Navy, especially in regard to a navy yard and suitable establishment for the construction and repairs of iron vessels, and the machinery and armour on our ships, to which reference was made in my last annual Message."

The President has thus confirmed the Statements made again and again by his Secretary of the Navy, who as far back as December, 1862, told Congress that had the Government been prepared with the proper means of building and repairing ships, much of the delay which had embarrassed naval operations might have been avoided, and who censured the very policy which the Member for Rochdale had so frequently advocated. "Successive Administrations, with a view to the appearance of economy and a show of small expenditure, restricted the estimates for supplies to amounts barely sufficient to keep its few ships afloat. A special appropriation annually for the purpose of accumulating a stock of material must always be advantageous to the Government. In that way the navy can be best and most economically supplied, can make better purchases, and have more time to examine and test the deliveries."

Had Mr. Gideon Willes been the Secretary of the Admiralty of the most Conservative Administration England ever had, he could not have expressed himself in stronger or more sensible terms, nor could he have urged more forcibly than he did in the following December (1863), the necessity of forming establishments for the construction of armour-plated ships. "I again, therefore, earnestly invoke the attention of Congress to the manifest and inauspicious fact that our Government has made no sufficient provision in its public establishments for the existing requirements of naval warfare."

With official reports like these staring him in the face, we hope that Mr. Cobden will not be rash enough to quote his American friends as authorities for not keeping up proper establishments.

There is one more topic upon which both Mr. Childers and Lord Clarence Paget dwelt, to which we must briefly refer before we close our remarks on Naval Affairs. We allude to the " Royal Sovereign." In a former number of the United Service Magazine, we proved how unnecessary was the excitement which was then being created with regard to this experimental ship, and how unfounded were the imputations attempted to be thrown on the Admiralty in respect to her. The correctness of our observations is shown in the speeches delivered by the Secretary and Junior Lord of the Admiralty at Deal and Pontefract. Mr. Childers in alluding to the principle advocated by Captain Coles, whom he correctly described as a distinguished and industrious (he might have added, a clever and persevering) Naval Officer, said "that system of shipbuilding had been very successful and the Royal Sovereign was an admirable model of it," and that what the Admiralty had decided to do with her was this," she was attached as a tender to the Gun

nery ship at Portsmouth, she was now being altered in certain respects, which alterations would take some time to complete, and in the spring she would be finally attached as a tender to the Excellent, and trials of gunnery under the peculiar conditions of her turret would be carried out." Lord Clarence Paget's explanation was even more full and complete. After denying that there is any prejudice entertained at the Admiralty against the turretsystem and that the principle is a great success, he stated all the circumstances connected with the "Royal Sovereign" since she was commissioned. "Her own Captain," his Lordship said, "reported that although the turret-system, in his opinion and the opinion of all on board, worked most satisfactorily, nevertheless, as the Royal Sovereign is not what we call an efficient cruising ship for sea-going, the utmost which can be expected of her is that she should be available for the protection of our coast; and that, in an emergency, she might be sent to the Mediterranean. Under these circumstances, the Admiralty thought it would be unwise to keep her in commission as a sea-going ship, inasmuch as it was evident that she could not fulfil all the conditions of a sea-going ship. But, with an earnest desire and determination to carry out fully the experiments in this system, we are now making various modifications in matters of detail. Undoubtedly, some accidents have occurred to the ship. Her hawse-holes were damaged, and in various other respects she required lengthened repairs in the dockyard. It will be necessary, too, that her gun carriages should be of iron instead of wood. These things will cause some delay; but, I repeat, the public may rest assured that it is the earnest wish of the Admiralty to give that ship a full and fair trial. She is attached to our Gunnery Instruction-ship, and the moment she is ready for sea she will undergo the fairest trials."

