7.-STEAM COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE SOUTH AND EUROPE. We publish the annexed with great satisfaction. When in Charleston during last September, we learned that an enterprising gentleman of that city had visited Europe, for the purpose of making such arrangements as would lead to the immediate establishment of a line of steam-ships to Charleston. God grant it may be true! Let the south concentrate in her midst all the elements of power.

SOUTHERN OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION CONVENTION.

The Norfolk and Portsmouth (Virginia) papers contain the proceedings of the convention assembled at Old Point Hotel on the 4th instant, to consider the expediency of establishing a direct trade from the south with Europe, and of forming an Ocean Steam Navigation Company, &c. Horace L. Kent, Esquire, presided. The meeting continued till the 5th, when James Lyons, of Richmond, reported from a committee of thirteen, a series of resolutions, which were adopted, the principal being as follows:

Resolved, As the opinion of this convention, that it is of great importance to Virginia, and all the southern states whose produce is sent to New-York and other northern ports for shipment to foreign markets, and whose passengers embark at those ports, that a direct communication, by a line of steamers, should be established between Chesapeake Bay and the Island of Great Britain, and thence with other markets of the world, until a direct communication can be established with the continent of Europe.

Resolved, That the southern states are entitled to participate equally with the north, and every other section of the country, in the benefits of the government of the United States, to which they have contributed, and do contribute in every valuable quality and material, as largely as any other section of the nation; and it is the duty, therefore, of the government, to afford them equal postal facilities with those which are afforded to the north, or any other section. And as it would be a very great facility to the people of the southern states, generally, and especially southern Atlantic states, as well as economical, to be able to transmit and receive their letters to and from a southern port, instead of sending them to and receiving them from Boston and New-York, it is the duty of the government to afford as much aid to the establishment of a line of Ocean Steamers from the south as it has afforded to similar lines from the north.

Committees were appointed to memorialize Congress and the state legislature, in furtherance of the objects of the meeting, and an adjournment then took place, to such time and place as one of these committees shall designate. Speeches were made by Hon. Messrs. Meade, of Virginia; Ewing, of Tennessee; Morehead, of Kentucky; Judge Mason, Robert G. Scott, and James Lyons.

8. THE NORTH AMERICAN WHALE AND SEAL FISHERIES. From the report of Mr. James Arnold, made to a convention of the friends of a Protective Tariff, in 1843, we gather some interesting particulars in regard to this branch of the fisheries. Six hundred and fifty ships are employed, measuring 193,000 tons, and manned by 16,500 men. These vessels, when ready for sea, with their stock of provisions on board, are worth $20,120,000. The returns in 1841 were $7,359,022. After paying the lays of the men and the expenses of the voyage, there was left as the profits on the $20,000,000, $4,585,634. The whale ships are owned by citizens exclusively, for the statutes of the United States expressly prohibit foreigners from entering into the whale fishery under the American flag. A singular case occurred in New-Bedford about fifteen years ago. An individual who owned the sixteenth of a ship, became very indignant, because in some particular, the owners of the fifteen-sixteenths did not adopt his views. The ship was just ready for the South Seas. He sold for one dollar, one half of his sixteenth, to a little English tailor in the town, for the express purpose of effecting a forfeiture of the whole ship! He immeately caused information to be communicated to the Custom-House officers, and had the vessel seized as she was about to weigh anchor.

The other owners at once filed their libel in Admiralty, setting forth the fraudulent sale, and the illegal intent of the parties. While suit was pending, the self

willed owner became fearful that the affair would terminate in the forfeiture of his own part, and no more, and consented to sell out to the others at a fair price; and the federal officers consented to the cancelling of the pretended sale. We have spoken of the pecuniary value of the fisheries; but it is as a nursery for seamen, that they are a subject of such interest and importance. Their dangers and hardships form the character of the American seamen.

From Macgregor's book we make an extract, which describes the manner of life of the New-England fishermen. This is the prose :

"The Americans follow two or more modes of fitting out for fisheries. The first is accomplished by six or seven farmers, or their sons, building a schooner during winter, which they man themselves, (as all the Americans on the seacoast are more or less seamen, as well as farmers,) and after fitting the vessel with necessary stores, they proceed to the Banks, Gulf of St. Lawrence, or Labrador, and loading their vessels with fish, make a voyage between spring and harvest.___The proceeds they divide, after paying any balance they may owe for outfit. They remain at home to assist in gathering their crops, and proceed again for another cargo-which is salted down, and not afterwards dried: this is termed the mud-fish, and kept for home consumption. The other plan is, when a merchant, or any other person owning a vessel, lets her to ten or fifteen men on shares, he finds the vessel and nets; the men pay for all the provisions, hooks and lines, and for the salt necessary to cure their proportion of the fish. One of the number is acknowledged master, but he has to catch fish as well as the others, and receives about twenty shillings per month for navigating the vessel; the crew have five-eighths of the fish caught, and the owners threeeighths of the whole.

