Gleanings in Europe - 1837 Author:James Fenimore Cooper Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ENGLAND. LETTER I. TO CAPT. W. BHANFORD SHUBRICK, TJ. S. N. It was a fine February day, when we left the Hotel Dessin to embark for Dover. The quay was ... more »crowded with clamorous porters, while the gensdarmes had an eye to the police regulations, lest a stray rogue, more or less, might pass undetected between the two great capitals of Europe. As I had placed myself in the hands of a regular commissionaire belonging to the hotel, we had no other trouble than that of getting down a ladder of some fifteen steps, into the boat. The rise and fall of the water is so great, in these high narrow seas, thatvessels are sometimes on a level with the quays, and at others three or four fathoms below them. We had chosen the English steam-packet, a government boat, in preference to the French, from a latent distrust of Gallic seamanship. The voyage Vol. i. 2 was not long, certainly, but, short as it was, we reaped the advantage of a good choice,' in beating our competitor by more than an hour. It is possible to see across the Straits of Dover, in clear weather, but, on this occasion, we had nothing visible before us, but an horizon of water, as we paddled through the long entrance of the little haven, into the North Sea. The day was calm, and, an unusual circumstance in swift tides and narrow passages, the channel was as smooth as a pond. Even the ground swell was too gentle to disturb the omelettes of M. Dessin's successor. The difference of character in the two great nations that lie so near each other, as almost to hear each other's cocks crow, is even visible on the strait that separates them. On the coast of France, we saw a few fishing boats, with tanned sails, catering for the restaurants of Paris, while the lofty canvass of countless ships rose in succession from the ...« less