We have no doubt in our own minds but that the result of those trials will prove favourable to the invention of Captain Coles, who we hope will not have occasion hereafter to cry save me from my friends." He is fully able to "battle the watch," with any Board of Admiralty, however badly disposed they may be towards him and his plans, but, after the statements publicly made by two of its members, he must feel assured that in the present Board he has staunch supporters who will not hesitate to demand whatever supplies may be necessary to have his plans fully and fairly tested. Mr. Childers, we believe, merely asserted the bare fact when he stated "What the Admiralty really wished to do was to see to the future; to spare no exertion to keep the navy of England efficient; to keep up England's place among the nations; not to let her be behindhand with the onward discoveries of the age; and to combine with thorough efficiency a sound and judicious economy."

FROM HOSPENTHAL TO MEYRINGEN-A SWISS SKETCH.

There are certain things when seen for the first time in our lives, which leave a deep and abiding impression on the mind. We may read descriptions of them in books and be familiar with them from our earliest years, but they never quite come up to the reality. They may be pictured in the mind's eye in such colours as suit the circumstances of the occasion, but when brought side by side with the thing itself, they seem to melt away like the "baseless fabric of a dream." Such were my feelings when, descending the Furca pass, the mighty glacier of the Rhone, was suddenly opened out to my view in all its silent, solemn grandeur, lying like a giant in his snow-white shroud. Many persons are disappointed with the first view of these gigantic monuments of nature, but in the present instance, a slight fall of snow the day before, had thrown a white mantle over everything, so that the usual muddy appearance of the Rhone glacier had given place to one of dazzling whiteness.

The following pages are not intended to elucidate anything new regarding glaciers or of their uses in the economy of nature. Those who are interested in these matters are referred to the able works of Professor Forbes and Professor Tyndall. But if the reader will have the patience to accompany me on paper for the next few minutes, I will do my best to be his guide over one of the most interesting excursions in this most interesting country. The title of this sketch might have been winter and summer,' for in two days the traveller passes from the one to the other, namely, snow and ice to heat and sunshine. Early one morning in July last, when the bleak winds whistled winterly round the hotel Meyerhof, at the ancient conventual village of Hospenthal (which you know is situated near the summit of the St. Gothard route into Italy) and after having hastily despatched a cup of hot coffee, I set off, accompanied by a guide to cross the Furca pass to the hospice of the Grimsel. The rain descended in fitful gusts which might have deterred many from making the pass, but knowing that fortune smiles upon the brave, I was determined to try it in the hopes of better weather. For a considerable distance we traversed a dreary and desolate track in the pelting rain, until we ascended to the summit of the Furca, 8150 feet above the level of the sea, on which is situated a little inn for the accommodation of travellers, with not a trace of vegetation to cheer the eye except the bright red rhododendron, or alpine rose, peeping out here and there between the snow drifts. In these high regions a thick and penetrating mist hung over everything, and the inn, where we were to halt for one mid-day meal, was not to be discerned until we reached the place itself. On knocking for admittance, the creaky door was opened by a

