kling and glancing like meteors that
beguile the wanderer from his way, but many with clear and steady
ray, shone brightly over the face of the deep and guided the sailor
on his adventurous course. The first were the so-called fire drakes,
covered partly by metallic plates which turn, and thus is caused the
appearing and vanishing of the light so speedily, the latter is the
steady beacon of the light-house, which distinguishable from all
others by its brilliancy and the color of its flame, enables the
seaman to direct his craft safely through the channel. Hundreds of
other lights were glancing everywhere, like the fire flies of the
tropics upon the face of night, those were the burning lanterns
carried at the prow of the steamboats, warning each other of
approaching too near, and giving the same intelligence to ships.

On the following morning we found ourselves in the neighbourhood of
the Isle of Wight, and vainly looked out for some compassionate fisher
boat, that for a flask of brandy or some salted fish, would carry our
last letters to some port, from whence they might be forwarded to our
homes. A few days later, and we lost sight of the English coast; and
with it the last land in Europe faded from our eyes. We found
ourselves on the open sea, and with lightly swelling sails, steering
for the Cape de Verd Islands. Of the many vessels which we hailed or
passed in the British channel, not one was to be seen; here every ship
held silently on her own monotonous way, without troubling herself
about the fate of another; and here instead of the life and bustle to
be met with on a coasting voyage, nothing was to be seen, but the dark
blue waves of the broad Atlantic and the bright resplendent sky.

To enjoy a sea-voyage one must have entirely overcome the severe
ordeal of sea-sickness, and then with the high health that generally
follows the departure of this disagreeable visitant, life on the ocean
is not without a beauty and variety of its own. In a fortnight one
becomes sufficiently versed in the laws of equilibrium to maintain his
place in his hammock from a sudden lurching of the ship in a squall or
night of tempest, or so skilfully to balance himself and his plate at
table, that neither shall be thrown to the right or left. By degrees,
too, one becomes accustomed to the slovenliness of the cabin servants,
and the dusky appearance of stained and soiled table cloths, and at
last even ceases to miss the newspapers and t