WITHIN the last ten years, or, in fact, Southern Arabia, connected with the main since the opening of the Suez Canal, the port of Aden has been one of the most important of all the English possessions in the far East. It is looked upon as the corner-stone of the Indian Empire, as it commands a large extent of territory and all the waters of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Yet this same Aden is but a small peninsula of land by a narrow isthmus. It does not include an area of more than eighteen square miles: the most barren, desolate, heaven-forsaken place that man ever set eyes upon, or Christian foot ever trod. It is bold, mountainous, rocky, desolate not a glimpse of vegetation is to be seen, nor a tree or shrub, nothing but the bare rock and a few patches of burned-up earth, | four French men-of-war, and no one knew too hot for anything to grow, and nothing would care to in such an infernal purgatory, where the heat is so oppressive that neither man nor beast can endure the direct rays of the sun at certain hours of the day. what particular business they had in that part of the world. The officers were reticent and uttered not a word. So the governorgeneral of Bombay thought he would give a grand dinner-party to the French admiral and Water is caught in tanks and doled out his captains, and see what would be the like grog on a man-of-war in olden time; for effect of unlimited quantities of champagne the rains are required to furnish a supply of and rare old port and Madeira. The wine drinking fluid, aside from the spirits, wine, unlocked the tongues of the French gentle. and beer which the inhabitants and garrison men, and the governor learned with proindulge in. And no one can be blamed for found astonishment that next morning the using stimulants in such a place; something fleet was to sail for Aden, and take possess artificial being required to keep up the spirits ion, in the name of France and the Emper of men compelled to live in a town like Aden. or Napoleon. Here was a pretty kettle of The place is only about a hundred miles fish, no mistake; and, for a moment, the east of the entrance of the Red Sea, and is governor was dumbfounded. But he soon reused as a coaling station for the English Covered his presence of mind, passed the navy, and also for the steamships that run bottle, asked his guests to excuse him for a from Great Britian to the Indies, China, and moment, wrote an imperative order to the Japan. For this purpose it is a success, but captain of a British nian-of-war, in port, to the sufferings of the laborers who have to be get under way, without a moment's delay, employed in putting the coal on the vessels is proceed to Aden and take possession in the something that would draw tears from the name of Queen Victoria and England, and to eyes of the agents of the society for the pre-hold the place against all .new-comers till vention of cruelty to animals. Of course no further orders. 'white man could endure such labor, Chinamen, Lascars, negroes and Arabs being employed; and sad-looking human beings they are when the job is completed and the lighters are ordered to move off from the side of the steamer, and the latter stands out to sea on her voyage home or to some foreign port, like Bombay, Calcutta, Hong Kong or Japan. Yet Aden signifies Paradise or Eden, the followers of Ishmael thinking it was a healthy place, and so it is, in spite of its heat and barren rocks and hundreds of years ago the Arabs and Turks carried on a large trade at this place, but the discovery of the passage around the Cape of Good Hope destroyed all of its business; and when the English grabbed it, there were but a few houses and a scant population. Now Aden has a population of about 45,000, of a most miscellaneous description; men from all parts of the world eager to make a dollar, and as keen and sharp as a Chinaman with a cargo to buy or sell. On the beach is a good hotel for the place, with a veranda entirely around it, and where passengers can be accommodated with meals while their steamers are coaling, thus escaping heat and dirt by taking refuge on shore. A very discreet and sensible practice for those who know the ropes and understand how to use them while in port. Perhaps it is not generally known how our English cousins happened to take possession of Aden. Some years ago, there was, lying in the roadstead of Bombay, three or The orders were obeyed. The ship sailed within an hour, Aden was seized, the British flag was hoisted on the loftiest peak in the place, and two days afterward the French fleet arrived, but found that they were too late. The English were before them; and there was no redress or thought of fighting, but how the Frenchmen must have cursed the wine-cup and perfidious Albion when they saw what a chance they had lost. It is quite probable that the officers of the regi ment stationed there wished that France had been more successful, or had kept their tongues still; for Aden is not a paradise for soldiers, and there is no fun in being changed to such a barren rock. Some of the most expert water-thieves in the world can be found at Aden, and this need not be wondered at when we consider the large number of Chinamen and East Indians residing there, people who do not think it a crime to steal from those who own property worth stealing. We have known boatmen to paddle alongside of a steamship on a moonlight night, insert long bamboo rods, with iron hooks on the ends, in the port-holes, and, by such means, fish out shawls, clothing, mats, or any article of val ue, and make off with them undetected. All this is done in spite of a vigilant anchorwatch. If discovered, the thieves drop into the water, and swim ashore, leaving their light canoe to be captured and broken up. If our readers ever stop at Aden over night, let them beware of harbor-thieves. We had gone to Okhotsk very early in the season, and had cruised about a month without success, when we decided to leave this sea and proceed to the "Northwest," as the whale-grounds of the northwest extremity of