The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-30 00:00:00

rilE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 30, 1860.

that, though the vessels actually touched, the dis-
tance was calculated with such minute care and
nicety that, as sailors say, the two ships would
scarcely have broken an egg between them. In a
very few words Commodore Seymour gave his in-
structions, and in a very few minutes Commander
Hope carried them out, taking she Hero's stream
cable through the stern port, and dropping it with
a bower anchor in the very spot where it was ne-
cessary to haul on. Simply as this may be said in
words, it was, on the whole, a difficult thing to do
properly ; but the Flying-fish did it, and did it
well, too. Hauling upon this, and steaming full
power astern till the water was in a foam, the
Hero made a desperate effort to clear herself, but
all in vain. Nothing moved her, and there seemed
at one time a strong probability that she would
have to run her guns aft, if not to lower
them into the Flying-fish entirely, before she
floated. During this interval of time a number of
gaily-dressed boats had come out from Gaspe town,
and, quite unaware of the untoward circumstances
of the case, collected in a crowd under the Hero's
bows, their crews cheering and waving handker-
chiefs as if his Royal Highness had purposely gone
ashore to receive their ovations at his ease. At his
ease, indeed, the Prince certainly seemed to be, sky-
larking about the quarter deck of the Hero with
the younger officers with as much good humour and
sang froid as if he visited Gaspe every day in the
year, and was rather in the habit than otherwise of
getting ashore in a line-of-battle ship. At last, after
an hour or more had been spent in useless attempts
to move the Hero off, the Ariadne passed two haw-
sers out astern, and taking the flagship in tow,
pulled her out of her difficulties bodily and set her
afloat once more in deep water. The set of the tide
while waiting for high water to enter the inner
harbour had taken her ashore in the only shoal
place in the harbour. That it was not due to the
want of careful pilotage may be judged from the
fact that Captain Oreibar was in charge of her, and
this officer, with the late Captain (now Admiral)
Bayfield, has been for the last 30 years engaged in
making the Admiralty survey of the whole coast
line of the provinces, from Nova Scotia to Labrador.
As may, however, easily be guessed, no more at-
tempts were made to enter the inner harbour, and
as soon as the Hero had recovered herself, recalled
her boats, and in a manner resettled her plumage,
the signal was hoisted, " prepare to weigh." In 10
minutes afterwards the squadron was steaming
down the bay as fast as they could run, for a huge
Atlantic fog bank, dense as a shoal, came pouring
in, and safe as the harbour is at all times, it was
not thought quite advisable to keep largo ships
tacking about in it in fog which was quite of the
colour and almost of the consistency of butter.
All therefore made haste to get out at once, the
Hero leading round Cape Gaspe—a tremendous
headland of limestone rock, gray and solemn-
looking, with its massive brow furrowed into
deep chasms, like wrinkles, by the action of the
elements upon it for ages past. The Flying-fish
was afforded rather a close opportunity of studying
this awful rock, for in the fog the Ariadne suddenly
made her appearance close astern, and compelling
the Flying-fish to turn almost into the rock to avoid
a still more dangerous collision. Outside the har-
bour the fog was, if possible, even more dense than
before, and in half an hour the ships were any-
where but together, and all most cautiously feeling
their way up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, guided
partly by the guns which were fired at intervals by
the flag-ship. That night the squadron made very
little progress, for with the fog was its most dis-
agreeable accompaniment—a heavy deep fog swell ;
so that, on the whole, the weather was decidedly un-
pleasant. On the 14th it cleared a little, and the
ships went ahead fast—so fast, indeed, that the
Flying-fish was soon making a long stern chase of
it, and though her heavy guns were breught aft,
and all other nautical devices adopted to increase
her speed, she continued dropping astern till she
would have been left behind altogether had not the
Commodore signalled the Ariadne to take her in
tow. To a frigate of such speed and power as the
Ariadne it makes very little difference whether she
has a line-of-battle ship in tow or only a
