VIII. ] "LE PERE ARCTIQUE." 119 



of the " Reine Hortense" an inquiry was made as to what 

 suggestion I might have to offer in furtherance of this 

 laudable object. With that poverty of invention and love 

 of spirits which characterise my nation, I am obliged to 

 confess that, after deep reflection, I was only able to answer, 

 " Grog." But seeing an extra flag or two was being run 

 up at each masthead of the Frenchman, the lucky idea 

 occurred to me to dress the "Foam" in all her colours. 

 The schooner's toilette accomplished, I went on board the 

 " Reine Hortense" and you cannot imagine anything more 

 fragile, graceful, or coquettish, than her appearance from the 

 deck of the corvette, — as she curtsied and swayed herself 

 on the bosom of the almost imperceptible swell, or flirted 

 up the water with her curving bows. She really looked 

 like a living little lady. 



But from all such complacent reveries I was soon awakened 

 by the sound of a deep voice, proceeding apparently from 

 the very bottom of the sea, which hailed the ship in the 

 most authoritative manner, and imperiously demanded her 

 name, where she was going, whom she carried, and whence 

 she came : to all which questions, a young lieutenant, stand- 

 ing with his hat off at the gangway, politely responded. 

 Apparently satisfied on these points, our invisible interlo- 

 cutor then announced his intention of coming on board. All 

 the officers of the ship collected on the poop to receive him. 



In a few seconds more, amid the din of the most unearthly 

 music, and surrounded by a bevy of hideous monsters, a 

 white-bearded, spectacled personage — clad in bear-skin, with 

 a cocked hat over his left ear — presented himself in the 

 gangway, and handing to the officers of the watch an enor- 

 mous board, on which was written 



"LE PERE ARCTIQUE," 



by way of visiting card, — proceeded to walk aft, and take 

 the sun's altitude with what, as far as I could make out, 

 seemed to be a plumbers wooden triangle. This prelimi- 

 nary operation having been completed, there then began 



