their way to their Green Mountain home. A crowd gathered at the Mill Depôt to welcome them back; and as farmer Owen's hand grasped that of his boy, tears flowed down his cheeks, and he was heard to say fervently, "THE LORD BE PRAISED!"

BERMUDAS.

WHERE the remote Bermudas ride,
In the ocean's bosom unespied,
From a small boat that rowed along
The listening winds received this song:

"What should we do but sing His praise
That led us through the watery maze,
Unto an isle so long unknown,

And yet far kinder than our own?

Where He the huge sea-monsters wracks
That lift the deep upon their backs;

He lands us on a grassy stage,

Safe from the storms and prelates' rage.

He gave us this eternal spring,
Which here enamels everything;
And sends the fowls to us in care,
On daily visits through the air.

He hangs in shades the orange bright,
Like golden lamps in a green night;
And does in the pomegranates close
Jewels more rich than Ormus shows.

He makes the figs our mouths to meet,
And throws the melons at our feet;
But apples-plants of such a price
No tree could ever bear them twice;
With cedars chosen by His hand,
From Lebanon, He stores the land,
And makes the hollow seas that roar,
Proclaim the ambergris on shore;
He cast (of which we rather boast)
The Gospel's pearl upon our coast,
And in these rocks for us did frame
A temple where to sound His name.
Oh! let our voice His praise exalt,
Till it arrive at heaven's vault,
Which, then (perhaps) rebounding, may
Echo beyond the Mexique Bay."

Thus sang they, in the English boat,
A holy and a cheerful note;

And all the way, to guide their chime,
With falling oars they kept the time.
ANDREW MARVELL.

AUSTRALIA.

AUSTRALIA contains the colonies to which most English emigrants go. It is an immense island, as large as Europe; and is bounded on the north and west by the Indian Ocean, on the south by the Southern Ocean, on the east by the Pacific Ocean. Captain Cook was almost

the first Englishman who landed there, and the very first who surveyed the coast. This was in 1770. Surveying the coast means measuring all the ins and outs of the land, so as to be able to make a map of it. And that was not all. It was needful to make a map of the bottom of the sea. You will wonder how this can be done, and why it is done. Now if you wanted to know how deep the well is in your father's garden, how would you set about it? You would tie a stone to a string, drop it down, and the wet part of the string would show the depth of the water. So on board ships, one man is kept frequently letting down, and pulling up again, a piece of lead fastened to a chain, on which fathoms are marked, as inches are on a yard measure; so that, as the sailors go on their way, they know exactly how deep the water is underneath them. This is put down upon paper, and makes a map of the soundings, as the depth is called. A fathom is six feet, and the ships in which emigrants sail, are not safe with less than four fathoms of water underneath them. You will easily see, then, that it is of great consequence to know whether there is plenty of water; for no danger to a ship is so great as that of striking on rocks. If they are sharp, they make a hole in her, and she may sink in ten minutes with every body and thing on board.

I dare say you fancy that there cannot be much to fear when near land, but this is not the case. Plenty of searoom is what captains like. They do not mind a storm, for a good ship will swim like a duck; but unknown rocks, running under the sea near the coast, have been the destruction of hundreds of vessels-and nowhere has this occurred oftener than on the shores of Australia.

The north-eastern coast is so rocky that no ships can

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These five divisions you must look out on the map. You see that Australia is a solid mass, with few rivers, and in the middle of it there are no names put down; for this good reason-no one has ever been there. The difficulty of travelling in a country where there is nothing to be had to eat, and no water to drink, is enough to stop any travellers, though some wonderful efforts have been made. The five divisions consist of first

NEW SOUTH WALES.

New South Wales is along the eastern coast, of which Sydney is the capital. The climate is so warm, that many houses are built without chimneys, fires being unknown except for cooking. News has just come over of fresh goldfields being found near Bathurst, and altogether it is a very flourishing colony, though not so full of inhabitants as Victoria. Sydney was the first place to which we sent our convicts from hence, instead of keeping them in prison. But soon honest people found out that it was a good and pleasant land, and settled there also; and, as long as there was a great deal of rough work to be done (as there always is in a new country), such as felling trees, making roads and building bridges, the labour of our thieves and murderers was welcome. But when

there were decent people enough to take their place, the respectable inhabitants informed us, that they would no longer stand having our criminals let loose upon them. Indeed, at last they threatened to send them straight back again. So of late years we have kept our convicts at hard work at Portland or Dartmoor. It is not half so pleasant a life as they formerly led in Australia. So we must hope that they will take more care not to be caught at their old tricks again.

New South Wales is five times as large as England and Wales. Cotton, tobacco, and sugar can all grow there. There is also wonderfully good pasture land. In 1797 Captain Macarthur imported three rams and five ewes from England; from this beginning the annual export is now thirteen millions of pounds of wool. The Alpaca does well there. From its wool is made the covering for cheap umbrellas, as well as the material that serves for your mothers' and sisters' gowns, called alpaca.

It is quite impossible to penetrate the Blue Mountains. The traveller finds himself at the bottom of glens 3,000 feet deep; huge blocks of stone, as large as houses, heaped together in the strangest manner, obstruct the way, even if he tries to get forward on his hands and knees.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

The principal occupation here is rearing sheep and cattle. The broad backs of the Darling Mountains furnish grass for numerous flocks. Governor Kennedy, in 1857, states the case of a squatter near Champion Bay, who began in 1851 with 2,000 sheep; in 1857 he had killed 4,000, but yet possessed 11,000 by the ordinary increase of