sloop like the Flying-fish. On the voyage out,
when the Hero fell short of coal, the Ariadne not
only took her in tow for a couple of days, but
towed her at the rate of nearly 10 knots an hour.
With the Flying-fish, however, she was less suc-
cessful. Scarcely had she got her well under way
before the bearings of some parts of her engines
heated to such an extent that the white metal ran
out, and the Ariadne came to a dead standstill in a
minute. There was nothing for it therefore but to
leave her to beat up under sail till she could repair
the accident, while the Flying-fish pressed on full
power to rejoin the Hero—an effort which took her
the whole night to accomplish, and which she never
would have accomplished at all if the flag-ship had
not slackened speed as she neared the mouth of
that most awful-looking of all rivers, the Saguenay,
up which it was intended the squadron should
steam. The Saguenay is only some 120 miles dis-
tant from Quebec ; but, as the river is of its kind
the most extraordinary in the whole world, it was
arranged that the Prince should spend at least two
days in fishing and boating between the tremen-
dous cliffs which hem it in on every side. While
the Hero was preparing to enter the river the
Ariadne rejoined the squadron. She had repaired
the damage to her engines by 9 o'clock on the pre-
vious night, and had steamed up a distance of 122
knots in 11 hours.
All the vessels were preparing to enter the mouth
of the river when the Hero got ashore again on a
very little shoal, but one on which she managed
to get ashore, and pretty firmly too. The water
round the entrance to the Saguenay is deep enough
for any line-of-battle ship that ever floated, except
in one small spot called the Four-fathom Patch, the
only spot in the whole bay where she could take
Old ground, and on this the pilot contrived to run
her rather hard. The buoys which indicated the
presence of this danger had shifted considerably—
so considerably, in fact, that it is said the pilot
should have seen at once by their bearings that
they were not where they ought to have been. He
was thought at the time he was engaged to be one
of the best pilots for the St. Lawrence, but it would
seem that he had never taken a large ship across
the stream from Riviere de Loup to the Saguenay.
This fact, coupled withthe nervousness arising from
having such a ship in charge, may account for his
getting her ashore ; but, whatever the cause, it is
pretty clear that he managed to ground her on a
rather rocky bottom, and one on which the Hero
could hardly have got off without some damage.
The amount of injury she may have sustained, how-
ever, is a mere on dit. It is not likely to be much,
and the only fact which admitted of no doubt what-
ever was that the Hero was again ashore. As the
tide was falling fast there seemed to be very little
probability of her being got off for some hours. The
Ariadne was preparing to pull her off again, or pull
her in half, and the Hero was beginning to get her
guns aft, when suddenly, to the astonishment of all,
she moved a little, then bumped a little, then
moved a little more as the sweep of the tide pushed
her, and at last, as she went full power astern with
her screw, she worked clear off the shoal, and was
once more quietly afloat. This made an end at once
of the change of the squadron going up the Sague-
nay, so the Prince and his suit disembarked and
went on board the Governor's steamer, which had
followed them from Gaspe, and this the first day's
tour was made up the wildest river in the world.
The day was about as wretched and unfavourable as
could possibly have happened for any other trip.
The wind was high and rushing in fierce sharp
squalls which drove the rain like small shot in your
face. Gloomy black clouds rested on the mountains
and seemed to double their height, pouring over the
ragged cliff's in a stream of mist, till, lifting sud-
denly with the gusts of wind, they allowed short
glimpses into what may almost be called the terrors
of the Saguenay scenery. It is on such a day above
all others, that the savage wildness and gloom of
this extraordinary river is seen to the greatest ad-
vantage. Sunlight and clear skies are out of place
over its black waters ; anything which recals the
life and smile of nature is not in unison with its
huge naked cliffs, raw, cold, and silent as tombs. An
Italian spring could effect no change in its deadly
rugged aspect, nor does winter ad an iota to its
iraolumfal desolation. It is a river which one should

