The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-17 00:00:00

A SAIL ON THE DEAD SEA

At 3.25 passed the extreme western point, where
the river is 180 yards wide and three feet deep, and
entered upon the Dead Sea; the water, a nauseous
compound of bitters and salts. A fresh north-west
wind was blowing as we rounded the point. We
endeavoured to steer a little to the north of west,
to make a true west course, and threw the patent log
overboard to measure the distance ; but the wind
rose so rapidly that the boats could not keep head to
wind, and we were obliged to haul the log in. The
sea continued to rise with the increasing wind, which
gradually freshened to a gale, and presented an agi-
tated surface of foaming brine; the spray, evaporating
as it fell, left incrustations of salt upon our clothes,
our hands, and faces ; and while it conveyed a prickly
sensation wherever it touched the skin, was above
all exceedingly painful to the eyes. The boats,
heavily laden, struggled sluggishly at first; but when
the wind freshened in its fierceness, from the densityof the water, it seemed as if their bows were encoun-
tering the sledge-hammers of the Titans, instead et
the opposing waves of an angry sea. At
5.40, finding that we were losing every
moment, and that, with the lapse of each
succeeding one, the danger increased, kept away
for the northern shore, in the hope of being yet able
to reach it ; our arms, our clothes, and skins, coated
with a greasy salt ; and our eyes, lips, and nostrils,
smarting excessively. How different was the
scene before the submerging of the plain, which
was " even as the garden of the Lord !" At times
it seemed as if the dread Almighty frowned upon
our efforts to navigate a sea, the creation of his
wrath. There is a tradition among the Arabs
that no one can venture upon this sea and live.
Repeatedly the fates of Costigan and Molyneaux
had been cited to deter us. The first one spent
a few days, the last about twenty hours, and re-
turned to the place from whence he had embarked,
without landing upon its shores. One was found
dying upon the shore ; the other expired in November
last, immediately after his return, of fever contracted
upon its waters. But, although the sea had assumed
a threatening aspect, and the fretted mountains,
sharp and incinerated, loomed terrific on either
side, the salt and ashes mingled with its sands, and
foetid sulphurous springs trickled down its ravines,
we did not despair; awe-struck, but not terrified;
fearing the worst, yet hoping for the best, we pre-
pared to spend a dreary night upon the dreariest

Waste we had ever seen. At 5.58, the wind instan
taneously abated, and with it the sea as rapidly fell ;
the water, from its ponderous quality, settling as soon
as the agitating cause bad ceased to act. Within
twenty minutes from the time we bore away from a

sea which threatened to engulph us, we were pulling
away at a rapid rate, over a placid sheet of water,
that scarcely rippled beneath us ; and a rain cloud,
which had enveloped the sterile mountains of the
Arabian shore, lifted up, and left their rugged out-
lines basking in the light of the setting sun.—Lynch's
Expedition to the Dead Sea.

