her anchor and in great danger of grounding on an outlying sandbank. The lifeboat remained by the vessel until the next morning, when, the weather having moderated, she got out of danger and proeeeded on her voyage.

The silver medal of the institution was presented to James Toomey, in testimony of his gallant exertions in wading into the surf at the peril of his life, and afterwards assisting to save the mate of the schooner Industry, of Whitehaven, which, during a heavy gale of wind, was wrecked off Kingstown, on the Irish coast. Some time since Commander Hutchinson, R.N., harbour-master, Kingstown, was also thanked for his valuable services on that occasion.

It was reported at the meeting that the institution had sent a new lifeboat and transporting-carriage to St. Ives, Cornwall, during the past month. The expense of the boat, £180, was the munificent gift to the society of a lady, who had previously given the institution the value of the lifeboats at Newquay, in Cornwall; Buckie, in Scotland; and Tyrella, in Ireland. Three of the boats had been named, at her special request, Moses, Miriam, and Joshua. The lady had herself witnessed some distressing shipwrecks from which life had been lost from the want of a lifeboat.

Lifeboats were also ready to be sent by the institution to Southport, near Liverpool, Scarborough, and Aberystwith. Lifeboats were also building for several other places. The expense of these numerous lifeboat establishments pressed haavily on the funds of the institution. The average cost of a lifeboat station, including boat and equipments. transporting-carriage, and boat-house, was said to be £450. The society had eight or nine such establishments now completing. Independently of these heavy demands, the large and increasing charges on its 114 lifeboat stations, situated on various parts of the coasts of the United Kingdom, entailed great expenses on the institution; but the committee felt persuaded that a work so truly philanthropic and national in its character would not be allowed by the British public to languish for lack of funds.

The Chairman called particular attention to these few but forcible words, and expressed a hope that every member of the Nautical Club would tell them to his friends.

It was said that Earl Russell had been one of the vice-presidents of the National Lifeboat Institution, and a liberal annual subscriber to its funds, since its first establishment.

It was also stated that a legacy of £100 from the late T. F. Hemington, Esq., of Uplyme; and one of £50 from the late E. Cuthbert, Esq., of Cheapside, had been received by the institution during the past month.

Vice-Admiral Sir James Hope, K.C.B., had sent, through the Hydrographer of the Admiralty, from Hong Kong a very liberal donation of £50 to the institution. The Royal Yacht Squadron had also decided to increase their subscription to £10 a year.

Payments amounting to nearly £1,000 having been made on various lifeboat establishments, the proceedings closed.

ANOTHER BATCH OF BOTTLES.

We have gleaned the following bottle papers from our recent periodical papers, and place them on record in our own pages as the long established receptacle for them. They all confirm the well known drift of the ocean, and are mostly of very short periods of time and travel,-so short as to render it quite unnecessary to encumber our chart with them. The paper of the American ship Senator might, however, form an exception, as we have noted on it.

The "Pacific."-The following is a copy, as near as can be deciphered, of the contents of a slip of paper referred to in our correspondent's letter from Stornaway, which appeared in Shipping Ga

zette of 8th June:

:

"On board the Pacific, from Liverpool to New York. Ship going down. [Great] confusion on board. Icebergs around us on every side. I know I cannot escape. I write the cause of our loss that friends may not live in suspense. The finder of this will please get it published.-Wm. Graham."

The above was written in pencil, occupying both sides of a piece of paper about three inches by two, and appears to have been the leaf of a pocket-book. The paper is much torn and worn.

The foregoing has appeared in the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, and has been alluded to as "A Voice from the Sea." The only thing it proves is a fact very well known,-which is, the drift to these shores from the westward. The probable fate of the Pacific was fully discussed, as our readers will remember, in the volume of this work for last year.

American ship "Senator."-The Rev. Andrew Crother, Consul of United States at Turks Island, communicated to the State Department the following copy of a paper picked up on that island, March 19th, 1861:-" January 25th, 1861.-American ship Senator, Liverpool for New Orleans, lat. 19° 39′ N., long. 64° W.; temp.: air, 75; water, 72. Please publish." The drift was W. 15° 20' N., 400 miles, and, supposing the bottle found on the day that it reached the island, it was moved very nearly eight miles per day, or one-third of a mile per hour.-J. M. Gilliss, Superintendent U.S. National Observatory.Shipping Gazette.

h.n.-The foregoing will appear under its designating initials in the chart preparing. It takes the usual course of the equatorial

current.

Teignmouth, August 7th.-Picked up off the Start on the 6th inst. by Captain Netting, of the Cornish Trader, of Truro, a bottle containing a piece of paper with the following report, viz.:-" February 2nd, 1861, lat. 47° 26' N., long. 9° 50' W., ship Ella, of London, on her beam ends, seven feet of water in the hold, blowing a hurricane,

ballast shifted, wood ends started. God help us all. Messrs. Howell and Leak, Bristol." The original has this day been forwarded to the address on it.-Shipping Gazette.

Weymouth, August 4th.-Picked up on Chisel Beach, near the Langton Coast-Guard Station, a bottle with paper inside, containing the following:-"Barque Lancaster, Quance Master, from Trinidad, out thirty-seven days, lat. 49° 49' N., long. 10° 56' W., and eightyseven from Cape Clear. All well. Put overboard June 19th, 1861.

Scilly, St. Mary, June 29th.-Found washed on shore at Porth Low, St. Mary, Scilly, on the 26th June, 1861, by Mr. James Edwards, of Porth Low, a sealed glass bottle containing a memorandum and two cards. The following is a copy of the memorandum :— "Rogers, Brothers, ship and insurance brokers, exporters of government steam coal, coke, &c., Cardiff. Quitted Cardiff, May 15th, 1861, on board the barque Marquis of Bute. Cape Clear bearing N.N.E., fifty miles, the 20th May, 1861. Myself and my son Henry on board, bound for Quebec. William Hescroft Commander. All well. Self and son happy and most comfortable.-John Rogers, Henry L. Rogers.

