the Lake, (W. Rolph, Esq.,) the Mercury, (Joseph Slade, Esq.,) the Hind, (Captain Balston,) the Serpent, (Lord Clarence Paget,) the Contest, (R. Cochrane, Esq.) A number of Portland Lerrets, decorated with colours, marked the course which the breakwater will take, and added not a little to the picturesqueness of the scene. We are informed that the area to be inclosed by the new breakwater is to be known as the Victoria Harbour of Refuge. NOTES UPON THE NAVIGATION OF THE EAST COAST, FROM FLAMBORO' HEAD TO THE DOWNS. British Channel, June 27th, 1849. Sir.-I have been much pleased to observe several general sketches of passages, &c., in your valuable journal, I consider that these will be most acceptable to strangers in the parts upon which they treat. Something is required to convey to the mind a general idea of the passage. Strangers have a great dread of this part of the coast, even those well acquainted with navigation, and the use of books and charts. When we open the best and clearest direction books, we find the dangers, objects, &c., so numerous, that we are not surprised at it, and their position may well be compared to a witness baffled by a lawyer popping in cross questions. Many heavy ships leave the northern ports with coals, and their masters cannot be well acquainted with the coast. I have been in the position myself, and heard those that were well acquainted confess, that they would feel very strange with such a draft in "crossing the Deeps," and although pilots to the Downs can be got for as little money, as you have to pay if you go through Yarmouth Roads, and have to go into one Gatway yourself, yet in these economical days they are not allowed, and you must not go through Yarmouth Roads. Winds. The prevalent winds are south-west, west, and north-westerly. Leaving Flamboro' Head when the wind will admit of it, the safest route is to sight the Spurn light, and thence shape a course for the Dudgeon floating light: with a leading wind and clear weather little difficulty will be experienced in doing this, but the tides are rather cross, the flood tending in, and the ebb off, and you are frequently baulked by the wind veering to the south-westward and hazy, which lays you off, and you slip off the bank of soundings, and have nothing to guard you against the north end of the "Outer Dowsing" and a patch of three fathoms near it. It is very unfortunate here that soundings are very little guide, ten fathoms warns you that you are near some danger; that is nearly all; should the wind favor you again, and you can lay up for the light vessel, unless the weather be clear that you can see her, with every precaution that you can take, you will still be in doubt whether you are near the "Dudgeon Shoals" or the "Race Bank". Dudgeon Light to Cromer.-In this section you must guard against the flood tide setting strongly towards the land, and the ebb in the opposite direction, so that with a light or moderate leading wind you may be set in and fall upon Sherringham Shoal, or pass inside of it as I once did, and on making the loom of the land, ran out on the south-west side of it. On account of this cross tide, ships bound northward prefer leaving Cromer at half flood, when the wind is shy. I have often observed that the land about Cromer has a great tendency to be dull or hazy, which affects the light, and in former times the north end of Hasboro' Sand, was perhaps the most fatal in the world to lives and shipping, as ships crossing here with shy winds or ebb tides laying them off not making Cromer, or fetching into the "Woold" went upon the north end of" Hasboro' Sand" which was too often fatal to all on board. This however, has been happily obviated by the floating light vessel. Note. It may be useful to strangers in crossing the "Deeps" with shy winds, to observe that if they can see any light colliers, they are sure at such times to be well in generally, passing inside of the "Race Bank". Shelter with heavy southerly or south-east winds.-The Humber is the only refuge for ships bound southward proceeding to Grimsby Road, and those bound northward, when they cannot reach " Bridlington Bay" take shelter here against north, or north-easterly winds, laying inside of the Spurn point. The Humber is to this part what the "Frith of Forth" is to the northern coast, the others being generally bar and tidal harbours. The "Woold' between Cromer and Yarmouth Roads, and Hasboro' Sand, lying parallel to the coast: here ships have frequently to heave to for the tide or daylight to enter the roads. The mark for running out of Hasboro' Gatway, is to keep Hasboro' lights in one; this leads you to the Newarp light vessel, and you may pass on either side of her, but this is a cross tide operation, which you must allow for, and may have to keep up as much as four points on that account. When the Newarp is past she must not be brought to the eastward of north (to guard against the "Cross sand") until Winterton light bears north-west, and then you may shape your course for Orfordness, which will lay parallel to the edge of the shoals. Bound to the northward with an ebb tide and westerly wind, when Winterton light bears north-west you haul in for it, and that bearing will keep you clear of the shoal parts of the Cross sand and Sea heads. Coming to the Gatway from the southward, when the Newarp light cannot be made out in dark or hazy weather, the lead should be kept going (as the Cross sand and Newarp are steep to) that you may be aware when you strike the sand by having seven, eight, or nine fathoms water, those depths being general upon those two sands, except the shallow patches of four and four and a half fathoms upon the Newarp, and in one and a half and two fathoms upon the cross sands. Yarmouth Roads. This I believe is the best roadstead in the United Kingdom, (I mean formed by sand banks). Strangers are very apprehensive of danger in passing through it, but they should not attempt it except by daylight, and then the Cockle and St. Nicholas light vessels are prominent objects to guide you to the channels, and once you enter them, I have found that the Gatway and the inner part of the Scroby Sand were so well defined by the buoys, so much so that the few times that I have been through them, I never had an occasion to refer to the leading marks. Tides.