visited a caravan in a West of England fair and tried his stupid tricks upon an elephant there. He first doled out to it, one by one, some gingerbread nuts; and when the grateful animal was thrown off its guard, he suddenly proffered it a large parcel wrapped in paper. The unsuspicious creature accepted and swallowed the lump, but immediately began to exhibit signs of intense suffering, and snatching up a bucket, handed. it to the keeper for water. This being given to it, it eagerly swallowed quantities of the fluid. 'Ha!' cried the delighted joker, 'I guess those nuts were a trifle hot, old fellow.' 'You had better be off,' exclaimed the keeper, unless you wish the bucket at your head.' The fool took the hint only just in time, for the enraged animal having finished the sixth bucketful, hurled the had he lingered a moment longer his life might have been forfeited. The affair had not, however, yet concluded. The following year the show revisited the same town, and the foolish joker, like men of his genus, unable to profit by experience, thought to repeat his stupid trick on the elephant. He took two lots of nuts into the show with him-sweet nuts in the one pocket and hot in the other. The elephant had not forgotten the jest played upon him, and therefore accepted the cakes very cautiously. At last the joker proffered a hot one; but no sooner had the injured creature discovered its pungency than it seized hold of its persecutor by the coat-tails, hoisted him up by them, and held him until they gave way, when he fell to the ground. The elephant now inspected the severed coat-tails, which, after he had discovered and eaten all the sweet nuts, he tore to rags and flung after their discomfited owner. bucket after its tormentor with such force that was on very friendly terms with one of his apprentices called Battistoni, who employed the animal to steal the friars' grapes, letting it down into the adjacent garden and drawing it up again by a rope. The grapes being missed, a watch was set, and one day a friar caught the ape in the very act. He tried to inflict a thrashing; but the ape got the best of it, and escaped. II Rosso, however, was sued, and his pet sentenced to wear a weight on its tail. But few days elapsed ere the culprit had an opportunity of avenging this insult. Whilst the friar who had detected and punished the creature was performing mass at a neighbouring church, the ape climbed to the roof of the man's cell, and, to quote Vasari's words, 'performed so lively a dance with the weight on his tail, that there was not a tile or vase left unbroken; and on the friar's return a torrent of lamentations was heard that lasted for three days.' A REMINISCENCE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. IN my youthful days in Edinburgh, a trifling incident-but to me a rare piece of good fortune occurred in relation to The Author of Waverley,' which it gives me pleasure to record. In those early days I was an enthusiastic reader of his novels, and was in the habit of frequently looking in at the Court of Session, in the old Parliament House of Edinburgh, where Scott, in his official capacity as one of the clerks of Court, used to sit while it was in session. I always endeavoured to get as near him as I could, to gaze upon that noticeable face and head, which, once seen, could never be forgotten; and I used to wonder by what process that magical genius of his had evoked from the past such a gallery of real men and women-in number and variety almost approaching Shakspeare-with all their loves and hates, their joys and sorrows, their strength, their weaknesses, their stainless purity, their devotion, and homely simplicityhis manly, healthy genius redeeming from all taint of exaggeration or sentimentalism the characters that live in his pages. It was a face in which were combined shrewdness, humour, kindliness, keen perception, and sagacity; while to these was superadded a certain 'pawkiness' (to use a Scotch word which has no equivalent in English). He would now and then exchange words with the brother-officials who sat beside him, or opposite to him, on the other side of the table. Often some joke would pass, and then his face would lighten up, and a smile break out We will now refer to the methods of revenge and steal all over it, his merry eye and suppressed adopted by animals of another race. Apes, it chuckle revealing the sense of humour that had will readily be comprehended, are very dangerous stirred him. Here I may say that Chantrey's arouse the enmity of, as they world-known bust of him reproduces his usual will dare anything in order to avenge their expression with consummate fidelity. No bust wrongs, and are most ingenious in adopting of any one I have ever seen has so truthfully schemes of retaliation. Many of their deeds of conveyed to me the living features as this one revenge are well known; but the following does. anecdote, related by Vasari, the Italian biographer,| creatures to It was in the summer of 1829, I think, now 32 CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL. fifty-three years ago, that a commercial traveller, I saw Tweed's silver stream I was ferried across its rippling waters, then This was my last glimpse of Scott. At that time * Scott was Sheriff of Selkirkshire. no more; a How grand and final break-down and death. impressive are Carlyle's words about him in his latter days! And so the curtain falls; and the strong Walter Scott is with us possession from him does remain; widely scattered; yet attainable; not inconsiderable. It can be said of him, when he departed, he took a Man's life along with him. No sounder piece of British Manhood was put together in this eighteenth century of Time. Alas! his fine Scotch face, with its shaggy honesty, sagacity, and goodness, when we saw it latterly on the Edinburgh streets, was all worn with care; the joy all fled from it, ploughed deep with labour and sorrow. We shall never forget it; we shall never see it again. Adieu, Sir Walter, pride of Scotchmen, ALEXANDER IRELAND. take our proud and sad farewell.' BOWDON, CHESHIRE. BESIDE THE SEA. THEY lingered 'neath the spreading thorn; 'Only one little year,' they said, Then parted at her cottage-door- Two long, long years! Time slowly drags The seaweeds cluster, red and gold, As fading memories of a dream. 