EXPORTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 699, 12 July 1870, Page 2

EXPORTS.

Per Kate Conley, for Melbourne : 53 hidest 1 bale wool, 58 bundles skins, 3 tons bones The ketch Constant, about whose safety fears were entertained, has arrived at Charleston^ The 8.8. Kennedy passed the port on Sunday afternoon, and arrived at Hokitika the same evening. She will be here this forenoon, and will leave in the evening for the North. . ■■•■■■.■ The s.B. Murray is expected to-day from Nelson and Westport. The s.B. Claud Hamilton from Melbourne, with the English Mail was expected yesterday at the Bluff, but when the telegraph office closed she had not arrived. She may bo looked for to-day. The s.B. Waipara will leave this morning for Brighton, Charleston, and Westport. The brig Magnet from Melbourne, was reported in the roadstead yesterday. She •will be brought in the first opportunity. The rationale of the south-east gales which visit the east coast of Otago in the winter months, is a subject which has hitherto attracted the attention of our nautical men only to a very inconsiderable extent. These dangerous storms usually occur at full and change of the moon, and their approach is indicated by hazy or foggy weather, during which the sea rises and breaks in a heavy surf upon exposed points of the coast. This weather generally continues for three days with, a falling glass, and the sea reaches its maximum height at high water on the last night of the storm— the night tide, as in other parts of the world, being invariably higher than that of the day. A correspondent, who has had many opportunities of studying the phenomena; of these storms, conjectures that 'then general direction is south-east, and that they strike the coast diagonally, .their force being confined to a beltj v or path, the limits of which are so well defined as frequently to'be felt at one of our northern ports, whilst, that immediately south of it escapes? In 'support of this hypothesis it is stated; that during the time that the Geelbng was trading between Dunedin and Canterbury, she frequently experienced a gale of wind at Akrroa or Lyttelton which the Residents at Oamaru or Moeraki escaped; although at the latter places the exceptionally low . register of barometers pointed out that bad weather was not far off. Sometimes it has happened chat a vessel pntting to sea during ; one of these periods has had her sails blown away off the land at a time when, there was no wind on shore, tho vessel having sailed into the gale. A remarkable .illustration of this occurred lately. ' The schooner Cora was discharging at Oamaru, when the' surf began to break in the hay with » suddenness and force which the«aptain (an old coaster) describes as exceeding anything he had previously experienced, -With the greatest difficulty the vessel was got to sea, and proceeded to Moeraki, when the captain found, to his astonishment, that' nothing of the kind had been experienced there. Captain Russell attributes the safety of his vessel, under Providence, to the gallant manner, in which the boats' of the Oamaru Landing Company were manned and sent to his assistance, and speaks in the highest terms of the conduct of the men. It is almost unnecessary for us to state this is not the first occasion upon which the gallantry of the Oamaru boatmen has been displayed.— O. D. Times. The depth of water, alongside the wharf at Hokitika has decreased so much of late, that at the present time a man with knee boots oh could walk across to the shingle bed dryshod. Quite a bar has formed across to the old baths, through; which only a small part of the stream can find its wiy. This, experts tell us, has been caused by the old Yarra being moored so high up, the channel where she lays being so narrow that the vessel nearly fills the basin, and so acts as a kindof blockade to the ebb 1 tide; ; which would otherwise act on this shingle bar. If such is the case, the sooner'' the' Corporation move the Yarra and also the hull of the Ruby, the better for th 9 chance of ships getting alongaid*! %4t the silting up goes on at the same rate for another month, there will be no water at all near the wharf at low- tide:— W. C.'Times. „-.■■.:> ■■.

The schooner Dalphne was brought into Bluff Harbour on Friday Ist July inst., from the Auckland Islands, by two men and a boy. ' hhe left Port Rostron the 22nd June! ActiHg'Master James Cousin's reports that on the lQth May Captain Wallace and Mr David Ashwoith, part owners of the vessel, the latter being one of the survivors from the wreck of the General ; Grant, together with a crew of four men, viz., Frank Leinstet, James Cossarj diver, Joseph : Moss, and James Bailey, left the schooner in a whaleboat,'With the intention of proceeding round the island to the spot where the General Grant was wrecked. They took with them a week's provisions and div&g appliancas, thfir supposed object being the recovery of the. jjpld lost in the General "Grant. Afterwaiting for five weeks without seeing- anything of the boat, the two men and the boy left on board the Dalphne resolved to sail for Invercargill. Consin's was rated on the schooner's books as cooky but he was nevertheless a certificated master. The passage across occupied . nine days, , during which heavy weather -was experienced, and the vessel, was repeatedly hove to. The boy could not steer, and the two men had consequently to relieve.each other at intervals of two hcilrs the whole way acrosp. No memorandum was left by them 'on the Island, so that, assuming the possibility of the boat having been stove in in landing on any of the outlying islands, and the 1 crew to have

reached the shore, the Blanche would have no information to stimulate her to search in that direction.

An experiment of shipping petroleum in bulk is about being tried in Kew York. The Belgian ship Charles has been fitted up with tanks for that purpose, and was receiving cargo on the 30th April. She will carry from. 6000 to 7000 barrels. She has an engine and pump for discharging cargo. 'A similar experiment in the carrying of molasses from Cuba to Boston, by the brig Novelty, has been successfully demonstrated. The New York shipping list can see no good reason why the snipping of petroleum may not be equally successful, and, in the event of its success, anticipates a revolution in the business of freighting this leading article of export from the United States.- San Francisco Bulletin.

From the speech delivered by the First Lord of the Admiralty on submitting the naval estimates to the House of Commons during the present session, we learn that at the present moment Great Britain has not only the most powerful navy in the world, but more eflective home and foreign squadrons, both as to ships and men, than it has ever owned since the days of Nelson. There is as much difference between the British Navy, as it figures in this year's estimates, and as it figured in the estimates of a few years since, as between puffy corpulence and the finest muscular training and condition of wind and limb. When the new ships now building are completed, England will have 40 broadside and turret ships, besides five smaller broadsides and two smaller turrets ; while the unarmoured navy includes one frigate, two large corvettes, 14 corvettes and sloops of the Blanche and Druid classes, 12 gunboats of the Lapwing type, 17 composite gunboats of a new type, and upwards of 100 fighting ships of old types. With such a navy, it is believed England is a match for the two greatest maritime powers in the world, next to herself ; and we may well be proud of belonging to an empire which can put forth such tremendous resources, for the maintenance of her supremacy on the sea, without imposing any strain upon her people, and without contemplating the concurrence of any great emergency to task her strength. Blossom Rock had always been a dangerous obstruction to the harbor of San Francisco. It was a sunken rock in the line of steamers. It was 180 feet long, and 90 feet wide, with abrupt sides. 75,000 dollars had heen voted for the removal of the rock. A water-tight scow was sunk upon it, and a shaft twelve feet deep was sunk into the rock with tunnels in different directions. The charge consisted of twenty-three tons of gunpowder. When the explosion took place, a monster cone of water, apparently 100 feet in diameter at the base, shot in the air to the height of at least 100 feet, and in its centre, like the crater of a volcano, could be seen a sheet of smoke and stones, the latter going far above the vast column of water. There was a dead, thud-like sound ; the great cone was shattered into Bpray and fell, the rocks descended plunging into the Bay, and all was over save the great white circle of foam which marked the spot. Probably, more than 50,000 people witnessed the grand spectacle. No rock went out of a perpendicular direction, but huge boulders weighing tons were thrown high in the air, amid a storm of smaller ones. Twenty-nine feet of water was left where there had only been a few feet at high water. — American Paper.