will fall in one minute from one half of it into the other.  The glass is turned just when a certain mark on the rope passes over the rail, and, when all the sand has run, the rope is stopped.  As the rope has lengths marked on it by bits of colored cloth, the sailors can tell how far the ship has gone in one minute, and can roughly calculate from that its rate of speed by the hour.  Formerly a real log of wood was used instead of the bag.

The greatest event of the voyage was seeing a school of whales.  There were dozens of them spouting and showing their backs above water.  Another exciting thing was meeting a ship so near that we could salute it, which is done by hoisting and then lowering the flag once or twice.  Ships have flags of different kinds, and each has its own meaning.  So by hoisting certain flags, the captains of distant ships can exchange news.

When nearing the Irish coast, a dense fog settled upon us, so that we could hardly see from one end of the ship to the other.  All day and all night the great fog-whistle was kept blowing to warn other vessels that might be in our neighborhood.  To see a light house or landmark was impossible, but the captain found out where we were by soundings.  Every ship has a long piece of lead with a hole in one end which is filled with tallow.  The other end is fastened to a rope, and the lead is thrown overboard and sinks to the bottom.  When hauled up, some of the sea-bottom is found stuck to the tallow, and from this and the depth of the water, the captain knows where he is, for the kinds of sand and mud at the bottom of the sea, and the varying depths of water, are plainly marked on his charts.

I cannot describe to you what a welcome sight the land was, after seeing nothing but water for so long.  But when we had left the great ship behind, it seemed almost as if we were leaving home, glad though I was to get ashore.

    Your loving reader,

    F. D.

* * * * *

A correspondent sends us the series of “Beheaded Rhymes” which we print below.  Each of the stanzas contains two examples of this kind of rhyming, and, in each example, the first blank is to be filled with a word that suits both the sense and the measure.  The next blank that occurs is filled with all of the chosen word except its first letter; and this process goes on until the word can no longer be beheaded and yet leave another word.  The making of such “Beheaded Rhymes” as these, in company, to see who can succeed best, sometimes whiles away very pleasantly a long evening of disagreeable weather.

A NIGHT’S ADVENTURES.

  It made a most tremendous ——! (1.)
  I gave my horse a sudden ——­: 
  He threw me full against an ——­,
    And broke my collar-bone. 
  “What can I do in such a ——? (2.)
  My horse is gone, I have no ——­,”
    I murmured with a groan.