CHAPTER XXVI.

WHAT POETS HAVE SUNG OF THE SEA, THE SAILOR, AND THE SHIP. The Poet of the Sea still Wanting—Biblical Allusions—The 290 Classical Writers—Want of True Sympathy with the Subject—Virgil’s “Æneid”—His Stage Storms—The Immortal Bard—His Intimate Acquaintance with the Sea and the Sailor—The Golden Days of Maritime Enterprise—The _Tempest_—Miranda’s Compassion—Pranks of the “Airy Spirit”—The _Merchant of Venice_—Piracy in Shakespeare’s Days—A Birth at Sea—_Cymbeline_: the Queen’s Description of our Isle—Byron’s “Ocean”—Falconer’s “Shipwreck”—His Technical Knowledge—The “True Ring”—The Dibdins—“Tom Bowling”—“The Boatman of the Downs”—Three Touching Poems—Mrs. Hemans, Longfellow, and Kingsley—Browning’s “Hervé Riel”—The True Breton Pilot—A New Departure—Hood’s “Demon Ship”—Popular Songs of the Day—Conclusion GENERAL INDEX 305

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE A “White Star” Liner crossing the Atlantic. _Frontispiece._ The Steerage of an Atlantic Steamship Forty Years ago 4 At Dinner in the First‐class Dining Saloon of an 9 Atlantic Steamship during a Storm New York Bay, looking across to Staten Island 12 A Pullman Railway Car 16 Madison Street, Chicago 17 On the Pacific Railway: a Scene in the Sierra Nevada 20 Mountains Camp Douglas Garrison, near Salt Lake City 24 A Street in Salt Lake City 25 On the Pacific Railway; the Interior of a Snow‐Shed 29 in the Sierra Nevada A Cricket‐match on Board Ship 33 Leaving the Coast of California 36 A Street in Japan 41 The Custom House, Shanghai 44 View of Honolulu, Sandwich Islands _To face page_ 45 The Volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, Sandwich 49 Islands (from the Sea) View in Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia 53 “The passengers were let down by ropes” 57 The Rescue from the St. Lawrence River 60 Pearl Oyster (_Meleagrina margaritifera_) 68 Diving for Pearls 69 Coral 72 Coral Island 72 Coral Fishing 73 Sponge Fishing off the Coast of Greece. _To face page_ 77 Sponge, Growing 77 A Diver at Work (with Submarine Lamp) 80 Divers Attacked by a Sword Fish 84 Divers at Work 85 Chart of the Atlantic Ocean 88 Waves off the Cape of Good Hope 89 Whirlpool of Corrievreckan, off the Hebrides 93 “The Souffleur,” Island of Mauritius 96 A Ship Sailing in Phosphorescent Sea. _To face page_ 97 Phosphorescence on the Surface of the Sea 97 Section of the First Atlantic Cable 100 Exterior and Section of the 1865 Atlantic Cable 101 The Paying‐out Machinery on Board the _Great Eastern_ 104 The _Great Eastern_ Laying the Atlantic Cable 109 Foraminifera in Piece of Rock 112 Propagation of an Infusorian by Spontaneous Division 113 Inhabitants of the British seas Kondylostoma Patens (magnified 300 times) 113 Medusæ 116 Praya Diphyes 117 Agalma Rubra (three‐fifths natural size) 120 Physalia Antarctica 121 Madrepores 124 Sea Anemones 125 Star‐fish 128 Urchins in a Rock 128 Sea Cucumber (_Holothuria tubulosa_) 128 The Razor Fish (_Solen ensis_) 129 The Mussel (_Mytilus edulis_) 129 Isolated Piles covered with the Spawn of Mussels 132 Oysters (_Ostrea edulis_) 133 Dredging for Oysters 137 The Scallop (_Pecten_) 140 The Limpet (_Patella_) 140 Spondylus 140 Turbo 141 Trochus 141 Voluta 141 Conus 141 The Cowrie (_Cypræa tigris_) 141 Strombus 144 Murex 144 Triton 144 Harpa 145 Purpura Lapillus 145 Cleodora 145 The Octopus (_Octopus vulgaris_) 148 The Common Nautilus (_Nautilus pompilius_) 149 Crabs (_Cancer pagurus_) _To face page_ 153 “The West Indian Land Crab (_Gecarcinus ruricola_) 153 The Hermit Crab (_Pagurus Bernhardus_) 156 Lobster (_Homarus vulgaris_) and Prawns (_Palæmon 157 serratus_) The Common Shark (_Carcharias vulgaris_) 161 The Dog‐fish (_Acanthias vulgaris_) 164 The Globe‐fish (_Tetrodon_) and Sun‐fish 164 (_Orthagoriscus mola_) The Pipe‐fish (_Syngnathus acus_) 165 The Flying‐fish (_Exocœtus exiliens_) 165 The Salmon (_Salmo salar_) 168 The Herring (_Clupea harengus_) 169 Herring Fishing 172 The Pilchard (_Clupea pilchardus_) 173 The Cod (_Morrhua vulgaris_) 176 The Mackerel (_Scomber scombrus_) 176 Fishing for Tunny off the Coast of Provence 177 Fishing for Sword‐fish 180 The Northern Whale (_Balina mysticetus_) 181 Cutting up the Whale 184 The Great Sea‐serpent when first seen from H.M.S. _To face page_ 186 _Dædalus_ Head of Sea Serpent 189 On the Sea‐shore: Calm and Storm 192 Sea Anemones 196 Delesseria 200 Laminaria 200 Bladder Wrack (_Fucus vesiculosus_) 201 Ulva 201 Pholades in a Block of Gneiss 204 Spinous Cockle (_Cardium edule_) 204 The Weaver‐fish (_Trachinus communis_) 205 The Devil’s Frying Pan, Coast of Cornwall. _To face page_ 207 The Lizard Light 208 The Loggan Stone 208 The Botallack Mine, Cornwall 209 Looe 212 View on the Cornish Coast 217 Rocket Line Thrown to a Wreck near Penzance 220 Life‐boat Going to a Wreck on Doom Bar, Padstow 221 Wreck of a Steamship near Lizard Point 224 The _König Wilhelm_ entering Portsmouth Harbour after _To face page_ 239 the Collision Southampton 225 H.M.S. _Eurydice_ on her Beam‐ends just after the 228 Squall Brighton 232 Discovering the Samphire on the Rock 233 The last of the _Grosser Kurfürst_ 237 Dover 240 Ramsgate 241 The Gulf Stream Light Vessel on the Goodwin Sands 244 Harwich 248 Yarmouth 249 Scarborough 253 Captain Boyton attacked by a Dog‐fish in the Straits _To face page_ 262 of Messina Early Swimming 257 Diving 261 Captain Webb. (_From a Photograph by Albert 265 Fradelle_) Captain Webb’s Arrival at Calais 268 The Home for Aged Merchant Seamen, Belvedere, Kent 273 Greenwich Hospital 276 Greenwich Pensioners 277 The Great Equatorial Telescope in the Dome, Greenwich 281 Observatory Collision of the _Bywell Castle_ and the _Princess 284 Alice_ Trinity House, London 288 The Siren Fog‐horn, for Warning Ships off the Coast _To face page_ 289 The Storm 292 After the Storm 293 “He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, 296 Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown” “Deep on her side the reeling vessel lies” 297 “At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach, 300 A fisherman stood aghast,” “Three Fishermen sailed away to the West” 301

THE SEA.