every one is said instantly to recognise the cobbler's phiz and person. A strange perverseness, indeed, or fatality, or what you will, seems to have seized upon all the favored few selected as fitting archetypes for these admirable figures. For, Tam's "nether man" occasioning some anxiety in the perfecting of its sturdy symmetry, a carter, we believe, was laid hold of, and the gamashins, being pulled on for half-an-hour, Tam's right leg was finished in rivalship of the said gentleman's supporter. It appears to have been agreed upon that he should return at a fitting opportunity, having thus left Tam "hirpling;" but, in the interval, the story of the sitting unfortunately taking air, and the soubriquet of "Tam o'Shanter" threatening to attach to the lawful and Christian appellations of the man of carts, no inducement could again bring him within the unhallowed precincts of our sculptor's workroom. In like manner, though at a somewhat later period, while the artist was engaged upon the figure of the landlady, no persuasion could prevail upon one of the many "bonny lasses" who have given such celebrity to Ayr, to exhibit even the fitting of their pearlings" to Mr. Thom's gaze. One sonsy damsel, on being hard pressed to grant a sitting, replied, "Na, na, I've nae mind to be nicknamed 'landlady;' and, as for gudewife, twa speerings maun gang to that name.

It will, doubtless, excite the admiration of every one in the slightest degree conversant with the Arts, that these figures, so full of life, ease, and character, were thus actually executed without model, or drawing, or palpable archetype whatsoever. The artist, indeed, knows nothing of modelling; and so little of drawing, that we question if he would not find difficulty in making even a

tolerable sketch of his own work. The chisel is his modelling tool-his pencil-the only instrument of his art, in short, with which he is acquainted, but which he handles in a manner, we may say, almost unprecedented in the history of sculpture. This, however, is the minor part; for we think, nay, are sure, we discover in this dexterity of hand, in this unerring precision of eye, in this strong, though still untutored, conception of form and character-the native elements of the highest art. These primordial attributes of genius, by proper culture, may do honor to the country and to their possessor. At all events, instruction will refine and improve attempts in the present walk of art, even should study be unable to elevate attainment to a higher. Now, however, it would be not only premature, but unjust, to criticise these statues as regular labors of sculpture. They are to be regarded as wonderful, nay, almost miraculous, efforts of native, unaided, unlearned talent-as an approach to truth almost in spite of nature and of science; but they do not hold with respect to legitimate sculpture-the high-souled, the noblest, the severest of all arts-the same rank as, in painting, the works of the Dutch masters do as compared with the lofty spirits of the Romans-precisely for this reason, that while similar subjects are not only fit, but often felicitous, subjects for the pencil, they are altogether improper objects of sculptural representation.'

BUFFALO LIGHT HOUSE.

We find in a Buffalo paper a view of the Light House in that town, a copy of which is presented above. The original sketch was furnished by Isaac S. Smith, Esq., the superintendent of the work, who has also given the following account of its construction:

It is situated on the Molehead, or outer end of the Stone Mole, which projects one thousand five hundred feet from the shore, and on the south protects the harbor from the swell and ice of Lake Erie.

The base of the Molehead, (in fifteen feet of water,) is of a pentangular form, about one hundred and sixty feet in its greatest diameter. A little above the surface of the water, it forms three-fourths of a circle, as shown by the print, whence it rises by an inclined plane of heavy stones placed on their edges closely in contact with each other, to the horizontal summit twelve feet wide, which surrounds the light house. Connected with the view of the Molehead, we give a short section of the mole, which in front is a wall of heavy stones, laid

in Hydraulic mortar raised four feet above the water to the tow path or landing, which is twentyone feet wide, and flagged with very large, thick, flat stones. The wall of the mole laid in mortar, rises perpendicularly twelve feet to the summit; which, like the tow path, is flagged with large flat

stone.

The foundation of the light house is a mass of solid masonry, in Hydraulic lime, thirty feet in diameter, and nine feet deep. The basement of the light house, (forming an oil vault,) commences on the foundation, with a wall seven feet thick, tapering to four feet in the summit of the mole.

The tower is an octagon constructed of hewn yellowish Limestone, forty-four feet high, twenty feet in diameter at the base, and twelve feet at the top, under the cornice. The walls are four feet thick at the base, tapering to two feet at the top, having at intervals of about six feet, iron bands in the middle of the wall to prevent the possibility of spreading. On the inside is a spiral or geometrical stone staircase, so constructed that each step has its broad end imbedded in the wall, while its outer end constitutes a section of a central column. The floors and deck are of hewn stone, the doors and scuttles of copper, and the window sashes of wrought iron, so that there is not a particle of wood in or about the building except the boom, of necessity made of wood, which sustains the copper electric conductor.

The lighting apparatus is in every respect of the most approved and perfect kind.

The following sailing directions are given for vessels approaching and entering the harbor:

"Whenever vessels find themselves in any posi tion southward of the light house, they must steer