To make the use of these portable lights more certain and easy, the lanterns containing them shall each be painted outside with the colour of the light they respectively contain, and shall be provided with suitable screens.

7.-Ships, whether steam .ships or sailing ships, when at anchor in roadsteads or fairways, shall exhibit, where it can best be seen, but at a height not exceeding twenty feet above the hull, a white light, in a globular lantern of eight inches in diameter, and so constructed as to show a clear uniform and unbroken light visible all round the horizon, and at a distance of at least one mile.

8. Sailing pilot vessels shall not carry the lights required for other sailing vessels, but shall carry a white light at the mast-head, visible all round the horizon, and shall also exhibit a flare-up light every fifteen minutes.

9. Open fishing boats and other open boats, shall not be required to carry the side lights required for other vessels; but shall, if they do not carry such lights, carry a lantern having a green slide on the one side and a red slide on the other side; and on the approach of or to other vessels, shall lantern shall be exhibited in sufficient time to prevent collision, so that the green light shall not be seen on the port side, nor the red light on the starboard side. Fishing vessels and open boats when at anchor, or attached to their nets and stationary, shall exhibit a bright white light. Fishing vessels and open boats shall, however, not be prevented from using a flare-up in addition, if considered expedient.

Rules concerning Fog Signals.

10. Whenever there is a fog, whether by day or night, the fog signals described below shall be carried and used, and shall be sounded at least every five minutes, viz. :-(a.) Steam ships under way shall use a steam whistle placed before the funnel, not less than eight feet from the deck. (b.) Sailing ships under way shall use a fog horn. (c.) Steam ships and sailing ships when not under way shall use a bell.

Steering and Sailing Rules.

11.—If two sailing vessels are meeting end on or nearly end on so as to involve risk of collision, the helms of both shall be put to port, so that each may pass on the port side of the other.

12. When two sailing ships are crossing so as to involve risk of collision, then, if they have the wind on different sides, the ship with the wind on the port side shall keep out of the way of the ship with the wind on the starboard side; except in the case in which the ship with the wind on the port side is close hauled and the other ship free, in which case the latter ship shall keep out of the way; but if they have the wind on the same side, or if one of them has the wind aft, the ship which is to windward shall keep out of the way of the ship which is to leeward.

13. If two ships under steam are meeting end on or nearly end on

so as to involve risk of collision, the helms of both shall be put to port, so that each may pass on the port side of the other.

14.-If two ships under steam are crossing so as to involve risk of collision, the ship which has the other on her own starboard side shall keep out of the way of the other.

15.-If two ships, one of which is a sailing ship, and the other a steam ship, are proceeding in such directions as to involve risk of collision, the steam ship shall keep out of the way of the sailing ship' 16.-Every steam ship, when approaching another ship so as to involve risk of collision, shall slacken her speed, or, if necessary, stop and reverse; and every steam ship shall, when in a fog, go at a moderate speed.

17.-Every vessel overtaking any other vessel shall keep out of the way of the said last-mentioned vessel.

18. Where by the above rules one of two ships is to keep out of the way; the other shall keep her course, subject to the qualifications contained in the following article.

19. In obeying and construing these rules due regard must be had to all dangers of navigation; and due regard must also be had to any special circumstances which may exist in any particular case rendering a departure from the above rules necessary in order to avoid immediate danger.

20.-Nothing in these rules shall exonerate any ship, or the owner, or master, or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect to carry lights or signals, or of any neglect to keep a proper look out, or of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special circumstances of the case.

F. Fixed. Fl. Fixed and Flashing. R. Revolving. I. Intermitting. Est. Established.

(a.) 16.-Two buoys have been placed to mark the shoals extending from the shore N.E. of Cape Grisnez-one off La Barrière, the North extreme of Banc à la Ligne; and the other a bell buoy off the N.W. extreme of Les Quenocs.

(b.) 18.-A chequered black and white buoy will mark the Thorn Knoll, in the main channel to the entrance of Southampton Water. The buoy, with the words Thorn Knoll painted on it, will be in 4 fathoms at low water, on the N.W. part of the knoll, with the North end of the large chalk pit on Portsdown Hill in line with the North end of the Coast Guard Station near Hill Head; two remarkable trees on Calshot beach touching the North end of Netley Hospital; and the N.W. Bramble buoy bearing S.E., distant two cables.

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(c.) 19.-Notice is hereby given, that on and after the 11th day of May, 1863, fixed blue lights will be shown from the scaffolding erected for the pose of preparing the foundation of the new forts at Spithead, on the Horse, No-Mans Land, and Sturbridge Shoals, instead of the red lights which have hitherto been exhibited thereon.

REPORTED SHOAL IN THE ATLANTIC.

We preserve the following from the Shipping Gazette, but can come to no other conclusion than that it was ice which was supposed 10 be a shoal.

London, May 16th, 1863.