MR:PIPS HIS DIARY.
(From Punch.)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1849.—Finding Fault with
my Wife, for that she do not use enough Exercise ;
whence her continual Headach, and Faddell, the
'Potticary his Bill of 51. She replying that I would
never take her out, I said I would whenever she liked ;
whereupon, we agreed to go a Walk forthwith, and
my Wile did propose Regent Street. So we thither,
pleasing ourselves with observing the Passers-by
and the Carriages, thou;h their Number do now
begin to diminish, and the streets do daily blaze less
and less with fine Ladies and flaming Liveries.
Going by Lindsey and Woolsey's, my Wife's eye
taken with a Scarf in the Window, and would stop to
look at it with a crowd of other women gazing at the
Finery, which Mr. Skitt do call Baits, and a Draper's
Shop a Lady-Trap. Presently she recollected that
she wanted a Collar ; so we into the Shop, where
some sixty or eighty Ladies sitting before the Coup.
ters, examining the wares, busy as Blue-Bottle Flies
at a Sugar Cask. Behind the Counters the Shopmen
anal Assistants, showing off the Goods, and them-
selves also, with mighty dainty Airs, every one of
them almost, Narcissus his Image. But I fear me
they owe their pale delicate Looks and Languid Ways
in part to the Want of sufficient Air and Exercise ;
which is a sad Consideration. One of these dapper
young Sirs did help my wife to her Collar, cat
3s. 6d ; when she thought she had better get another
while about it, cost 3s. 6d. more. Then, says he
in his soft condoling Voice, " What is the next
Article ?" as though taking for granted that
another was wanted—which was too true. For
hereupon, my Wife bethought her of lacking some
Lace Cuffs, four pair : cost 12s. " And now, Mem,"
(meaning Madam), says the young Fellow with a
Simper, " allow me to show you a Love of a Robe, a
Barege, Double Glace, brocaded in the Flouncings,
and reduced to Twenty-one-awl-Six from Forty-
five." But she professed that she needed it not :
whereat I was glad ; when he did tell her he would do
it at One-and-Four less: and she then saying that it
was indeed a Bargain, which I find is a Woman's
iVord for anything cheap whether wanted or no, I let
her have it : cost 1/. Os. 2d. But, to be sure, the Pat-
tern was pretty, and my Wife being well-dressed do
please my Taste, and also increase my Consequence
and Dignity. The Robe bought, it comes into her
Head that she could not do without a new Shawl to
match it, blue and scarlet, cost 2/. 25., but will-look
mighty fine, and, I hope, last. Here I thought
to walk her at once bodily away ; but seeing a
stout middle-aged Gentleman doing the very thing
and how mean it looked, did forbear; and in
the Meanwhile the Shopman did beg, as he
said, to tempt her with a superior Assortment
of Ribbons. She rummaging over this Frippery, I
to gaze about the Shop, and with Fellow-Feeling
did mark an unhappy small Boy, while his Mother
was comparing some three-score different Pieces of
Satin, perched on a Stool, out of Patience. My Wife
would have ss. worth of Ribbons, and here I hoped
would make an end; but the shopman did exhibit to her
some Silk Stockings ; and I telling her they were un-
necessary, she declared that then she must wear
Boots, which she knows I utterly hate ; and con-
cluded with buying half a Dozen Pair, cost 245. ,
with this my Martyrdom finished; and we away,
bowed out of the Shop with Congees by :the smirk-
ing Shopwalker, rubbing his Hands and grinning, as
obsequious as could be ; and so Home ; I mighty
serious, having laid out Si. 10s. 2d.; and the next
Time I take out my Wife for a Walk, it shall be in
the Fields and not in Regent Street.

WEISNER AND CROPS.—On Saturday evening
Edinburgh and vicinity was visited with a violent storm
of thunder and lightning, and so heavy did the rain fall,
that many supposed a water-spout had burst over us.
The storm seemed to have been general, and must have
seriously flattened the crops, particularly heavy wheat and
barley. Ever since the beginning of the present month
there has scarcely been a day in which thunder was nol
heard, or on which rain did not fall, yet except on
Saturday the injury was partial and unworthy of notice.
Several fields of barley in favourable situations have
been cut within these two or three days, and various
farmers speak of commencing cutting in the beginning
of the week, but generally harvest will not take place
till about the end of the month. This day three
years (15th Aug.) did the potato disease manifest itself
in its greatest virulence--it seemed as if on that day the
pestilence passed over and destroyed that crop. This
year we would Lin hope the country will be spared from
a similar visitation, though there are accounts of the
disease having appeared to a small extent. We have not
heard of any symptoms of its appearance in this vicinity.
—Scotsman.