-On entering the Cockle Gatway with a flood tide you must guard against it setting towards the Sea heads, and north end of the Scroby sand. Proceeding out of St. Nicholas Gatway the flood tide sets nearly across it so that great care is required on that account, and Hewitt's Gatway appears to me preferable to it on that account. I believe the colliers object to it, laying them too far off going out with a shy wind, as they like to borrow close along the edge of the Corton sand at such times, so that nobody can get to windward of them. No. 9.-VOL. XVIII. 3 R Yarmouth Roads to Orfordness.-There you generally have a shy or beating wind, and ships are frequently on that account wind-bound in the roads, when the winds are too strong, at other times they beat up, stopping tide in Sole Bay and Aldboro' Bay, until they reach the tide anchorage in the Swin. Ships bound across the Kent, sometimes in blowing weather from the west and south-westward, beat into the lower part of the Swin for shelter and anchorage, and when it moderates, pass out of the Sunk channel. But in proceeding fairly, Aldboro' Neaps appear to be the only dangers to guard against: they are narrow, and parallel to the coast; so take your departure from Orfordness and the Shipwash lights. In crossing the Kent, if you should be laid off, the deep soundings inside of the Inner Gabbard appear to be the only guide against it; but I believe that accidents have generally occurred upon the Long Sand Head, or Kentish Knock, by the tide of flood setting so much in. In this case that simple and useful thing the lead, which all can understand and use, and what is almost wonderful economical owners never grumble to give it, not being so expensive as a chronometer, will if carefully used give warning. From the Kentish Knock to the North Foreland the tides are dangerous by the channels, &c., and are marked upon the chart as running round the compass at different states of the tides. I sent you before a note upon the anchorage in the Downs and Margate Road, giving the preference to the latter, in heavy westerly and south-west winds, others may be of different opinion, but as it is a stage behind, that may have its weight, when "De'il tak' the hindmost" is so much in vogue. Sir, should you think these remarks worthy of so much space in your valuable journal, I beg that you will oblige me as you have before done, by inserting them. To the Editor N.M. I am, &c., Note. I beg that you will insert a correction to my letter in your June number, at page 289, for "south-eastern angle of the building", read "north-eastern angle of the building," as in the text, which is correct; this was my own error, not typographical. R. L. CALIFORNIA. It will not surprise you to learn, that California is considered by the Mexicans as a "thing better known than trusted," and hence, hardly a day passes that you will not find in one or the other papers some long article, or what is more telling, a short pithy paragraph, inducing everybody to believe that California, far from being a kind of El Dorado, is rather a place nothing short of a substitute for the bottomless pit, where you leave health, strength, money, and hope. It cannot be denied that many hardships are, and must be encountered, both during the journey, on the immediate arrival, and even at the period, when one has become as familiar with the "diggings, as a man about town knows a roadway, or a "b'hoy" the Bowery. Emi grants, moreover, besides a little money, seldom take more with them than a bowie knife, a revolver, and a good deal of expectation, their principal stock in trade; which a lively imagination and buoyant spirits consider as a very small capital with a whole wilderness of interest en perspective. But the press, and public opinion, which by-the-by, are in this country not as identical as in America, look here on everything Californian with the other end of the telescope, and probably misjudge the real state, as everybody is liable of doing who does not look on it with the "naked eye." The principal cause of this morbidity undoubtedly, is the celebrity which California has acquired, since she has become part and parcel of the Union. Mexico is afraid of becoming the laughing-stock of the whole world, for having sold for fifteen millions, a tract of thirty thousand square miles, paved with gold, worth, one cannot tell how many times, the purchase money. They maintain that the existence of the mines was known to many of the missionaries, especially Padre who kept this knowledge a profound mystery for fear of corrupting the inhabitants. Nay, they go as far as to maintain, that government was fully aware of what it was doing, and ceded the mines with a vengeance, as a means of undermining the health