alights on a desolate strand, contracts her neck within her plumage, conceals one foot in her down, and, standing motionless on the other, apprizes the fisherman of the moment when the billows are rising; the sea-lark skimming the surface of the wave, and uttering a gentle and melancholy cry, announces, on the contrary, the moment of their reflux: lastly, the little Procellaria stations herself in the midst of ocean. The faithful companion of the mariner, she follows the course of ships, and prophesies tempests. The sailor ascribes to her something sacred, and religiously fulfils the duties of hospitality, when the violence of the wind tosses her on board his vessel: in like manner the husbandman pays respect to the red-breast, which predicts fine weather; in like manner he receives him beneath his thatch during the intense cold of the winter. These unfortunate men, placed in the two hardest conditions of life, have friends whom Providence has prepared for them. From a feeble animal they receive counsel and hope, which they would often seek in vain among their fellow-creatures. This reciprocity of benefits between little birds and unfortunate men, is one of those moving incidents which abound in the works of God. Between the red-breast and the husbandman, between the procellaria and the sailor, there is a resemblance of manners and of fortunes exceedingly affecting. O! how dry, how barren is Nature, when explained by sophists'; but how productive and how rich, when a simple heart describes her wonders, with no other view than to glorify the Creator!

In this month, many invalids, as well as fashionable birds of passage, take their departure for more southern climes, there to hybernate-and to return, like the swallow, in the spring, with renewed health and vigour; others, more humble in their means, having made their little tours in different parts of France,

the Netherlands, or Swisserland, their shoes worn out, their money spent,' are now on their return to that country where both may be replenished. To whatever class our travellers may belong, few of them, we think, will fail to greet Old England' with a smile of satisfaction; and the more enlightened will readily commingle thoughts and feelings with the highly-gifted authoress of the following lines:

6

The CLIFFS of DOVER.

[By Felicia Hemans.]

Rocks of my country! let the cloud
Your crested heights array;
And rise ye like a fortress proud
Above the surge and spray!
My spirit greets you as ye stand,
Breasting the billow's foam;
Oh, thus for ever guard the land,
The severed land of home!

I have left sunny skies behind,
Lighting up classic shrines,
And music in the southern wind,
And sunshine on the vines.

The breathings of the myrtle flowr's
Have floated o'er my way;
The pilgrim's voice at vesper hours
Hath soothed me with its lay.

The isles of Greece, the hills of Spain,

The purple heav'ns of Rome-
Yes, all are glorious; yet again
I bless thee, land of home!

For thine the Sabbath peace, my land;
And thine the guarded hearth;
And thine the dead, the noble band,
That make thee holy earth.

Their voices meet me in thy breeze;
Their steps are on thy plains;
Their names, by old majestic trees,
Are whispered round thy fanes.

Their blood hath mingled with the tide
Of thine exulting sea;—

Oh! be it still a joy, a pride,
To live and die for thee!

Forget-Me-Not.

Marine Pictures.

[Concluded from p. 307.]

A black rock rears its bosom o'er the spray,
The haunt of birds-

There shrilly to the passing oar is heard
The startled echo of the ocean bird,

Who rears on its bare breast her callow brood,.
The feathered fishers of the solitude.

Standing upon the margent of the main,

Whilst the high, boiling tide came tumbling in, I felt my fluctuating thoughts maintain

As great an ocean, and as rude within; As full of waves, and depths, and broken grounds, As that which daily laves her chalky bounds.

The coast lies as quiet as the sky,

The sands untumbled, the green waves untost,
When all is stillness, save the sea-bird's cry
And dolphin's leap, and little billow crost
By some low rock or shelve, that made it fret
Against the boundary it scarcely wet.

Deeply still, without a motion,

Lies the bosom of the deep;

While each breeze that roams the ocean
On its surface seems to sleep.

Scarcely swells a single wave,
All is silent as the grave.

But heaven grows brighter,
The clouds part asunder,
Loud murmurs the sea breeze
That slumbered before;
The ship spreads her pinions,
The billows break under

Her prow as she passes,

But, lo! 'tis the shore.

When the great ship

Sinks in the ocean depths, the gentle halcyon In safety builds upon the reeling wave,

And slumbers through the tempest.

The Distant Ship.

[By Mrs. Ilemans.]

The sea-bird's wing, o'er ocean's breast,
Shoots like a glancing star,

While the red radiance of the west
Spreads kindling fast and far;
And yet that splendour wins thee not,-
Thy still and thoughtful eye
Dwells but on one dark, distant spot
Of all the main and sky.

Look round thee!-o'er the slumb'ring deep
A solemn glory broods;

A fire bath touched the beacon-steep,
And all the golden woods:

A thousand gorgeous clouds on high
Burn with the amber light;-
What spell, from that rich pageantry,
Chains down thy gazing sight?
A chast'ning thought of human cares,
A feeling, linked to earth!

Is not yon speck a bark, which bears
The loved of many a hearth?

Oh! do not hope, and grief, and fear,
Crowd her frail world e'en now,

And manhood's prayer and woman's tear
Follow her vent'rous prow?

Bright are the floating clouds above,
The glitt❜ring seas below;
But we are bound by cords of love
To kindred weal and woe!
Therefore, amidst this wide array
Of glorious things and fair,

My soul is on that bark's lone way,
For human hearts are there.

Literary Souvenir.

ISLANDS PRODUCED BY INSECTS.

The whole group of the Thousand Islands, and indeed the greater part of all those whose surfaces are flat, in the neighbourhood of the equator, owe their origin to the labours of that order of marine worms which Linnæus has arranged under the name of Zoophyta. These little animals, in a most surprising manner, construct their calcareous habitations under an infinite variety of forms, yet with that order and re

gularity, each after its own manner, which, to the minute inquirer, is so discernible in every part of the creation. But, although the eye may be convinced of the fact, it is difficult for the human mind to conceive the possibility of insects so small being endued with the power, much less of being furnished in their own bodies with the materials of constructing the immense fabrics, which, in almost every part of the Eastern and Pacific Oceans lying between the tropics, are met with in the shape of detached rocks, or reefs of great extent, just even with the surface, or islands already clothed with plants, whose bases are fixed at the bot. tom of the sea, several hundred feet in depth, where light and heat, so very essential to animal life, if not excluded, are sparingly received and feebly felt. Thousands of such rocks, and reefs, and islands, are known to exist in the eastern ocean, within, and even beyond the limits of the tropics. The eastern coast of New Holland is almost wholly girt with reefs and islands of coral rock, rising perpendicularly from the bottom of the abyss. Captain Kent, of the Buffalo, speaking of a coral reef of many miles in extent, on the south-west coast of New Caledonia, observes, that 'it is level with the water's edge, and towards the sea, as steep to as a wall of a house; that he sounded frequently within twice the ship's length of it with a line of 150 fathoms, or 900 feet, without being able to reach the bottom.' How wonderful, how inconceivable, that such stupendous fabrics should rise into existence from the silent, but incessant, and almost imperceptible labours of such insignificant

worms!

Compared with this amazing edifice,

Raised by the weakest creatures in existence,
What are the works of intellectual man?
Towers, temples, palaces, and sepulchres;

Ideal images in sculptured forms,

Thoughts hewn in columns, or in domes expanded,
Fancies through every maze of beauty shown;
Pride, gratitude, affection turned to marble