the project of rendering funeral honours, from motives of gratitude, to her confessor, whom she understood to be massacred at the prison Des Carmes. As she intently dwelt upon this idea, she heard an extraordinary cry in the street, by which she was drawn to the window: she saw a cart passing, filled with dead bodies, and among them recognized the person of her confessor! A surgeon, one of her neighbours, happened to be with her; pointing out the body, she entreated him to go and purchase it of the driver. Yielding to her entreaties, the surgeon went to the driver, and telling him his profession, said he wished to purchase one of the bodies for dissection. The driver asked him twenty crowns, permitting him to take his choice. He paid down the money, and took the body pointed out to him, which he caused to be conveyed into the house of his friend: but what was the surgeon's surprise when he saw the priest on his feet! Clothes being procured for him, and being in the presence of his benefactress, he said, "When I saw my brethren massacred at Des Carmes, I imagined it possible to save my life by throwing myself among the dead bodies as one of them. I was stripped, and thrown into the cart in which you saw me. I did not receive a single wound; the blood with which you saw me covered was that of the carcases with which I was confounded. Receive, my benefactress, the most grateful thanks! It is probable, that, thrown into a quarry with the bodies of my unfortunate companions, I should have perished there!" All three then fell on their knees, and returned thanks to Heaven for this singular deliverance.

MORSE FISHING DESCRIBED.

THE people who go out to catch the morse are hired for that purpose by a master or ship-owner, who not only furnishes them with the necessary vessels, but fits them

out with provisions, stores, and whatever they are likely to want on the voyage, but either agrees to give them a share of what they take, or pays them certain wages. The latter, however, seldom exceed five or ten rubles for the summer; a trifling sum, when we consider the hardships, toils, and dangers attending this profession. The morsecatchers usually take with them a year's provisions, as they are often obliged to pass the winter on board their ships. Every vessel has an oven for baking bread and cooking their victuals, for the supply of which they take the needful stock of wood. The only drink they carry out with them is water, with which when they go ashore they prepare quas. The time of departure varies according to circumstances; some set out at the beginning of summer, when the White Sea is free from ice; others not till autumn, especially if they intend to winter on the voyage. The greatest peril to which they are exposed at sea, is that of being hemmed in by the driving masses of ice; in this case, the ice by its force beats in the sides of the vessel, and the morse-catchers are then reduced to the dreadful alternative either of being buried in the waves on the spot, or of getting on the fields of ice floating at the mercy of the winds, till cold and hunger put an end to their sufferings. And yet it has happened, though very rarely, that some of these poor fellows have been brought alive to land on their flakes of ice.

When the morse-catchers are happily arrived at the place of their destination, the first thing they do is to conduct their vessels to some safe anchorage, where they generally find several little huts that have been constructed by their predecessors in this hazardous warfare, and then commit themselves to the small boats, of which every vessel takes with it one or two, to proceed to the conflict with the beasts of the ocean. This is usually done on the first fine day, because then

the morses delight in going on the land or on the ice to repose; and besides, they are at times stimulated to leave their native element for a length of time for the purpose of copulation, which business lasts with these monsters for a month or two, or to cast their young, or to rescue themselves from the bites of the sealice, by which the morse in summer is perpetually tormented, and from which they have no other means of escaping than by fleeing into an element which deprives these insects of life. All these causes together collect them frequently on the beach or the fields of ice, in prodigious mumbers. When the captors discover one of these multitudes, they must have the precaution to approach them against the wind, because - these animals have so fine a smell, that they perceive the approach of men with the wind at a great distance, and then immediately take to the water; whereas in the contrary case they continue lying undisturbed, though they even see the boat advancing to them. Besides, the morse-catchers by this means have the advantage of discovering sooner the place where the prey has couched; for these fat animals, especially in summer, emit far round them a horrid stench.

When the captors have reached this formidable encampment, they immediately quit their karbasses or boats, armed with nothing but their pikes, cut off the way to the sea from the morses, and then pierce those animals which come first to save themselves in the water. As it is the way with the morses to scramble over one another in their attempts to escape, from the numbers of the slain there soon arises a bulwark which effectually choaks up the passage to the living, and then the captors proceed with the slaughter till they have left not one alive. It sometimes happens, that after such an engagement so great are the heaps of the dead, that the vessels can only contain the heads er the teeth, and the people are

obliged to leave the fat or blubber and the skins behind.

