on of a steam-vessel produces more
nausea than that of a sailing-vessel; and people appear to suffer in
some degree in proportion to the power of the engines. This may be
accounted for by the vibration of the vessel increasing in the same
ratio.

We are now in a vessel of two hundred and fifty horse power, and the
consequence is that the passengers are as sick as two hundred and fifty
horses. The effect of the vibration of the after part of the vessel
amounts to the ridiculous.

When dinner was put on the table, we had no occasion for a bell to
announce it, for every glass on the table was dancing to its own
jingling music. And when the covers were taken off, it was still more
absurd--everything in the dishes appeared to be infected with Saint
Vitus's dance. The boiled leg of mutton shook its collops of fat at a
couple of fowls which figured in a sarabande round and round their own
dish,--roast beef shifted about with a slow and stately movement--a ham
_glisseed croisee_ from one side to the other--tongues wagged that were
never meant to wag again--bottles reeled and fell over like drunken men,
and your piece of bread constantly ran away and was to be pulled back
into its proper place. It was a regular jig-a-jig--a country-dance of
pousette, down the middle, and right and left.

The communication of motion was strange; the whole company seated on
long forms were jig-a-jigging up and down together--your knife jigged
and your fork jigged--even the morsel which was put into your mouth gave
one more jump before it could be seized. However, we jigged it to some
purpose; for, in eighteen hours and a half, we passed from London to
Antwerp.

The English are naturally great _voyageurs_: the feeling is inherent
from our insular position. I have been reflecting whether I can
recollect, in my whole life, ever to have been three months in one
place, but I cannot, nor do I believe that I ever was--not even when
sent to school; for I used to run away every quarter, just to see how my
family were--an amiable weakness, which even flogging could not
eradicate. And then I was off to sea; there I had my wish, as
Shakespeare says, borne away by "the viewless winds, and blown with
restless violence about the pendent world," north, south, east, and
west; one month freezing, the next burning; all nations, all colours,--
white, copper, brown, and black; all scenery, from the blasted pine
towering amidst the frost and snow, to the c