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THE STRAND MAGAZINE.

mination, the vigilant eye of the doctor immediately detecting any apparent symptoms of unhealthiness requiring closer scrutiny, which in the instance of a very few amongst the number seemed to be necessary. These were detained until the remaining emigrants, together with the second cabin passengers and the ship's crew, had filed past, after which the suspicious-looking symptoms of two or three children were carefully examined and found to require no more serious remedy than soap and water, which the anxious parents were ordered to apply without delay.


The Grand Saloon.
From a Photograph.

All the passengers, luggage, and Liverpool mails were on board by two o'clock. There was the customary waving of hats and handkerchiefs, from the tenders and other small craft in the broad river, as the stately Majestic glided slowly, and without the slightest vibration from her great engines, past the long vista of Liverpool docks and warehouses, on her voyage towards the shores of the Western World. The total number of souls on board, passengers and crew, was 1,415. When we were fairly under way, the first cabin passengers were summoned by sound of trumpet to luncheon in the saloon, which is in reality a spacious banquet-room over 60ft. long and nearly as wide. On all sides of this magnificent hall, and adorning the immense canopy which covers it, is a sea of ivory and gold, crowned with a dome of elegant ornamental panels. The remaining ornamentation is a profusion of tritons, nymphs, and, as Sam Weller would put it, "fabberlous animals of that sort," whilst the light of numberless electric lamps flashes across the ceiling at nightfall. The fore and aft ends of the saloon are decorated with fine specimens of carved oak, and the couches and seats are luxuriously upholstered.

Adjoining the main entrance of the saloon, on the promenade deck, is a large and comfortable library, containing an excellent collection of standard and contemporary books. This apartment is panelled in light oak, and is bright and attractive, being lined at the sides by windows covered with glass shutters of Italian design, admitting a subdued and mellow light, further augmented by the stained-glass dome. Large panels artistically ornamented with different tapestries, relieved by soft colours that attract the eye, add to the elegance of the room. Further aft, on the deck below, is the smoking-room, one of the most comfortable apartments of the ship, and the favourite lounge of the male passengers, a large proportion of whom whiled away many hours daily within its pleasant precincts. Here was nightly held the auction sale of the pool, based on the figures of the ship's run each twenty-four hours—a mild species of speculation which appeared to meet with general leniency, even amongst those who took no part in it.

Our first day's log from Queenstown, whose harbour we left about two o'clock in the afternoon of Thursday, announced 480 miles, and these figures, posted at noon on the following day, were the foundation of a very lively competition for the possession of the numbers immediately approaching or exceeding 500, which it was expected would be the sea-mileage of the Majestic during the next