The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-15 00:00:00

May on the passage from Halifax to Bermuda. The
Medea was commissioned at Portsmouth in Sep-
tember, 1861, by Commander Preston, and has been
employed on the North American and West India
Station. She called at Plymouth to land the inva-
lids, and it was expected that she would leave in
the afternoon for Portsmouth, where her crew will
be paid off, and she will be put out of commission.
The Medea left at Bermuda the Terror, Niger, and
Liffey, the latter ship had just arrived from Colon.
Vice-Admiral Sir James Hope, K.C.8., was ex-
pected at Bermuda about the middle of June, en
route for Halifax. The Pylades was at Halifax and
the Bulldog at Vera Cruz.
The iron paddlewheel steam vsssel Antelope, 3,
Master-COmmanding Alfred Thomas, which arrived
at Plymouth on Sunday evening, brought 29 inva-
lids and 22 supernumeraries from the West Coast
of Africa, including Mr. Lawton, engineer, her
Majesty's ship Sparrow ; Mr. Smart, assist.-
engineer, Snipe; and Mr. Sedgwick, assist. -engineer,
Pioneer. The invalids are in charge of Dr. Mullan,
Vindictive. She left Jalla Coffee April 7th ; Ascen-
sion, April 29th; St. Vincent, May 18; and Madeira,
June Ist. Lieut. Allingham, who commissioned the
Antelope at Woolwich in 1861, died at sea on the
11th May; he had been employed nearly nine years
on the West Coast of Africa. The Antelope left at
Ascension the Lee, Griffon (homeward bound), and
Wye, bound for Sierra Leone ; at St. Vincent, the
Zedra ; and at Madeira an Italian frigate, 53 days
from Rio de Janeiro.

The Armstrong and Whitworth Committee, of
which Major Dyer, Royal Artillery, Assistant-In-
spector of Ordnance in the Royal Arsenal, is secre-
tary, completed their lengthened and fatiguing trials
on Saturday last at the Woolwich butt. The two
competitive 70-pounder guns fired on that day the
last course, terminating the appointed 3,000 rounds
each, with charges of 101 b. of powder and service
shots, and are both without blemish. They were on
Monday shipped for transmission again to Shoebury-
ness, where they will be fired at an elevation of six
degrees to try if the accuracy of the guns has been
affected by the severe course of trial which they have
undergone.
It was stated on Monday at Woolwich that Mr,
Parson's system of strengthening the old cast iron
guns, by the insertion of a homogeneous metal tube,
has received the sanction of Government, and that
some of the waste guns will shortly be handed over
to him for that purpose. Mr. Parson's system is
somewhat similar to that of Major Palliser's, which
has been attempted for some time past with partial
success at Woolwich. Mr. Parson's method, of which
a most successful trial was recently made in the pre-
sence of the Emperor of the French, as detailed in
The Sun of the 6th inst., consists of boring out the
breech end of the gun, and fitting in a tube which is
secured in its place by the breech-plug. In the 68-
pounder cast iron gun the lining tube is made up of
an inner tube, surrounded by hoops, shrunk, forced,
or screwed on, and then turned to the proper size.
The lining tube has a breech-plug of its own, which
is for the purpose of preventing the explosive
gases getting between the end of the lining tube
and the breech screw, and by acting on its larger
area endangering its security. The cost of the
appropriation of the old guns on this principle, it is
stated, will be very small, and the consequent sav-
ing to the country in being enabled to use up the
enormous stock at present utterly useless will be

