ver.' The poet
who said it was an--no, I won't go that length, but it is clear that
he had not seen a Whitehead torpedo. That delicate instrument is
indeed a thing of beauty, for it is elegantly formed of polished
steel, but when it happens to stick its head into a ship's stern, it
is not a `joy' even for a moment, and it effectually stops, for ever,
all consideration of its qualities by those who chance to feel them.
It is shaped like a fish, and has a tail. Its motive power is in its
tail, which is a screw propeller. It has lungs, consisting of a tank
for holding compressed air. It has a stomach, composed of a pair of
pneumatic engines which drive it through the water. Its body is
fourteen feet long, more or less. Its head contains an explosive
charge of 110 pounds of wet gun-cotton, with a dry disc of the same in
its heart. It goes off by concussion, and could sink our largest
ironclad--there is no doubt whatever about that. Its cost is between
four and five hundred pounds sterling. One of the peculiarities of
this celebrated torpedo is, that it can be regulated so as to travel
at a given depth below water. This is not so much to conceal its
course, which is more or less revealed by the air-bubbles of its
atmospheric engine, as to cause it to hit the enemy ten or twelve feet
below her waterline. What the effect of this new war-monster shall be
is at present in the womb of futurity. I hope sincerely that the
world may suffer no greater loss from it than its cost.

"By the way, I must not forget to tell you that I have grown at least
an inch since I saw you last, in consequence of having been mistaken
for the captain of the _Thunderer_! That the mistake was made by a
pretty, innocent, sweet, ignorant young girl, with intensely blue
eyes, does not abate my vanity one jot. That such a mistake should be
made by _anybody_ was complimentary. It happened thus:--I was seated
alone in the captain's cabin, writing for the _Evergreen Isle_, when a
party of ladies and gentlemen passed the door and looked in. They
were being shown over the ship. `That,' said the blue-jacket who
conducted them, `is the captain's cabin.' `And is that,' whispered
blue-eyes, in the sweetest of voices, `the captain?' My heart
stopped! U. Biquitous the captain of the _Thunderer_! I felt
indignant when blue-jacket replied, with a contemptuous growl--`No,
miss, '