familiar; and, therefore, symbols, to be easily learned, and recovered when the recollection of their application has become weakened through disuse, must be resolvable into obvious or fundamental ideas; and their construction, out of lines, dots, or other materials, must be such as to lend itself readily to such analysis whenever it is required. The construction of a set of such symbols is, accordingly, an excessively difficult task; and the difficulty is greatly enhanced when the symbols are to form a system; that is, when certain principles laid down at the outset are never to be departed from, and are to be, in every individual case, the sole grounds of interpretation. In fact, the task here exemplified in a special subject, of a restricted nature, and which has much of a geometrical cast about it, would, on the general scale, be nothing less than the creation of an entirely new form of language. We shall say nothing further here upon the subject in general than to observe that a system of symbols represents either words (each symbol representing one word), or ideas, independently of words. The plan proposed is the latter; the ideas being decomposed or separated, the subordinate elements are denoted by subsidiary marks attached to the primary symbol, which stands for the original or primary idea.

Thus w, the primary symbol, stands for water; w' denotes good water, by the superior trait or character; w, denotes bad water, by means of the inferior trait; the quality being denoted by a subsidiary sign. So w denotes water in plenty, where quantity, like quality, is a secondary idea to the same primary one. The method thus freed from the prolixity and repetitions of verbal language (which are the necessary results of bringing the several portions of the whole idea, one by one, in succession, to the ear), exhibits a remarkable energy of expression; thus w' denotes "water in abundance, and of good quality :" that is, seven words in the space of one letter and a half. These words, with necessary spaces, employ thirty-eight letters; but they are themselves an abbreviation, since ordinary language would require a verb, as "is procured" or "may be obtained," &c. In many cases the symbols occupy but three per cent of the room required for ordinary type. This economy of space, however, is but one of the advantages afforded; the idea is presented in the most positive and unmistakeable manner, and under a form which, after the notation has been learned, demands the smallest possible amount of intellectual effort to seize the given idea and the two particulars attached to it.

To express the non-existence of any thing,* a zero is placed at the right foot of the symbol: thus, wo, no water; ro, no refreshment; o, no anchorage.

This leads at once to the expression "at times:" thus, ww, water and no water, represents evidently "water at times;" Lo, landing (the boathook, hook down) at times; rro, refreshments procured occasionally.

A symbol inverted has its meaning reversed: thus denotes embarking, the reverse of landing. Those symbols only are capable of inversion which represent some action. A hollow letter denotes temporary, in opposition to permanent:† thus F after a light denotes fixed; F denotes that the fixed light appears occasionally only, as at certain times of the tide.

This sense is provided for otherwise (as in ww), but all symbols do not conveniently take the hollow form; and it is, besides, often a convenience to have more indications than one.

Much of the power of the proposed system consists in the employment of component signs.

Thus denotes the horizontal line or level of the sea or land. The distinction between what is above and what is below the surface of the sea being most important

It is as necessary to express the absence or non-existence of any thing as its presence to leave out the symbol is merely to omit information on the point.

The hint is taken from those Hebrew grammars in which the servile letters are exhibited in the hollow form.

to seamen, the simplest notation is employed to express it; hence we have rk., a rock always below the water; rf., a reef always above the water; rk., a rock awash, or between two levels of water; w, water under the surface, obtained by digging. The line denotes vertical; hence I denotes steep, bluff or precipitous, above the water, as a cliff; † denotes bold to (below the water).

denotes

The cross with a number denoting the point is the compass-symbol, as ENE; denotes lying NNW and SSE. This symbol exhibits to the eye at once, or without mental effort, the quarter or quarters in which the point or direction in question lies.

A square or an oblong expresses enclosure, partial or total; hence, enclosed anchorage, a harbour for large vessels (above 18ft. draught);, ditto, for small vessels (under 18ft); , fuel enclosed, a coal depôt, (b denotes burn, bruler, brennen, brulare, &c.)

Brackets [] denote within limits: hence [+], anchorage confined to a small space; [*], trees ditto, a clump; [f], a clump of cocoa-nut trees; 3 [*], three clumps of trees; [2c.], two cables length in extent; [4m.], four miles in extent; [3], a shoal patch of 3 fathoms (or 3 fms. in narrow limits).

The subsidiary signs denote (as already remarked) quantity and quality. The sign denoting quantity in augmentation is a dot under the symbol, as w, abundant water. The sign denoting diminution is a comma over the symbol, as w, water

scarce.

