XI.-Ocean Voyage.

The tourist being now cutward bound, there will be a general looking after matters in the state-rooms. It is also usual to arrange early for the meal that is to follow first after starting. It will be important to a passenger, if he be under sea-sickness, to have a seat at the end of some table, called a corner seat, or at some place which he can readily and suddenly leave, in case it should seem best at any time. Revolving chairs are being introduced into the diningsaloons of some of the newer steamships, and they are a great gain to the comfort of the passengers. It will be necessary for the passenger to be promptly on the alert for his seat, else the old voyagers will have control of all the choice seats before he is aware of it. Sometimes it is customary for a person to place his card on the table at the seat which he desires, but this must be watched if there be many passengers, lest some one remove it. Frequently one can engage the chief steward on the day before sailing to reserve a given seat for him; this is a good way, if it be practicable to go on board that day. If this be done it will be essential that the steward be remembered in a fee. In case of anything being wrong about the seating, the tourist applies to the chief steward as final umpire. When the bell rings for the meal, be prompt at the table and at the seat selected, which is to be retained during the voyage, unless changed by approval of the steward.

The meals are served to cabin passengers at about the following hours, in summer time: Breakfast at 8 A. M., or in some cases from 7:30 A. M. to 9:30 A. M.; lunch at 12 M.; dinner, the regular table d'hôte and the principal meal of the day, at 4 P. M.; tea at 7 P. M.; supper from 8:30 P. M. to 10 P. M., upon order. Besides these meals, and according to the line of steamers, oatmeal porridge or coffee is usually served in the morning at 6:30 o'clock or at 7 o'clock. This porridge can be had at the diningsaloon, or it will be brought to one's state-room by the bedroom steward or by the stewardess, as the case may be, provided such an arrangement has been made by the passenger. For these extra services a fee will be expected at the end of the voyage. If you discover that you will probably be seasick, arrange at once with the bedroom steward or with the stewardess to care for you in all that you may want, to bring your meals to you in your room, or to the deck, wherever you may be, and to serve you as you may desire. At the end of the voyage pay according to the amount of extra service rendered you, from a sovereign or five dollars, downwards. The days will go steadily by, and, if the tourist is not sick, a voyage across the Atlantic in summer time is a real pleasure. The tourist can go out among the sailors in the forecastle, when probably some one of them will stoop down and suddenly draw a chalk mark on his shoe. This calls for a treat from the passenger. He is expected to follow the custom of the sea, so he gives the sailor who marked him a piece of money, anywhere from twenty-five cents to a dollar, as he pleases. After this he has the run of the deck scot-free, all the sailors now

knowing him as having earned his liberty. If the passenger go down into the furnace regions, among the blackened and sweltering firemen who shovel daily into the maws of Hades fifty, sixty, eighty, one hundred tons of coal, he will be chalked again. He will pay as before with like subsequent freedom.

The sailors are busy people, always at work when on their relays; they paint and repair the ship's rigging, they scrape the masts, and they scrub the deck at early dawn to the evident disgust of the drowsy sleepers below.

The tourist will see signs placarded here and there by which he will be instructed in relation to certain limitations of talking with the officers and men while on duty. Lights are put out at night from 10:30 to 11:30 o'clock, according to the regulations of the company. Should lights be absolutely needed in the state-room after the hours for extinguishing them, inquiries in regard to the matter should be made of the captain of the ship. The passage tickets are collected by the purser a few days after starting out from port. Should the tourist need some pocket-change in the denomination of the money of the country in which he is to land, he can obtain it of the purser or of the chief steward, one of whom has charge of the bar.

The passenger should early attend to the bells which mark the watches, and learn to note the time indicated by them. One stroke is given at the end of each half hour-the watch is four hours long, except at 6 P. M., called the "dogwatch," when there is a break. In detail the case is thus: The watch begins at 12 M., which is past, suppose, then at 12:30 P. M., one bell is struck; at 1 P. M., two bells; 1:30 P. M., three

bells; at 2 P. M., four bells; at 2:30 P. M., five bells ; at 3 P. M., six bells; at 3:30 P. M., seven bells; at 4 P. M., eight bells, which is the highest ever struck on the watch; at 4:30 P. M., one bell; at 5 P. M., two bells; at 5:30 P. M., three bells; at 6 P. M., four bells, the beginning of the "dogwatch"; at 6:30 P. M., being in the dog-watch, one bell only; at 7 P. M., two bells; at 7:30 P. M., three bells; at 8 P. M., eight bells again. Then the bells are struck regularly up to eight strokes until the next evening at 6 o'clock. The regular watches are at 12 o'clock, 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock. The dog-watch breaks up the time for the relays so that the same company of men and officers do not have to serve at the same hours every night.

Usually there are religious services on the Sabbath, and sometimes every evening, especially if there are clergymen on board. Some of the cap

tains read the Sabbath services; some say grace at the table when they are present at the beginning of the meals. On Sundays or on other days, collections are taken among the passengers for the support of various benevolent institutions connected in some manner with the sea-service. May I be pardoned a word to the clergymen who may preach on shipboard? It is this: It does not seem wise or necessary to preach about the dangers of the ocean when upon it—to magnify the perils of the sea, in order to be effective. This seems hardly judicious. At a prayer meeting in the saloon, I heard a gentleman say that there was only a thin board between us and eternity— the waves were washing loudly against the sides of the ship while he was talking. The bedroom steward who was present exclaimed quickly, "Thank God, it is a thick plank." He uttered the sentiment that did us all the most good then.

One night in a dense fog, a large sailing vessel collided with our steamship; by a good Providence we just escaped the wrecking of our ship, the passengers were in a quiet state, but very solemn. The minister on the following Sabbath only just alluded to the dangers of the ocean, and some of the passengers were fairly driven into a fright at the words. This is an unnecessary agonizing of the feelings. Clergymen are to be honored, but sometimes a little wisdom of the common world is not out of place.

As to occupations and amusements there will probably be plenty of them to pass away the time very pleasantly. Should the passenger be free from sea-sickness, and so desire, he may read, but he is not recommended to do so on the first voyage; he will find it more profitable to study the ship and the parts of it, as the quarter-deck, the forecastle, the companion ways, the saloon, the gunwale, the masts, the sails, the binnacle, the machinery for steering, the mode of throwing out the ashes from the furnaces, the wheel-house, the shrouds, the various decks, the hold, the construction of the life-boats, what is the meaning of the name which appears so often upon the small boats in addition to that of the name of the ship, the propeller, the manner of hoisting the sails, and last but not least, what the "donkey-engine" is, keeping clear of the "donkey in it; the sailors, the other passengers, the. sea, the sky, the whole little and great world then in view. The games and diversions are: Shuffle-board, Neptune races, ordinary races, singing, flirting and exchanging autograph albums, dancing, smoking, cards, pools on the daily rate of the running of the ship, wines, suppers, promenad