took six weeks of laborious search among mangrove swamps and slimy creeks. If by this discovery the interior be rendered more accessible, our traders will soon doubtless follow Dr Barth to Timbuctoo.

Chevalier Vande Velde, of Utrecht, known for his travels in the Holy Land and surrounding countries, has addressed a letter to the Archæological Association of Palestine, in which he recommends them not to believe M. de Saulcy's statements about the Cities of the Plain; for that the so-called cities are nothing other than broken masses of a mountain, which the Arabs succeeded in making the too credulous Frenchman believe to be the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Colonel Rawlinson sends from Bagdad news of the discovery of more cylinders, at a spot identified as the ancient Ur of the Chaldees, which are of importance in clearing up a difficulty in the annals of Belshazzar. He now considers that monarch to have been a viceroy under his father Nabonidus; and thus these new-found records, as he states, furnish us with a key to the explanation of that great historical problem which has hitherto defied solution.' Besides this, the colonel has got a statue of the god Nebo, which was dug up by the party of explorers employed for the British Museum. An inscription on its breast contains the names of Belochus and Sammuramit, or Semiramis. So the great queen comes out of the mists of fable at last; and, disregarding all that has been said about her and Ninus, our persevering countryman makes her out to have been the daughter of a king of Medo-Armenia, who married Phal-lukha, or Belochus, and reigned jointly with him over Assyria in the eighth century before Christ.

CUTTING-OUT.

THERE is a certain delicate and desperate species of naval service in which British seamen are peculiarly distinguished as able, and frequently successful, professional operators: it is called cutting-out. This very rarely takes place on any extended scale, and it is equally rare for any large force of men to be employed upon it. As a general rule, cutting-out is performed without much premeditation or nice calculation of risks it is usually planned by some young spirited officer in command of a frigate or small flotilla, and undertaken almost impromptu by himself and other daring naval aspirants, as much from a feverish resolve to distinguish themselves, and earn promotion by doing something,' as from any other motive. It is rarely we find veteran officers of high rank engaging in such desperate adventures, unless there is a very important stake to be gained-some object either of extraordinary intrinsic value, or else likely to lead to commensurate advantages. It is a service sui generis, requiring particular faculties, distinct and different from those essential in other branches of the service. Young, dashing fellows, of dauntless bravery

That for itself can woo the approaching fight,
And turn what some deem danger to delight-

who can coolly and skilfully lay down their plans, and daringly execute them in person, are the men to succeed on the occasions in question.

Suppose a frigate chases an enemy, of equal, or superior, or inferior force--no matter which-and that enemy, by dint of shewing a nimble pair of heels, runs into a friendly harbour before he can be overtaken. Here the Don, or Mynheer, or Mounseer, or Moslem, or whatever he may be, shelters himself by mooring stem and stern under the guns of a battery on shore, and grins defiance at his disappointed pursuer. What is to be done? The British frigate sails as closely in as may be prudent or possible, and hovers about till sunset, meanwhile diligently taking note by aid of her glasses-as telescopes are called on shipboard-of the

He

position of the coveted prize, and the nature of the shore defences, and all other obstacles to her capture; then, ere nightfall, tacks about, shews her stern, and steers directly out to sea, as though sullenly confessing she has no chance. Has the captain given up all hope of doing business?-Not a bit of it. dives down into his cabin, and, either alone or in consultation with his lieutenants, rapidly plans a cutting-out. The crew are duly mustered, and their commander's intention being promulgated, they give a cheer like true British sailors, and eagerly volunteer for the boat-service. The required number are promptly selected, armed with cutlasses, pistols, and boardingpikes, and a strip of white ribbon tied round their left arms, to distinguish them in the coming tussle. It is clearly settled what boats are to be despatched, what officers are to command, what seamen and marines are to go in each boat, and in what order the boats are to lead and board, &c. As soon as it is dark enough, the frigate points her head for the shore again, and probably about midnight, after extinguishing or shading every light, brings-to in a position deemed most favourable for her to await the result of the enterprise. Pinnace, cutter, jolly, and gig, are silently lowered; the men take their appointed places; and without a word being spoken, the carefully muffled oars are dropped into the water, and the boats glide noiselessly towards their destination. Of the rowers, it may be truly said that, in the regular man-o'-war fashion,

