The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-11 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY FEAT.-A WALK
ON THE TVA TER.

(From the Toronto Globe of Sept. 19.)
The announcement, though. made by a well-
known resident .of Toronto, that he had invented
an apparatus whereby he was enabled to walk upon
the water, was received with some caution. Since
then, in the presence of several members of ' the
press, Mr. Hickok has given evidence of his ability
to do all that he promised. On Saturday afternoon,
the party invited proceeded to the Don station,
with some amount of doubt upon their minds as to
the result .of the trial. None of them expected that
Mr. Hickok would travel at a great speed, or that
his new-(angled invention, would enable him to
dance to the music of the waves, had there been
any wherewith to dance to. But on arriving at
the spot indicated, the best possible•evidence was
furnished that it would enable him to walk upon
the water, for there he was in the middle of the
I)on, making his way : gainst the Current which at
this place runs rather. quickly. ..He soon neared
the party, and • when within speaking , distance,
turned round with the greatest possible ease. He
had in his hand a small wile, scarcely large enough
to afford him any assistance, so far as preserving
his balance was concerned. That he could do with-
out it was soon proved, for he threw it from him,
receiving in lieu thereof, from a man who accom-
panied him in a boat, a walking-stick of ordinary
size. He commenced his return' down the river,
proceeding very steadily, and almost as quickly as
a pedestrian upon dry land when walking at a mo-
derate pace. Before going far he threw the stick
from him, but shortly afterwards resumed the pole.
To the onlookers he appeared to do quite as well
without it. When nearly out of sight he retraced
his steps, and again came opposite the party. In
reply to a question asked, he said he was not at all
fatigued. After promenading for a few minutes
more, having been on the water at least half an
hour, he got into the boat and was rowed to land.
The apparatus 'used by Mr. Hickok is the first he
has made, so that, as in all new things, there is room
for improvement. The fact is established that a
man may, with this invention, walk upon the water,
and there is nothing to indicate that the feat is at-
tended with any peculiar difficulty. It appears
quite as easy as walking with snow shoes, the mo-
tion of which it somewhat resembles. Anybody can
do it. It may be that, before long, the bay will be-
come a favourite place- of resort, where our citizens
will upon a summer evening seek refuge from the
heat and dust of the city, amid the unpolluted
breezes of the lake, or that the shining path marked
out upon the waters by the beams of the silvery
moon will become a fashionable promenade. No
stones will be there to vex those troubled with ten-
der feet. no bruises can result from a fall, no danger
is to be apprehended from carelessly driven cabs, or
viciously given dogS. But whether this come to pass
or not, the invention is doubtless capable of being
put to useful purposes. In Venice how great an
acquisition it would be. There, if a man wants to
call upon a neighbour over the way, he has to hire
a boat; but with Mr. Hickok's invention the indi-
vidual who should do that would soon come to be
looked upon in the same light as the fop who called
a cab to convey him across the street. In the cross-
ing of armies over rivers, and in passing the streams
of a new country, like that traversed by the Cali-
fornia emigrant, it will be invaluable. The shoes
are of tin, we understand, about four feet long, and
can be easily packed into a small space. We have
no information as to the mechanism erriployed, and
we presume that will remain a secret till it is pa-
tented ' • but if any one doubt that the feat can be
done, he can satisfy himself by witnessing the public
exhibition of his powers which Mr. Hickok in-
tends giving on Tuesday next.

THE CHOLERA.

An English traveller writing from Bruges on the
6th of the present month says :
The cholera—which I encountered at Hamburg
in July, and at Cologne last month—has travelled
westward with steady steps, and is now raging in
this fair old city. The Channel alone divides it
from England, and the Thames would afford it a
hearty reception should it cross the narrow sea.
Owing to the unprecedented drought and heat of
the summer months, the canals which traverse
Bruges in every direction became stagnant. Their
waters were covered with oozy slime, and the mud
they so plentifully contain emitted the most fetid
exhalations. The back streets and courts are filthy
and foul, there being not a few, into which—on the
authority of a local journal—" everything is
thrown" to fester and to rot. Towards the begin-
ning of last month warnings were given of the pre-
sence of cholera, which has since progressed with
alarming strides. The ordinary mortality of the
town is two or three daily, but for some time past it
has averaged from 20 to 30, and yesterday we learn
on authority that it reached the unprecedented
number of 40, or at the rate of 280 a week. The
population of Bruges consists of 50,000 souls, so
that having regard to the difference of numbers,
this is equal to a mortality in London of 15,000 to
16,000 weekly.

At the corners of the Rues St. Georges and Pole-
tewyn stands a house on the spot where the plague
was stayed two centuries back. The event is com-
memorated by a Flemish inscription, surmounted
by an allegorical picture of the Saviour, the Virgin,
and the Patron Saints of the town. Every morning
hundreds of persons may be seen at this place pray-
ing for a cessation of the existing pestilence. The
women in their failles, or black mantles, impart a sad
air of mourning to the ceremony. The Chapelle du
St. Sang, wherein are said to be deposited some
drops of our Saviour's blood, brought by Count
Thierry of Alsace from the Holy Land, is also much
frequented for a similar purpose. " God helps tho3o
who help themselves," and there is no Palmerston
here to tell the people that prayers, to be effectual,
should be accompanied by ablutions, and that pen
ante will be unavailing unless assisted by the la-
bours of the whitewasher and the nightman. The
Town Council has offered lime gratis to all who will
apply for it, but very few have availed themselves
of the privilege. The weather has become unsea-
sonably hot and oppr6sive, and the mortality has
risen with the barometer.