see if only to know what dreadful aspects nature
can assume in her wild moods. Once seen, however,
few will care to visit it again, for it is with a sense
of relief that you emerge from its sullen gloom, and
look back upon it as a kind of vault—Nature's sar-
cophagus, where life or sound has never entered.
Compared to it the Dead Sea is a blooming garden,
and the wildest ravines look cosey and smiling. It
is wild without the least variety, and grand appa-
rently in spite of itself, while so utter is the solitude,
so dreary and monotonous the frown of its great
black walls of rock, that the tourist is sure to get

impatient with its sullen reserve till he feels a posi-
tive antipathy to its very name. Some six miles
above it is the little town, or, as in England we
should call it, village of Tadousiac. It is more than
300 years since Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of
Canada, the adventurer who, through his misinter-
pretation of the Indian word " welcome," gave the
present name to the country, landed here. It was
almost his first real resting-place, and the first men-
tion which we have of the Saguenay is one which
now well befits its savage aspect, for Cartier sent a
boat and crew to explore its rocky chasm, which
were never more heard of. From that day to this
the river has had a name which, allowing for the
difference of times and creeds, only the Styx can

equal. At the mouth of the Saguenay the water varies
in depth from 10 to 16 fathoms, but once between
the walls of the river and the depth from end to end
is never less than 100 fathoms, generally 150. On
either side, at a distance of about a mile apart, the
cliffs rise up thin, black, and straight, varying in
perpendicular height from 1,200 to 1,600 feet, and
this is the character of the river Saguenay from its I
mouth to its source. On the right bank the cliffs
are poorly mantled here and there with stunted
pines, but on the left there is scarcely a sign of life
or verdure, and the granite rocks stick up white
and bleached in the gloomy air like the bones of an
old world. At two places, St. Maguerite and be-
tween Capes Trinity and Eternity, where smaller
tributaries pour their contributions into the deep,
black stream, a breach occurs in the wall of rocks,
as if some giant hand had torn them forcibly
back, and left them strewn and baffled of their
power in uncouth lumps over the valleys beyond.
But these are the only openings, the only means
of escape, if they may be so called, from the silent
gloom of this dead river. The Saguenay seems to
want painting—wants blowing up, or draining—
anything, in short, to alter its morose, eternal, quiet
awe. Talk of Lethe or the Styx, they must have
been purling brooks compared with this savage
river, and a picnic on the banks of either would be
preferable to one on the Saguenay! On the occa-
sion of the Prince's first visit, on the 15th, the mist
and rain hid half its gloom, but enough was seen,
and they returned to the Hero at about 5 o'clock
wet and dull. There was rather a State dinner on
board the flagship that evening, and the Prince,
having to be up early the next morning, retired at
12. Before turning in he made a bet with one of the
officers of the ship that he would be up before four
o'clock next morning—a bet, too, which he won,
though tired with the fatigue of the previous day.
He overslept himself so far that he had barely time
to make his appearance on the quarterdeck of the
Hero in a hurried and Very imperfect toilette before
eight bells (four o'clock) was sounded. Before six
a.m. he was again on board the Governor's steamer
and away up the Saguenay to fish. Before he left,
Captain Hope, of the Flying-fish, had received
orders to get up steam and take all the officers of
the squadron on an excursion up the river. Of
course, everybody wished to go, and, as the day
was bright and glorious, everybody that could
come came. The Flying-fish has the honour of
being the first man-of-war that ever passed up the
Saguenay, and if they send the whole navy of Eng-
land I am sure a merrier party will never enter
its waters than steamed up on that occasion.
Even the Saguenay could not depress their spirits,
and if that is not a proof of the zest with which all
entered into the day's enjoyment it would be hard
to say what is. From St. Marguerite the smart
little sloop steamed on to where the wild scenery of
the river culminates at a little inlet on the right
bank between Capes Trinity and Eternity. Than
these two dreadful headlands nothing can be
