publishing firms on earth are fighting for his copy-the artist who conveys an impression that before he hangs he sells-the lady who "thinks men a sad trouble, because they are always wanting to marry one, and will not understand a refusal "-the young man at whose feet heiresses are kneeling, while their papas entreat them to regard their preserves, their streams, their hunters, as possessions of the young man aforementioned-servants who, talking on Sundays one to another, strive to outvie their bosom friends in fictions concerning cast-off finery and visitors' money, and what they class generally under "gettings"-skilled artisans who vow they have more money per hour than was ever heard of in any factory-promoters who are floating companies-tradesmen who are pushing businesses-people who are keeping up appearances, who go out of town by drawing down the front blinds and migrating to the first floor back-who run away from London for a few weeks to dingy third-rate lodgings, and then talk largely about their house at Brighton-who know half the peerage (by name), and discourse of lords and ladies as though they were their brothers and sisters;-what is all this save tinted goblets containing nothing but ordinary water-what does "Couleur de Rose" mean in English if it be not a deliberate intention to deceive?

For it is not the art of making the best of things—it is not even a far-away cousin of that happy temperament which sets out the poor furniture of its life to the best advantage, chooses the sunniest casement of its dwelling from which to look over the plains of existence, goes smilingly afoot, and refrains from turning a sullen face on the whole world because the mud from the wheels of some rich man's carriage chances to splash its clothes.

Much to be respected is the man capable of doing this, who, having grievances, strives to lessen them-not by deceiving others, but by conquering himself-who can face his daily work, his actual position, without repining, and who presents his position to his fellows through no delusive rosy medium, but honestly and simply as it seems to his own happy, contented temper.

Such an one glazes the windows of his modest mansion with plain glass instead of stained; there is no " Couleur de Rose" to mislead there; and outsiders, even in passing by, can conjecture what the man's house really is.

Of what many men's houses are not, we may gather an idea when we listen to the narratives wherewith it is the pleasure of wholesale dealers in "Couleur de Rose" to entertain us.

The Water-Link of Europe and America.

BY THE REV. C. W. DENISON,

Late United States Consul for British Guiana.

THERE is a great perpetual link connecting England and America It is a bond of union that will survive the disruption and decay of all the Atlantic cables. Geographers call it the "Gulf Stream"- -a vast and mysterious body of water for ever passing through the North Atlantic Ocean from west to east, for thousands of miles. As long as this wonderful Stream flows on, the connection that it forms between America and England must continue.

The Gulf Stream has been frequently described. It is not proposed, therefore, in this article to repeat the description. The only object of the writer is to show, if possible, the causes of this remarkable phenomenon, viewing them in the light of practical observation and common sense. We propose, for the time, to lay aside all preconceived opinions, to examine the subject without prejudice, and to submit the conclusions at which we arrive to the unerring tests of science and facts.

It is undeniable that the influence of the Gulf Stream is felt through a large part of the North Atlantic Ocean, on the western shores of Great Britain, and still further along the northern and north-eastern coasts of Europe. What is the origin of this influence? This practical question has been answered in a variety of ways, by different writers. It seems to have been taken for granted that the Stream rises in the Gulf of Mexico, and hence it is commonly called the Gulf Stream. It is generally supposed that the most, if not all, of its striking peculiarities originate in that quarter of the Atlantic. On the coasts of Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, Greenland, and yet further north, traces of tropical vegetation are found, which are supposed to be thrown on the beach and lodged among the rocks by the northern and eastern flow of the Gulf Stream. The western slopes of this part of Europe are clothed with moisture and peculiar verdure, in consequence of the steady deposit by the south-west winds from the sea of the fertilizing and warming vapours which abound where the Gulf Stream flows. A similar result is produced off the coasts of Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, in the southern portion of the United

It extends, at certain times, along the shores of New Jersey and New York, and is more slightly perceptible all round the extreme

maritime regions of New England. We say at certain times, because there are periods on the sea-coasts of Europe as well as America when the course of the Gulf Stream is carried further away from shore than it is at others. During these periods, the effect produced on contiguous vegetation is at once perceptible; a change soon takes place in the surrounding atmosphere; so that all things under its influence are made to feel either the presence or absence of this extraordinary agent of the sea and air.

These obvious facts being admitted, we pass out on the ocean, from both Great Britain and the United States, and soon meet with our untired and untiring fellow-traveller-the much-sought-for and longtalked-of "Gulf Stream." The first fact which strikes us on approaching it is its colour. A dark blue line appears drawn on the horizon where the Stream flows. The colour of the water is always noticed before the current appears. Sometimes this blue tinge is so striking that it keeps a marked separation from the pale green tint of the adjacent ocean, moving in and out in dark circles and eddies, as if refusing to mingle with the kindred waters. This broad distinction of colour begins with the first appearance of the Stream, off the coast of Yucatan, on the South American continent, and continues to show itself, with more or less distinctness, all the way through the ocean, to the extreme north. What causes this colour?

