expended on this harbour was £1,035,000. The vote this year is for £7,000. Holyhead, by estimate, was to have cost £1,545,000; by extensions the breakwater has entailed the outlay of £1,472,845; and the vote this session is for £39,350. Portpatrick works were estimated at £45,610, and £42,991 has been expended; the vote this year for works is only £500. At the two latter harbours there is also a shore establishment to support, consisting chiefly of superintendents and mail officers. On these projects, therefore, there has been voted £4,396,836, spread over a series of years, and the aggregate vote of 1866-7 is for £121,850.

As the expenditure on these works will shortly cease, we see no reason why the harbours of refuge demanded for the protection of merchant shipping should not receive favourable consideration from the government. Going back to the report of the commissioners of 1859, it may be remembered that it was proposed to build life harbours at Wick, Peterhead, Carlingford, Waterford, Douglas, St. Ives, Padstow, Tyne, Hartlepool, and Filey; and the estimated expense for those works was £3,990,000, of which £1,625,000 was to be locally subscribed. The ports assisted, it will be seen, include Wick, the Isle of Man, and the Tyne; but nothing has been done for the Yorkshire or Western coasts, where the greatest sacrifice of life and property takes place. Shipping Gazette.

DEEP-WATER SOUNDING MACHINE.-Proposed by Lieutenant C. P. Fitz-Gerald, of H.M.S. "Cordelia."

With a Plate.

Notwithstanding the numerous attempts to bring up specimens of the ocean-bed at great deptlis, beyond that of the usual deep sea line, and its cumbrous lead, (which is still in use in the royal navy,) from the first "clam" of Sir John Ross of Arctic memory, down to the Bulldog's machine of her Captain (now Commodore), Sir Leopold M'Clintock,* an improved machine still remained as a desideratum ; and this seems to have been at length supplied in the ingenious contrivance of Lieutenant Fitz-Gerald, a description of which the Hydrographer to the Admiralty, Captain G. H. Richards, enables us to preserve in these pages.

It is evident from the drawing that the three great principles of certainty in its action, along with simplicity and lightness of construction, are combined. A wrought iron rod, about four feet long, is the principal feature of the machine, which, with its little box, &c., and a sinking weight of 80 or 90 lbs., composes the whole of it.

Alluded to in our volume for 1861.

3 н

NO. 8.-VOL. XXXV.

The following brief description of it and its parts, with the plate attached, will convey to our readers a correct idea of Lieutenant FitzGerald's ingenious devise.

Description of the Machine.

Figure No. 1 represents the machine in its descending position, and Figure No. 2 shows it when being hauled up.

The end of the sounding line is secured to

a, an iron catch, which is itself connected with b, a box at one end of

c, an iron bar, about 4 feet long, by means of a line not quite so long as the bar, as shown in the figure..

By means of the catch, a, and the line attached to the box, b, the bar is suspended in its descent; the box being open at the lower end, so that it is compelled to enter the ground on reaching it. When this takes place,

d, a sinking weight of 80 lbs. (to be varied according to depth) slips off, ff, the hooks of the bar and is left on the ground on the bar being hauled up the action of which closes

e, the door of the box, by its joints pressing them tightly by the weight of the bar itself, and thereby prevents the ground in it from being washed out as it ascends to the surface. On its way as it is hauled up, the machine assumes the position shown in figure No. 2, the sinking weight, d, being left at the bottom, and thus a fresh sinker must be provided for every cast.

There is so much simplicity about the whole machine, that the foregoing sufficiently explains all its parts, which may be readily made on board any ship that has a blacksmith, and the certainty of its operation will well reward the work of a day.