sleepy-looking menial, a lad about fifteen, who ushered us into a small room with a low ceiling, where we were quickly served with some very tolerable roast beef, potatoes, aud cheese. A short time here sufficed for rest and restoring the spirits of the inner man, we at once set off to descend to the glacier of the Rhone, which we reached without any mishap about four o'clock, p.m. Nothing can exceed the wild picturesque grandeur of the scene now before us. The glacier seemed like a great giant taking his repose between the two mountains, both of them not less than ten thousand feet high. Solitude held her dominion here. To walk on ice fields in the month of July is an event in one's life, so I could not resist the novelty. This vast collection of ice is the source of the Rhone, fit cradle in truth for so noble a stream! and within an area of a few miles are the sources of five important rivers, namely the Rhine, Rhone, Reuss, the Ticino, and the Aar. Close to the glacier is an inn, for the accommodation of travellers who wish to stay the night here instead of at the Grimsel; but I did not avail myself of it, preferring to examine the ice fields, a strange sight to those who have never seen them before. It has nothing of the clear blue colour, which is so conspicuous a feature at Rosenlaui, or at Grindelwald, having a rather dingy appearance, owing to the moraine as it called, but I think it makes up for it by its stupendous size and commanding position. It fills up the ravine between two high mountains, and slopes down into the valley like a frozen sea. It is full of crevasses, several hundred feet in depth, and often covered over with a deceptive thin bridge of snow, which gives way with the weight of the traveller. Hence the greatest caution is necessary in crossing them, and when there is a large party, it is usual to be tied together with a stout rope sufficiently strong to bear the dead weight of a sudden fall of at least ten stone. In crossing glaciers, or snow slopes, this rope should never be dispensed with, and when this is the case few serious accidents can happen. A green veil is also useful, as the repurcussion of the sunbeams reflected by the snow is injurious to the eyes, and frequently occasions temporary blindness and great pain in the face. My guide, an active and intelligent man, a native of Hospenthal, brightened up as I proposed that we should try the ice, and by this time I was glad to find that the weather had cleared up. The sun shone out in fitful gleams, alternating with floating clouds of mist, which swept up the valley of the Rhone. It was afternoon, and the slanting rays of the declining sun, tinging all around with a bright purple colour, illumined the snow in a wonderful manner. It would, indeed, be presumptuous in me to enter into any details of my experiences on the ice. Those who are interested in such subjects should peruse "Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers," by Members of the Alpine Club, in which deeply interesting volume, they will find food sufficient to feed, nay inflame, their spirit of adventure. But I cannot resist the

opportunity of making a few cursory remarks for the information of those who sit at home' and know nothing about them. glacier is a stream of solid ice varying in thickness from 300 to 600 and even 800 feet. There are crevasses in the glacier of the Aar 700 feet deep, and in that of Grindelwald a plumb line fails to reach a depth of 500 feet; and it was here some years ago that a Swiss clergyman was precipitated into a hole more than 700 feet deep! This serves to give some faint idea of their immense size and dangerous character. And now a word or two as to their formation. Murray says, "The snow which falls on the summits and plateaux of the High Alps is at first a dry and loose powder. The action of the sun gradually converts this into a granular mass, as the minute particles are aggregated together into irregular roundish grains. In this state the entire mass appears white and opaque, but the separate grains are transparent. In the course of successive years these become a compact mass.' Professor Forbes' interesting works on glacier formations ought to be in the hands of every one who wish to. study the subject, and much valuable information is to be gleaned from them. It would, therefore, be superfluous in me to add any of my own observations. One thing, however, I may remark, which is, how comes it that the melting of glaciers and their continued downward movement is not more rapid than what it is? At Rosenlaui, for instance, the heat at midday was so intense, that I was obliged, while standing on the ice, to hold up an umbrella, strange as it may appear, to keep off the rays of the sun. The thermometer stood at 75° Fahr, and yet the ice, with all this heat radiating upon it, was as dry as possible. Again, the downward movement,

"The glacier's cold and restless mass
Moves onward day by day."

MANFRED.

must be much more rapid than what is generally supposed. Professor Tyndall calculates it is about 30 inches a-day in summer, 16 in winter. Whether this applies to Rosenlaui, I know not, but some peasants told me it was much more rapid. I myself can testify that a crevasse closes up in a few hours. However, much would depend on the steepness of the glacier. The Alpine Journal for September last contains a highly-interesting paper in regard to the relics of the guides who were lost on Mount Blanc in 1820, and which were only discoverved last year. The remains of these unfortunate men traversed 5 miles in 43 years, which would give a daily movement of 22 in. and one-fifth. My experiences were confined to merely the glaciers of the Rhone, Rosenlaui, and Grindelwaldupper and lower-and, therefore, are only meagre and devoid of interest to those who are veterans in the ice regions of the Alps, but I may mention, in regard to a tourist's equipment, what great benefit is derived from wearing kneecaps in case of a fall. They can be fitted on with little or no inconvenience, and are of great