But, easy as it is for the captors to conquer the morse by land, so dangerous is the conflict with these animals in their own element....... We have only to recollect that the morse is commonly of the size of a large ox, and that, besides their sharp teeth, they are provided with two long stout tusks, for judging how a sea fight of this kind is likely to terminate. When any of the morses escape into the water before they can all be killed, the captors leap upon the ice, and fall upon the animals with harpoons, which they strive to strike into their breasts or their belly, and to each of which is fastened a long cord. This done, they drive a stake into the ice, wind the other end of the long harpoonstring round it, and are now drawn about, on the piece of ice on which they stand, by the animal till he has lost his strength, when they draw him upon the ice by the cord, and kill him outright. But when the morses lie so near to the water, that they can leap in ere the attack begins, then the captors fasten the cord, when they have thrown the harpoon, only to the head of the boat, which is then drawn by the huge animal so deep into the water, that the sailors must all run immediately astern. The morse having fruitlessly endeavoured to get loose from the cord, rises erect upon the surface of the water, and makes a furious attack on his persecutors........ In this he is sometimes so successful as to shatter the boat with his tusks, or to throw himself suddenly by a proportionate leap into the midships. Then nothing is left to the crew, but to jump overboard, and to hold by the gunnel, till other morse-hunters come to their assistance in this desperate situation. To mitigate the danger of these misfortunes, the captors not only take all proper measures, but it is even laid down by laws and regulations what conduct every one is to observe during the voyage, and in the actual en

counter with the morses. Each of these companies consists generally of a master or pilot, two harpooners, two barreling people, a steersman, and several rowers, each of whom has his appointed duty.

ANECDOTE OF DOCTOR JOHNSON.

DURING the last visit which the doctor made to Litchfield, the friends with whom he was staying missed him one morning at the breakfast table: on enquiring after him of the servants, they understood he had set off from Litchfield at a very early hour, without mentioning to any of the family whither he was going. The day passed without the return of the illustrious guest, and the party began to be very uneasy on his account, when, just before the supper hour, the door opened, and the doctor stalked into the room. A solemn silence of a few minutes ensued, nobody daring to enquire the cause of his absence, which was at length relieved by Johnson addressing the lady of the house in the following

manner:

"Madam, I beg your pardon for the abruptness of my departure from your house this morning; but I was constrained to it by my conscience. Fifty years ago, madam, on this day, I committed a breach of filial piety, which has ever since lain heavy on my mind, and has not till this day been expiated. My father, you recollect, was a bookseller, and had long been in the habit of attending market, and opening a stall for the sale of his books during that day. Confined to his bed by indisposition, he requested me, this time fifty years ago, to visit the market, and attend the stall in his place. But, madam, my pride prevented me from doing my duty, and I gave my father a refusal. To do away the sin of this disobedience, I this day went in a post-chaise to

and going into the market at the time of high business, uncovered my head, and stood with it bare an hour

before the stall which my father had formerly used, exposed to the sneers of the standers by, and the inclemency of the weather; a penance by which, I trust, I have propitiated Heaven for this only instance, I believe, of contumacy towards my father."

SPEED OF THE OSTRICH.

DURING the time that Mr. Adanson was at Podor, a French factory on the south bank of the river Niger, he says, that two ostriches, which had been about two years in the factory, afforded him a sight of a very extraordinary nature. These gigantic birds, though young, were nearly of the full size. They were so tame, that two little blacks mounted both together on the back of the largest. No sooner did he feel their weight, than he began to run as fast as possible, and carried them several times round the village; as it was impossible to stop him otherwise than by obstructing the passage. This sight pleased me so much, that I wished it to be repeated; and, to try their strength, directed a full-grown negro to mount the smallest, and two others the largest. This burthen did not seem at all disproportioned to their strength. At first they went a pretty high trot, but when they became heated a little, they expanded their wings, as though to catch the wind, and they moved with such fleetness that they seemed not to touch the ground. Every one must, one time or other, have seen a partridge run, consequently must know that there is no man whatever able to keep up with it; and it is easy to imagine, that if this bird had a longer step, its speed would be considerably augmented. The ostrich moves like the partridge, with both these advantages; and I am satisfied that those I am speaking of would have distanced the fleetest race-horses that were ever bred in England. It is true they would not hold out so

long as a horse, but without all doubt they would be able to perform the race in less time. I have frequently beholden this sight, which is capable of giving one an idea of the prodigious strength of an ostrich; and of showing what use it might be of, had we but the method of breaking and managing it as we do a horse.

CHARACTER OF THE STORK.

IT has a grave air, and a mourn ful visage; yet, when roused by example, it shows a certain degree of gaiety, for it joins the frolics of children, hopping and playing with them. "I saw in a garden," says Dr. Hermann, "where the children were playing at hide and seek, a tame stork join the party, run its turn when touched, and distinguish the child whose turn it was to pursue the rest so well, as, along with the others, to be on its guard.

