he deep,--the dismal
moan of the wind through the rigging, the all but volcanic fires within
the hold of the ship. I scarce know an occasion in ordinary life in
which a reflecting mind feels more keenly its hopeless dependence on
irrational forces beyond its own control. I asked my companion how
nearly he could determine his ship's place at sea under favorable
circumstances. Theoretically, he answered, I think, within a
mile;--practically and usually within three or four. My next question
was, how near do you think we may be to Cape Race;--that dangerous
headland which pushes its iron-bound unlighted bastions from the shore
of Newfoundland far into the Atlantic,--first landfall to the
homeward-bound American vessel. We must, said he, by our last
observations and reckoning, be within three or four miles of Cape Race.
A comparison of these two remarks, under the circumstances in which we
were placed at the moment, brought my mind to the conclusion, that it is
greatly to be wished that the means should be discovered of finding the
ship's place more accurately, or that navigators would give Cape Race a
little wider berth. But I do not remember that one of the steam packets
between England and America was ever lost on that formidable point.

It appears to me by no means unlikely that, with the improvement of
instrumental power, and of the means of ascertaining the ship's time
with exactness, as great an advance beyond the present state of art and
science in finding a ship's place at sea may take place, as was effected
by the invention of the reflecting quadrant, the calculation of lunar
tables, and the improved construction of chronometers.

BABBAGE'S DIFFERENCE MACHINE.

In the wonderful versatility of the human mind, the improvement, when
made, will very probably be made by paths where it is least expected.
The great inducement to Mr. Babbage to attempt the construction of an
engine by which astronomical tables could be calculated, and even
printed, by mechanical means and with entire accuracy, was the errors in
the requisite tables. Nineteen such errors, in point of fact, were
discovered in an edition of Taylor's Logarithms printed in 1796; some of
which might have led to the most dangerous results in calculating a
ship's place. These nineteen errors, (of which one only was an error of
the press), were pointed out in the _Nautical Almanac_ for 1832. In one
of these _errata_ the seat of the error