The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 28, 1866.

Naval and

Military Intelligence.

An order has been received at Portsmouth dock-
yard from the Admiralty to break up four vessels
now on the steam reserve lists at that port,compris-
ing the Vulcan, iron built screw troopship, of 1,764
tons and 400-horse power ; the Medea, paddle sloop,
of 135 tons and 350-horse power ; the Pelican,
screw sloop, 952 tons and 200-horse power ; and
the Shamrock, screw gunboat, of 60-horse power.
The Vulcan was built by Charles Mare at Black-
wall in 1840, under contract with the Admiralty,
and from designs furnished from the Surveyor of
the Navy's office. When launched she was con-
sidered a somewhat wonderful vessel, but her sea-
going rate of speed and troop accommodation in
these days have become a mere burlesque upon what
we have now learnt to consider the ocean-going
qualifications of a troop-carrying steamer. The
Medea was built also from the Surveyor's office
plans, at her Majesty's Dockyard, Woolwich, in
1838, under the superintendance of Mr. 0. Lang.
The Pelican was built at Pembroke Dockyard in
1854, and the Shamrock was built in a private
yard a year later. The machinery of all four ves-
sels will be utilised for other vessels built or building.
Mr. Leather, C.E., the Contractor of Public
Works, to whom the Admiralty and the War De-
partment consigned the execution of the Portland
breakwater and forts, and who is now enaged under
a similar contract in the construction of the foun-
dations for the marine forts at Spithead, has joined
Mr. George Smith, of Pimlico, in his execution of
the works for the extension of Portsmouth dock-
yard, which, according to the terms of the agree-
ment with the Admiralty, will occupy fully four
years, and involves a first expenditure of upwards
of a million and a half sterling.
A naval court-martial assembled yesterday on
board her Majesty's ship Victory, at Portsmouth,
for the trial of Mr. George S. Boys, late sub-lien-
tenant on board her Majesty's ship Pylades, doing
duty at the time on board the hired steam gunboat
Royal,on a charge of desertion from the latter vessel
on the 6th of September last. The Court was com-
posed of Captains Tatham, Bellerophon ; Egerton,
C. 8., Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, Victory ;
Chamberlain, Asia ; Fellowes, Duke of Welling-
ton ; Commerell, V.C., Terrible ; Burgoyne, V.C.,
Wivern ; Hire, Orontes; Henderson, Urgent ; and
Goodenough, Minotaur. Mr. Hoskins was Deputy-
Judge-Advocate, and Capt. Hood, of her Majesty's
ship Excellent, and lately commanding tha Pylades,
prosecuted. The Court having heard the statements
for the prosecution and the defence, found the
charge proved, but, in consideration of extenuating
circumstances, only adjudged Mr. Boys to be dis-
missed from her Majesty's navy. Mr. Boys' ex-
planation of his conduct which led to the charge
upon which he has been thus, we trust not perma-
nently dismissed from her Majesty's service, is given
by him in a letter submitted by the defence. It
contains the following passages :
"In consequence of my ship having been paid
off I beg to report to you for information of their
lordships the distressing circumstances under which
I left the hired gunboat Royal, attached to the
Pylades, at Cornwall, Canada West, on the even-
ing of the 6th of September last. I appointed the
late firm of Hallett, Ommanney, and Co. to be my
agents, when they agreed to my drawing upon them
to the extent of £5O. Of this permission, in part,
I had availed myself by drawing upon them for two
bills, for £2O and £l5, when, in consequence of
their failure, my bills were dishonoured with pro-
testing charges, and I became involved in pecu-
niary embarrassments which I could not surmount.
One party, shortly before my ship was ordered
home, issued a writ against me which was my ruin
—a moral death, in fact, for it involved incarcera-
tion in a Canadian prison in company with rebels
and outcasts, whera•l must have been left a total
stranger when my ship sailed for. England. Then
it was I fled, not from the profession of my choice,
but from my hard-hearted creditors, preferring to
trust to that mercy from my superior officers these
people denied me. I then proceeded to New York
for passage to England, but was stopped by a severe
illness at St. John's !louse, the recovery from which
exhausted all :my means, so that I was obliged to
work my passage in the Prussian barque London,
of Dantsic, to Antwerp. We were seven long
weeks at sea, and here I will recount one incident
of the voyage. I was at the wheel, when, from an
inadvertence which would have elicited from me a
simple caution to one of our men, the mate of the
barque knocked me senseless upon the deck by a
violent blow from a belaying pin. This was the
cause of my detention a few days at Antwerp before
I could at length pass on to England to discharge
this imperative duty."

