Now how is all this effected? The bridge is a large flat-bottomed vessel, upwards of fifty feet long, and not much less in width. It is divided lengthward into three portions, the centre containing machinery; while the sides form two platforms, on which the carriages and passengers are placed. At each end of each side of the platform is a kind of drawbridge, so hinged and suspended as to be raised or lowered to accommodate transit to and from the shore. At either end of the middle division are cabins and rather superior seats, for those who choose to pay twopence for the passage: the other passengers have seats provided for them at the sides of the platforms, in rather close proximity to the horses and vehicles.

Then for the mode of traction. There is a steamengine at work; but as there are neither paddle-wheels nor screw-propellers, neither sails nor oars, it is rather a puzzle at first how the laden machine gets along. However, we can see two long chains stretching from side to side of the harbour, dipping down deeply into the water, and running on both sides of the vessel: these chains help us to understand the mode of proceeding. In the middle of the vessel is a steam-engine, whose power is exerted in causing the rotation of two vertical wheels, seven or eight feet in diameter. These wheels lie in the direction of the length of the bridge; and round the circumference of each is a series of depressions and protuberances, corresponding in use and shape to the links of the chain. The chains are fixed at the Portsmouth side in the shore; they bend deeply into the water, to admit of ships passing over them; they pass upwards from the water into one end of the bridge, over the circumferences of the wheels, and down into the water again at the other end of the bridge; they then dip deeply into the water as before, and finally rise again to their fixed points on the Gosport shore. When the wheels are made to rotate, and the links of the chains are successively caught in the depressions on the circumference, one of two things must happen: either the wheels will wind up the chains upon their circumferences, or the chains will drag along the wheels, the steam-engine, and the whole floating fabric. The chains cannot be wound up in this way, because they are fixed at each end; and therefore the result is, that the floating-bridge is pulled along. When the bridge is near the shore, each chain makes one deep curve in the middle of the channel; when it is in the middle of its course, each chain makes two descents, one between the bridge and either shore: and the harbour authorities take care that these descending curvatures shall be sufficiently deep to allow of the largest vessels passing safely over the chains. The chains are not absolutely fixed at the end: they are balanced by very heavy weights, so as to yield slightly to any disturbing influences. The chains not only drag the bridge to and fro across the channel, but they prevent it from being driven far to the north or south of its proper line.

One of these bridges, plying every half-hour in the day from either end, is found sufficient to accommodate

the traffic between Portsmouth and Gosport; and in case of repairs or accident, another bridge is kept at hand to supply its place.

THE ROYAL CLARENCE VICTUALLING YARD.

We land, then, at the 'Hard,' at Gosport, where we may very soon learn that, but for this floating bridge, we should have to pay far more than one penny for the passage; for the Portsmouth boatmen are rather independent personages, who being in much requisition to maintain intercourse between the shore and ships in harbour, are very little disposed to bend to modern ideas of cheapness. Gosport, as a town, is not more attractive than its neighbour, Portsmouth. Leland called it a "small fishing village," as it existed in his day. The High-street is immediately opposite the landing-place, and extends the whole length of the town, from east to west. In it are the chief hotels, places of worship, and shops. There are a few other streets, parallel with, or at right angles to High-street; but they are not of much mark or note; and the rambler will gladly bend his steps either to the Victualling Establishment in the north, or to Haslar Hospital in the south.

The Victualling Establishment is situated in the north-west extremity of the town, near the railway station. It covers a large area of ground, and is wholly separated by walls from all other buildings. The visitor here, as at the dockyard, enters his name in a book, and is shown round the place by an officer of the establishment. There used formerly to be two departments for victualling the navy at Portsmouth; one at Portsmouth town and this one at Gosport; but both are now consolidated; and the Royal Clarence Victualling Establishment' is really a vast place. The chief department shown to visitors is the Biscuit Bakery; but the other portions of the establishment are exceedingly large. The storehouses for bread, for beef, for pork, and for other articles of food; for wine, for rum—all are on a vast scale; and the stores contained in them are generally of great value. Mr. Kohl seems to have been struck with the enormous quantity of cocoa here deposited, and remarks: "This excellent, nourishing, and not intoxicating beverage, plays a very important part in the English navy, and, with the present zeal against rum and brandy, it is daily becoming more so. English sailors are always abundantly provided with it; and considering the greatness of the navy, it may be imagined that the quantity consumed is very large." He further speaks of the tanks for water, which are made of iron and lined with tin the water is perfectly good, even after having been kept in these tanks fourteen years.