and morals of the United States, using gold instead of powder. But it is useless to go to any length in giving or refuting their statements; for even when San Francisco shall have become another New York or London, and the shores of the Sacramento as fertile as those of the Mississippi, Mexicans will always wait, like the Millerites, for the end of the world. аз The placers are, as I have told you, at the foot of the Snowy Mountains, that run in the direction of N.E.W. Nobody can form any idea of the immense trouble and labour it requires to dig the gold. At an average, not more than two out of a hundred find anything; and, even if found, you connot get it with the facility as was generally supposed, viz., with a point of a knife. It is necessary to make excavations two or three yards (varas) broad, and one vara or more deep, working with crowbars on a hard soil, and sometimes in water till up to the knees, shivering with cold, just as in any other wine. Only strong men, who are accustomed to this kind of labour, are able to bear it, and if lucky, it does not pay them for the labour, as the largest piece I have seen did not contain more than about 12 dollars worth of gold, and that out of an immense heap of earth. Nor can I describe the sufferings and privations of those who go to the placers, If you leave Stockton by water, you pay passage 30 dollars, and a hundred weight of luggage, 6 dollars; and then, for the rest of the route, a distance twenty-five leagues (75 miles), you have to pay 75 cents pound. By the Sacramento the passage is 35 dollars, and luggage 14 dollars a hundred weight, besides 1 dollar a pound till you reach the placers. This is a heavy charge for many, and particularly for parties of fifty or sixty, who have to take with them food for six weeks. Those who go by land have to buy, for the transport of luggage, heavy cars, at a cost of 500 or 600 dollars each, which require each three pair (yunta) of oxen, that cost from 200 to 250 dollars a pair. Horses worth at home 14 dollars each, bring here easily 150 to 200 dollars. From Yerbabuena to San Francisco, and the placers of Stanislaus, it is 80 leagues (240 miles). Not a rancho is to be found during the whole way, except the Rancho de los Positos, nor water and food for men and cattle, who both have to pick their way, between frequent patches of deep sand. Many horses and oxen are drowned in the rivers of San Joaquin and Stanislaus, and I have seen men of considerable wealth in the greatest despair at the breaking of a wheel or a similar accident. On the whole, it is like the camp of Agramante And what for? To reach the placers, to lose all your people, and work for nothing, amidst rocks thrown about by a former earthquake, and the cupidity of gold seekers. At this date (28th of April) there may be at the mines say 13,000 people of which there are, to my opinion-3,000 Mexicans; 4,000 Peru, Chili, San Luis, and Central America; 2,000 Spaniards, English, French, &c.; 1,000 Californians; 3,000 Americans ;-of these there are 1,000 engaged in building cars, or other labour; 2,000 engaged in business; 2,000 gamblers and drunkards; 8,000 who work in the mines; each of whom does not work more than four days a week, at an average, as the population is very migratory, and absent themselves frequently, trying, in opposition to every advice, to push on to the Altar del Sacrificio, each of whom is compelled to be his own driver, cook, &c. The Americans have now got the country, and with it a large field for the displaying of talent and enterprise. The enlightened will be aware that, if it would have been possible to make anything out of it, the missionaries would have tried it, who, possessed of many resources and wisdom, easily could have founded villages and farms, as they have done anywhere else. It is true, they were not allowed to work the mines, but they knew of the existence of valuable substratum, as there are proofs in existence of it having been used in the groundworks of different buildings. The possession of California by the United States will be highly advantageous to South and Central America, as well as to the inhabitants of the Mexican ports of the Pacific. It may prove injurious to the Chilian Republic. If the Americans should make San Francisco a port of deposit, Valparaiso would lose much of her foreign trade: but Chili, owing to her fertility and high state of agriculture, would send much of her corn to California, as well as coals, of which they have rich mines. The trade of Central America would increase. The Mexican ports on the Pacific would get the produce of Europe and Asia much cheaper; and, owing to their vicinity, could compete with any other port in the export of grain, which would be of the greatest advantage to our States of Jalisco, Sinaloa, and Janara, Oregon and Vancouver's Island would likewise be winners; the former through a great export of her timber, and the second through that of her coals. This is my candid opinion on the country, and I believe to be correct, notwithstanding my limited knowledge (modesty!), and, at all events, time will undeceive the blind.-New York Weekly Herald, EXAMINATION OF MASTERS AND MATES. A List of the Masters and Mates in the Merchant Service, who have voluntarily passed an Examination, and obtained Certificates of Qualification for the Class against each assigned, under the Regulations issued by the Board of Trade, up to the 30th June last. MASTERS. April 9th.-T. Clarkson, 3rd class, 35 age, James Gibson* ship, 138 t., 91760, |