Her Majesty's iron steam storeship Megiera, 4,
from the Mediterranean stations, having discharged
her war stores at Woolwich Arsenal, yesterday went
alongside the Hebe hulk, to clear out the dockyard
stores and prepare for her return voyage, in com-
mand of Capt. Simpson, who has succeeded Capt.
Montagu B. Dunn, appointed to the command of
the new Indian transportship Euphrates, 4,173 tons
and 700-horse power, recently launched at Birken-
head.

The War Department steam vessel Lord Pan-
mure, Master Commander Spriddle, yesterday com-
menced discharging at the powder buoy off Wool-
wich Arsenal 4,000 quarter-barrels of condemned
ball-cartridge ammunition from Marchwood.
The following appointments have been made at
the Admiralty:—Commander H. C. Huston to the
Saturn, additional, for packet and transport service
at Liverpool, vice Leycester, whose period of service
has expired ; Lieut. W. lloworth, to the command
of the Heron, vice Stevenson, superseded ; Lieuts.
R. W. Davies and M. M'Neile to the Excellent.

and lft. 10in. at the feet, being lft. Sin. deep. This
contained fine gravel, and among it the bones of an
adult male in perfect preservation even to the small
bones of the hand. The body was doubled up, the
face being towards the south. The femur measured
and the tibia 16in. In front of the heart
was an urn laid on its side, and near it a flint scraper
2fin. by liin. Unfortunately the skull of this body
was not preserved. The bottom of the cist was
carefully paved with small stones, and below and
around it were fragments of human bones, all broken
up, with some shreds of pottery and charcoal-- the
whole appearing to show that the cist had been con-
structed to contain a secondary burial, destroying
or disturbing earlier ones. A little to the east of
the cist, and 7ft. below the surface of the barrow,
was a large flat stone covering a deposit of dark,
earthy matter, and somewhat to the south of this
was another flat slab, covering a similar deposit,
and also about sin. of sand. In neither case was
anything found. At the east side of the barrow (in
last week's work), and about 10ft. from the outside,
was a deposit of burnt bones upon a flat stone, just
above the natural surface, and 6ft. south of another
similar deposit just upon the natural surface. Five
feet south of the centre was an unburnt body, doubled
up, laid on the right side, the hands up to the head,
the head being to the south. Beneath this and
touching the bones was the deposit of a burnt body,
and the two, buried in opposite customs, must, to
all appearance, have been deposited at the same time,
and therefore present a very interesting feature in
British sepulchral usages. At the back of the pelvic
bones of the unburnt body, and lying upon the
bones of the burnt body, was an urn of a very beau-
tiful type. It is 41in. wide and 4fin. high, and is
covered with a series of 27 thong impressions out-
side, and inside the lip of the rim are four thong
markings. It is impossible to say whether this urn
had been buried with the burnt or unburnt body.
Similar urns have been found with both kinds of
burials—in Westmoreland lying on the burnt bones
on the Yorkshire Wolds in barrows containing
only unburnt burials. The bones of the unburnt
body were greatly decayed, and it is doubtful
whether sufficient of the skull has been obtained to
sho w the type. The unburnt burial was that of a
man of mature age. In the centre of the tumulus
and under the cist was a grave of 6ft. diameter and
2ft. 9in. deep, sunk into the natural limestone rock,
doubtless the place prepared for the first burial,
over which the barrow was built. At the west side
of the grave a body was found lying on its right
side, the hands up to the head, which was to the
south-west. At the feet of this body was a highly
ornate " drinking cup," 7in. high, laid on its side,
and in the hollow of the knees—that is, between
the tibia and the femur—was a bronze pin or awl,
greatly oxidized. The cup was ornamented to ex-
cess with thong markings, the upper part having
three sets of double horizontal lines, and between
them vertical markings, and below one horizontal
line ; then, in descending order, a zigzag line, the
lower triangles filled horizontally, and a horizontal
line below all. Theabottom part had the ornamen-
tation of the upper repeated. There was charcoal
about the body, and human bones (detached) were
in and above the grave and on the sides, apparently
indicating still earlier disturbed interments. The
skeleton was much decayed, and Mr. Greenwell
doubts whether the skull can be sufficiently pre-
served to show the type. It is rarely that a bar-
row presents so many features of general interest,
giving at one examination the burial customs of
successive peoples. Unfortunately, the craniologi-
cal information anticipated is doubtful.

