s, he
noted the cloud of smoke which burst from one of the fort's
embrazures--watched sharply for the ball--heard the distant roar and its
cutting whiz overhead--watched still further, saw it fall into the sea
beyond, and then sang out to the captain, 'There it fell, sir!' and like
lightning dodged behind a mast, as though the necessity had but just
occurred to him.

As our rebel friends see their shot falling short of us, the firing
ceases, and thus harmlessly ends the action which for a few moments
threatened so much, teaching us the folly of too near approaches to
land, or attempts to batter down, to which we have often been tempted,
the earthworks daily erecting. It is folly to attempt it, because the
disabling of these few blockade steamers would open the port to all who
choose to barter with our Southern foes; and, _en passant_, this will
explain why here and elsewhere the rebels build their works under the
very noses of our men-of-war. Thus a vessel runs the blockade, and takes
into them English Whitworth guns, which send balls flying through the
air a good five miles, and whose range is longer than our far-famed
Parrott rifled cannon. These Whitworths they place concealed in
hillsides, or in forests back of the places where they build the regular
fort to protect them. If our vessels approach to batter down these germs
of forts, fire is opened on us from these long rangers, and nine chances
out of ten we are disabled before we can so much as touch them with our
guns; so that for ourselves we accomplish nothing, thereby benefiting
them.

Week days and Sundays pass on alike as far as outside incident is
concerned, but new features in each other open to view as time goes on.
Naval discipline develops the bump of reverence, or at any rate fosters
it for a time, and to the volunteer in his first days or weeks passed on
board a man-of-war, the dignified captain in the retirement of his cabin
is an object of veneration, and the slight peculiarities of some other
officers, merely ornamental additions to shining characters. On a
Sunday, for instance, in the early part of the cruise, the said bump
receives as it were a strengthening plaster, at the sight of officers
and men in full dress--the first resplendent in gold-banded
caps--multiplied buttons--shining sword hilts, et cetera, et cetera, and
the men in white ducks, blue shirts, et cetera, scattered about the
decks in picturesque groups. The captain, from the fact of