Last Sunday, as I was talking to some of the men forward, Broadhead spoke of the Yellowstone Park, and he chanced to mention that a friend of his had spent his honeymoon in that delectable locality, adding that, of course, everything looked particularly rosy even for the Yellowstone. Conversation then changed, when all at once I found the eyes of Jimmie Rumps fixed upon me, and a moment later he said, wistfully and earnestly, “I should think it must be just grand to go on a honeymoon.” Rumps, it might be added, would make an excellent cabin-boy on a yacht; but as bosun of a large ship, it would be difficult to find one more thoroughly incompetent than he is. There are at least a dozen of the men before the mast who are far better sailors than he, and seamanship is a _sine qua non_ in a bosun as well as in a second mate. Another speech of one of the men afforded us a little amusement this forenoon. As my wife stepped to the binnacle to learn the course, the old man having just gone below with his sextant, Paddy, the merry, humorous young Irishman, was steering; but instead of his usual jolly smile, his face indicated the most extreme dejection. So, to cheer him up, my wife nodded to him and remarked, “We’ll soon be in, Paddy.” “Yes, mum, I know,” he replied, “but I got gum-boils now”; to show that variety had been vouchsafed him in his afflictions, as he has only just recovered from the worst sea-boils in the ship. It may not be very widely known that in the United States there are several competent women ship-mistresses, as I suppose they ought to be called. I don’t mean women who understand more or less about the handling of vessels, but those who are entirely capable and have received their certificates for steamers from the government. The first woman to pass the examination in this country was a Mrs. George Miller, of New Orleans, and it was the late Justice Folger, at the time Secretary of the Treasury, who, after mature deliberation, decided that a woman could legally, if she passed the severe examination necessary to command a steam-vessel, assume the responsible position of captain. Since then several women in the United States have obtained master’s licenses and have demonstrated their ability to handle steamers; but the woman-captain of a square-rigger has not yet appeared on the horizon, though many long-voyage captains’ wives are almost, if not quite, as capable navigators and seamen as their husbands.