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CALIFORNIA ILLUSTRATED. 
and rolls so that it is impossible to keep footing on deck. The 
table, which has just been spread for supper, is swept of every 
dish ; the cold beef chases the vegetables around the saloon, as if 
death could not dissipate the force of habit; the mustard and 
vinegar cruets, impelled by the same instinct, gave chase to the 
beefj and after a protracted run, brought up at my state-room 
door, entirely exhausted. The most amusing trial of speed took 
place between a knife and fork and a mince-pie ; the latter lost 
its cap, or I think it would have won the race. Our chains are 
soon repaired, and we head on our course. It is dark, and we 
see nothing more, of the last sail; wine circulates freely; our 
steamer seems intoxicated, and many of her passengers are down 
with the same complaint. 
5th. Cold unpleasant morning; a heavy sea on. The wind 
blowing against the current of the gulf-stream, causes a spray, 
which rises in columns and seems to congeal in the air. We are 
in close proximity to several water-spouts, seeming the connect¬ 
ing links between the ocean and the clouds. We are under 
twenty-one inches of steam, but no canvas, the wind having been 
dead ahead for the past two days. 
6th. Clear and cold ; five sails in sight; ocean as smooth as a 
mirror. We fall in with a Delaware pilot, who reports us one 
hundred miles from Hew York. An exclamation of joy burst 
from the passengers, who are now all on deck. At 9 A. M., we 
saw the smoke of a steamer off our larboard quarter ; ten sail in 
sight; the ocean presents a most sublime spectacle, not a breath 
disturbs its repose; as if jaded by prolonged agitation, it has 
relapsed into a quiet slumber. We are in sight of the light-ship 
off Delaware Bay; a pilot comes on board; Sandy Hook is in 
sight; the Jersey shore stretching away to the left, but just 
seen above the horizon. We passed Sandy Hook light-house, 
twenty-five miles from Hew York, at 7 p.m. As night draws 
her curtain round, we see looming up from the horizon, directly 
in our course, a halo of light, indicating the locality of the city. 
All are prepared to land, each, for the time being, absorbed in 
his own thoughts. What a diversity ; the countenance of each 
portraying in vivid colors the hopes and fears within. Here, 
seated by one of the main pipes, is an emaciated form, clothed 
in rags; the head is reclining on the hand, the eye sunken, the 