We congratulate Lieutenant Fitz-Gerald on the success of his ingenuity, which has received the full approval of the Hydrographer to the Admiralty, at whose suggestion we understand it is in use on board the Terrible and the Great Eastern, in their interesting voyage with the cable. Our surveying ships now fitting for foreign service will also have it. The greatest depth at which it has at present been used is not more than 150 fathoms; but there does not appear to be any limit of depth at which it may not be used, provided the line be strong enough to withstand the fraying effects of friction along with its own weight, and the 10 or 11 lbs. of the rod and its box, as these are being hauled up;-which all together are much less than any hitherto used.

A MODERN BRITISH GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA.

The following picture is too good not to be saved from the oblivion of the daily prints:

"At the risk of trespassing somewhat largely on your kindness, I

must first describe one or two little matters not perhaps generally known. The salary of the Governor of Jamaica is £5,000 a year, partly paid by England and partly by Jamaica. His residence in Spanish Town is a large, well-furnished building, almost a facsimile of the vice-regal lodge in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, and is situated about half a mile from the station of the railway between that town and Kingston. His mountain residence, Flamsted, is about twelve miles from Kingston. His practice was to go generally twice a week on business to Spanish Town, the seat of government, and to get there he had to ride four miles down the mountain, then drive eight miles to Kingston, and then travel twelve miles by train from Kingston to Spanish Town. From the station there to the King's House, as the governor's residence is called, had he gone as other governors before him went, he would have gone in his own carriage; but, keeping none, he went in the Spanish Town "'bus.'

"But now, sir, I must pause to describe the Spanish Town "bus.' although no description I can give of it will enable your readers to realize what that vehicle really is. Nothing but a photograph, coloured, to show the dirt, and the faces inside, could enable anyone to realize it.

"It is a sort of square rattle-trap to hold six, with a canopy and curtains hung over a pair of large wheels, of which the axle passes under the centre of the body; a pair of small wheels in front turn under the driver's seat. The whole thing looks as if it were going to fall to pieces, and the bottom of the "bus' is of that quality that I have seen the legs of a corpulent gentlemen go through the bottom, and himself seated à cheval on the axle. If the "bus' happens to be out of doors when it rains, it is washed, and so is the boy who drives it, who has on a ragged shirt and trousers, which apparently he never takes off; never has on any shoes, and rarely a cap. He is, in fact, what is understood by a dirty nigger.' The two ponies which draw it would be thought here to be rather out of condition for the kennel, and the old rope harness has generally to be tied up and mended once or twice between the station and the town.

"This respectable turn-out was a vice-regal carriage, and the only one, in Spanish Town for five months, during which the governor having made an equally economical arrangement for his conveyance in a somewhat similar vehicle from Kingston to the foot of the mountain, and from that point to Flamsted, on a pony borrowed at a dollar a day (from which his Excellency once fell, broke his foot and nearly his neck), he had neither carriage, horse, pony, nor donkey on which to uphold the dignity of his high office as representative of her Majesty. The same economical turn of mind caused him to bring down from his mountain residence to Spanish Town his breakfast and luncheon, in two or three little elongated baskets known as 'bancras,' which hung from his arm, and which on his return from Spanish Town to Flamsted, were refilled with materials for his dinner 'en garçon,' a couple of chickens, or pigeons being sometimes added on the way to the baskets.

"This is a style of living in the Queen's representative unintelligible even to black people, and to none in Jamaica was it more offensive than to them. As the governor walked the platform waiting for the train, the negro women, also waiting, might be heard to say to each other, 'Hi marm! dere's a pretty ting! what sort ob gubnor dis de Queen send we poor negur now? Hi! you ebber see ting like o'dat before, marm? Gubnor go ride in 'bus longside of negur, and sailor from Port Royal. Hi! de country gone down for true, marm. Gubnor go carry him bittle 'pon him arm like negur. Dere's a ting. Hi!'

This is exactly what the governor did for five months, the 'bus calling to take up and to set down passengers at the several taverns on the way. Colonists expect that their public officers of high standing should appear decently and as gentlemen. The general, bishop, and commodore do so, as do most of the officers of lower standing. It was not, therefore, unnatural that the public should make their remarks on such disregard by the lieutenant-governor, with £5,000 a year, of the dignity of the high office he held, and comments on his conduct were made very freely in the public newspapers, hanging not having been then introduced.

