single controlling power producing simultaneously a hundred different effects. There were men enough to do everything, and all at once ; but the ship's company of the merchantman were always too few for her. A mercantile sailor is expected to do the work of two, and, at a pinch, of three and even four. When one job is done he has to spring to another. There are 'stations' indeed in such manoeuvres as tacking or wearing; but when, for instance, it comes to shortening sail in a hurry, or when the necessity arises for a sudden call for all hands, the merchant sailor lays hold of the first rope it is necessary to drag on, and when he has ' belayed' it, he is expected to fling himself upon the next rope that has to be pulled. Here we have the secret of the usefulness of the working song. Let the words be what they will, the melody animates the seaman with spirit and he pulls with a will; it helps him to keep time too, so that not so much as an ounce of the united weight of the hauling and bawling fellows misses of its use on the tackle they drag at. I have known seamen at work on some job that required a deal of heavy and sustained pulling, to labour as if all heart had gone out of them whilst one of the gang tried song after song ; the mate meanwhile standing by and encouraging