The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1877-07-27
TORPEDOEs AND BLOCKADEs.

Of a torpedo will probaly be a mcmora-
bic epoch in naval war not that the
torpedo in question was Of the kind
| most likely to revolutionize that species
tof war. Though the new knowledge
aud especially of the pro-
lerties of dynomite, has made it much
easier to bring within small compass a
compound capable of sending a great
vessel into the air, it is no new thing
to achieve the destruction of an enc
my's vessel at the risk which the Rus
sian and Roumanian volunteers ram
OF paying with their own lives for the
hardihood of the enterprise. If naval
war is as much rcvolutionizetl, as we
expect, by the new torpctloes, it will
not be SO much by the torpetloes which
1t is necessary to fix and explode by an
electric current, as by the torpedo
boats, like tho ssrhornecrot" or the
"Lightning," which, hardly showing
above the surface of the water, can be
driven right on to the side of the enc
my, and can discharge the torpedo
against it before recoiling. Neverthe-
less, whatever is achieved by these
more powerful engines, the destruction
of the turent-ship at Matchin will be.
long remembered as the first signal OF
great change in the tactics of naval
"arfare-a change which at present
seems only too likely to cqualize, for
naval powers with the smaller, or even
smallest. For consider only how, I'M
less the experiments for keeping torpe-
do-boats at a distance from our great
ships succeed, the most powerful in
strument our navy can app}y-the
power Of the blockade-Will be Grip.
pied, or perhaps entirely abolished, by
/ the torpeCio-boat for each group of two
| or three among the great cruisers need.
| ful to establish Il blockade. And if
each torpedo boat only succeeded in
destroying one Of the greater ships OF
! the enemy-and Of course the same
torpedo-boat, skillfully managed might
destroy many Of its opponents, if it got
the opportunity-how far would the
discipline of the various navies of the
world he equal, we wonder, to keeping
the comrades Of the ships thus blown
Into the air on their proper station?
The truth is that under the torpedo
regime such blockades as those of the
coast of the Southern States, in the
American civil war, would prove sim
ply Impossible. Nay, blockades of in
dividual harbors, where the enemy's
heet was sealed up, would be equally
impossible. For such an harbor, itself
sown with fixed torpedoes, so placed
that only those completely masters of
the situations of the torpedoes and of
the geography of the harbor could en-
ter or leave it without certain destruc-
tiou, torpedo-boats could issue at any
moment and strike at any members of
the btockading force; and assuredlv,
unless the ingenious efforts made to
discover some iron crinoline, which
would repel the petty invader before he
reaches too close quarters, be successful.
there would not long be any block
aiding force to strike at.-Spectuto,..
Alpine tourists will this year have an
of observing a new aud un-
precedented phenomenon. In the
neighborhood of the small town of
RourE st. Maurice ia a mountain called
by the people of the country the ~Rec
Rouge" 1t is connected with the out
lay spurs of the Little st. Benare, aud
Is 500 feet above the sea level. This
mountain is at the present moment
tumbling to pieces. For three weeks
pct klie blocks Of solid stone of which
at is, ~ it were, built mp have been
crumbling away, and the whole side Of
the mountain appears to be in course of
pouring itself down into the plain.
Tic scene is described by a member OF
the French Alpine Club as magnificent
In the extreme. The boulders which
sletach are often of IMMENSE
stse, and they leap down a steep slope
at an extremely rapid pace, crushing
to matchwood the trees ana
saplings which they encounter. The
noise made by the descending masses
assemblies dull and distant peals of
Two pounds Of black bread and one
quarter pound of fresh meat, or bacon
in ltett thereof, with garlic, salt and
plenty Of tea, seem to be the daily
fs,tions OF the Czar'ssotdiers. Occasion
ally they are treated to Il sort of coarse
sweet bean. The Turk ish soldiers |
afeywonderiully easy for Il cofnmissa- |
rfat to satisfy. They will fight for !
weeks on meal or bruised Indian corn. |
Capt. Avise, who,as Sheriff, executed !
John Brown, keeps u store at Orkney |
Springs, Va, having gone out of poll
tics.