3. Every season certain kinds of fish, as pilchards, mackarel, herrings, &c. visit the shores of our highly favoured land in immense shoals; and though millions of each species are annually taken, there is no deficieney! That this might never happen, the goodness of God bath rendered the finny tribes peculiarly fruitful. Mr. Harmer, who pursued this investigation with peculiar attention and accuracy, found in the spawn of a herring 36.960 eggs; in the mackarel 546,681; in the cod 3,686,760.

4. While the sea, by means of its innumerable inhabitants, affords food to man in one part of the earth, where there is a deficieney of wood it also supplies him with fuel. We are told by Mr. Crantz, in his History of Greenland, "That as the great Founder of nature has denied this frigid rock-region the growth of trees, be hath bid the streams of the ocean to convey to its shores a great deal of wood, which accordingly comes floating thither, and lodges itself between the islands.

5. "Were it not for this, the Europeans should have no wood to burn; and the poor Greenlanders (who, it is true, do not use wood but train-oil for burning) would have no wood to roof their houses, to erect their tents, to build their boats, and shaft their arrows, by which they must procure their maintenance." It is difficult to decide where this timber grows; but wherever it may be produced, its arrival in this dismal part of the earth is an astonishing proof of the care of our Father who is in heaven, over the humblest of his children on earth.

6. Another important purpose answered by the sea, is the supply of the clouds with vapour. According to the calculations of Dr. Halley, every ten square inches of water yields, in summer, between the time of sun-rise and sun-set, a cubic inch of water every square mile, 6914 tons. Thus the water poured into the sea by the rivers, ascends to the clouds in the form of vapour, and those clouds being conveyed over land by the wind (which much more frequently blows from the sea, than in a contrary direction) returns to the earth in form of rain.

7. By means of the sea, those who are skilled in the art of navigation, are able to keep up a communication

between distant countries; the blessings of commerce are thus extended, and the knowledge of the glorious gospel communicated to "the isles afar off.”

8. The constant motion of the sea, produced by the tides, is a curious phenomenon. The tides are occasioned by the effect of the attraction of the sun and moon upon the waters of the sea: the solid part of the globe remains unaffected, but the fluid parts assume a spheroidal or oval figure, the longest diameter being in the direction of the moon. When the sun and moon act together, they occasion spring-tides, which happen once a fortnight when they counteract each other's attraction, neap-tides take place, which also happen once a fortnight.

9. Yet notwithstanding the perpetual motion of the sea, and the violent agitation produced on its surface by the winds, the waters never pass their bounds! The waters are in the place which thou, O God, hast prepared for them: thou hast set a bound, that they may not pass over."

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10. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked-; they are like the troubled sea that continually casteth up its own mire and dirt.” Psalm civ. 9. No simile can possibly express with greater force, the perpetual agitation produced by a guilty conscience, and the terrifying appearances which often arise from the violent enmity of sinners against the interests of Sion.

11. But there is One who is able to set bounds to those mighty waves, and to say to them, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther." He who once said, "Peace! be still," and in an instant calmed "the roaring tide," can with equal ease restrain the madness of the people.

12. Let the heathen rage, let the princes take counsel together: he that sitteth in the heavens shall taugh; the Most High shall have them in derision. The proudest enemy of Christ on the face of the earth, or in the caverns of hell, is fast bound in a chain, and cannot move beyond its length. The Israelites trembled on the banks of the Red Sea, and were afraid they should not escape the sword of the enraged Egyptians: but when Israel, agreeably to the Divine command, moved

forward, "the waters saw thee, O God! the waters saw thee," and fled at thy coming.

13. So it hath often been with the spiritual Israel in the much dreaded hour of severe conflict; when they have thought they should perish by the hand of their enemy, they have gone forward; and the waves of trouble which at a distance seemed a mountain high, and threatened to overwhelm them, have, through Divine interposition, died away at their feet.

No. X.

MOUNTAINS.

THOSE vast elevations of the earth which we call mountains, may be considered as of two kinds; the former of which, from their magnitude and structure, appear to have existed from the earliest times, and were perhaps formed when the earth itself was created; and the latter have since been produced by the general deluge, or partial inundations of water, or the eruption of subterraneous fires.

