claimed for Scotland the blue of the American flag, and the whole British flag-" the Union Jacque" or "Jack," with the crosses of St. Patrick and St. George over it merely. He also argued that but for the independence of Scotland, so persistently and successfully maintained, Liberty would not have reached the maturescence that both in Britain and here it has; and that, of Puritanism, George Washington in his historic significance was as much an effect as Roger Williams or Benjamin Franklin, though neither of them all in any arbitrary sense, is to be identified with its passing phase of their time-Washington being by descent and tradition, a loyalist and cavalier, while the other two are by the same influences, to be regarded as rebels and roundheads. MacGregor's muse came to the front also with the following ode, highly complimentary to our nationality: ODE ON WASHINGTON'S BIRTH-DAY. Oh, thou, who with empyrean wing Praises to what I most adore, Come now once more unto me with thy dower More than a century agone This day, George Washington had birth! That could, with form erect and eye elate, Rejoice, O distant land most blest! Well mayst thou hold glorious this day As one of jubilee and rest, A joy thenceforth for aye! Death can no vaunt trump forth o'er him who went Full on thy crushing falsehoods and them rent! See him supreme like demigod, Of his heroic prosperous act, Threatening that as is done and heaped up wrong Reckoning shall come tho' erewhile tarrying long! The illustrious honor that awaits To greet this day, as day of days, Within the Future's widening gates What mortal now may guess ?— Tho' some monitions of it onward flow And on our souls the prospect, gins to glow. Forth look," my muse hath beckoning said, "'Tis not a distant day when o'er The ocean wide and 'yond the spread Of furthest peopled mundane shore, The prestige of this day shall tower on high, "And by the name of WALLACE wight GEORGE WASHINGTON'S shall brightly stand From every groaning, despoiled land, CHAPTER XI. SPRING-WHALING. So the lengthy winter night passed along very agreeably, unmarred by quarrels or misunderstandings of any kind. Latterly, however, we found the monotony beginning to tell; and some of our most elaborate attempts at the production of sensation hung fire on this account, merely a flash in the pan. coming from the well loaded gun, and the well directed aim. Active life of diverse stamp began to be anticipated by us; and proportionately our interest in what had so well served our turn in the interlude of enforced repose began to die out, as premonitory symptoms of the return of Phoebus commenced to be anxiously looked for. At length, a little preceding noon one day, somewhere about the termination of April, or in the beginning of May-I forget which now the sky in the north-east, away at the head of the gulf, assumed brighter tints. The next day, a little ahead of the same time, it became still brighter, and the temporary radiance became of longer continuance. A golden lurid flush became diffused over the whole eastern canopy, the sombre leaden aspect of the entire area of gulf and shore undergoing meet transformation, and all of us correspondingly aroused, as if from beneath the heavy pressure of a prolonged dream. This increment of glow advanced daily till soon Sol himself once more deigned to show his welcome, rubicund, honest visage peeping atop of a low-lying ridge in the region designated. Ah, then we stood like Persian fire-worshipers at time of Beltane, engaged in acts of adoration and homage to the great luminary-gazing at him with suppressed emotion-reflecting in our countenances the effulgence of his presence-each with heart fully atune for some grand pæan or choral hymn to his honor, wanting only the genius to lead and give fit expression to our swelling emotions. Shy and fearful of the venture of showing himself to us at first, as a coy maiden of her admirers, after briefly skirting a small portion of the horizon, he quickly popped out of our sight; but gradually acquiring masculine boldness, as it were, in a few days his stay was very noticeably longer, thus more. familiarizing himself with his humble votaries. Rapidly then his regal ascension developed in salutary strides. The arc described by him in his diurnal course, by great leaps or expansions became wider and wider, missing, however, what seemed to us a commensurate nascence in attitude. The segment he thus described became an half circle, till in the same ratio of progress a converse half was created; and the whole circle completed, he then made in our sight the "grand rounds" of the heavens, marking out before us the spaces of day and night, without our waking eyes ever losing sight of him, or of the light he disseminated, except, it might be, when directed to other objects, or in a darkened compartment somewhere; and without any obscuration or diminution of his lustre save when clouds or a storm intervened. But long ere the amplification of this splendid phenomenon of the polar regions, we were engaged in the pursuit of our avocation proper, and up to the eyes in business, and over head and ears in whaleoil. With the return of the sun's warmth, the icy fetters of winter began to relax their hold upon surrounding Nature, and we also to escape from their hard fastenings. The sun had not yet caused the brief equinox here observed, when the vast field of ice with which the whole ocean, including fiord and inlet, was overspread, gave tokens of breaking up. Great rumbling noises like those of distant thunder, or "the voice of many waters," came booming on our ears. These became more distinct, and as if from points closer to us, till they reverberated like discharges of field artillery from single guns, then as from batteries, and like firing, then as volleys, like those of an advancing host formed in line of battle in our immediate vicinity, who were pouring into us missiles of death and destruction. Then betimes a |