the voyage of the bottle.

the little fragile craft which stephen gaff sent adrift upon the world of waters freighted with its precious document, began its long voyage with no uncertainty as to its course, although to the eye of man it might have appeared to be the sport of uncertain waves and breezes.

when the bottle fell upon the broad bosom of the south pacific, it sank as if its career were to end at the beginning; but immediately it re-appeared with a leap, as if the imprisoned spirit of the atmosphere were anxious to get out. then it settled down in its watery bed until nothing but the neck and an inch of the shoulder was visible above the surface. thus it remained; thus it floated in the deep, in storm and calm, in heat and cold; thus it voyaged more safely, though not more swiftly, than all the proud ships that spread their lofty canvas to the breeze, night and day, for weeks and months, ay, and years together—not irregularly, not at haphazard, but steadily, perseveringly, in strict obedience to the undeviating laws which regulate the currents in the ocean and the air as truly and unchangeably as they do the circulation of the blood in the human frame.

the bottle started from that part of the south pacific which is known to mariners as the desolate region—so called from the circumstance of that part of the sea being almost entirely destitute of animal life. here it floated slowly, calmly, but surely, to the eastward with the great oceanic current, which, flowing from the regions of the antarctic sea, in that part sweeps round the southern continent of america, and makes for the equator by way of the southern atlantic ocean.

now, reader, allow me to screw up a little philosophy here, and try to show you the why and the wherefore of the particular direction of our bottle’s voyage.

man has been defined by some lexicographer as a “cooking animal.” i think it would be more appropriate to call him a learning animal, for man does not always cook, but he never ceases to learn—also to unlearn.

one of the great errors which we have been called on, of recent years, to unlearn, is the supposed irregularity and uncertainty of the winds and waves. nothing is more regular, nothing more certain—not even the rising and setting of the sun himself—than the circulation of the waters and the winds of earth. the apparent irregularity and uncertainty lies in our limited power and range of perception. the laws by which god regulates the winds and waves are as fixed as is the law of gravitation, and every atom of air, every drop of water, moves in its appointed course in strict obedience to those laws, just as surely as the apple, when severed from the bough, obeys the law of gravitation, and falls to the ground.

one grand and important fact has been ascertained, namely, that all the waters of the sea flow from the equator to the poles and back again.

disturbed equilibrium is the great cause of oceanic currents. heat and cold are the chief agents in creating this disturbance.

it is obvious that when a portion of water in any vessel sinks, another portion must of necessity flow into the space which it has left, and if the cause which induced the sinking continue, so the flow to fill up will continue, and thus a current will be established.

heat at the equator warms the sea-water, and makes it light; cold at the poles chills it, and makes it heavy. hot water, being light, rises; cold water, being heavy, sinks.

here, then, is a sufficient cause to produce the effect of currents in the sea.

but there are other causes at work. excessive evaporation at the equator carries off the water of the sea, but leaves the salt behind, thus rendering it denser and heavier; while excessive influx of fresh water at the poles, (from rain and snow and melting ice), renders the sea light;—in addition to which corallines and shell-fish everywhere abstract the lime that is in the sea, by secreting it on their bodies in the form of shells, and thus increase the lightness of those particles of water from which the lime has been abstracted. the other particles of water being generous in their nature, hasten to impart of their lime and salt to those that have little or none.

here, then, we have perpetual motion rendered absolutely certain, both as to continuance and direction.

but the latter causes which i have named are modifying causes which tend to counteract, or rather to deflect and direct currents in their flow. besides which, the rotation of the earth, the action of the winds, and the conformation of continents and islands, have a powerful influence on currents, so that some flow at the bottom of ocean, some on the surface, some from east to west or west to east, or aslant in various directions, while, where currents meet there is deflection, modification, or stagnation, but there is no confusion; all goes on with a regularity and harmony which inconceivably excels that of the most complex and beautiful mechanism of man’s constructing, although man cannot perceive this order and harmony by reason of his limited powers.

now, these are facts, not theories founded on speculation. they have been arrived at by the slow but sure method of induction. hundreds of thousands of practical men have for many years been observing and recording phenomena of every kind in connexion with the sea. these observations have been gathered together, collated, examined, and deeply studied by philosophers, who have drawn their conclusions therefrom. ignorance of these facts rendered the navigation of the sea in days of old a matter of uncertainty and great danger. the knowledge of them and of other cognate facts enables man in these days to map out the so-called trackless ocean into districts, and follow its well-known highways with precision and comparative safety.

our bottle moved along with the slow but majestic flow of one of those mighty currents which are begotten among the hot isles of the pacific, where the corallines love to build their tiny dwellings and rear their reefs and groves.

