New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-10-08

NUMBER TEN.

Whilst writing these seemingly little impor-
tant essays, we have very often been tempted
to apologize to our readers for the introduce
ton of some minute and personal details
in these narratives, but have refrained there
from upon rejecting that the reasons for thus
even describing trivial circumstances, will
not have escaped their attention We stated
in the beginning that we would hand over, as
it were, to the present generation, picture
of impressions had fifty years ago, and that
the merit of such tableaux, as we understand
it, consists mainly in the contrast with things
generally, and their influences, at the present
day. Hence the description of even some
little important details cannot be looked upon
in any other light than as an endeavor to
make the sketch as actual as possible; and if
we have taken the liberty of mentioning the
names of our personages, there cannot be any
valid objection made to this course, see
ing the long lapse of time since those per-
sons figured upon the stage of action, and
their very mention being a sure guarantee for
the general correctness of our statements
Let our readers recollect that even such i'm
portant memoirs as those of the Prince Tai
leyrand Perigord, containing no doubt some
of the greatest State secrets of the times, by
a testamentary disposition of this statesman,
are to be published fifty years after his de-
cease; hence our little innocent personal
narratives can certainly not be reproached
with any indiscreet revelations or the divulg-
ency of private transactions and business re-
lations. Under this view of our case, and
thinking that our simple essays, with all the
little Accomplishments Of names of persons
and places, cannot but be the very best proof
of our entire truthfulness in our descriptions,
we shall continue in the same vein our
earliest impressions, such as they were in our
youthful days, with the often accompanying
considerations Of the actual period Of our
later times We hope that this course will
meet with general appreciation.
The brig Angelica had cleared the British
channel and we were now entering the deep
waters Of the Atlantic ocean. Having dis
patched our latest correspondence upon sea
by the fisher pilot boats that board from
Lands End the vessels going into the ocean,
we now knew that we should most probably
not again see land before reaching the other
side of the vastly deep, that is after sailing
down towards the Bay of Gascony, and thence
towards the Canary Islands, we would try to
get into the line of the trade wind and thus
cross the ocean after the fashion of Christie
pher Columbus, the first discoverer of Amer
lea. We say, after the fashion of that bold
navigator, for it cannot be denied that the
steady trade wind contributed in making him
find the true way to his discovery. Well,
then, being fully informed of all the circum-
stances of his several voyages, we had ample
occasion to observe the correctness of his
narrative and of his simple but very signif-
cant description Of the great ocean. These,
Humboldt in his notes, accompanying the
Cosmos, has also preserved to the curious
reading public. One of these singular OBJ
servations of the great navigator, and which
Humboldt draws into doubt, although he
himself traversed the same attitudes of the
ocean, is that remark in which it is said that
before reaching the great bank of swimming
or drifting sea weeds, under the tropical line
and little west of the Azores or Western Is
lands, the waters of the ocean seem to be
and that here was afterwards laid down the
dividing line OF meridian between the two
hemispheres. Now, it may be, that according
to seasons or other circumstances, Humboldt
may not have seen this apparent swelling,
OF uplifting of the Atlantic Ocean in that al
titude but as for ourselves, we can say that
indeed to our eyes, nothing more patent APP
peared to be the case. Aye, just before en-
tering that sea Of Bergasse, as it is called
the trade winds blowing as steadily
as usual, and the horizon being other
wise perfectly clear and unclouded, the
weather delightfully."- warm, not to say
hot, being tempered by the regular
breeze--you can clearly perceive, as a grand
swell in the water--an unusual heaving, as
though after a subsiding tempest--and the
vessel entering into this ridge ormountainous
shape of waters, as if, on the other side, a
placid lake might be found We have not
had occasion to notice whether, at this par
ticular place, the variation of the magnetic
needle takes place, as both Columbus and
Humboldt affirm but it seems that very
simple reason might be given for the apparent
swelling of the ocean Immediately in front
Of the great drifting sea-weed islands, or
masses, and although we are not acquainted
with the particular nautical works of Com
modore Maury upon the currents of the
ocean, we have no doubt that similar refec-
tions will therein be found. When we come
to consider the nature of the sea-weed islands
found only in the ATTITUDES of the tropics,
and right in the middle of the northern part
Of the Atlantic Ocean, it is clear that there
the waters form the grand eddy in which
these natural productions are perpetually
turning around. These regions are little dis
trrbed by northern storms, and hence the
swelling of the waters indicates the borders of
that tranquil inner sea, thus occupied by the
Bergasse.
Just as the gulf stream along the coast of
the United States is indicated upon its borders
by the tranquil waters of the ocean, even SO,
the swelling of the eastern seas towards the
tropical regions, under the constant operation
of the trade winds, establishes this actual ridge
although itmay not have been so plainly per-
ceptible by the great naturalist in his oceanic