The biscuit machinery at Gosport is as complete a thing in its way as the block machinery at Portsmouth; and the saving which it has effected in manual labour is not less striking. To understand properly the improvement in this respect, it is well to know how sea-biscuits were formerly made. The flour and water

were put into a large trough, and mixed up into dough by the naked arms of a workman called the driver-a slow and very laborious employment; this dough was then kneaded by a roller, which was made to work over and upon it in a very odd manner. Being rolled and kneaded into a thin sheet, the dough was cut into slips by enormous knives, and these slips cut into small pieces, each sufficient for one biscuit; each biscuit was worked into a circular form by the hand, stamped, pierced with holes, and baked. The placing in the oven was a remarkably dexterous part of the business: A man stood before the open door of the oven, having in his hand the handle of a long shovel, called the peel, the other end of which was lying flat in the oven. Another man took the biscuits as fast as they were formed and stamped, and threw them into the oven with such undeviating accuracy, that they always fell on the peel. The man with the peel then arranged the biscuits side by side over the whole floor of the oven. Seventy biscuits were thrown into the oven, and regularly arranged in one minute; the attention of each man being strictly directed to his own department; for a delay of a single second on the part of any one man would have disturbed the whole gang.

But, well arranged as this system seems to have been, it could not maintain its place against the efficiency of machinery. Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Deptford, have all of them biscuit-making machinery on a magnificent scale. We may almost say that we see the corn go in at one end, and see the biscuits come out at the other. The corn is ground by mills in the usual way; and the meal or flour descends into a kind of hollow cylinder, where the requisite quantity of water is added to it. Round and round this cylinder revolves, and a series of long knives within it so hacks, and cuts, and divides the contents, that, as the meal and water become mixed up into dough, these knives knead it in a way that has never been equalled by human arms. Not a lump or an ill-regulated mass can escape the close action of these knives; all are cut through and incorporated in an equable state among the rest of the dough. But we ought not to say that the dough is kneaded by this means; it is only mixed. The kneading is performed by ponderous masses called breaking-rollers. The dough is spread out flat on an iron table, and two rollers, not much less than a ton weight each, are worked to and fro over it, until the dough is perfectly kneaded.

The celerity with which these operations are conducted is quite marvellous. It is said that two minutes' time is sufficient for the thorough mixture of five hundred weight of dough in the cylinder; and that five minutes suffice for kneading this dough under the rollers. The sheet of dough is brought to a thickness of about two inches: it is cut into pieces half a yard square; and each of these is passed under a second pair of rollers, by which it is extended to a size of about two yards by one, just sufficient in thickness for the biscuits to be made. A very remarkable cutting instrument is then made to descend upon the

thin sheet of dough, by which it is, at one stroke, divided into hexagonal or six-sided biscuits, each of which is at the same time and by the same blow punctured and stamped. The biscuits are not actually severed one from another; so that the sheet of dough still remains so far coherent as to be put into an oven in its unsevered form. A flat sheet of about sixty biscuits (six to the pound, on an average) is put into the oven, baked for about ten or twelve minutes, withdrawn, broken up separately, and stored away. All the sea-biscuits used to be circular; but it is found that there is less waste of time and material by making them six-sided.

It is pleasant to think that our jolly tars are no sufferers by this expeditious mode of making their sea-bread. It seems to be admitted that the machinemade biscuits are better mixed and better kneaded than those made by hand. The three bakeries, at the three arsenals before-named, could produce when at full work six or eight thousand tons of biscuits in a year; which would effect a saving of ten or twelve thousand a year as compared with the old method.

