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Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 773, 31 December 1870, Page 2

The 8.8. Gothenburg is due here from Nelson on Monday, when she will take passengers for Melbourne direct, and also pasaengeTS for transhipment to Sydney and Adelaide. The 8.8. Kennedy, Captain Whitwell, returned from her excursion trip to Hokitika on Thursday morning \t ith over 40 passengers, and left again the same afternoon for Westport and Nelson. Two schooners, the Laiy Don, Toomey master, and the Rose of Eden, Shepherd master, both produce-laden, from Lyttleton, were towed in yesterday by the p.s. Dispatch, the former in the morning, and the latter in the afternoon. The Lady Don has made the run in eight days, and the Rose in . thirteen. The cago of the Lady Don will be sold by acution on the wharf to-dvy by D. Maclean and Co., and the cargo of the Rose of Eden, by Nancarrow, Henderson and Co., on Tuesday. The Cerberus, intended for,the defence of Hobson's Bay, is at length on har way to the Colonies. She arrived at Plymouth on the Ist inst., and would in all probability «&ave taken her departure thence yesterday, but that some difficulty arose with reference to a number of boys who it had been in- j tended should foTm part of her crew. These boys, it had been arranged, should go on j board at Plymouth, but the authorities decided on not shipping them. Men have therefore to be taken instead, and the engaging of them will necessarily take up some time. The Commander, Lieutenant Panter, speaks very highly of the vessel on her passage down Channel, and is quite pleased with his command. Under existing circumstances, it is more than ever to be desired that she may reach her destination in safety.. Home Netos. \ Some alarm was created on the 30th October by a telegram stating that a French fleet of twelve ships of war, each with 800 landiDg troops on board, had sailed from Dnnkirk for the purpose of making a descent on tbe coast of the North Sea, and the state- i mevt was subsequently confirmed by an official communication to the authorities at Hamburg. Steps were immediately taken and active preparations made to give the enemy a warm reception, should a landing be effected at the mouth of the Elbe. Tl»e garrison there consisting of eight battalions of Landwehr and the Ersatz battalions or reserve of the 75th and 76th Regiments recruited in the city, received orders to hold themselves in readiness to march at an hour's notice, and one-half of the force embarked at an early hour the next morning iv several steamers chartered for the occasion, to convey them down to Cnxhaven to leinforce the garrison there, whilst the other half was ready to follow as soon as the telegram arrives announcing the appearance of tbe fleet off the coast. As the pilot boats at the mouth of the Elbe have all been brought in, and the light vessels and buoys removed, there would be no cause for alarm or fear of the enemy finding their way up to Cuxhaven, were it not for the suspicious conduct of the Froneh fleet on the occasion of their last appearance iv the North Sea, when hovering off the coast. Instead of making any hostile demonstration or giving indication of their intention to Attempt a lauding, they contented themselves with cruising ofl Heligoland, and capturing half-a-dozen galliots and other imall craft sailing along the.coast, taking the skippers and crews on board their own ships of war, and either setting fire to their prizes or abandoning them to drift about, the sport of the winds and currents, till stranded on the coast. Thus it is inferred, and not without some good grounds, that it was more their object to obtain possession of some pilots, able--with a revolver at their head to prevent treachery and wilfully running aground—to conduct the ships, even without beacons and buoys, up to Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven ; for it can scarcely be supposed that they would undertake such a costly expedition, ard keep a number of large ships under steam for a week or ten days without intermission, for the paltry game 61 destroying a few fishing-boats and coasters, and taking twenty or thirty prisoners of war. —Home Newa.. . ; By the arrival at Liverpool recently of the Inman Company steamer City of Washington we have intelligence, of the foundering of the United Stateesteamer Galatea, and the arrival at New York of a portion of the sur- . vivors. On September 13 she sprung a leak, and at four o'clock on the afternoon of the same day tbe first and second cutters were launched, and provisions placed in them, but there was no fresh water, in consequence: of. the sea having risen in the tanks. At ten minutes past five the steamer sank, stern first, with all sails set. The two boats, theu steered for Abaco, in the Bahamas, but the night being dark, they .separated, and nothing was seen of the second cutter's lights aftet midnight. At nine o'clock the nexfUight the first cutter was picked up by

thescl: o mer Tampico, and evidently landed at Key West. It is presumed that the second boat has succeeded in reaching Abaco, butnpto the latest advices nothing had been he ird of her or her crew. The Galatea was built iv 1861 for the United States navy, and participated in the blockade of the Southern ports. She was a screw steamer and 1200 tons burden. The ship Universe, Captain Jones, which arrived at Savannah on September 16, from Liverpool, encountered a most extraordinary phenomenon on September 4 iv the Atlantic. On that day the ship experienced a squall from N.N.E., which blew for a time so furiously that no canvas could stand against it. During the hurricane a very heavy shower of rain fell for about half an hour, accompanied by quantities of saud and shells. After the storm had abated a quantity of the sand and shells were gathered from the deck. Some of the shells were broken into small fragments, whilst others remained whole. Captain Jones, whilst at m loss to explain the real cause of this extraordinary phenomenon, is of opinion that an enormous waterspout rauat, during the prevalence of the storm, have burst in the neighborhood of the vessel, and that during its formation it had sucked up the sand and shells from the bed^.of the ocean, and that they were swept oy the force of the wind over the ship. After this extraordinary occurrence the weather cleared up and continued so during the rest of the voyage.— Ibid.