One dot implies much or many; two dots, still more; and three, the extreme degree for which language has a term; and the like, in the contrary sense, holds of the commas. We do not use all these signs, as so much variety is not required.

The dot is adopted in the sense of aggravation, as employed in the weather symbols used in the Navy; the comma is selected from its function in such abbreviations as can't, where it is naturally associated with the idea of diminution or contraction. The dot and comma take opposite positions, in order to avoid ambiguity in case of partial obliteration.

The only quality or variety sign we use at present is to denote good (') and bad (); one, two, or three such marks denote good, very good, excellent; or bad, very bad, excessively bad.

Enough has been said to shew the nature of the system which will appear under the name of Description Symbols, in the Table of Maritime Positions, where it enables a large mass of important information to be inserted, with scarcely any increase in the extent of the table. The system is also convenient for taking notes and memoranda of hydrographical descriptions, as it is independent (with the exception of a very few words) of any particular language.

The following examples exhibit the method as it appears in practice :—

Ex. 1. Island, 7m., h, o, E, 'SW 8, w P,.

Island lying NE and SW, extending 7 miles; high; no trees; no passage (||) to the eastward; a good anchorage on the SW side in 8 fathoms; where water, scarce, but good, is to be found, but no other refreshments; the people of bad character.

Ex. 2. Paddeway Bay, [5m.], 1ō, r, d.

A harbour for large vessels, extending 5 miles, having 10 fathoms water; refreshments to be had; no dangers (d).

Ex. 3. Shoal, 4m., rk. at NW end, ~~。, T, Lo

Shoal, lying WNW and ESE 4 miles; a rock always above water at the NW end, the occasional resort of birds (~~), bold to, and no landing on it.

H. RAPER.

SITKA.

OUR passage (from Woahoo) to Sitka was performed in twenty-two days, the weather was uniformly fine, and the wind always fair.

The Sound of Sitka is formed by Mount Cape Edgecumbe to the north, and Point Wodehouse to the south, fourteen miles apart; the former landmark is easily distinguished, being a dome-shaped mountain, evidently an old volcano capped with snow, which lines its red sides in stripes from its apex down to its centre.

The settlement of New Archangel is about fourteen miles up the Sound in a north-easterly direction, and cannot be approached closer than within six to eight miles by a stranger, who should hoist his ensign and fire two guns. This we were aware of, and fired eight before the pilot came out; he was very welcome, however, when he did come; informing us that the Captain Klenkoffstrein would be alongside in a quarter of an hour with a steamer to tow us in. Accordingly at two o'clock on the twenty-second day we were safely moored in the harbour of New Archangel.

This is formed by a cluster of small islands immediately in front of the settlement, and has two entrances, one north, the other south. Once inside it is as smooth as a pond, no port can be safer, and it is impregnable, owing chiefly to its natural defences, though the Russians have taken good care to erect batteries which command it at every point. The town or settlement is built on a flat strip of land jutting out here as if on purpose, form the high belt of mountains which form the extremity of the Sound. The governor's-house is perched on a rock, about 80 feet in height, and is 140 feet long by 70 wide; of two good stories, roofed with sheet iron, painted red, and capped by a lighthouse, which can be distinguished by vessels at sea. The whole is defended by a battery, which commands every point of the harbour, and encircles onehalf of the house to the south-east. The north-west end is approached by a flight of steps. Half way up sentinels are placed day and night, and here also are posted brass guns on light field carriages. The upper story is divided into one grand saloon in the centre, flanked by a drawing-room and billiard-room at one end, and a drawing-room at the other; all are well proportioned, painted, not papered, and the walls adorned with good engravings of British Victories by sea and land. In the saloon is a magnificent full-length painting of Nicholas. The lower story contains (so to speak) a dining-room, drawing-room, study, and the domestic establishment of the governor and his lady. The diningroom is hung with prints of English towns, principally on the seaboard: the drawing-room with views in Switzerland and Germany. The whole is plainly and substantially furnished, and heated with stoves of the continental custom. This, as well as all other houses is built of wood, immense logs, dovetailed into each other, squared and painted.

The arsenal is the next object which arrests the attention of a stranger, from the number of men employed either building new or repairing old

vessels. At this moment they are building a new steamer, destined I think, for Mr. Leidesdorff of California. The workmanship appears good and solid, every thing for her is made on the spot, for which purpose they have casting-houses, boiler-makers, coopers, turners, and all the other ers requisite for such an undertaking. The boiler is almost completed and is of copper. They have also their tool-makers, workers in tin and brass, chart engravers, sawyers, and saw mills, for all which occupations suitable establishments have been erected.

