New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1867-05-19
The Ocean MiiestOnes-A Few Geographic
cal FnctS not GenernllS KNOWN.

.Townsend's Letter to the Cincinnati Gazettel
Now the great mystery OF the sea is behold
in our vast ignorance OF It. BOundless as
the vastness of the waters, and as day sue
ceeds day, ushered in by no sail, crossed by
none, and none appearing at night to reach
ITS white hand above the horizon, we feel
the mysterious power OF our compass, in
whose yeering pulse we trust, and the uses
of the stars aud sun that steady our quad
rant and stoop down to lead US. But of the
oceans boundaries and islets and shadows
we do not know till we see the captains
chart, of which there is no copy in our
school atlas. Here are places denoted of
which we never knew. Solitary rocks
struck once by lone vessel, and their lon
gitudc and latitude carefully marked, yet
in the great void of waters swallowed up
again. So that with much cruising our i'm
perfect calculations never find them. The
name of the Flemish, Captain of Whales
Hole, of Bmurs Bank; of Bazariethy's Rock,
of Woodall's Rock, of Virgins Rocks, we do
not hear vet in the North Atlantic they
have their places well attested but captains
have sailed this ocean where they lie hun
dred voyages and never proved them
real. So broad and trackless is the
deep that two steamers, quitting New York
together, sailing the same course and at the
same rate of speed, rarely see each other
after the first night out. Their compasses
differ hairs point, and they float hun
dre0 mules apart. mere Oh Inc CHART Is
marked, " Perseus Shoar (breakers), sig
nifying that in mid-Atlantic there is "a spot
20 shallow that the surf breaks upon it as
upon ROckaway Bar or Sandy Hook. Men
are gray with sailing on the route of Perseus
| Shoal; who never heard the surges or saw
them flash; lost in the great deep is an
awful sentence. The coming of sail to
those who drift is like finding the true catch
| to Dodd's combination lock, with its billion
| changes. With all the vessels of steam
or sail that ply between America and
Eng land, it is rare to espy more than
one of these between the opposite
coasts while you are crossing the
sea. Some vaguely understood matters
of the earth's rotundity, not news save to
| our landsmen's ignorance, become palpable
| when we see upon the chart the oceans
skeleton, water ard meridians only, like an
empty hoop skirt. For example We sec
that the Straits of Gibraltar, instead Of
facing Cuba due westward, are nearly
upon the latitude of CinCinnati; that Lon
don does not lie opposite New York, but op
posite Labrador; that when one is nearly
halfway to Europe he is due south Of Green
land, and still west of the mouths of thI
| Amazon, that if you are shipwreckcd in mid
sea, your nearest land will be the Azore Is
lands, from which, indeed, you ar but 5O(
miles on the route between New York anC
| Southampton. Tie route that carries yoJ
upon the map, but a curved one. You sal
| on the ''arc OF a circle, - and so reduce you
voyage from 1000 miles to 5000. This is th'
simple proposition in navigation, that
crooked line between two points is shorte
than straight one. To avoid icebergs
which drift TO as low a latitude as Nantuck
ct, YOU sometimes bear due eastward, o
even southeastward, and then bend acutel,
| north by east. The Gulf stream, tn
Banks and the Roaring Forties are tn
Is the zodiac OF the ocean, spaDgle
with wrecks, seaweed, and icebergs; tn
second is the broad geysers of the Atlantic
smoking eternally-the veil between th
New World and the 0ld-nature's last il
timidaton TO the sailor seeking the Wester
Hemisphere; in the Roaring Forties 20
sail when all the winds do blow, sheltere
by no coasts, subject to the fierce and MI
table humors of the great waters and thei
skies. In every long swell that swim
toward you there are thousand tons {
brine. Ia every gull that flashes like peal
. In your wake comes an admonition of lon
! illness. Night descends with no friendl
, sail in its embrace, The gales cap ever
! wave with white foam, till the sea to Ii
! horizon looks like n shoal of sharks wit
. Quiyering fins. Morning arises upon II
: same dreary waste, save that the clouds 81
stronger and more imperiOus; no brigi
Z tints in them, as at home, but gray an
scudding, like the complexion of the oceai
- and filed with its restless spirit.
= Mr.. Seward has instructed Mr.. Motley
K deliver official papers, documents, ETC.,
v l tho lsnnsul mr. XiPa COUsui AT Vienna M