CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
ASHORE IN THE STRAITS OF MALACCA.
HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE IRISH BAR.
MONSIEUR HOULOT.
MR FAIR, ‘THE SILVER KING.’
THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS.
BUTTERFLIES.
WASTE SUBSTANCE.
No. 744.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1878.
ASHORE IN THE STRAITS OF MALACCA.
The corvette Lyre, one of Her Majesty’s vessels, isto be imagined as lying at anchor off the mouthof the river Langhat, in the Straits of Malacca,a long heavy ground-swell rolling her lazilyfrom side to side, as though even the sea foundthe climate too trying for much exertion. It isa glorious scene which lies before us: a whitebeach curtained with brilliant foliage, above whichrises Parcelar Hill, a cone-shaped mountain, withits steep sides covered with dense jungle; but onboard, the pitiless sun is pouring down his cloudlessrays, making the pitch bubble out of the seams ofthe deck even through the double awning which isspread overhead. It is one o’clock in the afternoon,the dinner hour, and the officers, clad inwhite tunics and helmets, are listlessly lounging inlong chairs abaft the mizzen-mast; while on the forecastle,blue-jackets and marines are in little groupssmoking, and some who find even that amusementtoo hot, are stretched about the deck sleepingor reading. Suddenly there is a slight stir amongthem, and the shrill whistle of a boatswain’s mateis heard, followed by a hoarse bellow at the hatchway:‘D’ye hear there? A seining-party willleave the ship at four bells [two o’clock]. All youas wish to go give your names to the master-at-arms.Away there, first cutters and dingey boys!Lower your boats!’
While the crews thus named are preparing theirboats for the expedition, volunteers in plenty aresending in their names; for a seining, or inother words a fishing-party, which involves a runon shore and a sort of picnic on the beach, isalways popular on board a man-of-war. Atthis time too, we had been nearly a month atsea, and our store of fresh meat in the wardroomhaving soon been exhausted, we had been livingon the ship’s provisions for a fortnight past; andH.M.’s salt beef (generally though disrespectfullyknown as ‘salt horse’), never very popular at anytime, had become extremely distasteful to ourpalates, though our Chinese cooks had exhaustedtheir science and our patience in inventing newmethods of cooking the obnoxious article. I mayment