in process of time it left the warm regions of the sun, and entered those stormy seas which hold perpetual war around cape horn. it passed the straits where magellan spread his adventurous sails in days of old, and doubled the cape which byron, bougainville, and cook had doubled long before it.

ah! well would it be for man if the bottle had never doubled anything but that cape! and alas for man when his sight is doubled, and his crimes and woes are doubled, and his life is halved instead of doubled, by—“the bottle!”

off cape horn our adventurous little craft met with the rough usage from winds and waves that marked the passage of its predecessors. stormy petrels hovered over it and pecked its neck and cork. albatrosses stooped inquiringly and flapped their gigantic wings above it. south sea seals came up from ocean’s caves, and rubbed their furred sides against it. sea-lions poked it with their grizzly snouts; and penguins sat bolt upright in rows on the sterile islands near the cape, and gazed at it in wonder.

onward it moved with the north-western drift, and sighted on its left, (on its port bow, to speak nautically), the land of patagonia, where the early discoverers reported the men to be from six to ten feet high, and the ladies six feet; the latter being addicted to staining their eyelids black, and the former to painting a red circle round their left eyes. these early discoverers failed, however, to tell us why the right eyes of the men were neglected; so we are forced to the conclusion that they were left thus untouched in order that they might wink facetiously with the more freedom. modern travellers, it would seem, contradict, (as they usually do), many of the statements of ancient voyagers; and there is now reason to believe that the patagonians are not much more outrageous in any respect than ordinary savages elsewhere.

not long after doubling the cape, the bottle sailed slowly past the falkland islands, whose rugged cliffs and sterile aspect seemed in accordance with their character of penal settlement. sea-lions, penguins, and seals were more numerous than ever here, as if they were the guardians of the place, ready to devour all hapless criminals who should recklessly attempt to swim away from “durance vile.”

indeed, it was owing to the curiosity of a sea-lion that at this point in its long voyage the bottle was saved from destruction. a storm had recently swept the southern seas, and the bottle, making bad weather of it in passing the falklands, was unexpectedly driven on a lee-shore in attempting to double a promontory. whether promontories are more capable of resisting the bottle than human beings, i know not; but certain it is that the promontory arrested its progress. it began to clink along the foot of the cliffs at the outermost point with alarming violence; and there can be no reasonable doubt that it would have become a miserable wreck there, if it had not chanced to clink right under the nose of a sea-lion which was basking in the sunshine, and sound asleep on a flat rock.

opening its eyes and ears at the unwonted sound, the lion gazed inquiringly at the bottle, and raised its shaggy front the better to inspect it. apparently the sight stimulated its curiosity, for, with a roar and a gush of ardent spirit, it plunged into the sea and drove the bottle far down into the deep.

finding, apparently, that nothing came of this terrific onslaught, the lion did not reappear. it sneaked away, no doubt, into some coral cave. but the force of the push sent the bottle a few yards out to sea, and so it doubled the promontory and continued its voyage.

shortly after this, however, a check was put to its progress which threatened to be permanent.

in a few places of the ocean there are pools of almost stagnant tracts, of various sizes, which are a sort of eddies caused by the conflicting currents. they are full of seaweed and other drift, which is shoved into them by the currents, and are named sargasso seas. some of these are hundreds of miles in extent, others are comparatively small.

they bothered the navigators of old, did those sargasso seas, uncommonly. they are permanent spots, which shift their position so little with the very slight changes in the currents of the sea, that they may be said to be always in the same place.

columbus got into one of these sargassos—the great atlantic one that lies between africa and the west indies,—and his men were alarmed lest this strange weedy sea should turn out to be the end of the world! columbus was long detained in this region of stagnation and calm, and so were most of the early navigators, who styled it the “doldrums.” now-a-days, however, our knowledge of the currents of ocean and atmosphere enables us to avoid the sargasso seas and sail round them, thereby preventing delay, facilitating trade, saving time, and greatly improving the condition of mankind.

now, our bottle happened to get entangled in the weed of the sargasso that exists in the neighbourhood of the falkland islands, and stuck fast there for many months. it was heaved up and down by the undulations, blown about a little by occasional breezes, embraced constantly by seaweed, and sometimes tossed by waves when the outskirts of a passing gale broke in upon the stagnant spot; but beyond this it did not move or advance a mile on its voyage.

at last a hurricane burst over the sea; its whirling edge tore up the weed and swept the waters, and set the bottle free, at the same time urging it into a north-easterly current, which flowed towards the coast of africa. on its way it narrowly missed entanglement in another sargasso,—a little one that lies between the two continents,—but fortunately passed it in safety, and at last made the cape of good hope, and sighted the majestic table mountain which terminates the lofty promontory of that celebrated headland.

