computation 130 bergs were seen between two a.m. and five p.m., when we finally cleared these dangerous companions. Getting among the ice so early made me determined not to go into so high a latitude on the Composite Great Circle Route, as I had at first intended (52° S.) 47° being the greatest latitude attained. I may not be altogether right, however; for I should think it not improbable, at that time of the year, that as much, if not more ice, would be found in 45° S. as 52°.

"The few captains here have asked me why I went so far south, from which I infer that a high parallel for running down the Easting is not general. Just before coming to Kerguelan's Land, we experienced a very heavy gale, barometer going down to 28° 80′ in a very short time, and after passing that place we had some very heavy S. W. gales, with mountainous seas and snow squalls for days together. On the 20th April, in 45° 30′ S. lon., 90° E., we saw two very large icebergs, it blowing a heavy S.S.W. gale at the time, with hard snow squalls, and bitterly cold weather.

"The icebergs seen on the 7th April are in a very dangerous position, being not only in the track of vessels bound to Australia, but also those bound to India. Last voyage to Calcutta, I was not fifty miles to the north of their present position.

"I should be obliged if you would send Mr. Towson (who, I know, is interested in these matters) a copy of this portion of my letter"

OUR OFFICIAL LOG.

SUEZ CANAL DUES.-Messrs. Mosses and Mitchell, the London Transit Agents for the Suez Canal Company, have been authorised to publish the subjoined letter in reply to an influentially signed memorial concerning the present change in the mode of levying dues :-

"Paris, July 5. "Gentlemen,-Together with your letter of the 25th of June, we received the memorial, in which a certain number of English shipowners make observations with reference to the new basis of levying of duties in operation since the 1st of July.

"We have communicated this memorial to the Administrative Council of the Company.

"The shipowners state that the principle generally admitted for the levying of taxes and dues applicable to steamships is to grant a reduction for the space occupied by the engine, the fuel, &c., and they seem to think that the Suez Canal Company henceforth intends levying its dues on the total capacity of the steamers, and without allowing

any deduction for the engine. This idea, however, is the result of an

error.

"The principle which has guided the Administrative Council in the adoption of the new measure consisted in subjecting each ship to a duty of 10f., as often repeated as the ship is capable of carrying tons of goods-viz., in basing the levying, conformably with the acts of concession, on the capacity of the ships. The Council, moreover, has found out that it was necessary to increase by 30 per cent. on an average the tonnage inserted in the official British papers, in order to arrive as closely as possible at the exact capacity of the ships. Afterwards it has admitted that from this total tonnage an allowance of 25 per cent. should be conceded for the space occupied by the engine, &c. Now, if we increase by 30 per cent. on an average the tonnage inserted in the official British papers, or gross tonnage, in order to obtain the total capacity of the ship, and if afterwards we deduct the 25 per cent. from the sum obtained, in order to allow for the space occupied by the engine, we arrive exactly at the figure expressed by the gross tonnage. It is, therefore, for the purpose of simplification that the Company has adopted the gross tonnage, after having found out that the number of tons expressed by the gross tonnage indicated as exactly as possible, and, as a rule, the capacity to be utilised in the ships. We now fairly ask the shipowners whether it is not true that the net tonnage inserted in the official ships' papers is notoriously inferior to the real capacity of the ships, and whether it is not likewise true that the gross tonnage indicates with an average exactness the precise capacity of the steamers' measurement, or the number of tons which the ships are able to carry? It is on account of these considerations that the Council of the Company has made the decision of the 4th of March, by which the new basis of the dues has been fixed, and, these considerations still prevailing, the new tariff remains unchanged. We do not disguise from ourselves the importance which this change must have for the shipowners, but these gentlemen must certainly acknowledge that it would be unfair that shareholders who were so persevering and courageous as to endow the maritime community with this new means of communication should remain any longer without obtaining the reward due to them. I beg you to communicate this letter to the steam shipowners in England.— Please receive, gentlemen, &c.,

(Signed) "FERDINAND DE LESSEPS, President.

"M. COURETTE, Managing Vice-President.

"To Messrs. Mosses and Mitchell, London."

[The following formula expresses the above decision, and in the case of a steamer of 2,000 gross tons, viz., 2,000 + 30 per cent = 2,666: and 2,666 25 per cent = 2,000. We have an article ready on this subject,

but we are compelled to defer it owing to pressure on our space. shall go very fully into it in our next.-ED.]

