this little saloon; but I hope that will tion to find we had screamed till we not be necessary." were hoarse, for neither he nor his comOn one of the bunks lay a sleeping-panions had ever heard a sound!

pocket not that the sleeping-pockets will be required in the ship; but if the ship has to be abandoned, they will become absolutely necessary. It is made to hold three men, and a very curious thing it looks. It is long enough to allow the men to lie full length, and once they are all inside, packed like sardines, a large hood-like end comes down over the face, and, well lapping over the underpart, is strapped down. Now this pocket was made of reindeer skin, the fur, of course, inside, and, to look at it, one marvelled how three men with their clothes on could sleep all night in such a thing, buttoned down, without suffocating altogether. But the cold of an Arctic night requires such arrangements, and Dr. Nansen's only fear is they may not be warm enough.

Having carefully investigated the ventilation, lamps, beds, etc., we left the saloon to go and see the means by which a leak had been discovered in the ship. Up the companion we went, when, lo and behold! we found we were shut in.

There had been a small leak in the ship, and to find out its locality the hold had been filled with water. We went down aft to see the petroleum tanks, the plans of the beams and stanchions, the cavities for the cargo, etc. And we walked over the three feet of water, which, although in the interior of the ship, had frozen quite solid, but not before it had made known the position of the leak. The water had dripped through the leak and formed itself into an icy stalactite, by means of which its locality was soon discovered. The ship has, of course, been in the water. She was built nearly sixty miles from Christiania, where she is now in dock; but before she really starts on her voyage she is going to sea for a week's trialtrip, with all her equipments, to make quite sure that she comes up to the expectations of her designers.

She may be a wonderful ship; she may answer all that is required of her. But, oh! what a contrast the confined space, the absolute severity of everything, to Nansen's charming and artistic home, wherein he is surrounded by every comfort and every luxury. Yet is he willing to leave everything behind, rushing into unknown dangers and terrible hardships, firmly believing his theories of the polar current are correct, and that he will shortly return with the proof and the satisfaction of having added a boundless store of information to that insatiable goddess, science. How many good lives have been sacrificed in her cause! and yet it is due to the dauntless daring of generations in every branch of science that we are what we are to-day. Without scientific knowledge, what should we now be?

Nansen knocked loudly at the door, knowing that men were clearing the snow off the deck with wooden spades; but no one heard. He called and called again, and yet no one heard. He rapped at the many-paned windows, through which we saw the men at work, and still no one heeded. Here we were imprisoned within a few feet of several men who could not hear our efforts to get out. At last we really began to think we should have to stay there all day, so we all shouted together, and yet with no avail. The Fram is so securely built, her walls are so thick and so deadened with felt, and her windows so secured, we were literally im- As we bade Dr. Nansen good-bye on prisoned, and no one heard any of our leaving Christiania, he said, "Not efforts for liberation. Some twenty good-bye, please only au revoir for a minutes had gone by before one of the couple of years or so. I shall be in men chanced to remember a coat he London as soon as I come back." And had left in the cabin below, and leis- he added, "As you've eaten our foods, urely strolled across and opened the tried on our clothes, and seen every outer door. Great was his consterna-beam of our ship covered in snow and

ice in Arctic cold, you may almost feel | dred and ninety-seven feet, and at the you have been to the North Pole too. Au revoir! Mind, only au revoir !"

From Nature.

THE BALTIC SHIP-CANAL.1

FOREMOST among the engineering works of the latter part of the nineteenth century must assuredly be placed the magnificent maritime canals, which afford such conspicuous evidence of industrial skill and enterprise; and of these great works few will yield in point of size and importance to the new sea-way between the North Sea and the Baltic, the history and progress of which is so ably described by Herr Beseke in the present volume.

bottom, at the toe of the slopes, seventy-two feet; the total depth is nearly twenty-eight feet. It is shown by means of a diagram that not only will two of the largest Baltic merchant vessels pass one another without difficulty, but also that there is room for a vessel of this type to give way to one of the finest ironclads of the German navy, such as the König Wilhelm, with a displacement of 9,757 tons. Special passing stations have, however, also been arranged at intervals, similar to those on the Suez Canal.

The cost of the works was originally estimated at £7,800,000, which provides for 77,400,000 cubic metres of excavation, and all requisite contractors' plant and materials, entrance locks, bridges, and harbor works, as also for the forts needed to protect the western approach to the canal.

The idea of such a canal has been under consideration for five centuries, and one of the most interesting chapters in the book is that which enumer- A most curious chapter is that which ates no less than sixteen schemes which deals with the provision made for the have from time to time been pro- conduct of the enterprise, and for the pounded for the accomplishment of housing and accommodation of the large this difficult problem. These different staff of work-people engaged therein. projects are rendered all the more in- The sub-contractors for the various telligible by means of a sketch-map, sections into which the works were indicating the various lines proposed, divided-fifteen in number had, unthe majority of which, having their der conditions carefully specified, to origin in the estuary of the Elbe, passed construct barracks for the staff of worktransversely across the Schleswig-Hol-ers. The canteen arrangements were stein peninsula to points in the vicinity all carefully thought out, and the prices of Kiel or Lübeck.

plete.

of food were regulated by fixed tariffs. The inception of the present under- The sizes of dormitories were pretaking dates from October 19, 1883, scribed; hospitals and laundries have when the chancellor of state was di- to be provided, and all the sanitary rected by imperial rescript to report arrangements appear to be most comupon the execution of a canal from Kiel to the mouth of the Elbe. The plans, prepared in conformity with this decree, were adopted, with trifling modifications, on March 16, 1886, the execution of the works being entrusted to a State commission in July of the same year, and the first stone was laid by the emperor William I. with an imposing ceremony on June 3, 1887.

