A Fog On The Thames

On liühngsgato Market, whoüe rad nicks blotch tho thick air liko a " teethug rash," wo pass three plump-bowed nd (may I say 'i) buttockod Dutch boats, nchorcd abroast, varnished, apparently witU " golden syrup," hauging out rish n their rigging (although tb'o tog conïdercd, tbo tiguri! ís sourcoly approprito) like thü drying frocks and trousers of men-of-witr's men, and luanned by stolid larincrs, who loom through the mist iko stage-sumgglers. Plenty of business, o doubt, is boing tranaacted in the grim ustom-bouse, but its lighters, rooking in he steamboat's wash, make one think ot' leepera tossing in a nightmare - the abnormal darkness is so sleep-suggestive. 'he lofty Shad Thames warehouses look insubstantial as moldy gingerbroad. 'he Tower looks much as usual, to a faniful rnind " that always has a hazo about t an historical hazn. Lots of steamers wo pasa, razor-bowed and apple-bowed, own by the headand downby the stern, vith lists to port and with lists to stai)oard, bowspritless and with little stumps of bowsprifcs like rather big rolling pins. with white, black, white aud black, and )laok, and red and black, and pie crust olored i'unnels - single or a braco of them, teamers with whitu paddlo-boxes, and vhite and gilt and red and bluo and yellow and green scrolls and molditigs, and raking scraped spars and "rlomished" ropes - Bea beautics, in spito of their buiging paddlo-boxes anrt ugly ecrew gaps astern ; and hidonu3 screw colliora, as filthy and slovenly as thohardostworked, worst paid slavoy, with squat-funnels like barge chimncys, stickiug up close by the mizzen mast ; stoatoerscrammod with passengers, and sendiug the bray of brass to the twang of stringed music through the mint ; steamers languidly paddling or sorewing thoir way to their berths, with a few soa-weary people looking over tho sido ; steamors with chaotic decks, in the niidst of a mob of lightem and wherries : steamers that do not seem to have even dog on board ; and consequentially snorting little tugs towing trains of barges, with the bargemen and theiv wives and children clustered abowt the long tillois. It is like unrolling a long scroll of " panorama " colored prints; scarcely any boat is seon in its entirety tho stern of one and the stem of another are marred by the mist. A Thames pólice galley rows past us. The puüers have a frank sailor-like look, in spite of tho primo lottors which show their functions nevertheless, shootiug past in the fog, they mak one think of Fohingericht messengers. Tho masts and vards of tho shij)pincr in Üie docks, secn pieco-moal, seem to bo floating in the twany air. Tho coat whippoi"8 in yonder battored collier look liko fiendish phantoms dancing abovo tho bottomloss pit, as they swing upon their ropes. Tho brown sails and trussesof the hay-barges aro only distinguishable froin tho atmosphore aa a sepid smudgo isfrom a sepia drawing. The rod aheeting of the Fisgard and tho Warspitelook likedying ombors. Tlie gray and black ot' Greenwich Hospital, oíf which tho Fisgard, removed from Woolwich, ia now inoored, can soarcely bo mado out through the