What may be termed mere galley-slang also demands explanation, since even officers are sometimes ashore--I was going to say at sea--respecting its purport; and I recollect at a court-martial holden on a seaman for insolence to his superior, the lingo used by the shrewd culprit was liable to be thought respectful or otherwise according to the manner of utterance, and he was admitted to the benefit of the doubtful meaning. Still it must be admitted that all vulgarisms, as far as practicable, should be indignantly spurned from our noble English language--a language unequalled for excellence in fluency, capacity, and strength. A stern critic may also, and in truth, aver that terms are included on our roll the which are not altogether of maritime usage. This we have admitted, but the allegation will be greatly weakened on scrutiny, for they are here given in the sense entertained of them in nautic parlance. Such are generally illustrative of some of the lingual or local peculiarities of sea-life, or borne on its literature, and therefore are necessarily admitted as having a footing in maritime philology. Some of our misused words and archaic phrases are, by influence of the newspaper magnates, brought across the Atlantic, and re-appear among us under the style and title of Americanisms: after which fashion, in the lapse of time and the mutation of dialect, vocables once differing in origin and meaning may become identical in sense and sound.[A] [A] As for example the word _alarm_, _alarum_, a bell, from the German _lärm_; but the military _alarm_ on a drum is the Italian _all'arme_. Finally, Natural History, a taste for which is a substantial blessing to the sailor, is too vast a department for our professional pages. However, a few requisite definitions of the familiar products of the air, earth, and water are introduced. Numbers of marine birds and many fishes--so often misnamed--are entered upon the muster; and especially those which the blue-jackets vote to be very good eating; yet, as a reverend author has well observed, we should, in such cases, recur to the probable state of their appetites at the time of experiment. The most general nautic dishes and refections are likewise cited, to the making of which most of our sea-cooks are competent--there being no purée, entremet, or fricandeau to trouble them. But though they are at times libelled as being sent from the infernal regions, they are pretty fair in their way; and though no great shakes in domestic chemistry, they can enter the lists against any white-aproned _artiste_ at pea-soup, beef-steak, lobscouse, pillau, curried shark, twice-laid, or savoury sea-pie. Still, a more luxurious tendency in this department is casting its shadow before; and there are Sybarites invading the ocean to whom the taste of junk is all but unknown. [Illustration: Signature of W. H. Smyth] A DIGEST OF SEA TERMS AND PHRASES. A.