Meanwhile, those admirable women, the &curs de
Charlie, unceasingly continue their holy labours.
Regardless of all risk, and utterly unmindful of self,
they distribute alms to the poor, succour the sick,
and console the dying. The old Hospital of St.
John of Jerusalem —so well known to English
tourists for its glorious collection of Hemlings—is
one of the principal scenes of their labours. But
they are to be found everywhere among the poor,
the sick, and the afflicted. The priests, also, are
unremitting in the performaNce of their sacred
duties. It is to be hoped the municipality will
bestir itself, and (with or without the consent of the
owners) cleanse the courts and back slums, which
here as elsewhere, are the nests and breeding places
of cholera, ig•er, and pestilence.

MR. ROBERT STEPHENSON.—We regret to learn
that Mr. Stephenson was much worse yesterday, and that
the physicians are no longer able to entertain any hopes of
his recovery.
THE STEAM RESERVE SQUADRON IN THE MED-
WAY.—Several changes have recently been made in the
fleet of the steam reserve at Chatham and Sheerness, and
the following aro the vessels now attached to the steam re-
serve squadron in the Medway, viz. :—The Hood, 901 GOO
horse power; the Queen, 86, 500 horse power.; the Go iah,
80, 400 horse power; the Majestic, 80, 400 horse power; the
Meanee, 80, 400 horse power; the Forte, 51, 400 horse power ;
the Phaeton, 51, 400 horse power , the Challenger, 21, 403
horse power; the Charybdis, 21, 400 horse power; the Fawn,
17, 100 horse power; the Thunderbolt, 16, floating bat-
tery, 200 horse power ; the Miranda, 15, 250 horse power ;
the Thunder, 14, floating battery, 150 horse power ; the
Trusty, 14, floating battery, 150 horse power ; the • Swal-
low, 9, GO hors e power ; the Wasp, 13, 100 horse power;
pthoewer; Driver,the ph
6,28030
nhioxr,se6p,
power;
horsethe EuNrvethr ;B'thl2e, V2oic°thoro,rB6e,
350 horse power ; the Dragon, 9, 560 horse power ; the
Alacrity, 4, 200 horse power; the Foxhound, 4, 200 horse
power ; the Jackall, 4, 1.50 horse power ; the Wrangler, 4,
160 horse power; the Otter, 3, 120 horse power; and the
Fearless, 76 horse power. In addition to the above, the
Waterloo, 90, 500 horse power; the Renard, 4, 200 horse
power; and the Snake, 4, 160 horse power, are stationed at
Sheerness ; and the Rodney, 91, 500 horse power ; the
Severn, 51, 500 horse power ; the Ariadne, 32, 800 horse
power; and the Etna, 16, 200 horse power, are stationed at
Chatham. The above vessels give an aggregate of 1,000
guns, and 9,976 horse power.
ALLEGED ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE.—The fol-
lowing extraordinary statement appears in the second edi-
tion of the Dublin Freeman of Saturday night :—" Ballin-
robe, Friday.—The mostfearfulexcitementhas been created
in Ballinrobe and its district, by the report of an attempt on
the part of a Protestant clergyman to shoot the Rev. Mr.
Lavelle, of Partry. Details are yet wanting, but the case is
to be tried in Ballinrobe on Tuesday next. The Rev. Mr.
Lavelle himself came to Ballinrobe last night, and being
perceived by a few persons on entering was instantly sur-
rounded by an immense multitude, who, releasing his horse
from the car, drew it at foll speed to St. Mary's, cheering
vehemently the whole time. Why does not Government put
a stop to the system of proselytism, which is the fruitful
source of all this trouble and excitement ?"

RELICS OF THE PLAGUE OF LONDON.—A few
weeks since the workmen,in digging out the foundation on
the east end of Three Nun Court, by St. Michael's Church,
Aldgate, carnet° a considerable quantity, upwards of a cart •
load, of human skulls and bones, about seven feet from
the surface. In some of the papers it has been con-
jectured that they formed part of the sweepings of
some adjacent churchyard after the fire of London.
This was more likely the great pit, or " dreadful gulf,"
as De Foe calls it, provided for the parishes of
Aldgate and Whitechapel, which, during a fortnight after
it was opened, had thrown into it 1,114 bodies, when they
were obliged to fill it up. De Foe adds, " I doubt not but
there may be some ancient persons alive in the parish who
are able to show in what part of the churchyard the pit lay
better than I can ; the mark of it also was many years to
be seen in the churchyard, or the surface lying in length,
parallel with the passage which goes by the west wall of
the churchyard out of Houndsditch, and turns again into
Whitechapel, coming out near the Three Nuns Izin."—
Rates anu Queries.