Bending back, away they pull

With measured strokes most beautiful! But on these momentous occasions they poise their oars so deftly, feather them so gently and accurately, and dip the edge of their blades with such keenness and precision, that there is no splash in the water, and no rumble from the row-locks; and should the sea be smooth, a musical ripple at the stem, and an undertoned gurgling sound in the runs of the stern, alone betoken the propulsion of the boat. Possibly, they may get close alongside, or even board the enemy's ship ere they are discovered; but in general a better watch is kept, and they will find the sentinels on the alert, and be fired at the moment they come in sight. No matter. As soon as silence and precaution are no longer of use, every boat cheers loudly, and dashes recklessly forward in eager emulation as to which shall be the first to board. Soon they are alongside, the men climbing up the chains, and clambering over the boarding-nettings, despite the fierce thrust of pike and cutlass, or the deadlier resistance of musket and bayonet. All is now desperate hand-to-hand fighting; and whilst it rages, a party of our frigate's men run aloft to loose the topsails, and others cut the cables, so as to get the enemy under-way, and out of the range of the shore-battery as speedily as possible. When resistance is overcome, the crew of the captured vessel are driven headlong below, and secured beneath the hatches, and the gallant cutters-out sheet home the sails, or, if the wind is dead, tow the ship out of harbour with their boats. Ere this time, probably, the battery on shore opens a furious fire, which may kill friend and foe indiscriminately; but British tars are not easily deterred from carrying out a cherished design; and unless the masts and rigging are materially shattered, the vessel is quickly beyond range of the hostile cannon, and, when morning breaks, the triumphant frigate and her prize are mere specks in the offing. Occasionally, however, the result is sadly different. The enemy may be so well prepared, that some of the boats may be sunk ere they can pull alongside, and the men who manage to board may be all slain or taken prisoners.

We have recently searched our naval chronicles, and have conned over a great number of cutting-out affairs, and we now purpose to give some account of two or

three, which appear to us to be the most remarkable and brilliant on record, and cannot fail to impress the reader with a vivid conception of the truly marvellous deeds of naval skill and daring that British men-o'war's men will undertake and perform. One case is an honourable failure; but we will give it the first place, both for the sake of chronology, and because it was planned and attempted to be carried to a successful issue by the justly celebrated Sir Sydney Smith, and led to other incidents of historical note.

In the spring of 1796, Sir Sydney was cruising on the French coast in command of the Diamond, 38-gun | frigate, when he learned that the Vengeur, an armed French lugger-only too well known in the Channel for her numerous captures of English merchantmen, and which had hitherto defied capture herself through her wonderful sailing qualities-was anchored, ready for sailing, in the inner road of Havre. Sir Sydney resolved to cut her out; and accordingly prepared the launch and four other boats of his frigate, in which he embarked fifty-two officers and men, all told, and took the command of the whole himself, because his three lieutenants were, from one cause or other, unavailable for the duty. At 10 P. M. they set off, and after a brief struggle, seized the Vengeur without the loss of a man. But the difficulty was, not to win this prize, but to carry her out to the offing. The French crew had cut their cables, and the lugger drifted bodily shoreward, spite every effort of the capturers. By daybreak, the lugger was anchored up the river beyond Havre, and a number of vessels put forth from that town to re-capture the prize, which Sir Sydney, on his part, was resolved to defend to the utmost. He first sent the prisoners ashore, and then prepared for action. In a brief period, a large lugger opened fire on the Vengeur, and numbers of small vessels, full of soldiers, surrounded her, and poured in volleys of musketry. There being no wind to fill his sails, the gallant British captain found he had become thoroughly entrapped, and at length surrendered, with a loss of about a dozen killed and wounded. Sir Sydney Smith was removed to Paris, where he suffered a rigorous imprisonment of two years, and was even threatened with death on the pretence that he was a spy. Finally, he effected his escape from the Temple in a characteristically romantic and daring fashion, the details of which are probably well known to the reader.

In the year 1797, a fearful mutiny took place on board the Hermione, 38-gun frigate, commanded by Captain Pigot, when cruising off Porto Rico in the West Indies. The excessively cruel and monstrously tyrannical conduct of the captain, appears to have been the sole cause of this affair; but the mutineers were not content with sacrificing that wretched man, for they murdered nine other officers, and then carried the frigate to La Guayra, and traitorously gave her up to the Spaniards; and as a Spanish frigate she subsequently sailed the seas. Many of the mutineers paid the deserved penalty of their crimes. In 1799, this same Hermione was reported to be bound from Puerto-Capello to Havanna, having a crew of nearly 400 men, including a number of soldiers, and mounting forty-four guns, or six more than when she was a British frigate. The British admiral at Jamaica ordered the Surprise, Captain Hamilton, to go out and try to meet with the Hermione. The Surprise was a 28-gun frigate, with a complement of less than 200 men, and therefore in all respects very inferior to the vessel she was sent to engage; but sailors in those busy fightingtimes did not care to calculate odds very nicely: they were all ready to swear that one Englishman was, any day and in any way, a match, and more than a match, for two Mounseers, or three Dons. However, no such encounter and triumph was destined for the British frigate this time, for after Captain Hamilton had cruised about for weeks without getting a glimpse

