There shall we see the fierce white bear1, The sleepy seals aground, And the spouting whales3, that to and fro There may we tread on depths of ice, And while the unsetting sun shines on We'll pass the shores of solemn pine, The Polar bear is all white, except the tip of the nose and the claws, which are jet black. It is found chiefly on the shores of Spitzbergen, Greenland, and Hudson's Bay. In summer, it lodges in dens, which are formed in the vast masses of ice; and in winter, it buries itself beneath the snow, or some fixed piece of ice, where it remains in a torpid state until the return of the sun calls it forth. 2 Seals exist in vast numbers in the seas around Spitzbergen, and on the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. They are hunted for their oil and skins. 3 The whale fishery of Davis's Straits, Baffin's Bay, &c., is the most important in the world. 4 The Mammoth was an immense quadruped of the elephant kind. Its bones are found fossil; and large herds of them are supposed to have existed, from the number of bones which have been discovered in Europe, Asia, and America. In the north of Russia a whole carcase was found preserved in the ice, in 1799; and a few years later, the skeleton was deposited in the museum of St. Petersburgh. The tusks were nine feet long, and the head, without the tusks, weighed 400 pounds. 5 The Narwhal or Sea Unicorn, or the Morse or Walrus, is, in all likelihood, the animal here referred to. They are both found in the Polar seas. The narwhal is armed with a formidable horn, which projects directly forward from the upper jaw, in a straight line with the body. It is generally from twenty to thirty feet in length, and is sometimes found to have two of these horns. It is taken by means of harpoons; and its flesh is eaten by the Greenlanders. The walrus, an animal of the seal kind, is found in immense herds, and often measures eighteen or twenty feet in length. When attacked it is dangerous, not only from its great strength, but from the formidable tusks with which it is furnished. These tusks are inclined downwards with a gentle curve, and are sometimes two feet in length. They produce the finest and most valuable ivory. And there in wastes of the silent sky, We shall see far off, to his lonely rock, Then softly, softly will we tread Where the corm'rant of the silent north We've visited the northern clime, Its cold and ice-bound main ; So now, let us back to a dearer land, Anonymous. Well do I love those various harmonies If thou art pain❜d with the world's noisy stir, If thou art sick and weak, or mournest at the loss How rich the varied choir! The unquiet finch Uttereth her sweet and mellow plaint at times, With the sweet airs of spring the robin comes; In the last days of autumn, when the corn The bearded wheat in sheaves-then peals abroad Far up some brook's still course, whose current mines The lonely heron3 sits, and harshly breaks 1 Kalmia, a genus of beautiful N. American plants, with evergreen leaves and white or pink flowers. It obtained its name from Kalm, a traveller in N. America. 2 Dogwood, a genus of plants, found in the temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and America. 3 The heron has a long, sharppointed bill, a long neck, and a capacious stomach, The food of the heron consists of fish, reptiles, water-rats, shrews, &c. It is in general, a solitary bird, and frequents the banks of lakes, rivers, and marshes. The common herons are gregarious during the breeding season. When falconry was one of the principal sports in England, a penalty of twenty shillings was inflicted on those who destroyed the eggs of the heron. Most awful is thy deep and heavy boom, Thou art king Of the blue lake; and all the winged kind How bright thy savage eye! Thou lookest down, And now, wouldst thou, O man, delight the ear Or the harp's melody, or the notes that gush J. M'Lellan (an American poet). Boadicea was the Queen of the Iceni, a tribe of Britons inhabiting Norfolk and Suffolk. At this time, Suetonius, a general of great energy and skill, commanded the Roman forces in Britain. During his absence in the Isle of Anglesey, the Roman procurator, Catus, ordered Boadicea to be scourged; her daughters, also, were ignominiously treated. The Iceni flew to arms; and having been joined by the Trinobantes, they attacked and destroyed Colchester, and defeated a Roman legion which was coming to the relief of the colony. They afterwards marched to London and St. Alban's, and put to death all they found, without distinction of age or sex. No fewer than 70,000 Romans and their confederates are said to have fallen in the course of a few days. Suetonius, having received reinforcements, chose an advan tageous position, and waited the battle. The Britons, who were commanded by Boadicea and her two daughters, were totally defeated (A. D. 61). The loss of the Britons has been estimated at 80,000 men. Boadicea killed herself by taking poison. When the British warrior queen, Bleeding from the Roman rods, ; Sage beneath the spreading oak Weep upon thy matchless wrongs, All the terrors of our tongues. “Rome shall perish—write that word "Rome, for empire far renown'd, "Other Romans shall arise, Heedless of a soldier's name; "Then the progeny that springs From the forest of our land3, Shall a wider world command. Regions Cæsar never knew None invincible as they." "The Druids were the priests of the ancient Britons and Gauls." 2 Rome was taken and given up to plunder, in the year 410, by the Vi 66 sigoths, under Alaric their king. Goth," would read here better than "Gaul." 3 The ships of England. |