The total length of the projected canal is about sixty-one English miles, the width at the water-line is one hun1 Der Nord-Ostsee-Kanal. Von C. Beseke. Kiel

and Leipsic: Lipsius and Tischer, 1893.

It was a condition of their engagement that the work-people should be at least seventeen years of age, no Socialists or Anarchists might be employed, and all drunken and dissolute persons were liable to instant dismissal. Some of the regulations appear slightly autocratic, but doubtless with a population of from six thousand to eight thousand persons brought together from all parts of Germany, such as was to be found on certain of the sections, it was necessary to insist upon a very severe discipline. We are assured by

the author that hitherto these rules in time caused by the use of the canal have worked satisfactorily. A detailed as contrasted with the dangerous pasaccount is given of the four bridges sage round the coast of Denmark, and required for the railway crossings, also a wreck chart of the entrance of the of the numerous ferries and of the mas- Baltic serves as an effective objectsive constructions needed to form the lesson of the value to navigation of this entrance-locks of the canal at either new sea-way. end. The water-level of the canal is almost coincident with that of the Baltic. So that on three hundred and forty days in the year the sluices can remain open, and the lock-gates into the Elbe can be opened daily at certain states of the tide; the water in the canal is to be at one uniform level throughout.

In consequence of the advanced state of the works it seems probable that the undertaking may be formally opened for traffic at the period originally contemplated, in the summer of 1895. Steamers will be permitted to propel themselves at a mean speed of about six miles an hour, and sailing vessels and barges will be towed in train through the canal by steam-tugs provided for this purpose.

Herr Beseke presents us with most exhaustive statistics showing the saving

In the concluding chapters we find most ample details of the volume of Baltic commerce and of the tonnage engaged therein, both in the form of steamers and sailing vessels, and excellent diagrams and charts have been specially prepared by the author to render these facts readily intelligible to the public. Nor does Herr Beseke omit to treat of the industrial value of these works and of their importance to the Fatherland, both from the military and naval aspects; in fact their political significance is shown to be enormous.

The volume contains a mass of welldigested information upon an undertaking concerning which but little has hitherto been heard in this country, but which is destined to exert a powerful influence upon the commerce of the states bordering upon the Baltic.

IT sometimes happens that peat bogs layer not yet turned into peat and the cover swell and burst, giving out a stream of of live vegetation, which get saturated like dark mud. Herr Klinge has made a study a sponge, after which the water collects in of this rare phenomenon (Bot. Jahrb.), of pools, and runs off in streams. The theory which he has found only nine instances, in of gas explosions is also rejected; and the Europe, between 1745 and 1883 (seven of author considers the real cause to lie in these being in Ireland). Heavy rains gen- land-slips, collapses, etc., of ground under erally occur before the phenomenon, and the bog, permitting water or liquid mud to detonations and earth vibrations precede enter. This breaks up the bog mechanand accompany it. The muddy stream which issues, of various fluidity, rolls along lumps of peat, and moves now more quickly, now more slowly. After the outbreak, the mud quickly hardens, and the bog sinks at the place it appeared, forming a funnelshaped pool. The bogs considered by Herr Klinge have been almost all on high ground, not in valleys. He rejects the idea that the effects are due to excessive absorption of water by the bog. The peat layers, which often vary much in consistency, have each a certain power of imbibition, and the water absorbed does not exceed this limit. Excessive rain affects chiefly the upper

The heavy

ically, mixes with it and fluidifies it, and
an outburst at the surface is the result.
The limestone formations in Ireland, with
their large caverns and masses of water,
are naturally subject to those collapses,
which, with the vibrations they induce, are
more frequent in wet years.
rains preceding the bog eruptions are thus
to be regarded as only an indirect cause of
these. Herr Klinge supposes that similar
eruptions occurred in past geological peri-
ods, e.g., the Carboniferous, in some cases
where fossil tree-stems are found in upright
position.

Nature.

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Clear, loud the Border challenge; how the О, not more subtly silence strays

king

Till my voice sounded distant in the gloom.
But a great flash of Heaven across the room
Shone in the happy light upon the face
Of my dear wife, swift knitting in her place,
And so I told of all my poets-sung
In the dear syllables of our dear tongue,
And how their lives were sorrowful with
tears,

Amongst the winds, between the voices,
Mingling alike with pensive lays,

And with the music that rejoices,
Than thou art present in my days.

My silence, life returns to thee

In all the pauses of her breath,
Hush back to rest the melody

That out of thee awakeneth;
And thou, wake ever, wake for me.

Full, full is life in hidden places,

For thou art silence unto me.
Full, full is thought in endless spaces.
Full is my life. A silent sea
Lies round all shores with long embraces.

Thou art like silence all unvexed

Though wild words part my soul from thee.

How great song rose from sorrow through Thou art like silence unperplexed,

Of my dream-wife, dream-child, dream- Trance between laughters unawares !

home bereft,

Bereft forever, and I sank in tears

Before the empty world that filled my years

Thou art the form of melodies,
And thou the ecstasy of prayers.
ALICE MEYNELL.