SOME OF THE CONTENTS OF MY JOURNAL. THE ATLANTIC AND NEW YORK. I LEFT England in the beginning of September. From my own experience, and what I have learned, I think it is better not to go much earlier than this. Many people make the mistake of going too early, and find it exceedingly hot in America in the months of July and August, or sometimes even in the beginning of September. I had it quite cool from the time of my arrival, and altogether found the autumn season a delightful time. I started from London very early in the morning, to arrange about my passage and get the steamer at Liverpool, but found on arrival that I need not have been in quite such a hurry. The steamers are timed to leave Liverpool in the afternoon, but they always take their final departure with the mails from Queenstown, in the Cove of Cork, the following afternoon. They have to wait at Queenstown for the mails, and are therefore in no hurry. A man who wishes to save time, instead of starting in the morning may take the mail train to Dublin in the evening, and go on with the mails to Cork and Queenstown, and so make sure of catching the steamer there; but it is rather hard travelling. I took my passage by the steamer Germanic, one of the finest of the White Star line. This line is certainly the most modern, and the quickest. The passage-money is not excessive, and there is a great saving in taking a return ticket; this costs thirty guineas, which includes your board and lodging for eighteen or twenty days so it is not so very expensive travelling after all. I was very civilly treated. Passengers go on board by a tug steamer, and find the large steamer lying out in the Liverpool river. We got to Queenstown the next day, and started again with the mails at 4 P.M. The length of the voyage from Queenstown to Sandy Hook, the entrance to New York, is 2,800 nautical miles, and with good weather the White Star steamers do the distance in eight days; but we must expect to meet some share of bad weather in the Atlantic pretty often. That was my experience. For three days we had a heavy sea, which much retarded the vessel. Then it calmed down, and finally we had two or three fine days, during which the vessel made from 360 to 380 miles per diem; that is, from 15 to 16 miles per hour on an average. She did that easily, without apparent effort, and in some voyages she has not unfrequently done 400 miles in a day. I had never been in so fast a steamer before, and was surprised to find the ease with which these vessels go that pace. I thought the Germanic a very fine vessel, and the arrangements regarding meals and attendance were excellent. The food was quite good. Things were mostly arranged upon the American plan. Passenger accommodation is principally in the middle and forward part of the ship; there is a good smoking-room, and a ladies' cabin, but no general drawing-room or writing-room. The ship was quite full. Almost all the passengers were Americans or else people going on business to America. I was fortunate enough to make acquaintance with some very agreeable people, several of whom I afterwards met in the States. After a voyage of eight days and some hours from Queenstown we reached the Bar at the mouth of the river at Sandy Hook, and found we had to wait several hours to get over it-there is not enough water at all times of the tide. Then after we were over we were again stopped at the Quarantine Station. They seem to be particular about sanitary inspection in America. Thence to New York is a very short distance. We arrived there, and went straight alongside the wharf, being a little more than 83 days from Queenstown and 94 from Liverpool. It was a fine day, and the sight approaching New York very pretty. There is comparatively little tide on the American coast, the ordinary rise being only five or six feet-just enough to keep the harbour sweet and clean, and not so much as to give all the trouble that our tides give us. There is deep water all alongside New York, and ships lie close in, without the necessity for wet docks or other expensive arrangements. We landed without delay, and found the Custom House not by any means troublesome, everything being done in a quiet and orderly way. There was nothing to be seen in the way of cabs except great two-horse hackney coaches, exceedingly expensive; but the hotel omnibus presently turned up, and we were beset by 'expresses--that means in America light carts for forwarding luggage. After a little delay I reached the Windsor Hotel, where I stayed while in New York. It is a very good hotel--perhaps the best specimen of an hotel conducted on the American principle; that is, of charging so much per diem for board and lodging. For a residence for a little time in New York I should certainly recommend the Windsor; but for a passing traveller it is a little far off, in the fashionable quarter, the New York Belgravia; and the well-known Fifth Avenue Hotel might be more central and convenient. The charge at the Windsor is $4 (say 16s.) per diem; and, considering the character of the food and the accommodation, I thought the charge quite moderate. Some of the hotels at New York and Boston charge a little more and others less; the hotels in the interior of the country generally $2 or $3. About $3 to $4 a day may be taken as the average cost of board and lodging at first-class hotels. You may have a room with a bath-room attached, but that is always charged a dollar a day extra. With this exception, there are very few extras, especially if you fall into the custom of the country and do not drink wine; if you do you will have to pay high for it. If a man is content to find his way about by the aid of tramways and other native methods, he may live very well at a well at a pound a day, all expenses included. Then say ten shillings a day for travelling that would make about thirty shillings a day for obligatory expenses. course he may spend money beyond this, but really there is not so much temptation to do so as in Europe. I should say that for 1507. a man may make an extremely good three months' tour to America. Besides the hotels on the American plan which I have mentioned, there are a few in the large cities which are conducted on the European principle-charging for what you have; and I believe that if people do not want to be overfed, and manage economically, they may live Of |