"The first spring voyage is made to the Banks; the second, either to the Banks, Gulf of St. Lawrence, or the Coast of Labrador; the third, or fall voyage, is again to the Banks; and a fourth, or second fall voyage, is also made, sometimes, to the Banks."

From the Pilgrim address of Mr. Prentiss, we give the same fact, but adorned with all the ornaments that a gorgeous imagination could throw over the subject. This is the poetry of the sailor's life:

They drive the Dryads from their accustomed haunts, and force them to desert each favorite grove; for upon river, creek and bay, they are busy transforming the rude forest into stanch and gallant vessels. From every inlet or indenture along the rocky shore, swim forth these ocean birds-born in the wild wood, fledged upon the wave. Behold how they spread their white pinions to the favoring breeze, and wing their flight to every quarter of the globe-the carrier pigeons of the world! It is upon the unstable element, the sons of New-England have achieved their greatest triumphs. Their adventurous prows vex the waters of every sea. Bold and restless as the old Northern Vikins, they go forth to seek their fortunes in the mighty deep. The ocean is their pasture, and over its white prairies, they follow the monstrous herds that feed upon the azure fields. As the hunter casts his lasso upon the wild horse, so they throw their lines upon the tumbling whale. They draw out the Leviathan with a hookthey fill his skin with barbed iron,' and in spite of his terrible strength, they part him among the merchants.' To them, there are no pillars of Hercules.' They seek with avidity new regions, and fear not to be the first that ever burst' into unknown seas. Had they been the companions of Columbus, the great mariner would not have been urged to return, though he had sailed westward to his dying day."

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Macgregor also furnishes a graphic description of the Seal Fishery, with which we conclude this article. We think the term of "Codfish Aristocracy" need not be deemed so very offensive after all :

SEAL FISHERY.

"The great and primary business of the people of Newfoundland is that of pursuing and catching the inhabitants of the ocean. If habit, as is generally allowed, becomes nature, the Newfoundlanders are naturally, from their pursuits, certainly the most adventurous and fearless men in the world. Courage and industry, which certainly prevail, are to them absolutely necessary.

"The Seal Fishery, as it is generally termed, has only become important within the present century. It is little more than thirty years since the first vessels ventured among those formidable fields of ice that float from the northern regions, during the months of March, April and May, down to the coast of Newfoundland. Those who are acquainted with the terrific grandeur, particularly during stormy weather, of the lofty islands and mountains of ice, covering often from two hundred to three hundred miles of the ocean, and occasionally arrested by the coasts or shoals, will admit that it requires more intrepidity to brave the dangers of these elements than to encounter a military fortification.

"The vessels equipped for the seal fishery, are from 60 to 120 tons each, with crews of from sixteen to thirty men. They are always prepared for sea, with necessary stores, fire-arms, poles to defend them from the ice, etc., before the feast of Saint Patrick. Immediately after, the crews at the harbors, then frozen over, collect together, with all assistance from the shoremen, and dividing themselves into two rows on the ice, and provided with hatchets, large saws, and strong poles, fixed on two lines far enough separate to allow their largest schooners to pass.

"Each party cuts along its respective line, and they divide the solid mass between them into squares, which are shoved with poles under the firm ice, continuing this laborious operation until a channel is open to the sea. The vessels then proceed to the field-ice, pushing their way through the openings, or working to windward of it, until they meet it covered with vast herds of seal.

"Where these occur, the part on which they are is called 'seal-meadows.' These animals are surprised by the seal-hunters while they are sleeping on the ice, and attacked with fire-locks, or with strong bludgeons, which are considered preferable. But the hunters have frequently to shoot the large ones, which will turn upon the men and make resistance. The piteous moan and cry of the young ones during the slaughter, require more than common nerves to disregard. The hooded seals will draw their hoods, which are shot-proof, over their heads.

"The skins, with the fat, surrounding the bodices, are shipped off together, and the scalped carcasses left on the ice. The pelts, or scalps, are carried to vessels, and packed close in the hold; but the weather often is such as to leave no time to scalp the seal on the ice, and the carcasses are then carried whole to the vessel.

