OUTWARD BOUND. 7 the next day, not forgetting to take with us a dimi nutive specimen of The flag that's braved a thousand years The battle and the breeze. We reached Dieppe at ten o'clock in the evening, and having nothing but a knapsack each, we were not detained at the Custom House above five minutes.—Met the Professor, and were glad to learn from him that he had arranged everything about the boat, and that she had left that morning by the petite vitesse, or luggage train, and would probably arrive in Paris in two days' time. It would be well, perhaps, for the good of posterity, to enumerate briefly the stock of clothing we each took with us. It consisted of a straw hat, a white neckerchief, an alpaca coat for towns, light waistcoat ditto, two shirts, two merino jerseys, one sky-blue flannel ditto, two pairs of flannel trowsers, two pairs of socks, four pocket handkerchiefs, a pair of canvas shoes, a comb and a tooth brush, and a mackintosh rolled up on the top of the knapsack; and beyond this the Doctor had furnished himself with a book or two-the Professor with his fishing rod and commissionaire's pouch, while the Captain took charge of the union jack, belonging to the boat. 8 OUTWARD BOUND. We started for Rouen by rail, and en route caught a glimpse of the 'Undine' stowed away very carefully on some trucks of hay, while they lay at a small station allowing us to pass. Arriving at Rouen we visited some of the principal lions of the place, more for the Doctor's sake than anything else, for both the Captain and Professor had seen the town before. It was only a few places, though, that we honoured with our presence, for we all had an objection to doing a town in the customary manner of Englishmen abroad-that is, of seeing the greatest number of things in the least possible time: and we were convinced moreover, that there is nothing so fatiguing as sight-seeing, especially in towns; not that this prevented our visiting what we conveniently could on our way. But, by the ordinary visitor to the fine old town of Rouen, at least a week should be devoted, for besides the numberless antiquities it possesses, and the venerable picturesqueness of most of the streets, it is unlike most other towns where such old buildings remain, in this, that it is a bustling place of business, and for this cause it has been often called the Manchester of France. OUTWARD BOUND. 9 There is an excellent description of Rouen in Murray's Hand-book, to which work I would refer my curious reader for an account of this or any other town I may mention; for it is not my object, as I have above stated, to launch out into a minute description of the places we pass, since in such a mere journal as the present it would be wholly out of place. The route from Dieppe to Paris especially needs little or no comment, seeing so many of our own countrymen travel yearly over this railway, the greater part of which, by the bye, was made by 'navvies' imported from England for the purpose. The lovely scenery on the banks of the winding Seine, and the richness of the surrounding country, would have delighted us much had we not been pestered by a loquacious Englishman, who persisted in perpetrating what he considered to be jokes. He told us that he was the tallest man in existence, for that he reached the whole way from Dover to Calais-a vile pun which the Doctor declared ought to have been rewarded by an emetic at least. On our arrival in Paris, where we intended stopping a few days, we took up our quarters in the Rue St. Nicholas, and then called on Mr. J. Arthur, an English gentleman of whom Messrs. Noulton, and Wyld had made mention to us, and who has had several English-built boats sent over to Paris, principally for the use of a boat club which he was attempting to form. We were agreeably surprised at meeting with an attempt of this nature on the continent; and I believe that it will not be uninteresting to the readers of this little work, if, before entering upon its immediate subject, I devote two or three pages to a description of the novel experiment which the energy and experience of Mr. Arthur has already brought to so successful an issue, CHAPTER III. PARIS AND THE SEINE. Ant.-The bark is ready, Marino Faliero. N the morning Mr. Arthur accompanied us to the railway station to inquire for the boat, and finding that she had arrived and was ready to leave the station, we hired a large covered cart, and getting into it, boat and all, started for Asnières, a small place at the junc tion of the Versailles and St. Germain's railroad, where Mr. Arthur kept his boats. Our craft was the admiration of several members |