'Tis evening, and the glowing sun Stoops down to kiss the purple sea; Slowly the gray mist creeps adown The darkening hillsides by the bay ; In bitterest agony she moans For words will come though hearts may break: 'O dreamy wind, O sad, sad sea, Lull me to sleep, nor let me wake!' Ah, was it Fate that brought the storm That night, and wrecked the 'homeward-bound'? Ay, met at last, but cold in death, The salt sea dripping from his hair; Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH. SHIPS AND SAILORS. Ir the nineteenth century has caused an unceasing modification in the conditions of labour ashore, it has affected still more profoundly the lot of those who toil on the sea. The ancient mariners who manned our war-ships and mercantile marine a generation ago, were quite a different race from those of the present day. In dress, in discipline, in ideas, in aspiration, the modern seaman differs from his predecessors, and each year induces further changes; such changes being inevitable, from the hour that ships began to be influenced by the accelerations of the century. 6 Steam-navigation demands men of a different type from those who floated leisurely in the 'wooden tubs,' as wind and weather permitted. In defiance of the hurricane, in the teeth of adverse gales, in mockery of the doldrums' and calms of every sort, the steam-driven vessel goes on to her destination. Voyages that once occupied months have been reduced to weeks. The sailor's mind is kept in a state of continual alacrity. His personal share in the conflict with nature is greatly reduced; and each development of modern navigation tends to merge the mariner into a part of the floating machine. In the sailing-ship, individual bravery and smartness had immense scope for display, when storm and man fought for mastery in the giddy heights where topmasts bent under the strain like coachmen's whips. No coward was equal to the conflict that raged in that upper region; no bungler could furl the struggling sail, that wrenched and strained like a living thing. Monkeylike agility, heroic courage, dare-devil emulation, were needed in the fearful crises to which every sailing-ship was exposed. The wild tameless lads who would go to sea' found in the storm those terrific antagonisms that brought out the man in them; and the wild energy of nature and humanity were thus happily neutralised. On board steamships, there is no need of such men. Thoughtful, cautious, reflective navi PRICE 12d. gators are wanted, who know how to elude the whims and caprices of Neptune; and who can contrive to get at the secret of the old god's humours, instead of merely battling with them. Meteorology is studied, ocean-currents are tracked, the genesis and behaviour of storms scientifically examined. The grand object is to get from port to port with the utmost celerity and certainty-to make ocean voyages as calculable as land journeys. Seamanship has entered upon an absolutely new phase, and demands men of another kind than the gallant but slow-witted sea-dogs that had suited ruder times. For, mingled with the bravery of these ancient tars, there were superstitions and prejudices that made them hostile to the march of the age. Long after ghosts, goblins, and portents ceased to have any influence upon the conduct of landsmen, they continued to inhabit the forecastle and to keep company with the nightwatch. Davy Jones' was honoured and revered, when his fellows ashore were scoffed into eternal oblivion. The old-fashioned sailor, when making his money fly with his boon-companions at home or abroad, was a man of rough morals. His oaths were appalling to 'long-shore men; his conceptions of religion strangely pagan. But on board ship, amid the quietude of its monastic routine, away from rum and riot, swinging between high heaven and the unknown depths of ocean, a toy in the immensities of sky and water, the now sobered tar became deeply conscious that he lived among preternatural marvels, and that the phenomena surrounding him were stupendously mysterious. The fearful changes that passed over the firmament and the sea; awful darkness painted with lightning fires; black night-seas glowing with phosphorescent gleams; sunsets like a world in flames; unmoving ocean like an infinite pool of blue oil; raging, pitiless, invading ocean, white with deadly passion, leaping like a live thing over the bulwarks, and seizing the seaman with a mighty clutchall these variations of nature's moods had deep significance for sailors. Baleful sprites had much ㄢ to do with the monstrous agitations that supervened in the watery world. It was needful to be on good terms with them. Science attempting to explain the origin of tempests, the phosphorescence of the sea, the Gulf-stream, trade-winds, and other wonders, was considered as a dangerous, almost blasphemous meddling with the concerns of the malign powers presiding over these departments of the world. But superstition faded under the dominion of steam at sea, as it did on shore. Davy Jones has become as dubious as Neptune, and is no more propitiated than Eolus. The ancient order of mariners is on the wane. If sailors have become men of another order, ships have been more modified by the endless inventions of the past half-century. From the origin of navigation