imagined more grand or more impressive. For one
brief moment the rugged character of the river is
partly softened, and, looking back into the deep
valley between the capes, the land has an aspect of
life and wild luxuriance which, though not rich,
at least seems no comparison with the previous
awful barrenness. Cape Trinity on the side towards
the landward opening is pretty thickly clothed with
fir and birch mingled together in a colour contrast
which is beautiful enough, especially when the
rocks show out among them, with their little cas-
cades and waterfalls like strips of silver shining in
the sun. But Cape Eternity, which well becomes
its name, is the very reverse of all this, and seems
to frown in gloomy indignation on its brother
cape for the weakness it betrays in allowing any-
thing like life or verdure to shield its wild, un-
couth deformity. Cape Eternity certainly shows no
sign of relaxing in this respect from its deep savage
grandeur. It is one tremendous cliff of granite,
more than 1,500 feet high, and inclining forward
some 200 feet, brow-beating all beneath it, and
making as if at any moment it would fall and over-
whelm the deep black stream which flows down so
cold and motionless below. High up on its rough
gray brows a few stunted pines show like bristles
their scathed white arms,giving an awful weird aspect
to the mass, blanched here and there by the tempests
of ages, stained and discoloured by little waterfalls,
in blotchy and decaying spots, but all speaking
mutely of a long-gone time when the Saguenay was
old, silent, and gloomy, before England was known,
or the name of Christianity understood. Unlike
Niagara and all other of Cod's great works in nature,
you do not wish for silence or solitude here. Com-
panionship become doubly necessary in an awful
solitude like this, and, though you involuntarily
talk in subdued tones, still talk you must, if only to
relieve your mind of the feeling of loneliness and
desolation which seems to weigh on all who ven-
ture up the Saguenay.
The Flying-fish passed under this cape slowly,
with her yards almost touching the rock, though
with more than a thousand feet of water under her,
and even the middies and youngsters from the
squadron were awed by the scene into a temporary
quietness. The solemn and almost forbidding
silence at last became too much. The party had
not come out to be overawed, chilled, and subdued
by rocks, however tremendous, so it was carried
nem. con. that, dead and stoney as they were,
they must have echoes, and the time was come
to wake them. In a minute after, and
Captain Hope having good-naturedly given his
consent, one of the largest 68-pounders was cast
loose and trained aft to face the cliff. From under
its overhanging mass the Flying-fish was moved
with care lest any loose crag should be sufficiently
disturbed by the concussion to come down bodily
upon her decks. A safe distance thus gained, the
gun was fired. None who wefe in the Flying Fish
that day will ever forget its sound. For the space
of a quarter of a minute after the discharge there
was a dead silence, and then, as if the report and
concussion were hurled back down upon the decks,
the echoes came in crash on crash. It seemed as if
the rocks and crags had all sprung into life under
the tremendous din and as if each was firing 68-
pounders full upon us, in sharp crushing volleys,
till at last they grew hoarser in their anger, and
retreated, bellowing slowly, carrying the tale of
invaded solitude from hill to hill, till all the dis-
tant mountains seemed to roar and groan at the in-
trusion. It was the first time these hideous cliffs
had ever been made to speak, and when they did
break silence they did it to some purpose.
A few miles further on the Flying Fish passed
under Statue Point, where, some 1,000 feet above
the water a huge rough Gothic arch gives entrance
to a cave in which, as yet, the foot of man has never
trod. Before the entrance to this black aperture a
gigantic rock, like the statue of some Titan, once
stood. A few years ago, during the winter, it gave
way, and the monstrous figure came crashing down
through the ice of the Saguenay, and left bare to
view the entrance to the cavern it had guarded
perhaps for ages. Beyond this, again, is the Tableau
Rock, a sheet of dark-coloured granite, some 600
feet high by 300 wide, as straight and almost as
smooth as a mirror.
After passing this the interest in the scenery de.

elined, so the Flying Fish turned round and made
the best of her way down the river at full speed.