CROWN LANDS.

The annual report of the Department of the
Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues, just issued,
shows that in the year ending with March, 1866,
the income of valuable property under their charge
amounted to £449,677, and the expenditure to
£116,523, or more than a fourth of the income.
There was a further expenditure of about £29,000,
voted by Parliament for the maintenance of the
offices and establishment of the Department. The
property is of three classes. There is, first, the land re-
venue, consisting of Crown rents from lands and
mines, with dividends on the produce of sales invested
and the amount of the year's sales of produce, mak-
•
ing a total of £400,219 in the year, the expenditure
amounting to £72,439, above £28,000 of it going in
repairs and improvements, and above £B,OOO for rates
and taxes. Next, there is Windsor Park, which cost
£20,257 r maintenance and management in the
year, sales of produce bringing .£7,116 in reduction
of this expenditure, and about £l,BOO being ex-
pended on new works and improvements, £1,328 of
it being devoted to the completion of the Royal
Chapel. Last come the Royal forests and wood-
lands—the New Forest, Dean Forest, Highmeadow
Woods, Alice Holt Woods, Woolmer Estate, Bere
Woods, Parkhurst Woods, Hazleborough Wood,
Salcey Wood, Delemere Woods, Chopwell Woods,
and Epping Forest, or what remains of it. The in-
come of these amounted to £42,338 in the year, and
the expenditure to £22,877, reduced to £18,700, if
we deduct so much of the expenditure as was for
planting and improvements. The result of the year
was that £320,000 was paid over to the Exchequer
as surplus income. The most important sale of
Crown property in the year was of a large number
of houses and cottages at Egham, almost all old
and of an inferior class, not considered a desir-
able property for the Crown to retain ; it pro-
duced above £20,000. The chief purchases of the
year were the Rosenau property, opposite the Home
Park at Windsor, a house and nearly 12 acres of
land, bought for £7,000 ; and Hawfield, a house
and above 102 acres of land, adjoining the Crown's
Hagloe estate in Gloucestershire, purchased for
£7,146. Among the property let on lease are por-
tions of the bed of the sea let to oyster fishery
companies, six square miles, let on a 60 years'
lease to the Herne-bay Oyster Fishery Com-
pany, at a rent rising to £5OO after ten years,
but subject to a reduction according to the
profits. Several portions of the foreshore were
also sold or let for various works of a
public character. But, by an act of last session
the rights of the Crown in the shore and bed of the
sea, and of navigable rivers as far up as the tide
flows, have been placed under the management of
the Board of Trade after the close of the year 1866,
except the foreshores of the Thames, the Tees, and
the county palatine of Durham, which are other-
wise provided for. The Board of Trade being
charged with the duty of protecting navigation, it
was thought desirable that the duty of dealing with
the foreshore as a matter of property and revenue
should also be transferred to that Department.
The foreshore below ordinary high-water mark is
considered to be vested in the Crown, subject to all
public rights of navigation, and to such grants as
have been made or are presumed to have been
made; and the right of jurisdiction for the pro-
tection of public rights remains in the Crown,
although the territorial right of property may have
been granted away.

THE SEA SERPENT.—The 7 oulonnais gives an
account of the recent capture of the "sea serpent," which,
it says, can be vouched fox by pretty nearly the whole po-
pulation of the town. It has for a long time been believed
that the sea serpent had never been seen except in the co-
lumns of the American papers, and those on this side the
Atlantic which might not object to insert a questionable
story. Sea snakes of a moderate size are, however, known
to exist, and it seems to be a largo specimen of these crea-
tures that was captured on Sunday week. The specimen
in question is about 13ft. long, and was caught on the line
of some fishermen in the waters of Capo Cepet. It was
brought up by the captors, while yet living, to the Boule-
vard de la Riviere, in Toulon, and there was visited by
crowds of persons during the greater part of the day. The
body is perfectly cylindrical, and is about 4fin. in diameter
terminating in a sharp point at the tail. Its colour is a uni-
form deep grey on the upper part, and beneath is of a yel-
lowish white. It has no fins nor scales, nor is there
any projecting bone or horn in any part. In colour it
much resembles the conger, but could never be mistaken
for that fish, for in these seas the latter never attains to a
greater length than about six feet or so, and is, moreover,
when of such size, fully double tho girth of the snake.
The great difference also is the shape and aspect of the
head ; that of the snake is fiat and broad, and resembles
the head of a huge viper; the jaws, armed with powerful