of his antagonist, he thought it best to sail to PuertoCapello, and learn whether the latter had really left that port. Surely enough she had not, for between two enormous batteries at the harbour mouth, the Hermione was snugly moored stem and stern. For some days the Surprise hovered about, and finally Captain Hamilton informed his assembled crew that he had determined to cut out the Hermione-an intimation which they received with three hearty cheers. Six boats were prepared, carrying in all 106 officers and men; and explicit orders were given to every officer individually. Mr James gives a very minute and accurate account in his Naval History of this dashing enterprise; and we cannot do better than follow his version, and partially quote his narrative. Captain Hamilton in person commanded the pinnace, and directed the whole operations. The flotilla of boats were discovered when within a mile of the Hermione, and two of the enemy's gun-boats opened fire on them. Some of the frigate's boats foolishly engaged with these gun-boats, instead of following their captain straight to the main attack. 'The alarm created by the firing,' says Mr James, 'soon awakened the crew of the Hermione to the meditated attack. Lights were seen at every port; and the ship's company were at quarters. On the pinnace crossing the frigate's bows in order to reach her station, a shot was fired from the forecastle, which crossed over her. . . . As the starboard oars touched the bends of the Hermione, Captain Hamilton gave orders to lay in the oars and board, the boat being then under the starboard cat-head and fore-chains, lying stem and stern with the frigate. The crew obeyed the word instantly; and the captain would have been the first on board, but from some mud on the anchorwhich was hanging from the cat and shank-painter, and which had been weighed that day-his foot slipped; but he retained his hold on the foremost lanyard of the fore-shrouds, by which he recovered himself, his pistol going off in the struggle. Having succeeded in gaining a footing on the forecastle, the English freed the foresail ready for bending and hauling out to the yardarms, laying over the forestay; and this served for an excellent screen to these few daring men now on board.' By this time, the Spanish crew, at quarters on the main-deck, were firing away, not yet being aware they were actually boarded; but the Spaniards on the quarter-deck warmly disputed their post, and a fierce hand-to-hand encounter ensued, Captain Hamilton himself being wounded severely. At a critical moment, the marines from one of the cutters boarded, and gave a turn to the fight. They fired a volley down the after-hatchway, and then rushed below with fixed bayonets, driving sixty Spaniards into the cabin, and there securing them. The cables now were cut, and with the aid of the foretopsail and the boats, the Hermione was got under-way, and stood out of PuertoCapello, despite the fire of the formidable batteries, which, however, cut up the rigging, and lodged some balls below the water-line. The boarding commenced at midnight, and by one o'clock all resistance ceased, and in another hour the prize was safely out of gunshot, and in full possession of the daring captors.

Only twelve British seamen were wounded, and none killed; but the Spaniards suffered the amazing loss of 119 killed, and 97 wounded-in all, 216, or above one-half of their entire crew! Even Mr James, who is usually so cool and guarded in expressing his opinions, and who is admitted to have written his great work with the nicest impartiality, cannot help warming when narrating the affair; and he justly and strikingly sums it up by saying, that the history of naval warfare, from the earliest time to this date, affords no parallel to this dashing affair: it was no surprise, no creeping on the sleepy unawares; the crew of the frigate were at quarters, standing to their guns, aware of the attack, armed, prepared, in readiness;

-a treat for many a summer-day's holiday, even if there were no Crystal Palace at all; the terrace near the building; the parapets and balustrades; the statues and urns; the grand flights of steps; the noble gravel-walks; the delicately arranged Italian garden, with its basins and fountains; the English garden, with its paths and beds, its rich flowers and plants; the grounds beyond the two gardens, with their trees and shrubs; the circular basins and their hundred-jetted fountains; the lake and the islands; the gigantic fossil animals; the geological and mineralogical constructions