Passing St. Marguerite the Prince was still busy
with his fishing, and a Royal salute was fired, the
echoes of which, I believe, are still wandering in
search of rest to this very hour.
His Royal Highness returned to the Hero at
about nine o'clock. His sport, owing to the fineness
of the day, had not been very great, as a few small
trout were all the whole party had to boast of.
Somebody hooked a large salmon, and gave it to
the Prince to land, but Hs attempt was not

successful, and the only fish which would have been
a trophy broke away. Fishing, however, was not
the only sport enjoyed. A number of Indians waited

at St. Marguerite with their canoes, and in these the

Prince, the Duke of Newcastle, and others of the

boldest of his suite embarked and ventured up the
rapids which pour down from that tributary into
the main stream. Sitting in a canoe is a trifle more

difficult than sitting in a Turkish caique, which I
hold to be the most uncomfortable means of convey-
ance ever resorted to. Nobody but an Indian ever

liked a canoe, or felt at ease in it. Its bark is so
thin that the very ripple of the water may be felt
through it as through a blanket, while in ap-
pearance the effervescence of a bottle of Allsopp,
would be more than enough to overset it. In
reality, however, they are safe enough as long as one
keeps quite still. In one of these the Prince (who,
to do him mere justice, knows as little of fear as
any man that ever lived) ascended the rapids of St.
Marguerite. They were not, of course, equal to the
rapids of the St. Lawrence, but up even these his
Royal Highness, I think, would venture had he
only one of his Oxford crews on whom he could de-
pend to back him. In common parlance, as he is
spoken of on board the Hero, he seems " game to
the backbone," and it would be impossible to name
any gentleman who is so liked on board his ship as
the Prince of Wales. His popularity is not at all
the effect of rank, for any one that knows a line-of-
battle ship's ward and gun-room knows how much
mere rank, however high, goes for there. He is
liked for his kindness and perfect joviality, and for
nothing more, except his " dash" and love of fun.
As he came alongside the Hero the ship burnt
blue lights, and in an instant, as if in rivalry of
their pale bright fires, the Aurora Borealis sprang
up into the sky, playing such fantastic tricks of
light and colour as shamed all terrestial illumina-
tions into nothing. The squadron anchored for the
night off the mouth of the Saguenay, and at 6 a.m. on
the 17th got under way for Quebec. There was rather
a fresh breeze and strong tide down the St. Law-
rence, so that quick progress was not possible, and
about 7 o'clock the vessels anchored 20 miles below
Quebec, the first, the oldest, and the strongest of
all the cities of Canada. The Prince will laud in
state to-day between one and two. More than this
it is impossible to write, for the mail is coming
down the river, and this letter must go on board at
once. The preparations and decorations of Quebec
will, it is said, be on a grand scale—but it is at
Montreal, the real capital of Canada, that they will
culminate. Each town seems more wild than the
last about the Prince, and in what extravagant de-
monstrations of loyalty it may not end in it is hard
to say. The departure of his Royal Highness from
New York is fixed for the 6th October, and this
date will, of course, be adhered to. From New
York the squadron goes at once to Bermuda, when
after a stay of fold days his Royal Highness will
return to England, so as to arrive early in No-
vember.

LOSS OF A VESSEL AND DREADFUL
SUFFERINGS OF HER CREW,

A good deal of excitement was caused in North
Shields on Monday by the arrival of Mr. W. Arm-
strong, late chief mate of the barque Kitty, of
Newcastle, belonging to Mr. Brooks) of Wallsend,
it having been supposed, for many months past,
that the vessel and the whole of the crew had been

lost. The following is the report of Mr, Armstrong:
—The ship left London on the `zsth June,lBs9, with
a general cargo belonging to the Hudson's Bay
Company, and bound for York Factory, in Hudson's
Bay. All went well until the 12th August, when
they entered Hudson's Straits. At 8 p.m. they
passed Cape Resolution, with strong breezes from
the south-east, and very hazy weather. At 11 p.m.
got into the ice, from which they were never extri-
cated until they lost the ship. On the 21st August
I a little clear water was observed to windward, upon

which they got the ship under way with set canvas.
In endeavouring to stay the ship she missed stays,
and coming astern struck a heavy piece of ice, which
broke the rudder and three gudgeons, and started
the rudder post. The ship, in consequence, became
very leaky; they therefore tried to secure the lower
part of the rudder with chains. On the 3d September,
at 10 a.m, ther© were strong breezes from N.W.,
with rain. The ice drifting in all directions, the ship
being then fast to a piece of ice, with two ice an-
chors, a heavy piece of ice struck her on the stern-
post, and broke the rudder short off. The ship then
became so leaky, that the pumps were resorted to,
and kept constantly going until the crew were com-
pelled to abandon her. On Sept. 4, they had light
winds from the NNW, with fine weather. In the