We now retrace our steps back from the Victualling Establishment to Gosport,' on our way to Haslar Hospital-another of the Government establishments in this busy spot. For brevity's sake, we speak of all on the west side of the harbour as being comprised in the name of Gosport; but there are distinct names given to the suburbs of the town: for instance, the Victualling Establishment is at Weevil, or Weovil; about a mile further is Forton, where a prison used formerly to exist for prisoners of war, who exercised their ingenuity in making little trinkets in, bone, wood, and straw; while Haslar Hospital is at Alverstoke, southward of Gosport-or rather it is at a point of land a little eastward of Alverstoke, nearer to the harbour.

HASLAR HOSPITAL.

This Hospital is one of the many examples of the improved care taken for the health and comfort of the sick and disabled in the national service. Formerly, the disabled seamen and marines of Portsmouth had to be put on board hospital ships, where, from being crowded together too closely, the skill of the medical men was often unable to save the poor fellows from the ill effects of impure air. To serve as a hospital for seamen and marines, Haslar Hospital was built. It was constructed about a century ago, and presents a fine appearance from the opposite side of the harbour. A deep creek intervenes between Haslar and Gosport, insomuch that a carriage had to make a detour of about three miles to get from one to the other; but a bridge has been built over the creek within the last few years, so as to bring Haslar within a few minutes' walk of Gosport. (Cut, No. 5.)

On entering the gates of the Hospital, the principal front first meets the view, to which we gain access across a grassy open court. This front is four stories in height, and not far short of six hundred feet in

waiting for a job. Such ships, until within the last few years, used to be placed under the immediate charge of the commissioner, the master attendant, and other officers of the dock-yard. But a new system has been adopted, both with regard to the fitting of the ships for their better preservation; and also to the care and management of them by naval commissioned officers being constantly on board. Thames voyagers down to Herne-bay or Margate may see such ships in ordinary off Sheerness; and in Portsmouth Harbour there are always several. (Cut, No. 2.)

The most interesting of all these ships in ordinary, perhaps, is the 'Victory,' stationed between the dockyard and the Victualling Establishment. Never is this old ship allowed to get into a disordered or ruinous state. Never do the naval folks forget that this was the 'Victory' which bore Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar. Whether it is an officer, or a mere dock-yard man, or a waterman who rows you from Portsmouth 'hard' to the ship-all seem to look upon the Victory' as part and parcel of Portsmouth's wealth: something which they would not willingly be without. It It is one of the lions of Portsmouth. You hire a boat, to to be rowed to the spot; you mount a ladder, which gives entrance to one of the decks; and you are then courteously shown round the vessel, where all is kept in as perfect order as if the ship were fitted for service. The spot where Nelson fell; the little dark corner of the sick-room in which he died; the oft-repeated and never-tiring sentence,-" England expects every man to do his duty"-written on the wall of the sick-room; all are shown to the visitor, and all bring back his thoughts to events which occurred more than forty years ago. This vessel is now the residence of a sort of harbour-master, or officer, having a general superintendence over the ships in the harbour.

The Queen's splendid steam yacht, the Victoria and Albert,' is generally anchored in Portsmouth Harbour, when the royal owner is not engaged in one of those cruises which so remarkably distinguish the present reign. It is not difficult to gain access to the vessel, and the inspection is worth the time to those who would see how far comfort and splendour may be carried on shipboard. This vessel has, we believe, cost as much as a first-rate man-of-war; and it ought, therefore, to be a model of skill and beauty. As to the newspaper controversies concerning the sailing and steaming qualities of the yacht, we must leave to nautical readers to determine their value. (Cut, No. 4.) The littleFairy,' the tender which waits on the royal yacht, is also generally anchored in Portsmouth harbour. In order to accommodate the Royal Family as much as possible in their trips to the Isle of Wight, the South-Western Railway Company have laid down an extension line of rail from the Gosport terminus to the shore of the harbour, for their exclusive use. The little 'Fairy' then takes the royal passengers on board, and conveys them to the larger yacht, which forthwith steams over to Osborne House. This little tender is always employed in such services as these; and it