Sir, On the 22nd of June, 1858, in the ship I O, from Cadiz for Newfoundland, I passed alongside of a very dangerous shoal in lat. 46° 24′ 54′′ N. and long. 35° 40′ W. by chronometer and lunar observations. It appeared to have three heads, with the water breaking over them, and laid E.S.E. and W.N.W. from each other, the centre one the largest, and their extent about half a mile. I reported it to Lloyd's Agent at St. John's (N.F.) on my arrival there; and again to my chart agent here, who reported it to the Admiralty. But seeing no notice of it in any way made public, I trust you will give this a place in your valuable paper, as a warning to captains passing that locality, as I have no doubt many a large vessel that has never been heard of has been wrecked on the above shoals, as, from the heavy swell, they cannot be more than three or fathoms below the surface. Had it not been for the heavy swell, I should have gone on them myself.

Yours, &c.,

HENRY JOB,

Master of the barque Christabel.

To the Editor of the Shipping Gazette.

We meet with the following on Pacific hydrography, which we preserve for the benefit of our charts-for future investigation.

FARRALLONES.-Vessels are engaged in searching for Noonday Rock, on which the clipper ship Noonday struck and sunk, near the Farrallones. As yet, however, its location has not been discovered, leading to the conclusion, before advanced in this paper, that it is simply a spur of rock rising from a great depth, with deep water all round it. Unless a vessel is directly over the rock when the sounding is made, the lead would not be likely to find lodgement, or the top of the

rock may be so sharp or pointed as to prevent the lead lodging on it. One good derived from the searches made will be that other shoals or rocks may be discovered. Here is one discovered in January last,— which should be set down on the chart:—

A new shoal has been discovered S.W. from the South Farrallone Island, eighty miles distant. There are but from 5 to 7 fathoms of water thereon, and it is directly in the track of vessels bound to San Francisco.

MARIA SHOAL.-The schooner Maria, Crane, reports,—Left Honolulu October 16th, and arrived at Howland Island November 1st. October 24th passed over a sunken shoal, (not down in any of the charts on board,) lat. 5° 55′ N., long. 164° W. The water about this spot was much discoloured, but the rocks were visible, with about 4 fathoms of water.

New Books.

SEAMANSHIP. By Lieutenant George Nares, R.N. Portsea, Griffin ; London, Longman and Co.

Since the days of D'Arcy Lever, when John Hamilton Moore produced a work on navigation most considerately suited to the "meanest capacity," there has been a vacant niche left for a successor that Lieutenant Nares aspires to fill. True we have had guides and manuals for the young sea officer, but none exclusively devoted to seamanship. Although iron is warring against hemp as it is against wood for preeminence in the affairs of a ship, seamanship must hold its reign, the sea must be dealt with by masterly hands, and work to be done must yet be done in the most approved style-ship-shape and Bristol fashion as it was done-whether it would be in iron or hemp.

The gradual decrease of opportunities for acquiring seamanship, by the introduction of more iron continually into a ship, has determined Lieutenant Nares to seize the opportunity at once of preserving the art and giving the young neophyte of salt water the means of studying the principles of his profession on shore, and mastering their intricacies against the time he has to practice them at sea. The result of his labours forms a goodly octavo (as the bookworm would say) of between two and three hundred pages, and let us add in all its favour, enriched abundantly with illustrations. Indeed, such a work, from its very nature, is imperfect without such ornament as I ientenant Nares has taken good care to supply. Beyond the domain of seamanship the author does not pretend to go; but he treats his subject in a masterly way, and his work, already in its second edition, will not want patronage, adopted, as it appears to be, by our naval cadets in their training ship. While seamanship ranges on the ocean, as it always must do, the means of acquiring it are called for, and the demand can be duly supplied by the work of Lieutenant Nares.

HOLME'S MAGNETO-ELECTRIC LIGHT as Applicable to Lighthouses.

Those of our readers who are curious as to the mode of applying the elec tric light to lighthouses will find it fully described in this neat little brochure.

REMARKS ON THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN,-By Captain M. Connolly, H.M.S." Sutlej."

I must begin my Remarks by observing that the Chart of the Eastern Division of the Straits, as well as the General Chart, are so correct, and the information and directions contained in the South American Pilot, although perhaps too concise, so very instructive and reliable, that it may be deemed presumptuous in any one adding to what has been so admirably described. Still, in these days of steam navigation, the importance of the Straits of Magellan as the great highway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is such that any information or suggestions, however slight, that experience can point out to future navigators of a strait that is not yet thoroughly explored, must be as welcome as it would have been to us, had any one been able to make us better acquainted than we were with its furious gales and difficult anchorages, for so large a ship as the Sutlej, as we found, to our rather dearly bought experience.

Catherine Point.-A ship, then, making the Straits from the eastward too late in the day to reach the anchorage in either Possession or Lomas Bay, would find excellent shelter for the night under Catherine Point, the southern entrance of the strait, rather than by lying to outside with the chance of being blown off during the night; or, if she came further in, encountering the dangerous vicinity of the Sarmiento Bank. We anchored here in the Sutlej, after being blown out of the First Narrows-the bottom composed of dark sand and mud, and good tenacious holding ground-with the following bear

NO. 7.-VOL. XXXII.

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