morning, on going into the hold, the water was
heard rushing in the ship aft. They broke the
cargo out of the after hold and cut away several
parts of the ceiling in endeavouring to discover the
leak, but did not succeed in doing so: On the
sth, at two a,m., the ship broke adrift from the
ice ; they set the main trysail, still keeping the
pumps constantly going. At 8 a.m., while haul-
ing the chain cable on deck to put the ship down
by the head, with a view to get at the leak aft, the
ship going with her head in for the land, and all
fore and aft canvas set, struck a piece of ice for-
ward and knocked her forefoot off. She in con-
sequence made a very great deal more water, so
much so that the pumps would not suck. The
water gaining fast they endeavoured to stop the
leak forward, but it was too far below the water-
mark. They then made preparations to abandon
the ship, getting the boats ready with provisions,
&c. At noon there were three feet water in the
hold, all hands still keeping the pump constantly
going. At six p.m. the water increased to 6 feet.
At 1030 the boats, with provisions, were put over
the ship, the water having risen over the whole
beams, and the ship lying on her broadside. On the
the 7th the crew landed on Saddle Back Island, and
and prepared their boats for sailing up to the York
Factory. On Saturday, the 10th, at four p.m., they
left Saddle Back Island with two boats—Alexan-
der Ellis, master, with 10 men, in the long boat, and
Mr. Armstrong, with four others, in the skiff.
During the forepart of the night it became very
thick, with the wind increasing to a strong breeze.
Mr. Armstrong hailed the longboat at midnight,
advising them not to sail too far off the land, the
long-boat having alight with the compass. About
an hour afterwards, during a snow-squall, they lost
sight of the long boat, and never saw her afterward.
On Sunday, the 11th, the sea rose so high that they
were obliged to unship the mast, which, with the
sail and oars were put overboard to drogue the boat.
On the 12th, at noon, the weather being more mo-
derate, they steered in for the land on the north
side of Hudson's Straits, and on the 13th landed
about 17 miles south of Saddle Back, on the north
side of Hudson's Straits. Mr. Armstrong then made
-up his mind to steer for the coast of Labrador. They
were picked up by the Esquimaux, at Amitok, on
Nov. 5, and on the 9th arrived at the settlement of
the Moravian missionaries in a weak and wretched
condition, and more or less severely frostbitten.
They remained at different stations until May 15.
All the provisions they had when they parted with
the long boat consisted of 701 b. of bread and 5 pieces
of pork. This lasted 53 days, and for the remaining
8 days they had nothing to live on except sea-weed.
They had a quadrant and epitome, but could make
little use of them. On May 15th, Mr. Armstrong
arrived at the Hudson's Bay settlement at Kibokok,
where he stayed till the Ist of July. He then
went to another station on the North-west River,
where he remained till the 10th. Thence he went
to Cartwight, in Sandwich Bay, where he found
the schooner Lottery, which conveyed him to New-
Joundland, from which place he arrived in Shields
yesterday morning, much to the surprise of his wife
and family, who did not expect to hear of him more.
The only person in the long boat, whose name he
knows, is Alex. Ellis, the master, who belongs to
Shields. In the skiff with him were Benjamin
Groom, a Dane ; Martin Monson, a Norwegian,who
were left at Okok badly frost-bitten ; the other two,
viz., George Stewart, of Greenock, Scotland; and
Jacob Markham, of Hamburg, got employment as
fishermen, and stayed behind. Mr. Armstrong de-
sires us warmly and heartily to thank the Moravian
missionaries for the exceedingly kind and hospi-
table treatment which he and his companions in
misfortune received at their hands during their
long stay in that inhospitable region. He also re-
quests us to state that neither Abraham nor Okok
are marked on the charts, and thinks it very desir-
able that this should be done immediately for the
benefit of any one who may be placed in a similar
I position.—Northern Daily Express.