As to particular steamers, the Castor since he lost his twin-brother, who was run down off _Capo D'Anzo_ (he forgot, we suppose, to invoke Fortune "_gratum quae regit Antium_"), has become quite negligent of toilette, and incredulous about the powers of soap and sand. The bugs in only _one_ of her beds would defy _Bonnycastle!_ Fast enough, however, goes the Castor! Orestes, pursued by the furies, never rushed more impetuously on than does this child of Leda, with all his vermin in the locker. Of Virgil in the water, we have no experience, but they say his _prosody_ is perfect, and his _quantity_ (of accommodation) blameless. The Dante under paddles is unknown to us; but the poem which his customers read oftenest on board is doubtless the _Purgatory_. The captain of the Palermo, an obliging man, _with ear-rings_, and speaking Siculo-English, does his job in nineteen hours; and giving you one execrable meal, gives you more than enough. This vessel (blessed privilege!) carries some of the Teffin family (Mr Teffin, our readers know, was _bug-destroyer to the king_), and _is said_ to have no bugs. As to the two floating volcanoes, Vesuvius and Mongibello, we had heard much against the Neapolitan _crater_ (_cabin they_ call it), and, after due preparation, we precipitated ourselves into the latter, which placards her two hundred and fifty horse-power. The engineer, however, if you acquire his confidence, reduces the team considerably, taking off at least one-fifth. Horse-power is, after all, we fear, an appeal to the imagination! How do you measure horse-power? and what horses? Calabrian nags? Arab stallions? Dutch mares? or English drays? or perhaps you mean _sea-horses?_ That every vessel has a great _rocking-horse power_ we know by sad experience, and are come to read one hundred and fifty, two hundred, &c., with great tranquillity, being convinced that when the translation from horse-power into paddle-power is effected, you obtain no corresponding result. AESTHETICS OF DRESS. MILITARY COSTUME.