10 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



yet I do not behold without a feeling of pain these 

 leave-takings; possibly because I know too well that 

 in many, many instances the anticipated return, the 

 long to be looked forward to reunion, will never be 

 realised ! All Londoners at least know the Docks ; 

 dwellers in the West End would not select the neigh- 

 bourhood for its attractiveness ; and even those whose 

 business it is to follow a sailor's life cannot see much 

 to admire in those giant basins, though they speak 

 of the enterprise, commerce, and wealth of the nation. 

 They are to London what the cotton-mills are to 

 Lancashire, or the blast-furnaces to the Black Country. 

 Well, what between coaling and taking on board 

 cargo, squabbling cabmen and impudent porters, steve- 

 dores and their labour-stained gangs, interspersed with a 

 due mixture of sailors, stewards, &c., I should advise the 

 traveller, not to risk missing his passage, but remain 

 at his hotel as long as compatible with certainty 

 of avoiding such a catastrophe. Now, to add to 

 all the above enumerated disagreeables, the day we 

 embarked it rained in torrents, and ceaselessly; every 

 one appeared to be in search of the driest corner, 

 and, if unsuccessful in efforts to obtain it, stared 

 with undisguised dislike at the more fortunate rival. 

 It is not on occasions of this kind that man shows 

 the better points of his character, and of all other 

 nationalities the Englishman then exhibits to the greatest 

 disadvantage. There is a rough brusqueness that very 

 frequently manifests itself on such an occasion as an 

 embarkation, thoroughly characteristic of John Bull, 

 and not at all likely to dispose those who do not know 

 him, to love him. Now, while the worthy Briton is 

 growling, and frequently using stronger language than 