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Seeing a storm brewing, the governor, taking the bull by the horns, at once wrote off to the Colonial Office, and gave his own peculiar view of the manner in which he was living. Such was his power of explaining, and that of the Colonial Office of believing, that the Duke of Newcastle was made to return an immediate reply, that he was perfectly satisfied with the manner in which he maintained the dignity of the office; and the governor as promptly wrote to the bishop, the general, and the commodore to inform them of his grace's approval. Henceforth, however, the style was somewhat improved, for about that time, a lieutenant-governor happening to touch at Jamaica on his way to England, where I believe he now is, £35 was invested in a carriage and £35 in a pair of ponies the day before his distinguished visitor's arrival, and sent to meet him at the Spanish Town station. The cuisine did not, however, improve, for the same lieutenant-governor twitted the writer of this with cunning for not having accepted an invitation to meet him at dinner, which he assured the writer he could have bought at any tavern in Spanish Town for eighteenpence a head. The late manager of the Jamaica Railway, now in England, can, with many others, also in England, confirm this statement, incredible as it may appear to be.

"In the tramway affair; the part the governor, to clear himself, accusing another of having taken in that matter; the main road frauds and forgeries, which resulted in the absconding of the secretary, and led to the dissolution of the Assembly in 1863; and the reasons he then assigned, without a shadow of foundation in them, for that wanton act; his own unpopularity, and the opposition he has had to encounter in Jamaica, have, I have reason to know, been all explained away to the satisfaction of the Colonial Office, as would have been the

recent catastrophe in Jamaica, had not the appointment of a royal commission been forced on the government.

"This is the kind of governor sent to our colonies, at whose order the popular branches of their constitution are to be abolished, and their people be disfranchished, was contemplated to continue to administer the government of Jamaica. This, too, is the kind of governor conservatives mean to stand by, and having done so, they will of course, not object presently to the crown itself adopting, peu à peu, a somewhat similar style of maintaining its dignity and valuing truth."

The foregoing picture of the habits of a modern governor of Jamaica who has distinguished himself pre-eminently over all his predecessors in the history of that island is borrowed from the Daily News. Of course he is a gentleman, and of course is gifted with that abundance of dignity of person that enables him to dispense with all the troublesome and cumbrous personelle and meterielle of governors in general, that even the old shaky 'bus of the island borrowed the grace and lustre of nobility, when it had the honour of bearing his excellency's presence.

A TYPHOON IN MAY IN THE CHINA SEA.

In the former numbers of this Journal we have dealt largely with the subject of typhoons, hurricanes, &c., and were the first to lay before the nautical world the discoveries and valuable theories of Redfield, and the labours of Piddington at Calcutta. This theory, it is well known, forms a portion of that information required in the commanders of our ships, and we have for some years left the subject, as yielding nothing further of novelty,-the seasons of their occurrence being as regular as the character of the phenomena themselves. Still, as is well known, there is no general rule without its exception, and we preserve the following account of one happening out of season from the columns of the Daily Press, of Singapore, sent to us by its author, -that our readers who frequent the China Sea may be aware that these visitors do come out of season, and be prepared for them accordingly.

Sir,-To the majority of your readers, a typhoon is at all times a subject of interest, and to a limited, and in some degree a nautical portion, instructive as well. But as the normal time for those visitors may be comprised, generally speaking, between the beginning of July and the end of October, the interest will be considerably increased, and many will be rather astonished, if I am able to prove that we have experienced one on the 3rd of May, a true cyclone, and one of the most severe character.

It is true the senses are not always the best guides in determining the strength and velocity of the wind, nor is the state of the ship afterwards a safe criterion, since sailors well know that a ship may be