238 report — 1879. 



Thanks to the unflagging energy of Mr. Clements Markham, we leave 

 the Indian coasts to the able treatment of Captain Taylor and his well- 

 organised staff; bat as the Indian Marine Survey forms the subject of a 

 separate paper in this section I shall not further allude to it. 



We have no time to visit the east coast of Africa ; and the state of 

 the charts, as illustrated by the Active and Tenedos, would render it 

 imprudent to do so under any circumstances. When reading of the 

 important services lately rendered by Captain Campbell and his Active 

 brigade, it is humiliating to reflect that they might have been lost to us, 

 and gained by the submarine fleet, in order to save the expense of 

 executing a much-needed survey. 



The Red Sea being unfortunately shaded, we are unable to use the 

 inshore passages, except in the Mussawa Channel, and consequently 

 suffer much discomfort from the violence of the winds. The trade through 

 the Suez Canal points to the necessity for connecting the surveys of the 

 Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Suez. 



In the Mediterranean, we notice with regret, mingled with surprise, 

 that the coast of Karamania is only partially surveyed, and that the 

 shading also extends from Alexandria to Sphax in Tunis, the black spot 

 representing the harbour of Tripoli. 



Being by this time hardy travellers, we decide on a trip across the 

 North Sea before the end of the season, and therefore land at Brindisi and 

 make the best of our way to Hull, marvelling much at the immense tracts 

 of coast that are still unsurveyed. 



I need hardly remind you that amongst other things we are indebted 

 to Scandinavia for large quantities of timber and iron, or that the iron 

 from the Dannemora mines supplies us with our finest steel. The people 

 also, and especially those of Norway, are peculiarly interesting to the 

 British nation. They have, morally and politically, a claim upon us ; and 

 among them we may trace the germ of perhaps nearly all the free institu- 

 tions which distinguish the British Constitution at the present day. 



We leave Hull with a fair wind, but meet with a heavy north- westerly 

 gale off the coast of Norway ; and after an anxious night, daylight finds 

 us, partially disabled, driving rapidly towards a formidable iron-bound 

 shore, fronted by rocks above and below water. Our case seems desperate ; 

 we cannot get out to sea, and pilots cannot get out to us ; the Admiralty 

 charts are practically useless, for they are on a very small scale, and we 

 are now dashing before sea and wind towards a terrible line of breakers. 

 The captain is out on the bowsprit, however, and fortunately discovers an 

 opening just when destruction appears inevitable. We escape the outer 

 rocks, by a miracle as it seems, and at last a pilot boat sheers cautiously 

 alongside. A rope is thrown to her, the pilot ties it round his body, 

 plunges into the sea, and is hoisted on board. The danger is now past, 

 and in half an hour more we are safely at anchor, deeply thankful for our 

 narrow escape from the horrors of shipwreck. 



Now this incident has actually occurred more than once, and has only 

 too frequently ended in the loss of ship and crew. Excellent charts for 

 this coast are published by the Norwegian Government, but as far as 

 English seamen are concerned it is but little better than explored. The 

 Norwegian charts, with a book of sailing directions in manuscript and 

 slip, are at this moment lying unused on the shelves of the Hydrographical 

 Office. Why are they not published ? Because, for ' departmental 

 reasons ' — mark the phrase — it has been decided that they are ' to stand 