LrrE ASSURANCE IN FRANCE.—It is conceded on
all hands that the great extension of life assurance in
this country is one of the best signs of the times. Every
man that assures his life renders the state a service, since
the state is thereby saved the cost of keeping his family
when he is gone; besides, the man that assures his life
is an enemy to tumult, since ho mast thereby lose all
he had saved. No wonder, then, that the President of
the French Republic is desirous that a law should be
passed for " the institution of aids and insurances, so as
to insure to the laborious classes a refuge against the
consequences of the suspension of works, of infirmities,
teed of old age." In France life assurance is all but un-
known.----The Reporter and Assurance Chronicle.
FISHING WITH CORMORANT:3.—On Friday week Mr.
Salvin, accompanied by Mr. Brockboles, Mr. Gillow, and
other friends, took the birds (four in number) to the
Wyre, and continued the sport for several hours, but in
consequence of there being too many eels in that part of
the river where the fishing was carried on, the take of
trout or other kinds was only inconsiderable. On Satur-
day,the party fished the Calder stream, and on Tuesday
the Brock, when the success was of a much more marked
character, particularly on the latter day, the trout being
many of them of large size, and in excellent order for
table. In order to prevent the gratification of their glut-
tonous inclinations, and to secure the fish which they
succeed in catching, a strap is placed round the lower
part of the throat of the cormorant, which hinders the
swallowing of a fish of a tolerable degree of bulk, but
not of eels; and that is the reason why the sport cannot
be pursued with satisfaction where eels are found in any
considerable quantity. The birds appeared to be only
imperfectly trained, artificial means having to be used to
induce them to fish, and to entice them to bring the prey
when caught, in order to its being disgorged from their
throat, down which they never fail to force it as far as,
they possibly can. This want of more perfect training
to bring the fish to land after having caught them occa-
sions at times no little incouvenier.ce, and the risk of
personal injury to the person who directs the sport, as he
is obliged to wade into the water, and in his attempts to
seize them by the bill to secure them, he has need to ex-
ercise great caution and expertness, to avoid the savage
strokes and bites which they are so capable of inflicting.
—Preston Pilot.
WESLEYAN METHODIST CONFERENCE.—MANCHES-
TER, AUG. 15.—The sittings of this religious denomi-
nation were closed yesterday evening, the Conference
having sat to the latest day it could legally continue,
under the poll-deed of the late Rev. John Wesley.
According to the official returns of the number of mem-
bers in the coenexien presented to the ConfereneP, the
total Let increase within ti.e pafit yea,: in Great
Ireland, and the foreign (missionary) stations, was
-8,787 members. The Conference for 1850 will be held
in Loudon.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
HOME CIRCUIT.—Croydon, Aug. 16.
(Before the CHIEF BARON and ti Common Jury.)
DROWN V. YARDLEY.

This action was brought by the plaintiff, Anne Brown,
to recover damages for the seduction of her niece by the
defendant.

Mr. Sergeant Shee, Mr. Prentice, and Mr. Pollock
were for the plaintiff; and Mr. M. Chambers and Mr.
Simon for the defendant.
This case was tried at the last summer assizes at
Guildford, when a verdict was returned for the plaintiff,
with 2001. damages. The case was fully reported at the
time, and a new trial was granted on the ground of mis-
direction by the Learned Judge who then presided (the
Chief Baron). The plaintiff, it will be remembered, oc-
cupied a cottage at Winkfield, near Bagshot, and her
niece, Mary Anne Brown, lived with her and performed
the household occupations, no servant being kept. In
the month of June, 1846, upon the occasion of Ascot
races, the plaintiff's niece was on a visit at a public-house
in the neighbourhood, and the defendant saw her there,
and an intimacy took place between them. It appeared
that at this time the defendant was not more than 19 years

old, and was living with his mother at a place called
Holly Port, about six miles from the plaintiff's house;
and it seemed that he was in the constant habit of
visiting her niece, who was ten years his senior, and of
being alone with her two or three hours of an evening;
arid the result of their intimacy was the birth of a child,
in December, 1847. Very shortly after this event oc-
curred the defendant discontinued his visits, and in the
beginning of 1848 he announced to her his determination
not to carry out a promise he had repeatedly made to
marry her, but at the same time offered to allow her
half-a-crown a week for the support of the child, which
he suggested was all that the law could compel him to
do. :iince the last action it appeared that the child had
been affiliated upon the defendant, who, after breaking
off the connexion with the plaintiff's niece, had married
another young woman, and an order for the payment of
half-a-crown a week had•been made upon him.
Mr. CnAmnEas addressed the jury at some length
for the defendant, contending, as on the former occa-
sion, that the plaintiff; standing in the position of aunt,
had no right to claim damages to a greater extent than
the actual loss she had suffered in the services of her
niece; and he at the same time urged that all the mis-
chief had been occasioned by her want of caution in
allowing these young people to be constantly together
of an evening, and her not taking proper steps to in-
form the mother of the defendant of what was going on.
He then remarked upon the ages of the respective par-
ties, one being a boy of nineteen, and the other a woman
of 30, and he asked the jury whether it was not more
probable the latter was the seducer than the defendant?
In conclusion he said that, while undoubtedly it was the
duty of a jury to protect the female portion of the com-
munity, yet he was sure they would at the same time see
the necessity of protecting their own sons and the sons
of their neighbours from being entrapped into improper
alliances, and thus bringing misery upon themselves and
those with whom they were connected.
The CHIEF BARON then summed up, and the jury,
after a short deliberation, returned a verdict for theplain-
tiff—Damages, 150/.