PASSING EVENTS.

THE P. & O. Steam-ship Benares was stranded on one of the Islands of the Fisherman Group at 11.10 P.M. on the 23rd of May. A Passenger has published in the CHINA MAIL a circumstantial account of the disaster, of which the following is an abstract:

The Benares started from Shanghae at 12 noon. About 11 P.M. all the Passengers retired to their cabins; at 11.15 P.M. we were aroused by a heavy rumbling noise and then a severe shock, which pitched some of us out of our beds. We all rushed on deck, and to our astonishment found the Steamers' bowsprit peering away up, almost touching a bold head-land. The engines backed at full speed, but were of no avail to take her off. The Carpenter, sounded the holds, to see if the vessel was making any water, and he announced, 'making no water,' so far cheering all for the time being. I thought there might still be a chance of saving all the lives and property; but on looking at the bold rugged rocks, I could plainly see no landing could be effected. The night was clear at this time, but afterwards became hazy. All this time the engines were going astern full speed, with the fore top-sail and top-gallant sail all aback, but all was useless. For an hour after she struck, the boats were never thought of, not even were the covers taken off, to permit of fresh water and provisions being stowed in them; the stern began to swing round until it took the rocks, and the vessel thus lay along the line of the rocky island. As the tide began to recede a little after 12, and the vessel began to heel over, our anxiety increased, for we thought every moment that she would capsize and engulph us all with her. Steadily she went over, to about thirty-five degrees, when orders were given to lower the boats the starboard ones were easily lowered, as the ship lay over on that side; but the port ones could scarcely be got into the water, as they all lay inboard. After great delay, they were all successfully lowered except one life boat. Orders were next given 'all hands to the boats,' every one taking the first boat he could get. I was always led to understand that there were regular boat-stations in the P. & O. Co.'s steamers, but seemingly there were none in the Benares. The boats were ordered to keep in company with each other until the morning, but despite every precaution, three were driven out to Before morning the Chinese boatmen got sulky and would not pull with a will; the Lascars sat down in the boat crying 'Allah,' giving themselves up to the all protecting power of the Deity. We had to pull ourselves until dawn, when we saw the Benares still above water, though lying over at an angle of forty-five degrees. The boats all followed each other through a narrow channel between the ship and the rocks into a crevice of the headland, where we could jump from one rock to another until we ascended to a small

sea.

Three of the For six hours we

patch of table land about thirty feet above high water mark. boats were missing, and must have been driven out to sea. were scattered here and there on the different ledges of the rock, watching for a passing sail, when all at once I saw a steamer coming round one of the adjacent Islands, and recognized her to be the China; we endeavoured to attract their attention, in vain, the China kept on her course.

Some hours afterwards, a voice cried out, the steamer is coming back again,' and the China, with the three missing boats in tow, appeared and anchored off the island and we were soon safely conveyed on board. From the China we could see the Chinese looting the Benares and carrying boxes up the hill, the mails, passengers, crew, the whole of the specie, and two hundred and three bales of silk had been saved up to 4 P.M. on the 27th instant. The Prussian steamer China was remaining by the Benares, until assistance should come from Shanghai.

On the P. & O. ships between England and Hongkong, the crew are, at stated times, exercised at Boat, and Fire Stations and every thing is kept ready in case of accident, but, as we once heard a P. & O. Captain boast, "They don't bother about that rubbish going North.'

THE Gunboat Algerine, commanded by Lieutenant Domville, with three guns and a crew of twenty men all told, engaged eight Piractical Junks manned by about two hundred men, fighting sixty or seventy guns, between Namoa and St. John's, on the 3rd of June. The Junks fought unusually well, and displayed considerable courage and persistance. They announced their intention of blowing the Algerine out of the water, and exerted themselves to the utmost to accomplish their object, doing such serious damage to the Algerine as, it is feared, cannot be repaired without a packing needle and several yards, if not a whole ball, of thread, and at an expense to the British nation of from eighteen-pence to three half-crowns. The Algerine drove seven of the junks away, all more or less disabled, and brought the eighth into the harbour of Hongkong, with all her crew, and property, to the value of seven thousand dollars, on board.

ON the night of Sunday last the 1st of June, a loud report was heard proceeding from the Union Dock Company's Office at the Hongkong Hotel. On breaking open the door it was found that a bag of gunpowder had exploded, and that half a dozen other bags were lying ready to explode, with lighted joss-sticks lying on them, some of the joss-sticks being accompanied by the Company's account books. A reward of $500 has been offered by the Company for the discovery of the perpetrators of this outrage, and the Governor has offered a free pardon to any informer, who is an accomplice, provided he be not a principal in the first degre.

HONGKONG, 6th June, 1867.

WHITE ANTS.

For several months past, I have been endeavouring to observe the habits of these interesting and destructive insects, and have sought in books for further information on the subject; unfortunately, however, all the accounts I have been able to find in works of travel and of natural history, beyond mere nomenclature, refer to the White Ants of Brazil and Africa, creatures whose habits, as described therein, differ considerably from those of the White Ants of Southern China; nevertheless, where my own observations have failed, I have ventured to fill up the gaps by drawing upon the published accounts of the congeners of the insects towards which my observation has been directed, and hope that in doing so, I have exercised sufficient caution to preserve the following remarks from any serious error.

Following the example of all the authorities I have consulted, I commence by the sage remark that White Ants are not White Ants; paradoxical as it may appear, all authorities agree on this point, and, whether professed entomologists, or popular writers of travels, proclaim this fact in a tone indicating self conscious wisdom, and a feeling of compassion for the more ignorant reader; for my part, I frankly acknowledge that I am indebted solely to the books I have consulted for a knowledge of this fact; "White Ants," I am told, is a misnomer; they are not Ants at all, and, therefore, inferentially cannot be White Ants; reader! let you and I exhibit our wisdom, let us assume an air of scientific knowledge, have nothing to say about mythical White Ants, but to the end of the chapter let us call them by their proper name-TERMITES.

Like Bees and Ants, Termites live in communities, and differently formed members of each community have their peculiar functions-Kings and Queens, Workers and Soldiers, and supernumerary males and females; such at least is the case with the White Ants-I beg my scientific readers' pardon, I mean Termites-of Brazil, though I have failed to observe in China any but the winged and the unwinged forms, and am not sufficiently learned in entomology to decide about the sexes; nevertheless, it is probable that the Chinese species have many things in common with their Brazilian cousins, and I may therefore state, pending more successful observations of the habits of the former, that, in the case of the latter, the winged Termites which take their flight usually during the warm dull evenings of early summer, are, in about equal numbers, male and female; of these, many myriads are doomed to destruction, but a very few pairs are caught by their wingless and neuter companions, who immediately encage them in a tomb of moistened clay, with apertures sufficiently large to admit working attendants, but too small to permit the egress of Their Majesties caged within; here the Queen, in course of time, distends her form with an immense number of eggs, to about two thousand times her original bulk, and the eggs, as deposited, are carried off by the attendants to different chambers, there to be nourished and cared for, when they commence their