hlegmatic and meagre interest of
the few French who came to the regatta at St. Cloud. But it is such
occasions that remind us of England being a land of seamen, while
continental sailors are at best of the land, except in northern nations.

Once it was my lot to sail in a small screw-steamer along the coast of
Calabria. Of the four passengers one was a Neapolitan officer, who
embarked in full uniform; and with light tight boots and spurs, and
clanging sword, he stalked the quarter-deck, that is, he took three
steps, and was at the end, and three steps back.

In going out of Messina I saw we should have a tough bit of sea outside,
and was soon prepared accordingly. He did not so, and the first bursting
wave wet him through in a moment, and down he went below. Some hours
afterwards I descended too, and a melancholy sight was there, with very
lugubrious sounds.

In the cabin was a huge tub full of water, and the officer (spurs, boots,
and all) was sitting in it with his legs out of one end and his head
groaning and bellowing from the other. This was his specific for
sea-sickness, and for three days he behaved about as well as a fractious
child who sadly wants a good whipping. It is no discredit to a man to be
sea-sick. Nelson, we are told, was so far human. But it is somewhat
unmanly for an officer to whine and blubber like a baby, and yet we have
several times seen this phenomenon abroad. When we came into Naples this
lachrymose hero was again in full feather, boots, spurs, and sword,
stalking the quarter-deck as if no tub and tears had intervened.

Some excellent rowing-matches, after the Regatta in Cowes, were varied by
a "punt chase,"--an amusement thoroughly English; when one man in a punt
is chased by four in a low-boat, who have to catch both him and his boat
within ten minutes.

Of course his path is devious and tortuous on the water, his resort being
quick turns, while the chasers gain in speed. After numerous close
escapes he leaps into the water. Then if the pursuers catch and hold his
boat it clogs them in following him, and if they follow him while his
boat is left free, he manages to escape round some tangled mass of
shipping, and so regains his boat for a new start.

This is the sort of thing that tries both swimming and pluck in the
water, as well as mere muscle or wind in rowing. It is to racing proper
what a hunt is to a flat race. Rowing is only one small part of boating,
and it is apt