Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 920, 8 July 1871, Page 2

The s.s. Omeo is due from Melbourne direct to-day, and will have immediate despatch for Melbourne, via New Zealand ports. The s.s. Alhambra, from Melbourne, via New Zealand ports, arrived in this roadstead during Thursday night, and was tendered yesterday morning by the p.s. Dispatch, which put on board of her some 4000oz of gold and 24 passengers, and brought ashore two passengers. We cannot give any details of the Alhambra's trip, as no ship's report came ashore. The p.s. Charles Edward, which passed this port for Hokitika yesterday, is announced to 3ail hence this afternoon for Nelson and Westporfc. The s.s. Murray has not yet put in an appearance, but it is expected she will show up to-day. She will be immediately despatched with the local mails for England to Nelson to catch the branch mail steamer, which is due on the 10th. # Aland and water velocipede is the next novelty with which we are to be favored. This promises, according to the South London Press, to put in the shade the extraordinary adventures of Rob Roy (Mr John M'Gregor), who voyaged in bis tight little canoe up the river Jordan, and in many other parts of the East. Mr Jackson, of Caroline street, Ealon square, is constructing a velocipede which is __|2_cpnyjyJjTOir^n>X^9n v iQ^^ r § gufta'ffle for the road will act as paddles in the water, and appear to be as suitable for the one as for the other. ~ The experiment has been tried with a temporary-constructed machine, and found to be practicable. The Oeelong Advertiser reports that " a stronggale, S.E. by E., continued throughout the whole of Sunday night and Monday, the 19th and 20th ultimo, and being accomSunied with furious squalls, at times, renered it no easy matter to make way against it. Fortunately, it blew off the shore, and therefore could not do much damage to the shipping, yachts, and boats in the bay, which for a quarter of a mile out was comparatively smooth. In the middle of the bay, however, a heavy sea was rolling, but up to 6 o'clock on Mcnday evening no damage was reported. Daring the day two of Captain Le Neveu's vessels, the Sydney Griffiths and the Armistice from Newcastle, as also the Hally Bayley from Launceston, got safe into port, the captains being glad to get out of the dirty weather that was raging outside the Heads. Some anxiety was expressed regarding the William Ackers and the Helen, which were both due at the Heads from Newcastle. Such a gale has not been experienced here for months." The Dundee sealer Arctic brings an exciting story of her last voyage in the "North Sea On the 11th March, when the ship was a few miles south, of Jan Meyne Island, she was caught in a hurricane of such violence that the oldest sailor in these latitudes says he never remembers having experienced its equal. The wind was blowing the sea into a mass of foam, and such was its intensity that it was hardly possible for a sailor to look to windward. Before long the vessel's bulwarks were carried away, and pieces of ice weighing about six or eight cwts. were being pitched into the vessel along with the terrible seas that were breaking over her, and speedily converting her into a moving iceberg. The captain states that the cabin floor was one solid mass of ice. On the deck the ice was several feet thick, the rigging was one solid . wall of ice, and the smallest rope in the ship had about eight inches of a crust of ice round it. For two days the ship was entirely unmanageable, and it was scarcely possible to be on deck. On. the 13th, the barometer, which had been below zero, again began to rise, and the weather gradually settled down again just as the men were giving themselves up for lost. When the weather abated, the crew fell to sealing in right earnest, and by the 7th of April, the number of 17,800 were captured. The largest number got in one d&y was 3500.