The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-02 00:00:00

MIDDLE PASSAGE.

At Shah-ee-Choong we had to wait a day and a night
before we could get a boat, and at last had to content our-
selves with the ordinary passage-junk, which was small,
rotten, had a hole in its side, and was crowded with twenty-
four bullocks and one hundred and three Chinese passen-
gers All the space below deck was occupied by the bul-
locks, and how the passengers managed to dispose of them-
selves above, so as to leave room for the sailors to move,
was one of those mysteries which it is impsesible to under-
stand without visiting the East. 'We established ourselves
in a covered place on deck, something like the half a barrel
cut longitudinally, with the convex side uppermost. Anti.
cipating what would happen at night, I placed the patient
in the inner side of this den, and fortified the outside with
our luggage and my own body. But unfortunately the
barrel was capable of elongation by a cover which drew
out, and when it came on heavy rain during the night,
the passengers crowded under this cover, half suffocating us,
and dispersing the most fearful odours from their damp dirty
clothes. My poor companion was in a fainting condition
till we got a board opened, which gave him some air. These
hundred passengers added to the unpleasantness of the
situation, by hustling and talking loudly and angrily among
themselves, while a quarrel broke out among the sailors,
in which some very bad language was used, as to whether
they should stop or go on. The steersman, a rough cha-
racter, swore he would go on evtn if Mire' Bay
were choked up with rocks, giving the very
weighty reason that he had sailed all his life
between Macao and Canton; and he had to be
dispossessed of the helm by force. The pressure of the
crowd was so great that, if I had given way to it, or yielded
to their entreaties, we should have run a very fair chance
of being squeezed or suffocated to death ; and I was only
enabled to retain my position by the fortunate accident that
there was a very strong coolie next me, whom I convinced,
by sundry pricks with my bowie knife, that it was more
his interest to press outward than to press inward. As the
morning was wet, we did not leave till the other passengers
had gone, and noticed that they each paid two hundred
cash (about tenpence) as their fare, and that each individual
cash was handled and examined by the boatmen, so that
twenty thousand coins were scrutinised that morning.
The continuation of " Salem Chapel," which
flagged a little in the last number, now moves on,
with increased spirit, and there is a favourable
critique of Mrs.Oliphant's " Life of Edward Irving."

The Cornhill.
Still harping on the virtues of Philip and the
improprieties of Firmin, sen., Mr. Thackeray shows
us in this number how " the little Sister" hocussed
and robbed the Rev. Tufton Hunt of the forged
bill, whilst that aggrieved individual, presuming to
complain, is hauled off by the police. We confess
we are " aweary, aweary of this tale, and would
that it were done. It won't progress. What small
amount of freshness the charac era may once have
had is wholly gone, and Mr. Thackeray has found
it in his heart to bestow on his readers all his tedi-
ousness. His sensation story, "The Notch on the
Axe," is finished. It is a clever satire on the style
of fiction most opposed to his own. The tale called
" The Shallowell Mystery" will only please ro-
mantic young ladies; but the paper upon " Alcohol"
is well written and sensible. These are—
TUE SIGNS OP DRUNKENNESS.
"Every one of the signs of drunkenness is a sign of do. pression ; first of all, the face becomes unnaturally flushed, and the movements of the eyes unsteady ; that
is to say,
that the muscular coats of the blood vessels of the face are
paralysed, and that the muscles of the eyeball are paralysed ;
then the speech becomes thick—that means, that the tongue
is getting palsied. Later, the muscles of the trunk and limbs
get paralysed too, and the drinker cannot walk, ner sit up-
right, but sprawls upon the ground ; and, at last, if the
dose of alcohol have been very large indeed, the muscles
of breathing get paralysed, and death results. The
power of perceiving sensations, toe, is uniformly and
progressively lessened from the moment that intoxica-
tion begins, and the effects upon the mince are wholly
of a paralysing kind First of all, the drunkard loses the
power of coherent reasoning; then obliteration of ideas of
time, and space, and locality ensues. A friend of my own tells
rather a good story of two convivial yuuths,who were return-
ing from a public dinner in a state of slight obfuscation. One
of them took it into his head that the broad door. step of
one of the houses in Bedford-square was his own bed-room,
and invited his companion to take a shake down' with him,
as it was so late. His friend agreed, and the pair proceeded
to divest themselves of some of their garments, and lay
down, each with his head resting on one of the scrapers,
as it might on a pillow. An early policeman found them
sleeping softly, their hats and coats, &c., suspended on the
area railings their boots arranged, with supernatural accu-
racy and neatness, side by side, upon the edge of the upper
door-step.
The question mooted is whether alcohol is " food,
medicine, or poison P" and the conclusion tte writer
arrives at are--
1. That alcohol in small doses is a pure stimulant.
2, That alcohol iu large doses is a re artay depressing,
poisonous agent.
3. That the craving for drink is one not excited by
moderate but only by poisonous doses.
4. That in various diseased conditions the dose of
alcohol which may be borne without producing intoxica-
tion or alcohol poisoning is much increased, and that here,
too, the feeling of craving ?or a repetition of the dose is not
produced.
Under the head of "The Home of a Naturalist"
we have an interesting description of the grounds
at Walton Hall; which, during the last fifty years.
have been sacred to the enjoyment of all birds and
beasts that have chosen to take up their abode ttiere.
" Mead, hill, and dale have been laid Cut to SrAit the
idiosyncrasies of various species ; and trees of krent kinds have been planted in clump;, rows, or
in a solitary state, to attract the birr,o,
that love
such localities." Some curious results '
nav6followed.
One is the perfect tameness of all
the inhibitants.
" The shyest birds are so weft aware of their
security that they care no more for spectators than
the London sparrows for ps.ssengers;" ana, " al-
though a vast number of species congregate within
jthe domain—enough, according to the popula: pre-
udices, to devastate the gardens, destroy the crops,
and kill all the game—there ate few places where
crops, fruit, and flowers are so luxuriantly abun-
dant, or whore the game is more plentiful."
article termed " What are oil wells P" will be reed
with interest. Petroleum,it appears, has been known.
for ages ; and in Persia especially a large trade hat
been carried on in it. " One of the most ancient
Greek myths," says the writer, " is believed to have
been connected with a knowledge of the petroleum
gas. A jealous princess, wishing, without detection,
to destroy another, who was her rival in love,
anointed with petroleum the wreath she was about
to wear upon her head during a sacrifice. On the
lady's approaching the flame of the altar, the gas
ignited, and, spreaing with the rapidity of light-
ning, her whole figure was soon sheathed in fire, and
reduced to ashes." One effect of this oil in Canada
and America is thus described :