until our own times, wood was the only substance employed for floating man and freight over the water-ways of the world. We have changed all that; and now metallic ships are fast supplanting wooden ones; so that in course of time, a vessel of the old type will be as great a curiosity as the canoe of a viking. Before iron began to supersede wood, metallic rigging had commenced to supplant hemp, to the derision of sailors and rope-makers, who prophesied that such new-fangled notions would be ruinous to our maritime supremacy. Improved steering apparatus met with the same objections; machines for furling sails were looked upon with contempt by the men who were to be benefited by them. But to go to sea in an iron ship seemed the very extremity of absurdity. Steam had been a frightful invasion of landsmen's notions upon the sea; but this building ships of metal, which as every one knows sinks like a stone in the water, was little better than a crime. The wreck of the Great Britain upon the coast of Ireland gave an immense poignancy to the criticism of objecting sailors. There was a signal instance of what these iron monsters would come to! The Great Britain was the pioneer of the metallic fleet that was to drive the wooden ships out of existence. Lying upon the Dundrum shore, she was a beacon warning to keep clear of such mad innovations. Alas for old ideas and untimely croakers! the Great Britain was lifted from her supposed final restingplace, and became the most famous, successful, and profitable ship of her time. Thousands of passengers were transported by her to Australia, and vast quantities of the new gold were brought by her to England. owners; The Great Eastern was another example of failure that old sailors rejoiced to instance. Truly, Brunel's leviathan has been unprofitable to her from the time of her launching until the present hour, she has been a maritime whiteelephant. But it is a pity that individuals should have to bear the charges of the grand audacity that Brunel perpetrated; for the Great Eastern has perhaps done more to extend civilisation than any other ship that has sailed the sea. By her indispensable aid, the Atlantic telegraph cable was laid, an instrument which has blessed mankind, and will for all future time. If the inhabitants of Europe and America ever feel grateful for the improvements of the past twenty years, they should not forget how much the Great Eastern has contributed to them. Besides her aid in telegraph development, the big ship furnished the experience that is now causing so great a change in the tonnage of our mercantile fleets. For years after her construction, it was universally believed that she was the first and the last of the leviathans. Her voyages had been marked with disasters, which were attributed to her unmanageable proportions. Then, instead of clipping through the ocean billows as steadily as a train running over land, she rolled like a vast log in the water; and so far from eliminating seasickness, inflicted special agonies upon her passengers. And a yet more serious objection was urged, that in case of shipwreck, the loss of life might be appalling; for the Great Eastern could carry four or five thousand emigrants. The same objection applied to her as a military transport. In an emergency, ten thousand troops could be carried by her, and it was urged with much plausibility, if she went down with such a large proportion of our small army, that a national panic would result. So the Great Eastern has passed the greater part of her existence like a worn-out hulk. She furnishes another instance of the great law of progress-namely, that invention must wait on experience. Brunel and his financial supporters were ahead of their time. Now, mankind have begun to catch them up. Further invention, the more urgent demands of our broader civilisation, improved navigation, the spread of population in the United States and Australasia-all these compel ship-owners to increase the dimensions of their vessels. Each year the comparisons between the first leviathan and her sisters grow less; and it is not rash to believe that even the phenomenal proportions of the Great Eastern may yet be surpassed. The Servia, the City of Rome, and the recent Aurania of seven thousand five hundred tons, prove that a great change has come over the opinions of those concerned with ocean transport. The whole tendency of our time is towards the aggregation of effort the massing of capital and labour. A ship of five thousand tons can be built_cheaper than five ships of one thousand tons. In the working, there is a still more striking economy. One captain, instead of five, and so on through the whole crew, engineers, stewards, and the rest. In the purveyance for passengers, five thousand cost less than one thousand proportionately. Nor is that all. Large ships can be propelled quicker than small ones, if the whole conditions of construction, engines, and propellers be observed. Large ships have more space for coal-stowage, a most important matter in ocean traffic, for the economy of time and money. These considerations are further assisted by several great advances made in marine engines and in the material of the hulls. Compound engines introduced a vast economy into steam-navigation; but with improved boilers and methods of generating steam, a still greater economy will be effected; and it may soon come to pass that our ocean leviathans will be driven with a much less coal expenditure than at present, and by propellers more powerful and more easily managed than the screw. Speed, however, has become the first desideratum afloat, as on shore. But speed must be accompanied by safety. What the traveller wants is to get quickly to the end of his journey, not to the end of his life. In this all-important |