seems to be quite a favourite among nautical and engineering men. It was launched in the spring of 1845. It is an iron vessel, built by Ditchburn and Mare, and having a screw-propeller driven by steamengines made by Messrs. Penn. Her first trips down the river showed a speed of fifteen or sixteen miles an hour. In July of the same year, the 'Fairy' made her first voyage from London to Portsmouth. She performed the distance from Greenhithe to Portsmouth in eighteen hours-which is considered a very rapid passage. The propeller makes more than thirteen thousand revolutions per hour.

Such are the kinds of ships which Portsmouth Harbour presents to view, and such the spectacle that meets the eye of a rambler. In the 'Letters of a Hindoo Rajah,' the harbour is described with all the florid ornament of oriental style. "It is impossible to convey to your imagination any notion of the magnificence of the spectacle that presented itself to our view in this short sail. No idea of the sublimity of a fleet of floating fortresses can possibly be conveyed to those who have not beheld the unequalled scene. The army of the most powerful monarch of the east, though numerous as the grains of sand on the sea-shore, the dust of the feet of whose elephants obscure the noon-day sun, cannot, in point of grandeur, be compared with an assemblage of those glories of the ocean that ride triumphant in the Port of Portsmouth."

THE ENVIRONS OF PORTSMOUTH.

Let us devote a few lines to the suburbs of Portsmouth: the quiet spots where visitors and the wealthier inhabitants take up their abode.

On the western or Gosport side of the harbour, between Gosport and the sea, is the newly formed bathing station of Anglesey, where the usual accompaniments of marine parades, hotels, bathing establishments, &c., are met with, as in such places of sojourn generally. It is, in truth, a pleasant spot; from which the Solent, Spithead, Cowes Road, St. Helen's, Stokes' Bay, Ryde, and Southampton Water, can be seen. Alverstoke, immediately contiguous to Anglesey, is a small village, remarkable for very little, except the high triangular stone erection, which serves as a landmark for shipping entering the harbour, and which receives the odd name of the Gill Kicker.

On the eastern side of the harbour, northward of the town of Portsmouth, is South Sea-a sort of compromise between a fortified place and a watering place. A castle was built on the extreme southern corner of the Peninsula, or Island of Portsea, by Henry VIII., to which the name of South-sea Castle was given; this castle has been ever since kept up, and is mounted with heavy cannon. Opposite to this, on the western or Gosport side of the harbour, is Fort Monkton, another strongly fortified place; and the two together effectually protect the entrance to the harbour. After the reign of Charles I. South Sea Castle fell into decay, and a

considerable portion of it was reduced to ruins by an explosion which took place about the middle of the last century. It was, however, completely reinstated in 1714, and made into a regular fortress, with bombproof batteries, covered way, moat, glacis, &c.

This castle, we have said, is situated at the southern corner of Portsea Island. Between it and Portsmouth is an open spot of ground, called South-sea Common; and on parts of this Common, near the sea, a new town has sprung up, under the name of South-sea, which has assumed many of the features of a fashionable watering place. It has its rows of terraces; its fancy villas; its 'squares' and 'groves;' its king's rooms' or baths; its hotels and assembly-rooms; and the views of the shipping at Spithead, with the Isle of Wight opposite as a very pleasant adjunct to the scene. A few of the Government buildings, or establishments, are situated near or in South-sea. At the north-west angle of the South-sea promenade, is a beacon light, to assist mariners in marking their course; and nearly opposite may be seen the floating Bembridge light, near the eastern end of the Isle of Wight. Near the Castle is the Laboratory of the Royal Marine Artillery, where experiments are conducted bearing relation to the professional duties of that corps. By the shore eastward of the Castle, are two ports, named Lumps and Eastney; and beyond these is another strong defence called Fort Cumberland, which was commenced about a century ago, but was only brought into an efficient state in 1820; it has barrack-room for three thousand men, and on its ramparts may be mounted a hundred pieces of ordnance. Any enemy's vessel about to enter Spithead and Portsmouth Harbour from the east, would find this Fort Cumberland a dangerous proximity.