A wild stork was brought by a farmer, in the neighbourhood of Hamburgh, into his poultry-yard, to ⚫ be the companion of a tame one he had long kept there; but the tame stork, disliking the idea of a rival, fell upon the poor stranger, and beat him so unmercifully, that he was compelled to take wing, and with some difficulty got away. About four months afterwards, however, he returned to the poultry-yard, recovered of its wounds, and attended by three other storks, who no sooner alighted than they altogether fell upon the tame stork and killed him.

SOCIABILITY OF THE LAPWING.

den; one soon died, bnt the other continued to pick up such food as the place afforded, till winter deprived it of its usual supply. Necessity soon compelled it to draw nearer the house, by which it gradually be came familiarized to occasional interruptions from the family. At length one of the servants, when she had occasion to go into the backkitchen with a light, observed that the lapwing always uttered his cry of 'peewit' to obtain admitance. He soon grew more familiar: as the winter advanced, he approached as far as the kitchen, but with much caution, as that part of the house was generally occupied by a dog and a cat, whose friendship the lapwing at length conciliated so entirely, that it was his regular custom to resort to the fire-side as soon as it grew dark, and spend the evening and night with his two associates, sitting close by them, and partaking of the comforts of a warm fire-side. As soon as spring appeared, he left off coming to the house and betook himself to the garden; but on the approach of winter he had recourse to his old shelter and friends, who received him very cordially. Security was productive of insolence; what was at first obtained with caution, was afterwards taken without reserve; he frequently amused himself with washing in the bowl which was set for the dog to drink out of; and while he was thus employed, he showed marks of the greatest indignation if either of his companions presumed to interrupt him. He died in the asylum he had chosen, being choaked with something that he picked up from the floor.

CATED.

VOL. II. NO. VII.

THE following instance of warm affection in a goose was communicated to the Compte de Buffon, by a man both of veracity and information. The following are nearly his own words:

9

addressed the three dames, who failed not to answer him. Immediately the grey victor sprung upon Jacquot. I left them for a moment; he was always the stronger; I took part with my Jacquot, who was under; I set him over his rival; he was thrown under; I set him up again. In this way they fought eleven minutes, and by the assistance which I gave, he obtained the advantage over the grey gander, and got possession of the three dames. When my friend Jacquot saw himself master, he would not venture to leave his females, and therefore no longer came to me when I passed: he only gave me at a distance many tokens of friendship, shouting and clapping his wings, but would not quit his companions, lest, perhaps, the other should take possession. Things went on in this way till the breeding season, and he never gabbled to me but at a distance. When his females, however, began to sit, he left them, and redoubled his friendship to me. One day, having followed me as far as the ice-house, at the top of the park, the place where I must necessarily part with him, in pursuing my way to a wood at half a league distance, I shut him in the park. He no sooner saw himself separated from me, than he vented strange cries. However, I went on my road, and had advanced about a third of the way, when the noise of a heavy flight made me turn round my head: I saw my Jacquot four paces from me. He followed me all the way, partly on foot, partly on wing, getting before me, and stopping at the cross paths to see what way I should take. Our expedition lasted from ten o'clock in the morning till eight in the evening, and yet my companion followed me through all the windings of the wood, without seeming to be tired. After this he followed and attended me every where, so as to become troublesome, I not being able to go to any place without his tracing my steps, so that one day he even came to find me in the church. Another time, as he was passing by the rec

“There were two ganders, a grey and white one (the latter named Jacquot), with three females. The two males were perpetually contending for the company of these three dames. When one or the other prevailed, it assumed the direction of them, and hindered the other from approaching. He, who was the master during the night, would not yield in the morning; and the. two gallants fought so furiously, that it was necessary to run and part them. It happened one day, that, being drawn to the bottom of the garden by their cries, I found them with their necks entwined, striking their wings with rapidity and astonishing force; the three females turned round, as wishing to separate them, but without effect; at last the white gander was worsted, overthrown, and maltreated by the other. I parted them, happily for the white one, as he would otherwise have lost his life. Then the grey gander began screaming, and gabbling, and clapping his wings, and ran to join his mistresses, giving each a noisy salute, to which the three dames replied, ranging themselves at the same time round him. Meanwhile poor Jacquot was in a pitiable condition, and, retiring, sadly vented at a distance his doleful cries. It was several days before he recovered from his dejection, during which time I had sometimes occasion to pass through the court where he staved. I saw him always thrust out from society, and each time I passed he came gabbling to me. One day he approached so near me, and showed so much friendship, that I could not help caressing him, by stroking with my hand his back and neck, to which he seemed so sensible, as to follow me into the entrance of the court. Next day, as I again passed, he ran to me, and I gave him the same caresses, with which alone he was not satisfied, but seemed, by his gestures, to desire that I should lead him to his mates. I accordingly did lead him to their quarter, and, upon his arrival, he began his vociferations, and directly