338 Notice of Sketches of Naval Life. 
carried him forward with a power which he seems to have 
been as little disposed as able to resist. We do not wonder 
at it, for who could speak of, much more who could see and 
tread the ground of Salamis, and Argos, and Athens, and 
Corinth, and Constantinople, and old Rome, without having 
a strong impulse imparted to his eas 
If this Journal were exclusively literary, we should intro- 
duce various passages illustrating the author’s manner of 
writing on the principal te that came under his obser- 
vation, We shall however, limit our additional quotations 
to a few scenes, relating irieiptlly to the manceuvres, that in- 
volve movements depending on the principles of mechanics. 
The following passage describes the unfurling of the sails. 
“ We will suppose, then, a fine morning, after a wet day; 
and chake are ad such ‘days here, I find. _ Suppose yourself 
once, a few little flags a run a at the stern of the Commo- 
dore’s ship, as if by magic; for no one is seen to produce this 
effect. Soon after, a single one ascends, in like manner, to the 
mast head of each of the other ships; and then all pass down again. 
A shrill whistle and a cry are now heard; but still there is no 
motion; and no sign of any; except a hat, here and there, ap- 
pearing just above the bulwarks. So it remains a few minutes ; 
e 
all is silence again. Another sound; and the rigging is ‘again 
darkened with men, new sets passing up, and those in the tops 
ascending to the highest spars: they “throw themselves out upon: 
the yards, and a busy scene ensues; but all settles again into in- 
activity. And then, at the words “ ‘let fall,” the ships simultane- 
ously, and in a moment, drop their thousand folds of canvass ; 
the ensign is run up, and the pendant throws itself open to the 
breeze. What I have eae: is loosing sails to > an rae: 
The sailing of the squadron from the port of Mahon, is 
thus described : 
were all stowed away; every rope was in its place, and 