fangs, are elongated, reaching to a length of about ilin.,
and terminating in a sharp angle. The eyes, which are re-
markably bright, aro surrounded by a fine thread of a
flaming red colour. The discovery of this snake, for snake
there can be no doubt it is, if the description be accurate,
is one of a highly interesting character; but it must not
be considered as a proof of the existence of such a mon-
ster as has been described as the groat seaserpont. Of the
existence of this creature there is doubtless a certain
amount of evidence, but not as yet sufficient to satisfy the
sceptical minds of many of the best known naturalists. It
may be argued that the Mediterranean serpent being 13ft.
in length, the serpent of the Atlantic may be larger in pro-
portion to the greater size of his ocean home. It is likely,
nevertheless, that the naturalists of London and Paris will
wait for more direct evidence of the monster before they
inscribe his name " Serpens Atlanticus Gigas" in their
zoological lists.—Morning Post.
THE CHRISTMAS TRAFFIC ON THE GREAT
WESTERN RAILWAY.—We understand. that the
traffic on the Great Western Railway during the latter
part of the past week has been unprecedented, and has
taxed the " carrying" powers of the company to the utmost.
On Saturday alone there could have been but few, if any,
short of 25,000 or 30,000 passengers through the Swindon
Station. 'With the exception of some very few intervals
during the day, the platforms and refreshment-rooms were
crowded with persons who had arrived or were waiting to
leave by the trains which were constantly running in and
out of the station. The ordinary number of trains, oven
with extra engine power, was anything but sufficient to
moot this extraordinary emergency, and it was therefore
found necessary to more than double the number of trains,
in some instances it was found necessary to despatch as
many as three trains for the conveyance of passengers
who had booked themselves for one ordinary train. This
was the case with the train which leaves Swindon Station
at 1.37. The passengers booked by this one filled three
monster trains, and we were informed that when the
6 p.m. train was despatched from Paddington there was
not a single available carriage left in the station with
which to form the next train. Of course many trains
were late, and the weather (a heavy fog) was exceedingly
unfavourable, but up to the present we have heard of no
accident whatever. At our own station everything passed
smoothly under the admirable direction of Mr. Holmes and
his staff of officers. There was of course a great deal of
bluster during the day on the part of fussy people, who
either had to wait, had gone too far, or could not go far
enough, and actions innumerable were threatened, but
just in proportion as disappointed travellers lost their
tempers urbane officials commanded theirs, and nothing
serious happened.—Swindon Advertiser.

The Eastern Counties line runs through rather a
desolate display of landscape. Essex is certainly not
a favourable specimen of English scenery, though here and
there one finds a pretty village with picturesque lanes, and
a river winding through it. But such villages are not on
the line of railroad, but lie away from it ; and let us hope
they may long be spared the effect of its progressive influ-
ences, despite the seeming illiberality of the sentiment.
Passing from the Shoreditch Station, through, or rather
over, miles of houses, the line takes its way through sub-
urban retreats, and out into more decided though flat and
uninteresting country. A wondrous sight those miles and
miles of houses, closely packed together, tall, dark,
gloomy, and one enters into a calculation of what
might be the average allotment of dwelling room to each
of the three million inhabitants of the wonderful city
—of how much coal is burned to send up so much
smoke, that rolls itself into clouds that hung in dingy ca-
nopies between earth and heaven, never aspiring to soar
aloft to their whiter and more transparent brethren. In-
deed, they appear to have a decided antipathy to fleeing
away in an upward direction, their genius being not to
rise but to extend themselves, and so they stretch away
north, south, east, west, over turret, steeple, tower, palace
cathedral, abbey, bridges, and river; short and tall chim-
neys puffing up reinforcements in the shape of.voluminons
columns that, twisting into fantastic wreaths, crown the
brows of the mighty metropolis.—From "Joyce Dormer's
Story," in Once a Week.

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