The climate is moist, out of fourteen days we had only two upon which nautical observations could be made, these two were as fine and as warm as I ever experienced in any country.

NAUTICAL REMARKS ON THE BAY OF HONDURAS.

Sea and Surf upon the Coast.

A LONG Swell from seaward, is the worst cause of the heavy surfs, and this is more felt in winter than in summer; but, even then I have frequently seen the surf heavy, when the cause was scarcely felt at the ship, and we never had the wind that caused this long swell; whilst at other times you experience a short grumbling sea at the ship when there is very little surf upon the bar.

Settlements, Commerce, &c.

There is a Mosquito settlement at Plantain River; two Englishmen with Mosquitoan wives at Black River, the remains of the last attempt of a company, which I believe like its predecessors failed through ignorance and mismanagement; a Caribe settlement at Cape River, and also at Great and Little Rocks. The "Alarm" frigate claimed for the Mosquitoans as far as Cape Honduras. The Mosquito territories are under British protection, and the Americans have admitted mahogany from them as British produce, and the merchants are free from the fetters put upon commerce by the Central American Government. Most of the Belize merchants send their ships to Ruatan Island to await orders in place of Truxillo. There are only two places where ships can lie upon the coast in the Norths, these are Omoa and Truxillo, or rather the northeastern part of the bay called "Ring Cove." You would imagine that the Spanish or Central Americans were determined not to have the resourses of their country developed by their commercial policy. The trade little as it is with Truxillo, is carried on most corruptly. Smuggling is vulgar, and it can be done much better under a sort of legal cloak; report a part, and land the whole,-a few dollars or the same thing in another shape to certain parties, comes in as a matter of course; but oil is better than vinegar, and "tight lacing" is not calculated to the meridian of Hon

duras, but the Ruatan Islanders for legislation. Some of the new republics might do well to send out deputations to that island, and as they have no public press to diffuse the blessings of their enlightened policy, their only chance is that an "Observer" or "Spectator" may find its way to the Belize paper. A few specimens may be given of their proceedings. The public meeting is composed of black and white members elected by universal sufferage, and no property qualification. The clerk of courts, who is also the whole machinery of their custom-house, is their secretary; president they have none, and in their hurry to proceed to business, they forget to appoint a chairman, and then vote that a cargo landed for transhipment to the mahogany works upon the coast should be attached &c.; and the five per cent. import duty imposed upon goods landed for consumption, should be paid on those goods in transit, and the agent (one of their members) rises to explain, &c. But it was voted that he should not be allowed to speak, or he would argue them out of it; and they afterwards repealed the five per cent. import duty upon goods, &c., from Central America and retained it upon British goods, &c. What say the Free traders to that? They voted that ships calling there for orders were no benefit to the island, as they did not carry away their plantains; and that the ships of one merchant should pay double port charges, as nobody but the agent derived any benefit from them: adjourned, and resumed. Then before forming a quorum they discussed and agreed to an important measure, they never referred to it when a quorum was formed. But their master-piece was maintaining the election of a public treasurer who could neither read nor write; others could do it for him, and one "a Domine Samson," voted in the majority.

We have many proofs in our colonies of a retrograde movement in civilization, and by the proceedings of some of the public functionaries and other parties in Belize, and their "star chamber" modes of administering justice, it would not be difficult to place them in a particular niche of last century, in point of civilization in England. I have now two cases pending with them, a dispute in the exchange of at least £26 upon the disbursements, which I found by their own acknowledgements was a designed fraud, because the rate of exchange by the circumstances of their trade is against. They would make me pay for it under a cloak, and with the police magistrate who fined me nine dollars for applying the word "improper" to a memorandum written by the public surgeon; but he was an M.D., and also an assistant judge; and in his wrath he instigated a coroner's inquest to be held upon my dead seaman, where the coroner and jury gave me fair play, and I disproved every charge that he brought against me, except what he called "insolence and contempt," which he had no evidence to substantiate; and my own witness convicted me of using that awful word "improper," which the magistrate, in polite moral Belize considered might have led to a breach of the peace, by exciting the said public surgeon and judge to have knocked me down. And for this remote farfetched risk of breaking the peace, not causing another to break it, I