Morning journal and courier., 1891-09-23
THE IRIS IN GREAT BELLOWS.

Heard or Seen Lashing the Rock
 Bound Coast From Lubic Strait to
 Seal Harbor.
 The old Hebrew poets were close ob- servers of nature. We get some of our most exalted and beautiful ideas in con densed language from them. Their modes of expression and imagery are wonderful in keenness of perception. So too in an- other way. The Greeks with close obser- yation and initiative expression, were very much in admiration of the sea- Old Homer abounds in words that must be read in Greek to see their charm. There is music in them akin to the sea.
 But must not tarry to find some ex- prersion fitting to the occasion. All poetic writers who know the sea seem to exhaust their descriptive powers thereon. And all together fail to accomplish it's grandeur and greatness. No single poem that re- member about the ocean surpasses Byron's, who speaks of it as "boundless, endless and sublime," and says: "Thou goest forth, dread fathomless, alone." .---
 We were just far enough at sea to-day to get good heaving. We had to brace our steps on deck or ever we walked about to escape being pitched one way or the other. It's real fun to do it, but it is tiresome if taken too long at once.
 Dennis, careful cabin boy and waiter had some interesting metallic fixtures about our table at breakfast and dinner to- day. Something that would keep the larger dishes and all the dishes from sud denly leaving the table, and cups were not flt, filled up as as, usual but a more lore coffee and viands as usual without any special accident to the table cloth so fair, or to our apparel. At the same time it was not so very easy to do and was rather amusing for one day. I think one might tire of it if it went on that way a week at time. It would be rather un- pleasant to see all the nice dishes and They would have often so gone, I think, though often replaced with fresh ones, were it rot for the peculiar way of fas- tening them on the table. I suppose all Transatlantic passengers observe such things but have never been "over."
 Between the writing of my preceding paper and this one,a young and dear friend of mine has just visited me, having recent 1y returned from over the sea and special visit to the cathedra1s of England. He | went on the Teutonic, 500 feet long lack ! ing 20; the largest boat afoat. He said l the waves in what was called a "rather quiet sea" were about fifteen feet, and even ! the immense steamer tossed some. The | waves of this day off the Maine coast were very nearly of that height and depth from top to bottom; perhaps 150 feet or more from the top of one to the top on another, about as wide apart as from your front fence to your rear one on an ordinary building lot, but their length ever so much more. Great smooth rolling swells, no wind o1 they would be crested and breaking. The Iris rides them like a duck. She is, as said before, 130 feet long. She takes them aslant in her course and necessarily must be now down in the trough of the seas and now on their summits as they rol under her and lift her up and let hel down. You would enjoy it if it did no make you seasick, and it never does me Have been in rough waters-Saginaw Bay Lake Huron, 1842, when I was boy, ani high wind and the great waves breaking ! at sea, grand sight. Also in bit O
 heavy sea from Block Island to Martina l Vineyard-waves about ten or twelve fee high, crested, white and light green whe1 they break, dark below. Seems to me on
 never feels his own lttleness and pun,
 strength more than when riding sucl
 waves.
 About waves in general I inquire o
 Commander O., the inspector who ha
 sailed in all the great oceans. He ha
 known them to be about thirty feet hig
 from top to bottom. In some exceptions
 places and storms they might go higher So that this talk of "waves runnin
 mountain high" is only figure of speech
 Hyperbole, great wave breaking aster once swept him from the quarter deck the mast with much force. Bulwarks an
 strong netting are safeguards against b,
 ing swept overheard; even the Iris hs
 these. But we are not being swept at a by waves. Our strong little engine of & horse power speeds us right on our way
 in such seas we are making good time.
 By the rote on the shore. Captain Joh1
 sons trained acuteness of hearing knov 5 not only about how far away he is from
 but about where he is along the coas
 What do you mean captain by the 'Ro
 on the shore?' The peculiar sound of tl waves as they break.' The coast varies . outlines, and their sound varies by thu
 reason. I think that is what he mean
 Owing to the mists I do not think we sa
 anything of that eighteen miles or so ( = rock wall between w. Quoddy and Lit
 River, but we could hear the se booming, with the rote peculiar to tn ! PAoSO' oS "o p"oSSo eH AiAOtS ooAh e@h
 indented shore it would sound different
 practised ears. But have got to hear
 sonata more than once before can unde
 stand it. Those men on the Iris hear
 so many times they know it as a blir man knows much by sound. Witho
 pretending to know much about music know enough about it to wish kne
 more. The sea has furnished many
 theme for songs. perhaps for instrument
 Mendelsohns "Songs Without Words
 No. 19. "On the Sea Shore" is one. Be
 thoven's Sonatas! have not got them ye
 may have something. If not, it seems me he would have composed one had
 ever heard the like of what I was heari1 on the Maine coast as the Iris journey this day. w. l.. B.
 HORSE FAIR.