with those caused by storms at sea. In one place alone, Brixham, Tot bay, a whole fleet of vessels, forty-two in number, which had taken refuge from the south-westerly gale, by a sudden change of the wind to tho eastward, were driven on Bhoro and wrecked, with a loss of life variously stated from 72 to 150. The state of the weather may be judged of from the fact, that at one time 270* vessels were collected at Falmouth, and its disastrous effects on shipping from the fact that in the course of ten days the Board of Trade had re c 3ived the depositions of the captains and survivors. of upwards of 400 vessels either totally wrecked, or seriously damaged during the gales— a loss greater in the time than any that has occurred since the year 1838 ; the total loss of life is not stated, and is probably not known. But there is one event which stands dut in the list with appalling distinctness — the foundering of the London in the Bay of Biscay. We hear, even by this mail, of other ships totally lost, but the simple announcement 'all on board perished,' •Jon turns the mind away from what it can never know, and thus the very com pleteness of the catastrophe cuts us off from realising it. But in the case of the London, men enough escaped to tell the fearful story and bring it vividly home to as. In Melbourne, where a large part of the passengers had their homes, the news of the calamity, we are told, spread a general gloom, which will be shared in in this colony, even though there are not many New Zealand homes that will be left desolate. We deeply regret, however^ to see among the list of those that perished the names of the wife and two sons and only daughter of Judge Chapman, who, we believe, was confidently expecting them at Dunedin by the same vessel that wOuld bring instead only this terrible news. We will not dwell upon thu calamity further than to call attention to the one bright point in it, the noble con duct of Captain Martin and others up to the very last. 