AT St Johns, Newfoundland, Brian and I met with an intelligent captain, who much interested us by the sketches he gave of the different countries he had visited. 'When I first came into these frozen regions,' said he, 'many things surprised me which are now become familiar. You shall have a sketch of one or two of them.

'A friend took me with him to market, to buy in a stock of meat for the winter, when I expected that a few rounds of beef and legs of mutton would be sent home in the butcher's basket; but the affair was managed in a very different manner. 'Two bullocks, a calf, half a dozen sheep, and three or four hogs, ready slaughtered and cut up, were brought home on a sledge, and piled up on a bed of snow. Water was then poured over the whole heap, which soon froze into ice. Another pouring of water took place, and was continued until the pile of meat was safely defended from the air by a thick coat of ice. Snow was then heaped up high over the whole, and the meat was dug out for use as it was wanted.

'One night, about twelve o'clock,' con-, tinued the captain, I lay musing in my bed, half asleep and half awake, when I heard, or thought I heard, the sound of human feet padding along under my window. For a time I conceived it must only be imagination, but the padding continued. It was a slow, dull, heavy sound, as if a procession of people were passing by. This continued for some time, and I fell asleep; but once more I awoke, still hearing the same sounds. I roused myself, thinking it must have been a dream; but the more wakeful I became, the more distinctly did I hear the sound of feet padding along the snow.

Wrought up to a state of high excitement by the circumstance, I sprang from my bed and hastened to the window, when, on opening the casement, to my consternation I saw a funeral passing along below. I looked to the left, there was another procession of the same kind, and, when I turned to the right, at the far end of the street a third made its appearance. Three funeral processions were distinctly seen by me at the same time. Horror-struck, I closed my casement; and rushing to my bed, hid myself in the bed-clothes. For an hour after this the padding in the snow seemed to continue.

In the morning, pale, haggard, and unrefreshed, I related at the breakfast-table the appalling circumstance which had

so much interfered with my night's repose, when the whole affair was explained to me in a few words. It was the custom of the place for the poor, who could not afford the expense of breaking open the ground when frozen hard, to keep the dead bodies of their friends in coffins until a thaw came, and then the funerals took place mostly at night, a great number of them together.'

Brian and I, wherever we were, found enough to amuse us. No sooner was one excursion over than we entered on another.

One time, when we were together on the banks of a broad river, we were surprised in observing a raft sail down the stream, which seemed to comprise a complete homestead. The launch indeed consisted of two rafts, but they were lashed together. A complete cottage, built of boards, rose in the centre of the larger raft; and near the cottage were two cows feeding on a bundle of hay, seemingly as contented as if they were feeding in a meadow. A black colt with a long tail and flowing mane stood at a little distance, with half a dozen pigs and chickens around him. The scene altogether was very striking; for it seemed more like an island in the river than any thing else. At the cottage door was seated, in an arm-chair, an old lady, with a red handkerchief over her shoulders, mending stockings, while two children played with a kitten at her feet.

In addition to these, there were articles, such as tubs, buckets, mops, brushes, and

brooms on one of the rafts; and ploughs, harrows, wagons, carts, and wheel-barrows on the other. This was truly American. Two or three men, who were employed in directing the floating raft, completed the picture. Brian amused himself in taking a sketch of what he called the Yankee homestead.

In our exploring enterprises, none could be happier than we were. Now on the mountain-top, or at the river's side; and now in the swamp or the forest. At one time, the birds of the air in their many-colored plumage engaged our attention; at another, the wild animals of the woods; while the hardships we met with only increased the interest we felt in our pursuits.

It was pleasant to watch the Baltimore bird, or Golden Robin, flitting through the trees in his bright orange-colored plumage, like a flash of fire; or witness him entering his nest by an aperture in its side; or to see him rocking to and fro in the breeze, suspended in his warm cradle from the drooping boughs of the willow; nor less so to watch, in the clear moonbeam, the industrious beaver, gnawing down young trees with his sharp teeth for his future abode, or plastering the muddy embankment with his flat scaly tail. Day after day, and night after night, did Brian partake with me in the enjoyment of these secluded and solitary scenes.

