Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/710

692 affords exactly what is required to supply a theoretically complete and a most economical dietary, without the aid of any other kind of animal food. The potash salts may be advantageously supplied by a liberal second course of fruit or salad.—Knowledge.



N the autumn of 1879 the steamship Arizona, five thousand tons, at that time the swiftest ocean-going steamship in existence, was urging her way, at the rate of some fifteen knots an hour, on the homeward course from New York, whence she had sailed but a day or two before. It was night, and there was a light haze, but of danger from collision with a passing ship there was little or none. The captain and crew knew of no special reason for watchfulness, and the passengers were altogether free from anxiety. Indeed, it so chanced that at a time when, in reality, the most imminent danger threatened every soul on board, many of the saloon-passengers were engaged in purchasing at auction the numbers for the next day's run—runs below three hundred and fifty knots being sold at a very low rate indeed. Suddenly a crash was heard, the ship's swift progress was stopped, and a few minutes later every one knew that the Arizona had run dead upon an enormous iceberg, the spires and pinnacles of which could be seen hanging almost over the ship, and gleaming threateningly in the rays of her mast-head light. But the risk that threatened her living freight was not that of being crushed by falling ice. The bows of the Arizona were seen to be slowly sinking, and presently there was a well-marked lurch to starboard. The fore compartment and a smaller side compartment were filling. It was an anxious time for all on board. Many an eye was turned toward the boats, and the more experienced thought of the weary miles which separated them from the nearest land, and of the poor chance that a passing steamer might pick up the Arizona's boats at sea. Fortunately, the builders of the Arizona had done their work faithfully and well. Like another ship of the same line which had been exposed to the same risk, save that her speed was less, and therefore the danger of the shock diminished, the Arizona, though crippled, was not sunk. She bore up for St. John's, and her passengers were taken on later by another steamer.

The danger which nearly caused the loss of the Arizona—collision with an iceberg—is one to which steamships, and especially swift steamships, are exposed in exceptional degree. Like this danger, also, it is one which renders the duty of careful watching, especially in the night and in times of haze or fog, a most anxious and important care. 