this continent are called. We shaped our course accordingly; and, with a wind that allowed us to carry our top-gallant sails, we started to try our fortune amid the ice of Behring Strait and the Arctic. But our wind had lasted scarcely thirty-six hours, when We were becalmed and it became so foggy that we could see hardly a ship's-length away. This weather continued for three days, during which time the sea became extremely smooth. By our reckoning we were near the western coast of Kamtchatka, and a sharp lookout was kept from the deck (in foggy weather one cannot see so far from the mast-head as from the deck) to the eastward day and night. We apprehended no danger from floating ice then, at that season of the year; but we had been long enough without the sun to prevent us from knowing, with any degree of certainty, our longitude. We kept our fog-horns a-going, and finally, during the third night, received an answering blast from the eastward. The fog was not so thick as it had been the two previous days, and we concluded that at sunrise it would clear away. Not long before daybreak it brightened in the east, and we were even | proach to Behring Strait. We sailed along its southern shore, to round its eastern extremity, off of which the monotony of our passage was varied by a very exciting inci dent. surprised on perceiving a bright glare in the distance like that of an immense conflagration. This glare was apparently high among the clouds, and as the day broke, it grew We were sailing along with lookouts stadimmer. Finally, land was reported, and, Sail, ho! tioned in crow's-nests aloft, when we discov at the same time the cry of resounded from the lookout at our bows.ered that there was considerable excitement The land seen was Mount Kamtchatka, on board of our companion. They had eviand, from its crater, a dense white smoke dently seen something ahead of them, for curled upwards; while the sail was a French the vessel continued on the same course. whaler, which, like our vessel, was becalmed. We shouted to our lookouts to keep a sharp We exchanged signals, and found that she watch ahead and off the lee-bow, while we was bound out, as we were, to try her luck directed our glass to that arc of the horizon and scanned the sea within that segment. elsewhere. We were to windward and consequently did not hear distinctly what was said on board of the other vessel. There was a lull, however, which lasted long enough for us to hear the captain shout to his lookout, At eight o'clock it was still calm, but as The cloudless as in the Mediterranean. volcano loomed up before us with the smoke curling above it, and a thin streak of clouds below the peak, for we were heading inshore; and the French ship, which was becalmed with us, was a little off our port-bow. Straggling blocks of ice were floating on the glassy surface of the sea; and on the largest of them, almost directly astern of us, two large seals were sunning themselves. We had taken no oil, and, in whalemen's "clean." Even our parlance, our ship was supply for lighting the cabin, steerage and forecastle was extremely scant; and we could not afford to allow the opportunity, which these seals offered to replenish our stock, to pass without endeavoring to profit by it. Hence we lowered a boat to secure them, and succeeded in shooting and obtaining both. "Les voyez-vous, maintenant?" (Do you see them now?) "Oui, monsieur, tout droit en avant." (Yes, sir, right ahead.) "Où vont-elles ?" (Where are they going?) "En avant, monsieur." (Ahead, sir.) "Très bien, ne les perdez pas de rue!" Very well: don't lose sight of them.) "There 's blackskin! There blows!" from our masthead. "Where away?" was shouted back from deck. "Right ahead and off the lee-bow, sir. There blows! - blows! - blows! - there goes flukes!" Right ahead of us, and going in the same At ten, a ripple ahead of us indicated the coming of a light breeze; the Frenchman's direction as ourselves, there were several sails filled, and we prepared, with gratifica-large right whales; and there was another tion, to take advantage of the rising wind. The Frenchman signalized that he wished to 66 gam; and we backed our main-topsail to wait for him. When within hail he shouted, through his trumpet, 66 You got one man vat speaky French on board?" 66 Yes," we replied. All right, den, I vill come on board." He manned his boat and was soon seen on our deck; our mate boarded our visitor's vessel; and we proceeded on our course in company. We "gammed" till four in the afternoon; and before the Frenchman returned to his ship, it was agreed that we would keep together on our passage to the "Northwest." We proceeded along the Kamtchatkan coast with nothing happening out of the ordinary routine of a whaleman's life, till abreast of Petropavlovsk, when we bore away in a direct course for St. Lawrence Island. We passed outside of Behring and Copper Islands, and, in due time, after a remarkably pleasant run, sighted St. Lawrence, which stands as a sentinel guarding the ap small school of them off our lee bow, ahead of the Frenchman. We had the wind on our starboard quarter and were under the maintop-gallant sail. We immediately set our fore and mizzen top-gallant sails; and the commander of the other vessel followed our example, and, at the same time, hoisted his ensign to attract our attention. Look ing toward him, we perceived two men in the mizzen rigging holding a hatch, in which, with the aid of our glass, we found that he had chalked in large letters and in French, "Let each of us take those ahead of him." As this appeared to us to be not only a very reasonable proposition, but also one which would prevent us from interfering with each other, we replied at once by chalking on one of our main-hatches, which we caused to be displayed to him, "All right!" He waved the numeral pennant to us to signify that he understood; and we directed our undivided attention to the whales ahead We were going about six knots, and of us. there was a cross sea on sufficiently heavy to drown the sound of our oars when the |