Once we broke into a beaver's hut, or house, that we might see how it was constructed. It was built of a conical

form, in the stream of a small river. Sticks, branches, and young trees were piled one upon another, and the interstices filled up with mud and stones, leaving a space in the middle for their accommodation. The roof of this hut was at least six feet thick, and frozen very hard, so that the wolverines could not break through.

The beavers, with their young ones, made their escape, taking shelter in some hollows under water in the banks of the river, which they had scooped out as places of refuge.

While at Newfoundland, I had an excellent opportunity of seeing the cod-fishery, and went to the Great Bank for that purpose. It amazed me to see how fast the fish were taken; no sooner were the lines thrown into the water than they were pulled up again, with a cod-fish at the end of them.

But, though the cod-fishery was a novelty, it did not satisfy my curiosity. I had a great desire to see a whale caught, and it was not long before a favorable opportunity occurred.

A vessel appeared off St Johns, which was bound on a voyage of discovery to the region of Baffin's Bay. Brian and I were all enthusiasm to get on board, and so much were our hearts set upon the enterprise that, hastily equipping our selves as well as the short notice would allow, we went on board, and were permitted to take the voyage.

Pleasant as the thought had been to us to go on a voyage of discovery, no

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sooner were we fairly on board than I began to reflect on my situation. The danger of the undertaking had been overlooked, so long as any obstacle was thrown in the way of our desires; but now it came before me in all its fearful reality, and I repented the step I had taken. At St. Johns, a letter from my mother had reached me, reviving afresh the strong affection that I felt for her, especially as I knew her to be in ill health. She expressed a willingness for me to delay for some time my return home; yet still I felt that my voyage was an act of disobedience. Many an hour did I muse upon the deck, watching the snowy clouds as they took their southeasterly course in the direction of my native land. How is the fairest flower of expectation blighted by self-reproach! a consciousness that we are acting wrong casts a shade over the sunniest of our pursuits. Nor was the gloom of my mind lessened by a storm which overtook us three days after we got aboard. I gazed on the dark frowning masses slowly sailing through the air, and thought that they might be messengers of evil, winged with lightning, to punish my disobedience.

At the beginning of the storm Brian with his fine musical voice sang the words,

"One wide water all around us;

All above us one black sky:
Different deaths at once surround us!

Hark! what means that dreadful cry!"

But the wind soon blew roughly enough to stop him. For four days and nights

RICH people, in spite of their gold and silver, have often to endure a great many troubles of a nature unknown to the poor; indeed many of these troubles originate with their wealth itself, as in the rich food they eat, and the strong liquors they drink, and even in the soft easy chairs and beds of down on which they repose. To prove this I will relate to you the history of a Dutch merchant in Amsterdam.

He did nothing all day long but lounge in an arm-chair, smoke his pipe, gape, eat, drink, and sleep, till night came, for he had grown rich, and was too lazy to take any exercise, or do any work. He would weigh himself from time to time to ascertain how much he increased. Day after day he spent in this way, and so he lived on from year to year, until he grew so big as to be troublesome to himself, and hardly able to move. His

appetite forsook him, and he fancied he was ill, though he could not tell what was the matter. He consulted all the doctors of Amsterdam, and took such a quantity of physic, that at last he was named the walking apothecary's shop.' But as he did not change his mode of living, it was no wonder that all the medicine he took did him no good. When the doctors told him to abstain from eating so much, he would say, 'What is the use of all my riches if I am to live like a poor man? No! no! you may prescribe me physic, but not the kind of life I am to lead.'

In this state he continued to live, till one day he was told of a famous physi cian who lived about a hundred miles from Amsterdam, and who, as he was assured, had performed many extraordinary cures in complaints similar to that under which he was laboring. He lost