sle, well filled with
stalwart and sturdy beggars; and dealing with such a man as Captain
Allen, good natured and wanting in decision and energy, their
solicitations for favors almost took the shape of peremptory demands,
and the brig was virtually laid under a heavy contribution. Some of the
most bold and importunate visited the forecastle, and manifested such an
inquisitive and rapacious spirit in their quest after tobacco, that we
were provoked to treat them in a manner most inhospitable, and drive
them on deck.

Proceeding across the head of the North Sea, and running for the "Naze
of Norway," the weather being pleasant and the sea smooth, I persuaded
Mr. Bowen to throw a fishing-line over the stern and let it trail, with
the expectation of catching some mackerel. We succeeded in capturing
several of those excellent fish, and also two or three gar-fish; a kind
of fish I have never met with elsewhere excepting in the tropical seas.
These gar-fish of the North Sea were of comparatively small size, about
fifteen inches in length, but of most delicious flavor. Their long and
slim backbone being of a deep emerald green color, Captain Allen, with
characteristic sagacity, concluded that these fish were poisonous
and unwholesome, and banished them from the cabin. They were heartily
welcomed in the forecastle, however, their qualities fully tested, and
the skipper was pronounced the most verdant of the two!

Passing the Naze, a high bluff point at the south-western extremity
of Norway, and then losing sight of the rough, mountainous coast,
intersected by innumerable arms of the sea, called FIORDS, penetrating
inland for miles, we crossed the Skager-rack and entered the Cattegat
Sea, which divides the western shores of Sweden from the coast of
Jutland, and which is about a hundred miles in length and fifty miles in
breadth. We soon got sight of Wingo Beacon, a high pyramidal monument,
built on a rock at one of the entrances of the fiord on which the city
of Gottenburg is situated, and procured a pilot, who took us through a
narrow, winding channel among the rocks, into a snug haven surrounded by
barren islets, and brought the brig to anchor.

Here we were obliged to remain until visited the next morning by the
health officer; for the quarantine regulations of Sweden, although
not so vexatious and absurd as in many other ports of Europe, were
nevertheless very strict. A case of plague or yellow fever was never
known in Gott