about a quarter of a mile, “more or less,’” as Moore’s Almanac says about rain, on nearly every day of the month, It was distinctly and closely seen by the officers and ship’s company of the vessel; and, what is more, the occurrence was solemnly entered on the log of Her Majesty’s said ship, and waa attested to by all the crew. And this was the clencher to the argument “pro.” How was it possible or likely that a captain of a man-of-war would enter this on the log of his ship, if it was a fancy, and run the risk of being hauled over the coals? A merchant vessel also claimed to have seen it about the same time. Ancient reports of the same sort have existed; though highly embellished. At all events this one was considered worthy of note, by the promoters of the said magazine, whith at that time was considered as one of the early attempts to educate the popular mind.
The reply brought against its truth the other captain was, that he had seen, and taken up out of the sea, great long shaggy pieces of seaweed, 50-—100 feet long, which, when tossed about by the waves, had all the appearance of a great serpent; for which this one might have been mistaken.
Another subject of discussion brought forward was the actual height of waves in a storm. I have heard | it said by old sailors that no wave is ever more than fifteen feet perpendicular—that is to say from a dead level. Allowing fifteen feet for the rise of a wave, and fifteen feet for its fall, would make thirty feet of apparent height from top to bottom of a wave. An obser- vation however was made of a case that far exceeded this, Two midshipmen were in the cross-trees of the mainmasts of