The next fact connected with our mysterious companion of the great waters, is its steady and invariable current. This always flows from nearly south-west to north-east, at the average rate of three miles an hour. Its strength changes with the force or weakness of the wind; but whether there be a gale or a calm, whether the sky be cloudy or fair, whether the sea be crowded in a given space with ships, or only a solitary one be in sight, the Gulf Stream pours on, on, like the resistless stream of human life-never wearying, never taking rest. The largest ships that ever sailed are borne along by it, and made to feel its resisting power. Calculations of voyages, the arrival or detention of cargoes, the transit of passengers and mails, are arranged with due regard to this invariable current. What is its cause?

The temperature of the Gulf Stream now attracts attention. In all places of its passage it is found to be distinctly perceptible, and always higher than that of the ordinary water of the Atlantic. This contrast is so marked, in certain places, that while the temperature of the water around a ship outside the Stream may be sixty degrecs of Fahrenheit, that around the same ship inside the Stream is not unfre

quently as high as eighty degrees. The mean difference of temperature between the ordinary water of the ocean and that of the Gulf Stream will average from ten to fifteen degrees-the Stream always and everywhere averaging that much warmer. As it travels from the south to the north, the heat of the water gradually lessens; but the proportion of its warmth to the surrounding waters of the Atlantic continues the same. In spite of the steady withdrawal from its surface of the southern sun, in defiance of the north-east winds, in the face of which it marches in that direction, and notwithstanding it encounters the wild deserts and mountains of ice that are for ever drifting down to its melting waves from the Arctic Seas, the temperature of the Gulf Stream is proportionately maintained, with an even and unchanging glow, from the time it appears in the south and is lost, as yet, to human view, in the north. Whence, then, is this heat?

There are known chemical properties in the waters of the Gulf Stream, which are not found in like proportions in any other. They contain sulphate of copper, held in solution, mixed with nitrate of silver and salt, and rendered dense by heat and ammonia. Whether in the night or in the day, whether in sunshine or in storm, whether in the south or in the north, this combination is constantly going on wherever the waters of the Gulf Stream are flowing. They exhibit the same chemical affinities that are to be found in other navigable waters of our planet. On the coast of Japan there is a stream in the sea which the Japanese call the Kuro Siwo, or Black Stream. Its waves are so deeply blue, so distinctly visible from all the ocean around them, that they seem to be black. Why, then, is the water of the Gulf Stream an

invariable blue?

We are next struck, in passing, with the sedges of the Stream. They are quite as remarkable as any of its other peculiarities. They are frequently seen in certain portions of the waters in floating masses, sometimes in the form of wedged grass, bulbs, flowers, roots, sprigs, and splinters of sugar-cane and bamboo. Hundreds of miles out at sea, by night and day, in all states of the atmosphere, these solitary voyagers suddenly rise to the surface and float around the ships. They are so numerous and so dense in some parts of the ocean through which the Gulf Stream so steadily flows, as actually to impede navigation. As long ago as the glorious voyage of Christopher Columbus, the bows of his Spanish galleons were so resisted by these encumbering masses of sedges, that he thought he had reached a region like his own, and named it the Sea of Saragossa. They were found, on examination,

however, to be plants that did not grow on the nearest tropical shores; and the same fact has been frequently proved since. It was for a long time supposed and taught in the schools that most of these plants and weeds, with the animalculæ attached, grew on the island of Andros, but subsequent investigations have proved the idea to be erroneous. Whence do they come ?

There are eddies and vapours in the Gulf Stream that are to be found, in similar proportions, in no other waters. They present some of the most extraordinary phenomena of the sea. Certain portions of the Stream are so disturbed by eddies, in pleasant weather as well as foul, as to break against the sides of ships passing through them. They are seen in the midst of violent gales. In the ordinary surface of the ocean, much as the waves may be broken by winds, they are regular in their motion, and more or less distinct; but in the Gulf Stream the glassy water is changed into curves and circles, the whirlings and eddyings being clearly perceptible, as almost wholly independent of the winds. They seem to rise like the boiling waters of a huge cauldron, as driven to the surface by a resistless pressure from beneath. They are not universal, in all parts of the Stream; they are not visible at some times as they are at others; but their existence is most marked in various portions of this wonderful water. From among them frequently ascend those atmospheric vapours, which generate remarkable effects in the sky. They come from the Stream like dissolving smoke or darkened steam rising from a furnace, sweep through the air in mysterious shapes, and as mysteriously disappear. They are constantly in motion, whirling to and fro, even when the air is comparatively still, and passing off in the atmosphere like the lifting of a veil or the unseen folding of wings. Operated on by the fierce rays of the southern sun, they create and bear with them those electric forces that are seen and heard nowhere else on this planet as they are in the Gulf Stream. Here is the play-spot of the thunder and lightning; here the garish fire-balls, blazing from the rifted cloud, leap from yardarm to yardarm: while the yeasty waves, lashed suddenly to fury by the surging tempest, drive the torn vessel along the deep like a feather in a whirlwind. The surrounding atmosphere, surcharged with these fearful gases of the Stream, reels with its burden, and thunderbolts, and hail-storms, and tornadoes, and deluges of rain, covering the sea and land with panic and disaster, can alone give it relief.

These are the vapours, toned by their sea-passage to the north