The eastern suburb of Portsmouth and Portsea, that is, the belt of houses beyond the east fortifications of these towns, is called by the general name of Landport, or rather, the three suburbs of Landport, Somers' Town, and South Sea, form a north and south continua tion, with no particular boundary to mark their respective limits. This belt consists of just such streets, and terraces, and houses as we might expect to meet with, intended for town's people who wish to dwell beyond the narrow confines of Portsmouth and Portsea. There are many terraces of houses directly facing the eastern fortifications; with a wide, open, intervening space occupied by the ravelins and the glacis.

Altogether eastward of Portsea Island, and indeed eastward of Langston Harbour, is Hayling Island, which the inhabitants are doing their best to raise into repute as a pleasure spot, or neighbour and rival to South-sea. This island is connected with the mainland by a bridge and causeway, together about a quarter of a mile in length. The island itself is nearly four or five miles long, and nearly the same in breadth. A little scrap of antiquity here may make amends for the absence of the old and venerable in Portsmouth. There are two parishes in the island, the north and the south; and each has its ancient church. One of these, the South Church, is a nice little specimen of the early

English style, with its lancet windows, its corbels, stoups, niches, font, and battlement. The North Church is somewhat similar, but rather inferior in general effect. It is supposed that both were at one time connected with a priory that once existed in the island. The site of this priory is presumed to have been a place called Tourner Marsh; where a curious barn exists, formed from a cargo of German oak which was wrecked on the coast some centuries ago, and which had been destined to be used in the construction of a church in France.

A little work has been published, called a 'Guide to Hayling Island,' in which the attractions of the place as a sea-bathing pleasure spot are duly set forth. We extract from it an account of making salt at Hayling, which is said to be done very skilfully:

"The making of this article depends, in a great measure, on the weather. During about four months in the summer, salt is manufactured. The salt water is first let into square level shallow places, formed in a field adjoining the sea; these shallow places are called brine-pans. In one, the saltern, ten acres of ground are occupied for this purpose. The boiling-house, where the brine is boiled, contains five large square shallow pans of sheet-iron. The brine formed on two acres of ground is sufficient to supply one boiling-pan. The brine-pans in the fields vary from three rods square to a quarter of an acre. In fine weather the salt water becomes brine in about seven days. It is then pumped up by a wind-pump, with sails, into four reservoirs or pits, each holding brine sufficient to make twenty-five tons of salt. From these pits the brine is pumped into the pans in the house. The brine is then boiled for twelve hours, there being a fire under each pan. During the boiling it is twice. skimmed; first, one hour after it has commenced boiling, and again at the end of the fourth hour. As soon as the brine has been first skimmed, the crystals of salt may be perceived rising to the top, from whence they immediately fall to the bottom. The salt being formed, it is shovelled out hot and wet into wooden troughs, holding from about ten to twelve bushels. These troughs have holes in the bottom, through which the dross, called bitters, runs, forming itself into stalactites. The salt remains in the trough ten hours, and is then removed into the store-house. The crystallization of Epsom salts (a secondary product of the manufacture, which does not seem to be made commercially available) is formed from the drippings of the bitters, and from the dross at the bottom of the salt in the storehouse. The steam from the brine when boiling, passes up large wooden flues, each flue being broad enough to cover the pans. One chaldron of coals per week is required for each pan, which makes two tons of salt. In the saltern we have described, about one hundred and fifty-two tons are made during the season of fifteen weeks and a half. There are five pans in the boiling-house of this saltern; each pan is nine feet square, one foot deep, and the brine is poured in to the depth of eight inches; eight bushels are made