immense.
The following appointments have been made at the Ad
miralty :—Capt. Matthew Connolly to the Fisgard, addi
tional, for service in the Pallas ; Commander Wm. Jardine
to the Constance ; George H. Allen, master, to the Hima-
laya; Lieut. Arthur R. Blane to be Lieut.-Commander of
the Psyche, vice Sterne, promoted ; Lieut. Geo. F. Lyon,
Lieut. William Parsons, and Lieut. Richard P. Pardon, to
the Constance, commissioned ; Lieut. Robert S. Hunt,
Lieut. Hon. E. L. V. Mostyn, and Lieut. C. Walker to the
Octavia, commissioned ; Lieut. Ralph L. Turton, Lieut.
Samuel Pulley, and Lieut. G. A. W.Birch to the Arethusa,
commissioned; Sub-Lieuts. Arthur F. Gresley and Mal-
colm M'Neile to the Constance ; Sub.. Lieut. Wm. S. Lee
to the Arethusa; Sub-Lieut. Harry F. H. Hallett to the
Octavia ; Wm. F. E. Freeland, Ferdinand Beauclerk,
Amyard Heggard, and A. D. Fanshawe, midshipman to
the Constance ; Leonard Ensor and Edward A. W. West,
midshipmen, to the Arethusa ; Geo. H. R. Willis, James E.
Russell, Fred. A. Moysey, and Edward A. Fryer, midship-
men, to the Octavio. ; the Rev. A. Buckley, chaplain and
naval instructor, to the Scout, commissioned ; James R.
Anderson, surg. to the Fisgard, for Greenwich Hospital ;
Benjamin Browning, surg., additional to the Canopus ; J.
W. Dobbin, surg., additional, to the Victory ; P.: M. Roe,
surg., additional, to the Black Prince ; Robt. Humphreys,
surg., additional, to the Medusa; Alan Colins, surg., addi-
tional, to the Edgar; H. P. Shanks, paymaster, additional,
to the Fisgard ; G. V. Wright, assist.-surg., to the Arethusa;
Henry N. M. Sedgwick, assist.-surg., to the Octavia;
Matthew Trevan, assist.-surg., to the Constance ; Josiah
F. Kynspy, assist.-surg., to the Orontes ; Cornthwaite H.
Rason, assist.-surg., to the Prince Consort; Francis H.
Browne, assist.-surg., to the Achilles ; Hugh B. Edwards,
assist.-paymaster, to the Gladiator ; James N. Robinson,
assist: paymaster in charge, to the Medusa ; John F. Rule,
assist.-paymaster, to the Britannia; John London, chief
engineer, to the Black Prince, vice Tucker, promoted ;
Andrea Douglas, chief engineer, additional, to the Indus,
for service in the James Watt, vice London ; Ossian L.
Carlisle appointed chief engineer,:additional,:to the Cumber-
land, for charge of engineers of the Orestes, on that ship
being paid off ; James Bowles, clerk, to the Hastings ; G.
F. M. Kent, clerk-supernumerary, to the Fisgard ; Capt.
Reginald J. J. Macdonald to the Arethusa, Capt. Edward
K. Barnard to the Constance, Lieut. Edward Pilkington to
the Constance, Lieut. Joshua Cole to the Arethusa, Lieut.
William H. Hall to the Octavia, Malcolm de S. Edye, mid-
shipman, to the Constance ; Seaton Wade, surgeon, to the
Asia; Wm. R. Fabian, chief engineer, to the Arethusa;
Robert C. Reynolds, chief engineer, to the Octavia; Joseph
H. Ellis, chief engineer, to the Constance ; John Lowrie,
engineer, to the Arethusa; James Jones, engineer, to the
Octavia; Hugh Duncan, engineer, to the Constance; Robt.
Crosthwaite, to the Asia, for the Fancy, vice Jones ; James
C. Saunders, to the Indus, for the Gannet, vice Duncan ;
Arthur Shanks and Geo. M'Leod, first-class assist.-engi-
neers, to the Octavia; Chas. D. Thomas and Chas. M. John-
son, first-class assist-engineerS, to the Arethusa; Laurence
Steele and Joseph Sharpe (B), first-class assist.-engineers,
to the Constance; J. Copplestone, second-class assist-engi-
neer, to the Constance; C. F. Halford, second-class assist.-
engineer, to the Arethusa; Henry Scott, acting second-
class assist.-engineer to the Octavia; Albert J. B. New-
man, acting second-class assist-engineer, to the Asia, for
the Echo, vice Shanks ; Lieut. R. H. Swinton to be lieut.
and commander of the Skylark, his appointment to the
Charon having been cancelled ; Lieut. J. D. V. Butler, to
the Octavia ; W. B. Goldsmith, master, to the Himalaya ;
E. M. S. Claremont, midshipman, to the Arethusa; G. L.
Atkinson, midshipman, to the Octavia ; W. Horn, second
master, to the Skylark ; J. L. Whitney, assist.-surg., to
the Impregnable ; Frank E. Croome, assist.-clerk, to the
Fisgard, as supernumerary ; W. Ironmonger, engineer, to
the Skylark ; and T. M. Thompson, first-class assist.-en-
gineer, to the Skylark ; Capt. Charles F. Hillyar, to the
Octavia, commissioned; Lieut. Hilary M. Cane, Lieut.
George T. G. Purcell, Lieut. Charles S. Cardale, Lieut.
George Edward Price, and Lieut. Charles R. Harris, to the
Excellent ; John Thompson, master (additional), to the
Asia, for service in the Enchantress ; and Lewis T. Jones,
midshipman, to the Constance.

ENGLISH AND ARAB HORSES. —A Cairo letter
contains an interesting account of a match between
Prince Halim and an English gentleman named Ross to
test the powers of endurance of English and Arab horses.
The Prince chose a white stallion named Alsissa, brought
from Syria about two years ago, and which he rode him-
self, while Mr. Ross selected a five-year-old mare named
Beechnut, exported from England seven months back,
and ridden by a Mr. Thomson. The conditions wore that
the two horses should hunt the gazelle in the desert
during a period of seven days, and if one of them gave in
the survivor should be the winner, unless they both died
on the same day, in which case the owner of the English
horse should receive the stakes. The match was for
£l,OOO laid by Prince Halim against Mr. Ross's £lOO, or
odds of ten to one. The hunt commenced in the desert at
two hours' ride from Cairo, at half-past five on the morn-
ing appointed; the two horses proceeded at a walk for five
hours, at the end of which time Beechnut began to mani-
fest some uneasiness. At eleven a gazelle was started, and
brought down after a gallop of• about five minutes. Half
an hour later the Prince and Mr. Thompson turned about
to return to their encampment, the English mare some-
times walking and sometimes trotting, when, after pro-
ceeding for an hour and a half, Beechnut began to waver,
and Mr. Thompson, seeing that she was about to fall,
alighted ; the mare advanced a few steps further, and then
fell to the ground, utterly exhausted. After remaining
for twenty minutes beside Beechnut, the Prince and Mr.
Thompson left to obtain assistance at the camp, the mare
being still alive at their departure. Five hours later an
English veterinary surgeon, accompanied by a dromedary
bearing water, arrived at the spot where she had fallen,
when she was found to be dead, while vultures were
already attacking the body. An examination of the mare
by the surgeon showed that she had died from fatigue, as
the whole body was contracted from a difficulty of respi-
ration. Prince Halim's horse Alsissa, in the meantime,
showed no signs of exhaustion, and continued to hunt
during the three following days. The weight carried by
Beechnut was list 31b, and that by Alsissa 12st 41b.—
Galigrtani.