"The situation of these vessels, during the storms of snow and sleet, which they have at that season inevitably to encounter, is attended with fearful danger. Many vessels have been crushed to pieces by the tremendous power of the ice closing on them, and their crews have also not unfrequently perished. Storms during the night, among the ice, must be truly terrible; yet the hardy Newfoundland Seal Hunters seem even to court these sublime and hazardous adventures.

"When the vessels are loaded with scalps, or if unsuccessful, when the ice is scattered, and all except the islands is dissolved by the heat of the advancing summer, they return to their respective ports. Some vessels, which succeed soon after meeting the ice in filling up a cargo, make a second voyage.

"The fat, or seal-blubber, is separated from the skins, cut into pieces, and put into frame-work vats, through which, and small boughs inside, the oil oozes on being exposed to the sun. In three or four weeks it runs rapidly off, and becomes the seal oil of commerce.

"The planters sell their seal pelts to the merchants, who manufacture the oil and ship it off in hogsheads. Seals are still caught at Newfoundland and Labrador, on the plan first adopted, by strong nets set across such narrow channels as they are in the habit of passing through."-Mr. Frost, in N. O Crescent.

9.-TRADE OF CALIFORNIA.

We have received from Col. Collier, the Collector, (says the Courier,) the following synopsis of revenue received, bonded merchandise, &c. &c., up to the quarter ending June 30, 1850:

38,948 50

Total amount of merchandise in bond, June 30, 1850, is valued at..$118,132 00 Total amount of duties on merchandise in bond, June 30, 1850.. Total amount of merchandise withdrawn for exportation, from November 12, 1849, to June 30, 1850, inclusive, valued at.... Total amount of duties on merchandise withdrawn for exportation, from November 12, 1849, to June 30, 1850....

236,242 00

75,569 85

Total amount received for duties from November 12, 1849, to June 30, 1850...

889,542 93

The following is a schedule of the American and foreign vessels arriving in the port of San Francisco, from May 1 to July 29, together with their tonnage and number of passengers that have arrived during that period:

Total number of vessels, 467. Tonnage, American, 96,083; foreign, 36,784.

Total, 132,867.

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420

1

904

We present the following interesting statements in regard to the progress, capacity of boats, and present arrangement of ocean steamers between the United States and Europe.

"Three years ago ocean steam navigation was entirely in British hands. Two years since the only line of American steamships afloat suited to ocean navigation in the merchant service, consisted of the two small boats running between New York and the Bremen line. There are now six large steamers running regularly between New York and Chagres. There are an equal or greater number on the Pacific side, and existing projects contemplate twenty in all within a year for the Pacific seas. There are lines also to New Orleans, Havana, Savannah, Charleston, in addition to those named in the above list, and every shipyard and machine shop in New-York city is tasked to its utmost capacity in this branch of service. There are no less than 17 ocean steamers on the stocks at the present time in New-York city.

"The competition between the American and English lines will soon call into use the best skill of both countries. The recent voyages of the Atlantic, the first of Collins' line, and of the Asia, the last of Cunard's boats, show that an increase of speed may still be expected in ocean steamers.-That route, or that line, which shall reduce the voyage to Europe to the shortest period of time, will be the most successful.

OCEAN STEAMERS TO RUN BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE IN 1850.

11.—BRITISH AND AMERICAN STEAM SHIPS.

We published a few months ago in our pages an article upon the progress of American steam navigation across the Atlantic, which showed very unfavorably towards our countrymen in comparison with the English. We are glad now to have an opportunity of extracting from a paper in the New York Herald, many facts and statistics of a more satisfactory and gratifying character.

We have from the commencement felt a deep interest in the subject of ocean steam navigation, and have kept ourselves informed from time to time of the precise state of affairs connected with it. With the view, therefore, of placing our readers in possession of the exact state of this trial of skill and enterprise, we place before them the results up to this time--that is, the comparative speed of the steamship Atlantic, and the vessels of the Cunard line, in their passages to and from Liverpool.

According to the official register of the Cunard Company, the average length of passage of those vessels, was, in the year 1849:

From Halifax to Liverpool.....

The average length of passage from New York to Halifax, was.

Days. Hours.

Average passage from New York to Liverpool of the Cunard steamships in 1849..

The American steamship Atlantic on her first trip to Liverpool, and with a broken engine for five days and a half, made the passage in...

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Difference in favor of the Cunard steamships under favorable circumstances, and against the Atlantic under the reverse...... The actual time lost by the Atlantic was at least forty hours on her trip to Liverpool; and when we add to that her decrease of speed on account of her broken engine, it must be admitted that her outward trip was an extraordinary

one.

Now, let us investigate the comparative homeward passages of the Atlantic and the Cunard steamships during the year 1849, and also the comparative pas