We

ROCKETS FOR SAVING LIFE.-The President of the Board of Trade has been asked in Parliament whether he is prepared to introduce a scheme which would oblige every ship to carry a properly-fitted rocket apparatus, and a book of instructions for its use, to save the crew in case of stranding. There is a growing fancy for asking persons in authority to require ships to carry appliances, contrivances, and gimcracks, without number; and if the President of the Board of Trade were to adopt all the suggestions made to him, we expect that the British ship would become a receptacle for curiosities, and leave but little room for cargo or crew, and but a poor chance of making a profitable voyage. The last suggestion is this one about rockets. At present, as every one knows, the shipowner can provide rockets, and mortars, and lines, and life buoys, and boats, and anything else he likes, without let or hindrance, and he does provide many things that are seldom used. If rockets were deemed to be of use, they would be supplied, and kept up. But the shipowner, looking to the wreck register, and to his own experience, knows that it is only about one voyage in 360 that ends in a stranding; and he knows, further, that even that one stranding may or may not be one in which the rockets could be used, if they were on board, or would be effective, if they could be fired. It is too much the practice of so-called humanitarianism to exercise itself by attempting to compel practical people to adopt expensive and useless contrivances or appliances, and nothing illustrates this so forcibly as the suggestions made by kindhearted men to hamper the shipowner, and waste his money. Rockets cost 238. each; they are not toys, but with their sticks, are ten feet long, and weigh nearly forty pounds. A ship must carry at least two dozen of these, because, above all things, the crew must be taught to fire them and exercised in their use. Duplicate and triplicate lines, &c., must be provided besides, and a stand or two stands, from which to fire the rockets. The first cost to the shipowner will be about £56 for each set of apparatus, and the annual cost for wear and tear and expenditure will be £30, and this is to be incurred on the supposition that the apparatus will be ready, when wanted, and will be effective, when used, and in the knowledge that the chances are 360 to one that it ever will be wanted. But on ship-board these sort of things are not much attended to, and the lines might be neglected, or crews might not exercise the apparatus sufficiently, or, not at all an improbable supposition, the lines might get foul and part. In these cases, the good folks on the beach, who had come down to render assistance, would find directed at them from the ship one of the most fearful of war engines. A life-saving rocket, without a line, has a range of a mile. It was with a few of these

"life-saving rockets" that a coastguard officer, in Ireland, dispersed a large band of Fenians. These rockets would be sent from the wreck in amongst the people and the houses on shore. After all, it will probably be best to let practical people alone in these matters. They will use the apparatus from the shore, where it can be used; but where it cannot be used, if, for instance, the ship is out of range, it cannot be used, and nothing that the humanitarians may say can lessen distance, or alter the fact.

PORTUGUESE CUSTOMS TARIFF.-Alterations in the General Customs' Tariff. Instead of the duties of importation, exportation, and reexportation, laid down in the General Customs' Tariff, on the articles mentioned in the schedule which forms part of this law, the following duties shall be levied :

Articles upon which no special duties are fixed in the Tariff, ad valorem, 1 per cent. Note.-Nevertheless, cereals, and the produce of the national mines, shall continue to be exempt from export duties.—Reexportation Articles, re-exported, on clearance outwards, ad valorem, 1 per cent. All merchandise deposited in the Custom-house, the import duty on which is less than 1 per cent., ad valorem, shall pay, when reexported, one-tenth of the export duty leviable on the same, as per tariff, thus modifying the 39th Article of the preliminary rules of the tariff of 1861.

BOATS AND SHIPS.-We propose to issue with the Nautical Magazine a series of illustrations of the build and rig of boats and ships of the present age, throughout the world. If our readers abroad will send us sketches or photographs, with written descriptions of native ships and boats, it will greatly assist us in our project.

ABOUT LLOYDS.-We have received a pamphlet intituled "About Lloyds." The writer is evidently behind the scenes, and speaks as one

having authority, and with power. His position enables him to lay facts bare, and to draw startling conclusions. We do not altogether admire the tone of the whole of the pamphlet; and we think it would have been stronger, if parts of it had been less bitter. If the pamphlet be true, fact and belief are at variance; for it would appear that, as a matter of fact, the old institution of "Lloyds" is (owing to keen competition of trade, and to the improved facilities which independent action creates) of far less importance in the underwriting world now, than the large companies, as a body are; whilst (again according to the pamphlet) it would appear that the belief of the ancient Society, as displayed by their actions of late, is unfortunately exactly the reverse of the fact. We know little of the inner workings of that world-known institution, whose committee meet at the Royal Exchange, and we have no means of gauging the wisdom or unwisdom of their acts, but we reverence it as an institution that has placed its mark on our history, as a commercial nation. Assuming, however, as we have a right to do, that " About Lloyds" is not a romance, there is probably some foundation for dissatisfaction, and certainly some need for reform. Whilst we go thus far, we distinctly state that we do not see any necessity for many of the sweeping condemnations of the writer, which we think are often too wide and unnecessarily funny. For instance, it may be possible, indeed, it is extremely probable that the Committee have erred as regards "Lloyds' List," and have lost money by it, and are losing money by it now, and will go on losing money: but that is no reason why it should be alleged, as regards Lloyds, "that comments on bubble companies and time bargains, now contend with Holloway's Pills and Colman's Mustard in relieving the tedium of mere underwriting." Our own experience is, that the outside sheet of Lloyds' List-viz., that containing the advertisements is always judiciously removed before the reader gets the "List." Pills and mustard will, therefore, if they are necessary to the comfort of underwriters, continue to be administered in the region of the domestic hearth, and not under the shade of the Golden Grasshopper; but the reference, although it tends to lighten the pages of the pamphlet, is altogether too unimportant for so grave a subject. There has for a long time been a feeling of uncertainty and uneasiness, and we fear that "About Lloyds " will not have the effect of allaying that feeling. If the object of the writer be gained, or in any way promoted-viz., the placing of the large companies on a proper footing as regards Lloyds, and the mutual placing of Lloyds on a proper footing as regards the companies and the public, "About Lloyds" will not have been written in vain, and on that account we hail it as valuable.

ANOTHER NEW LIGHT.-This is the heading of a paragraph that has been going the round of the papers, but whether the new light is one