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422 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [July 6, 1883. I keep my camera always at hand, for there is no know ing when it may be wanted, and occasionally I get my reward in such a subject, for instance, as the furling of a sail. While this sort of thing usually creates fun, and sometimes is the source of much gratification to those who come within the rapid glance of the camera’s trustful eye, it may also give rise to suspicion and distrust. We have had one remarkable instance of this. One morning a seaman came to the mast with a complaint against “ one o’ them Britishers,” who, he said, had been following him about with his camera at niyht, and at eleven o’clock one evening had taken his photograph while he was up aloft (what will dry plates be expected to do next ?) Where the man got such a crazy notion from, goodness only knows; but the best part of the joke is that the charge was brought against, not your humble servant— who, by his mysterious motions might have given rise to such a thing—but against poor Mr. Lawrance, who had never brought his camera on deck but once. The first lieutenant was only half able to undeceive the man, who retired muttering that he would have no more of it. By Sunday, April 15th, the wind, which had been steadily blowing from the south and east ever since we left Callao, almost ceased, and we found ourselves nearly becalmed just as we passed the most southerly isle of the Marquesas group. Our spirits, which had been rising and falling with every heaving of the log, now sank to zero, but not for long; orders were given to put on steam, and once more we found ourselves cleaving through the water. What if the vibration of the screw, and the column of smoke coming out of the funnel, leaving a black track behind, did mar the poetic smoothness of our pleasant cruise! Were we not getting to our destina tion, and was not each moment gained likely to add to our success? Up went our spirits again. Little we minded the consumption of coal. Since then, the fires were kept alight, but banked up whenever anything like a breeze helped us on our way. Not a vessel did we sight throughout the four thousand and odd miles we had travelled ; but the cruise was anything but monotonous. How could it be, when we had the frequent bustle of naval drill, the strains of the brass and string bands, and the dances of the crew, to beguile the time, to say nothing of the excitement of occasionally catching a shark, and seeing the sailor’s mortal enemy hacked and hewn to death as he vainly struggled on the deck with a sharp hook in his malignant jaws ? This morning, April 20th, every man seemed up betimes, for we knew we were not more than twenty or thirty miles away from our destination. Many a pair of eyes peered anxiously ahead from the fo’c’stle, and were at length rewarded by the sight of the tops of a few palm trees. These increased in height and number, till at last a chain of low islands, thickly wooded, stretched before us, and at their foot appeared a thin line of white foam which we well knew to be the swell of the sea breaking on the reef which protected the islands from the fury of the ocean. The vessel’s head had been pointing westward, but now it was turned round, and we skirted the islands and stopped on the western side of the southern isle, the largest of the group, the nearest to the line of central totality, and where the best landing place was to be found. Discussion had been rife as to whether any inhabitants were to be found, but none appeared on the beach, and the flag-staff planted by Commander Nares, when he took possession of the island in Her Majesty’s name, remained bare. A boat was sent out containing Mr. Qualtrough (one of the officers who is to remain on shore with us) in order to reconnoitre and try the landing. As he reached the island, the ship fired a gun, and ere the smoke cleared away, the British flag, the red ensign used in the merchant marine, ran up to the top of the flag-staff, and an involuntary “ Hurrah ! ” sprang from our lips. A few figures were seen to run down to the water’s edge, and pur boat’s crew disappeared for a short time. Shortly afterwards they returned and pulled for the ship, bringing with them a stranger. He turned out to be a Kanaka who had been brought from Tahiti a few months (four moons, he expressed it) pre viously. He told us there were seven people on the island —four men, two boys, and one woman, and a house which we saw among the trees belonged to a European who was in Tahiti. We had hit upon the best landing place, but that seemed poor, and fears were expressed as to whether our heavy cases could be got on shore. Yet every man set to with a will, boats were loaded, the catamaran (a sort of small raft) was got ready, and we soon had the pleasure of seeing a lot of 'our cases piled up on the bea-h, and lothers dragged to the outskirts of the woods. Duty kept me on board the vessel, but as we looked through our spy- glasses, it seemed a beautiful place. Beautiful crimson birds—possibly parrots—were seen in the branches of the trees; crowds of gulls and frigate birds left the land to visit the strange ship, and uttered strange cries as they hovered overhead. The members of the party who went on shore came back with the intelligence that the island was one of the prettiest places they had seen. Most of our cases are now on shore, and the rest will go to-morrow morning, and ere the day closes we shall be left on the island, for the ship leaves for Tahiti to get supplies. A small party of men, including a carpenter, will be left with us. Mr. Qualtrough will take the com mand of them, and also be entrusted with the care of the party ; he will also take charge of our photo-heliograph and corona camera, his experience at the Naval Observa tory, Washington, having well fitted him for such work. Two midshipmen, Messrs. Doyle and Fletcher, also accom pany us, and their spare time will be taken up with a general survey of the group of islands. We shall have one of the ship’s boats for traversing the lagoon, and any thing else that is likely to add to our convenience. It seems strange, this undertaking—this mingling of semi barbarism, and the highest outcome of civilization; this visit to a lonely little place to determine some of the most 1 intricate problems of modem science. What will be the result ? Clouds have half-covered the sky to-day, a rain squall broke over the island ere we reached it, and it seems scarcely too promising. But fortune has favoured us so far : why should we fear now? Hope within tells us that success awaits our efforts : at least, if we do our best, the elements alone will be to blame, should we return empty- handed. FRENCH CORRESPONDENCE. Iso-Chbomatic Plates—PHOrOGRAPMIO Enamels in ColouM —Lectures on Photo-Ceramics—MM. DODILLE BaoS. Sensitive Albumenized Parer. Iso-chromatic Plates.—MM. Tailfer and Clayton are about to organise in Paris a manufactory for iso-chromatic plates, that isto say, having equal sensitiveness to the colourd rays of the solar spectrum. Eosine is the substance employed to give this quality. By introducing it into the emulsion in a convenient form, the films are as sensitive as any gelatino-bromide plates. The effects produced by com paring two plates, each reproducing the same subject, are striking. Chrome yellow, orange red, blue, and violet, are rendered by the aid of eosine with relative value absolutely equal to that perceived by the eye. 1 am convinced that as soon as the factory is established, photographers will not hesitate to use these plates, which enable them to copy from nature with a fidelity hitherto never attainable by photo graphy. The artists ought at last to be satisfied, unless it be a cause of grief to them to be unable to have any further cause of complaint against photography. They seemed quite happy in finding out its defects in rendering the yellows and luminous reds of their pictures black. I have heard the following objection made to these iso-chromatic plates. How is it possible to escape fogging with plates