But we may safely defy any visitor to think much of feet and inches when he enters the building. He has other subjects for thought. While on the level of the floor, he has within view the lofty circular-headed terminations of the north and south façades, and the circular-headed terminations of the transepts on the east and west sides. The vaulted glassy coverings of these three transepts, and of the whole length of the nave, furnish the curved lines for the tracery, while the hundreds of columns and the thousands of sash-bars furnish the straight lines; and thus a most exquisite picturesque geometry-so to speak-is produced. It is this combination of so many curves with straight lines which gives to the Sydenham Palace one of its points of superiority over the Hyde Park Palace. And when an ascent is made to the higher tiers, this combination becomes still more varied. There are eight or ten staircases of majestic proportions, leading up to the first or grand gallery, which goes entirely round the nave and all the transepts; and there are lightsome spiral staircases leading thence upwards to a height of which nothing in the former building can give us any conception. After mounting about forty stairs or steps, we reach the great gallery just spoken of; thirty-two more bring us to a level, whereon there are galleries only at the ends of the transepts; thirty-two more, and we attain a narrow gallery, making the circuit of the building; thirty-two more-at the central transept-and we reach another partial gallery; thirty-two more, and a gallery is reached which encompasses the main transept, boldly crossing the nave at a dizzy height from the grounda height measured by about 170 stairs or steps. We do not mention these numbers and heights as a matter of statistics; we refer to them only for the purpose of saying, that at each new elevation, the extraordinary interior of the building presents itself under a new point of view, a new phase of beauty. Every one knows that a circular curve becomes elliptical when viewed obliquely, oblate or prolate, as the case may be; and thus, at different angles and different heights, we have light and delicate lines-horizontal, perpendicular, circular, oblate, prolate-combining to form a skeleton framework of surprising beauty; and as all parts of these lines are coloured in the rich harmonious tints suggested by Mr Owen Jones, the effect is such as no mere description can convey. From one point we appear to have a perfect forest of columns spreading out before us; from another, we look along an arched vista 1600 feet in length; from another, we look upward to a vaulted transept which is in itself a veritable triumph of mechanical construction; while from the highest gallery we look down upon the pleasure-seeking pigmies spread about the acres of flooring below. Nor does the outer world cease to charm, for as the building is all window, the eye ranges over a larger and larger area of country as we ascend higher. On the west, Dulwich and Norwood appear at our feet, green fields and pretty villages occupy the middle distance for miles and miles, while spires and blue hills mark the boundary of a very distant horizon. On the east, there is Sir Joseph Paxton's splendid park spread out

as seen from the 100,000 square feet of window on the eastern façade; and even in their present partially finished state-for much remains to be done both within and without the building-we may travel far indeed before meeting with a parallel.

The pigmies whom, in the pride of elevation, we look down upon from the upper-gallery, are veritable men and women seeking for beauty, and finding it. The beauty which we have been hitherto admiring, is that of the building and its external accompaniments; but the ground-floor of the nave has that to display which is little dreamed of except by the small number of persons who have watched the progress of the works during the last few months.

Let us endeavour to convey an idea of the arrangement of the nave, by comparing it with that of the former Crystal Palace. We all remember-for no one can and no one ought to forget the old building, the child which was 'father to the man'-that in the Hyde Park structure, the centre of the nave was occupied by various large-sized articles of art and manufacture, and that on either side of these were courts and avenues, filled with the products of various nations in different branches of industry. At Sydenham, the nave is-or will be-occupied by ranges of sculptures, for which every corner of Europe has been ransacked. Between, and around, and among these will be basins, and fountains, and flowers a very galaxy of beauty. On either side of the nave is a range of courts, each a complete architectural work in itself, and finished with a degree of elaboration almost unparalleled in recent times. The courts are about eighteen in number, some on one side, and some on the other of the nave. All the courts in the northern half of the building are architectural and sculpturesque; all those in the southern half-with one exception-are for the reception of industrial products. If we were required to name an average size for all the courts, we might perhaps say forty or fifty feet square each; but this is a question of figures which few persons will care to think about when roaming through these dazzling halls.' The courts all present a façade or frontage to the nave, as if they were eighteen distinct buildings, of which these are the exteriors; and the great point of interest is, that each one of these is totally different from all the others: a veritable architectural study in itself. Nearly all of them are complete in their isolation, having four frontages elaborately finished within and without; but the doorways and corridors are 80 arranged that a visitor can pass readily from one to another-his path, it may be, bordered with the shrubs and flowers which Sir Joseph has been storing up for us. As to the order of the courts, in respect one to another, we suspect that changes of plan have thrown a little discord into the matter. Why the Saracenic Court should intervene between the Assyrian and the Roman, or why the Pompeiian should be separated widely from all the others, does not by any means appear. If the Assyrian were placed close to the Egyptian, and the Pompeiian close to the Roman, there would be these two points of symmetry-that the various styles of architecture would succeed each other in proper order, northward up the west of the nave, and then southward down the east; and that while the