FLOATING SPANS. 
31 
offensive, from the decaying animal matter about 
them, as to require washing with Sir AV. Burnett’s 
solution, and they had to be kept on deck a con- 
siderable time before they could be reeled up below. 
On another occasion we fell in with a floating 
spar seven hundred miles from the Azores. From 
the fact of its being covered with barnacles, it was 
the general impression that it must have been a 
long time in. the water. On a boat being lowered, 
however, the carpenter examined it, and pronounced 
it to be a new spar, the lower-mast of some vessel. 
It was entirely covered with full-grown Lepas ana- 
tifera ; a fact which goes to prove how rapid is the 
growth of the Lepades, and also how desirable it is, 
for the sake of humanity, to examine these floating 
wrecks, even when they seem apparently hoary 
with age. The fate of many missing vessels might 
possibly be determined by reading the name marked 
upon such floating spars. 
The Cape of Good Hope offers in many respects 
a striking contrast to Kio, yet it is a pleasant place, 
and I have many pleasant memories of the time 
