The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

NAVAL AD VENTURES. 2 VoLs.
LoxDoAr, 1833.
These volumes are a striking illustration of the
old adage which Byron has made so popular,
" truth is strange, stranger than fiction." They
abound, if not absolutely in marvels, at least in
wild and various adventures by sea and land,
in the new world equally with the old ; in the
hyperborean regions as well as under the torrid
zone. Lieutenant Bowers, the author, is a
gentleman who has been actively engaged in the
naval service for upwards of thirty-five years,
during which protracted period fate seems to
have treated him pretty much like a foot-ball,
kicking him about the world with a steady per-
severance that must by this time have rendered
him quite callous to her assault and battery. It
is a hard case, though, when one conies to consi-
der the question seriously, that an enterprising
veteran officer, like this, should have been so
long compelled to sit under what Colonel Na-
pier finely calls "the cold shade of the aristo-
cracy." Surely thirty-five years' hard service
entitle him to be something better than a mere
Lieutenant ! This book, however, we hope and
believe, will help to bring him under the notice
of the Admiralty ; for it exhibits in every page
proofs of sagacity, energy, and that lofty, indo-
mitable fearlessness which has made the name
of the British sailor renowned throughout the
world. We advise those who are fond of ex-
citement to read the Naval Adventures of
Lieutenant Bowers; those portions of them
which allude to the Greenland fishery are full of
the most enchaining interest. We subjoin an
extract :
" If among the perilous and adventurous occupations of
a sea-life, there is one requiring more energy, activity,
skill, courage, and patient endurance than another, it is
when man, in a fragile skiff, comparatively a nutshell,
defies and attacks in his own element the mighty monarch
of the ocean, one of the fiercest and most active of all the
finny tribes, the sperm whale. This enormous creature,
as much a fish of prey as the shark, measures nearly eighty
feet in length, and from thirty to forty in circumference ;
the head, shaped like a huge box rounded at the corners,
and rising a little towards the neck, in some species form-
ing nearly one-half of the whole. The tail, moved with
as much facility as the whip of a waggoner, is horizontal,
and from eighteen to twenty_four feet in breadth ; while
a tremendous lower jaw, from twenty-five to thirty in
length, thickly studded with conical, curved teeth, ten or
twelve inches long, is moved as adroitly as the tail, and
both when running on his side, with a power that would
crush a ship, and a noise like thunder. To these irre-
sistible faculties he possesses the agility of the salmon,
leaping from the water, and—as in the instance of the
unfortunate American South-seaman in 1821—falling on
the decks of ships with a weight capable of shp.ttering or
sinking the largest. This redoubtable animal wars not
only with many other fish, but with some of the more
peaceable of its own species, pursuing, attacking and with
its long sharp teeth tearing the flesh from the carcases of
many of the whale-tribe."

The Journal du Clier says—" A notary al
Bourges being informed a few days ago by a good-natured
friend that his wife had an assignation with a gallant
during his absence from borne, returned unexpectedly
armed with a gun, and discharged it at them both together.
The wife was seriously wounded."
CAPTAIN Ross AND THE BEAR.—It was
usual when Captain James Ross went upon a reconnoiter-
ing or exploring expedition into the interior of the
country, to leave his uncle, the senior Captain, at head.
quarters, with a small party of five or six men, generally
the least capable to bear fatigue. Upon one of those oc-
casions, whilst the Captain was in bed, his hut, or cabin,
well lined with tarpaulins and canvass, and his roof again
covered with deep snow, having a small entrance with the
view of excluding as much as possible the cold, and two
er three loop-holes for the occasional admission of air,
that the Captain discovered an unusual pressure and
noise of footsteps immediately above the spot where o
be lay. Thinking it might be one of the men wh
had thus unwarrantably disturbed his slumber, be
called out to know who was there ; but receiving no
wa. answer, and the annoyance rather increasing, he
.got up,
and, peeping through a loophole to discover who it ,
he beheld an enormous bear, snuffing about to find out
the entrance to the hut, which he was then approaching,
and no doubt in a few minutes more would have reached
his prey. The Captain, however, bad presence of mind
to seize a loaded musket which was at band, and levelled
it at the monster as he was tearing open the door. The
ball took effect ; and, although he did not kill it
severely wounded the animal that he immediately made
, so
off. He, however, shortly returned, deliberately walked
across a plank into the vessel, seized a young tame bear
which lay on the deck, devoured one half of it, and was
again making off, licking his chops, when he was pursued
and shot. Being one of the largest of many they mat with
in those inhospitable regions, the skin has been brought
beme as a curiosity.