2. The first class may be called Primitive Mountains they are usually pyramidical in shape, crowned with sharp and prominent rocks, their elevation sudden, and their ascent steep and difficult. In some places they appear like a great wall 6 or 700 feet high; in others, enormous rocks hang upon the brow of the precipices, and threaten destruction to the traveller below. Their tops are perpetually covered with snow, and surrounded with floating clouds.

3. The primitive mountains are connected in vast chains, which succeed one another for several hundred leagues. Each chain has collateral ramifications in various directions, which gradually diminish in their height in proportion to their distance from the principal chain, which usually runs from north to south; as the Cordilleras and the Pyrenees; or from east to west; as the Alps and mountains of Thibet.

4. The highest mountains are generally found between or near the tropics, and in the middle of the temperate Zones. Mount Blanc is the loftiest mountain which has ever been measured in Europe, Africa, or Asia, and was found by M. de Saussure to be 2426 toises (or fathoms) above the Mediterranean sea: St. Gothard, in Switzerland, is 1500 toises; St. Bernard 1274; Snowden, the loftiest in Wales, is only 1240 yards; the peak of Teneriffe is 1900 toises.

5. But the mountains of South America exceed all others in height; Pinchineha being 2430 toises; Sangui 2680; Cagambeoreon, situated under the Line, 3030; Chimboraco (or Cimboraso) 3220 above the level of the sea. The last mentioned mountain, which is in Peru, is probably the highest in the world.

6. The extreme cold, which is experienced by those who have ascended them, near the top of lofty mountains, is a very curious phenomenon. A traveller over the Alps generally experiences, even in summer, the four seasons of the year; and even within the tropics, it is found that at the height of 2434 toises the snow is perpetual; so that whilst the people who dwell at the feet of those mountains are scorched with the heat of a vertical sun, all the horrors of winter, as it is felt in the polar regions, reign at the top. The diminution of heat is supposed to be owing to the decrease in the density of the atmosphere, which always becomes less and less the more we are elevated above the surface of the earth.

7. Mountains of the second class are less lofty, more easy of access, and have fewer springs; nor are they found, like the primitive mountains, in chains of such vast extent. The most remarkable one of this kind is what is called the Needle Mountain, in Dauphiny. It is a vast hill, placed, as it were, bottom upwards, or set on its summit on the earth with its broad base elevated in the air; it is about 1000 paces in circumference at the bottom, and above 2000 at the top.

8. On the centre of the plain, at the top, stands another very high hill. A few years since, some hardy persons ventured to climb it, and found at the top a number of Chamois, animals not at all qualified for climbing. It is probable they had been bred there for

many ages, though it is difficult to account for their first getting to the place.

9. It has been rashly said, "That the mountains are examples of ruin and confusion, deformities on the face of nature, and are not referrable to any design." Some udicious writers have abundantly shewn the folly and profaneness of this assertion, and proved that these stupendous monuments of the Creator's power, are not useless loads upon the earth.

10. The chains of primitive mountains, like so many belts in different directions, bind round the earth, and give to its parts a greater degree of solidity. By their position and elevation they contribute to produce that variety which prevails amongst the winds. The spaces which separate the tops of mountains, are so many basons which receive the vapours and clouds when condensed into rain by the coldness of those regions; and hence innumerable streams and rivers derive their supply of

water.

11. The mountains afford a retreat to many animals which frequent them; "the highest hills are refuges for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies:" they also serve for the production of a variety of vegetables, which are no where else to be found; the most important medicinal herbs, and the most luxuriant species of most genera of plants, are natives of the mountains. So far from deforming the face of nature, they add to its beauty, by affording a pleasing variety of hills and vallies, and exhibiting from their tops the most delicious prospects.

12. The sight of one of the primitive mountains, by its enormous bulk, cloud-capt towers." thundering cascades, and frightful precipices, must naturally inspire the mind with awe and terror, and impress the heart with a sense of bis greatness, "who weigheth the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance !" Vast as those bodies are, when compared with the most mighty works of man, Jehovah looketh on the mountains and they tremble; "He approacheth them, and they fall down at his presence.

13. Time is every hour committing gradual, but constant, depredations on those surprising monuments of Almighty Power. The torrents are continually washing