here the bottle met with the wild stormy weather that induced its portuguese discoverer, bartholomew diaz, to name it the “cape of tempests,” and which cost him his life, for, on a succeeding voyage, he perished there. king john the second of portugal changed its name into the cape of good hope, and not inappropriately so, as it turned out; for, a few years after its discovery in 1486, vasco de gama doubled the cape of good hope and discovered the shores of india, whence he brought the first instalment of that wealth which has flowed from east to west ever since in such copious perennial streams.

there was a perplexing conflict of currents here which seemed to indicate a dispute as to which of them should bear off the bottle. the great mozambique current, (which, born in the huge caldron of the indian ocean, flows down the eastern coast of africa, and meets and wars with the currents coming from the west), almost got the mastery, and well-nigh swept it into an extensive sargasso sea which lies in that region; in which case the voyage might have been inconceivably delayed; but an eccentric typhoon, or some such turbulent character, struck in from the eastward, swept the bottle utterly beyond mozambique influence, and left it in the embrace of a current which flowed northward toward the equator.

thus the bottle narrowly missed being flung on “india’s coral strand,” and voyaged slowly northward in a line parallel with that coast where “afric’s sunny fountains roll down their golden sands,”—where slavers, too, carried off the blacks in days happily gone by, to toil in slavery among the fields of cotton and sugar-cane, and where british cruisers did their best, (but that wasn’t much!) to prevent the brutal traffic.

the chief point of interest in this part of the voyage was touching at saint helena, touching so sharply on the western promontory of that dreary islet, that the bottle again nearly made ship-wreck.

admirably well chosen was this prominent, barren, isolated rock to be the prison of “napoleon the great,” for he was a conspicuous, isolated specimen of humanity, barren of those qualities that constitute real greatness. great he undoubtedly was in the art of shedding human blood and desolating myriads of hearths and hearts without any object whatever beyond personal ambition; for the first napoleon being a corsican, could not even urge the shallow plea of patriotism in justification of his murderous career.

so, let the bottle pass! its career has not been more deadly, perchance, than was his during the time that the earth was scourged with his presence!

on reaching the hot region of the equator, our little craft was again sadly knocked about by conflicting currents, and performed one or two deep-sea voyages in company with currents which dived a good deal in consequence of their superior density and inferior heat. at one time it seemed as if it would be caught by the drift which flows down the east coast of south america, and thus get back into the seas from which it set out.

but this was not to be. owing to some cause which is utterly beyond the ken of mortals, the bottle at last got fairly into the great equatorial current which flows westward from the gulf of guinea. it reached the north-west corner of south america, and progressing now at a more rapid and steady rate, progressed along the northern shore of that continent—passed the mouth of the mighty amazon and the orinoco, and, pushing its way among the west india islands, crossed the carribean sea, sighted the isthmus of darien, coasted the bay of honduras, and swept round the gulf of mexico.

here the great current is diverted from its westward course, and, passing through the gulf of florida, rushes across the atlantic in a north-easterly direction, under the well-known name of the gulf stream. men of old fancied that this great current had its origin in the gulf of mexico; hence its name; but we now know that, like many another stream, it has many heads or sources, the streams flowing from which converge in the gulf of mexico, and receive new and united direction there.

with the gulf stream the bottle pursued its voyage until it was finally cast ashore on the west of ireland. many a waif of the sea has been cast there before it by the same cause, and doubtless many another shall be cast there in time to come.

an irishman with a jovial countenance chanced to be walking on the beach at the moment when, after a voyage of two years, our bottle touched the strand.

he picked it up and eyed it curiously.

“musha! but it’s potheen.”

a more careful inspection caused him to shake his head.

“ah, then, it’s impty.”

getting the bottle between his eyes and the morning sun, he screwed his visage up into myriads of wrinkles, and exclaimed—

“sure there is something in it.”

straightway the irishman hurried up to his own cabin, where his own wife, a stout pretty woman in a red cloak, assisted him to reach the conclusion that there was something mysterious in the bottle, which was at all events not drinkable.

“oh, then, i’ll smash it.”

“do, darlint.”

no sooner said than done, for pat brought it down on the hearthstone with such force that it was shivered to atoms.

of course his wife seized the bit of paper, and tried to read it, unsuccessfully. then pat tried to read it, also unsuccessfully. then they both tried to read it, turning it in every conceivable direction, and holding it at every possible distance from their eyes, but still without success. then they came to the conclusion that they could “make nothing of it at all at all,” which was not surprising, for neither of them could read a word.

they wisely resolved at length to take it to their priest, who not only read it, but had it inserted in the times on the week following, and also in the local papers of wreckumoft.

thus did mrs gaff, at long last, come to learn something of her husband and son. her friends kindly told her she need not entertain any hope whatever, but she heeded them not; and only regarding the message from the sea as in some degree a confirmation of her hopes and expectations, she continued her preparations for the reception of the long absent ones with more energy than ever.