Nautical Notices.

PORT BLAIR, ANDAMAN ISLANDS, as a Refuge in Foul Weather. Moulmain, 7th June, 1861.

Sir, I have not seen in your pages any particular notice of Port Blair, the settlement lately formed on the Andamans. It is important, however, to know that these hitherto inhospitable islands now contain a sheltered port under the British flag. And, although it is as yet only a penal settlement and can form little inducement for a ship to call at, except for the purpose of putting to rights after a partial disablement incurred beating down the Bay of Bengal,-even as such it will not be undervalued by those who would rather push on their voyage than put back.

I have already given my opinion in the Nautical Magazine as to the best mode of beating down the bay against the strength of the monsoon in May, June, and July. But, in connection with Port Blair, I may repeat it here, as, after a larger experience of the navigation of this part of the world than falls to the lot of many, I have no doubt of that opinion being correct, at least I have always acted upon it when circumstances seemed to warrant it, and with perfect success. It is as follows:

On leaving the Sandheads in the above months, and the weather has set in stormy, which is very likely to be the case (I do not mean an actual gale, but blowing hard), and the wind hanging to the southward, so that you cannot weather the Andamans without tacking to

the westward, I consider that these boards to the westward are mere waste of time, with unnecessary tear and wear to ship and crew. It is better in such cases-and they often happen-to pass through the Preparis Channel, and proceed to the settlement under the lee of the Andamans in smooth water, than to contend against the heavy swell of the bay with a deep-laden ship, at the risk of damage and putting back, or even foundering, as many ships have done within my recollection. I speak in earnest and as a practical sailor when I state that most if not all of these crippled and foundered ships might have pursued their voyage with ease and safety by the course above recommended. A ship crippled in the matter of spars will find all that she requires for the cutting on the Andamans, and good spars they are, as I have reason to know. She might also caulk leaky and strained butts and wood ends, and, in short, put sufficiently to rights to proceed on her voyage, instead of putting back to Calcutta at a ruinous loss to all parties.

After passing inside of the Andamans, let her stand on to the southward close-hauled on the starboard tack, and it will be very unusual if she cannot weather the Seyer Islands. But if she cannot weather them the passage is safe inside of them, if they are not approached under four miles, so that she will soon afterwards be able to make over to the coast of Pedier and get round Acheen Head with facility by attending to Horsburgh's Directions, and find little difficelty in reaching the Trade-wind, which at this season blows right home to the equator.

I am sorry that I can give you no reliable information about Port Blair or what they are doing there, but will see if I can pick up something about it in our line and send it on. It is certainly worth knowing, however, that one may now find shelter there among friends, instead of man-eaters, a circumstance that has long kept prudent people aloof from that neighbourhood. By the way, the philanthropic superintendent of Port Blair, Captain Haughton, has sent over three Andamanese to Moulmain for education; who honoured the writer with a visit. They appear rollicking, good-tempered young fellows, with nothing vicious-looking or remarkable about them, and not at all likely to take a bite out of a person. In fact, I think their cannibalism is but a traveller's tale.

To the Editor of the Nautical Magazine.

Yours, &c.,

NORTH.

[We thank our correspondent for remembering us. He will observe the remarks of "South" in our present number, who seems evidently under some misconception about him. -- ED.]

NOTE ON NAVIGATING THE STRAIT OF BELLE ISLE,-By Admiral H. W. Bayfield.

In a previous page we have inserted an important communication

on the subject of navigating the Strait of Belle Isle. Since the receipt of that paper the following remarks have reached us from Admiral Bayfield, and we lose no time in giving them a place in our present number in order that they may receive that consideration to which they are entitled.

The loss of the Canadian is indeed a sad affair, but I am only surprised that some similar accident has not happened long before this time. I was consulted by the company years ago respecting the passage through the Strait of Belle Isle, and gave them my decided opinion that the advantage of a few miles less distance from Liverpool to Quebec was not a sufficient compensation for the danger of passing through a strait sixty-five miles long and in its narrowest part only nine miles wide, and which may be full of icebergs at any season of the year. In August, 1833, I counted no less than 200 bergs and large pieces of ice in the strait. In the following year six or seven large bergs were all that could be seen in the same month. I once found the western entrance of the strait to freeze across in a calm night on the 20th June, which will give you some idea of the climate. Of course it was only a very thin covering of ice, which disappeared soon after sunrise. The main entrance of the gulf, between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, is free from ice, excepting in the spring of the year,-as see St Lawrence Pilot, page 15.

As to the proper time of passing the strait, I think the fall of the year-after the middle of August-the least dangerous, because then northerly winds, attended with clear weather and smooth water, are more frequent; whereas in June, July, and the early part of August, southerly and easterly winds and fog prevail, and render the ice far more dangerous. The index at the end of vol. i. of St. Lawrence Pilot gives the pages in which all that I have said of the ice may be found.

CHARTS, &c., Published by the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, to the end of August, 1861, and Sold by the Agent, J. D. Potter, 31, Poultry, and 11, King Street, Tower Hill.

Mediterranean, France, South coast, Cannes and Antibes Ports, with views, (2s. 6d.)

Newfoundland, South coast, Placentia Harbour, Commander J. Orlebar, R.N., 1860, (18. 6d.)

Newfoundland, South coast, Basque Port, Commander J. Orlebar, R.N., 1860, (1s. 6d.)

East India, China, and Australian Lights, second edition, corrected to August, 1861. (1s.)

Hydrographic Office, 20th August, 1861.

ERRATA.

Page 236, head of article, for Anan read Arran.