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THE NILE.

FROM his two springs, in Gojam's sunny realm,
Pure welling out, he through the lucid lake
Of fair Dambea rolls his infant stream.
There, by the Naiads nurs'd, he sports away
His playful youth, amid the fragrant isles,
That with unfading verdure smile around.
Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks;
And, gathʼring many a flood, and copious fed
With all the mellow'd treasures of the sky,
Winds in progressive majesty along:

Through splendid kingdoms now devolves his maze,
Now wanders wild o'er solitary tracts
Of life-deserted sand; till, glad to quit
The joyless desert, down the Nubian rocks
From thund'ring steep to steep he pours his urn,
And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave.

THOMSON.

BREAKING UP OF THE ICE AT QUEBEC.

THE following is the description of the breaking up of the vast body of ice, which forms what is called the bridge from Quebec to Point Levi. The ice before the town being five feet thick, a league in length, and more than a mile broad, resists, for a long time, the rapid tide that attempts to force it from the banks. At length (so a spectator of the scene relates the event), the hour is come: I have been with a crowd of both sexes, and all ranks, hailing the propitious moment; our situation on the top of Cape Diamond gave us a prospect some leagues above and below the town; above Cape Diamond, the river was open; it was so below Point Levi, the rapidity of the current having forced a passage for the water under the trans

parent bridge, which for more than a league continued firm. We stood waiting with all the eagerness of expectation; the tide came rushing in with an amazing impetuosity; the bridge seemed to shake, yet resisted the force of the waters; the tide recoiled-it made a pause-it stood still-it returned with a redoubled fury-the immense mass of ice gave way. A vast plain appeared in motion it advanced with solemn and majestic pace; the points of land on the banks of the river for a few moments stopped it's progress; but the immense weight of so prodigious a body, carried along by a rapid current, bore down all opposition with a force irresistible.

MRS. BROOK

THE NIGHTINGALE,

"THE nightingale," says Pliny, "that, for fifteen days and nights, hid in the thickest shades, continues her note without intermission, deserves our attention and wonder. How surprising, that so great a voice can reside in so small a body! such perseverance in so minute an animal! With what a musical propriety are the sounds it produces modulated! The note, at one time drawn out with a long breath, now stealing off into a different cadence, now interrupted by a break, then changing into a new note by an unexpected transition; now seeming to renew the same strain, then deceiving expectation! She sometimes seems to murmur within herself; full, deep, sharp, swift, drawling, trembling; now at the top, the middle, and the bottom of the scale! In short, in that little bill seems to reside all the melody, which man has vainly laboured to bring from a variety of musical instruSome even seem to be possessed of a different song from the rest, and contend with each other with

ments.

great ardour.

The bird overcome is then seen only to

discontinue it's song with it's life."

GOLDSMITH'S ANIMATED NATURE.

THE LARK.

THE music of every bird in captivity produces no very pleasing sensations; it is but the mirth of a little animal insensible of it's unfortunate situation; it is the landscape, the grove, the golden break of day, the contest upon the hawthorn, the fluttering from branch to branch, the soaring in the air, and the answering of it's young, that gives the bird's song it's true relish. These, united, improve each other, and raise the mind to a state of the highest, yet most harmless exultation. Nothing can in this situation of mind be more pleasing, than to see the lark warbling upon the wing; raising it's note as it soars, until it seems lost in the immense heights above us, the note continuing, the bird itself unseen; to see it then descending with a swell, as it comes from the clouds, yet sinking by degrees as it approaches it's nest; the spot where all it's affections are centred, the spot that has prompted all this joy.

GOLDSMITH'S ANIMATED NATURE

THE FARMYARD.

SHOULD I my steps turn to the rural seat,
Whose lofty elms and venerable oaks
Invite the rook, who high amid the boughs,
In early spring, his airy city builds,

And ceaseless caws amusive; there, well pleas'd,
I might the various polity survey..

Of the mix'd houshold kind. The careful hen

Calls all her chirping family around,

Fed and defended by the fearless cock;

Whose breast with ardour flames, as on he walks,
Graceful, and crows defiance. In the pond,
The finely checker'd duck, before her train,
Rows garrulous. The stately sailing swan
Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale;
And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet
Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier isle,
Protective of his young. The turkey nigh,
Loud threat'ning, reddens; while the peacock spreads
His ev'ry colour'd glory to the sun,

And swims in radiant majesty along.

O'er the whole homely scene, the cooing dove
Flies thick in am'rous chace, and wanton rolls

The glancing eye, and turns the changeful neck.

THOMSON.

NORTH CAPE.

PROCEEDING on our voyage, we left on our right the strait formed by Magerön, or Bare Island, and the continent. The vast expanse of the Frozen Ocean opened to our left, and we arrived at last at the extremest point of Europe, known by the name of the North Cape, exactly at midnight.

Sistimus híc tandem, nobis ubi defuit orbis.

The North Cape is an enormous rock, which, projecting far into the ocean, and being exposed to all the fury of the waves and the outrage of tempests, crumbles every year more and more into ruins. Here every thing is solitary, every thing is steril, every thing sad and despond ent. The shadowy forest no longer adorns the brow of the mountain; the singing of the birds, which enlivened

even the woods of Lapland, is no longer heard in this scene of desolation; the ruggedness of the dark gray rock is not covered by a single shrub; the only music is the hoarse murmuring of the waves, ever and anon renewing their assaults on the huge masses that oppose them. The northern sun, creeping at midnight at the distance of five diameters along the horizon, and the immeasurable ocean, in apparent contact with the skies, form the grand outlines in the sublime picture presented to the astonished spectaThe incessant cares and pursuits of anxious mortals are recollected as a dream; the various forms and energies of animated nature are forgotten; the Earth is contemplated only in it's elements, and as constituting a part of the solar system. ACERBI'S TRAVELS.

tor.

EARTHQUAKE IN CALABRIA.

THE following relation is given by Father Kircher, who witnessed the catastrophe while he was on his journey to visit Mount Etna.

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Having hired a boat, in company with four more, two friars of the order of St. Francis, and two seculars, we launched, on the 24th of March, from the harbour of Messina, in Sicily, and arrived, the same day, at the promontory of Pelurus. Our destination was for the city of Euphæmia, in Calabria, where we had some business to transact, and where we designed to tarry for some time. However, Providence seemed willing to cross our design; for we were obliged to continue for three days at Pelorus, upon account of the weather, and though we often put out to sea, yet we were as often driven back. At length, however, wearied with the delay, we resolved to prosecute our voyage; and, although the sea seemed more than usually agitated, yet we ventured forward. The gulf of Charybdis, which we approached, seemed whirled round in

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