by a friend, a lieutenant on board the ‘Salsette,’ swam across the Hellespont, from Abydos to Sestos, a distance of four miles; but this was more than the breadth of the stream, and caused principally by the rapidity of the current, which continually carried them out of the way, the stream at this particular place being only a mile in width.  It was here also that Leander is reported to have swam every night in the depth of winter, to meet his beloved Hero; and, alas! for both, swam once too often.”

[Footnote 3:  More properly written “diwaun.”]

[Footnote 4:  Thus named from Helle, who, according to poetical tradition, perished in these waters, and from Pontus, the Greek word for sea.]

MR. WILTON.  “Before we sail out of the Mediterranean, I wish to mention the singular loss of the ‘Mentor,’ a vessel belonging to Lord Elgin, the collector of the Athenian marbles, now called by his name, and to be seen in the British Museum.  The vessel was cast away off Cerigo, with no other cargo on board but the sculptures:  they were, however, too valuable to be given up for lost, because they had gone to the bottom of the sea.  A plan was adopted for recovering them, and it occupied a number of divers three years, before the operations were completed, for the Mentor was sunk in ten fathoms water, and the cases of marble were so heavy as to require amazing skill and good management to be ultimately successful.  The cases were all finally recovered, and none of the contents in the least damaged, when they were forwarded to England.  The whole cost of these marbles, all expenses included, in the collecting, weighing up, and conveying, is estimated at the enormous sum of 36,000_l_.”

CHARLES.  “When was this valuable collection made, sir?”

MR. WILTON.  “It was many years in hand.  I believe about the year 1799 investigations commenced; but the ‘Mentor’ was lost in 1802, and the marbles did not all arrive in England until the end of the year 1812; since then an immense number of valuable medals have been added to the collection.”

DORA.  “May we now sail through the straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic?”

MR. WILTON.  “We must necessarily pass through the straits of Gibraltar to get out of the Mediterranean; but as we proposed to examine into the different situations of the lesser divisions of water, first, we will merely sail through a portion of the Atlantic, and have a little information concerning the Bay of Biscay.”

DORA.  “The Bay of Biscay washes the shores of France and Spain; but the sea is so very rough there, that I think, were our voyage real instead of imaginary, we should all be anxious to leave this Bay as quickly as possible:  and the next name on the list is the British Channel.”

EMMA.  “I have that.  The British Channel is the southern boundary of Great Britain, and extends to the coast of France.  The islands in this channel are the Isle of Wight—­capital Newport,—­Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark.”