2 P922 ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by DIX & EDWARDS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. HOLMAN & GRAY, Mile-Stones on our Life's Journey-Salt- Water Bubbles-Leaves from the Tree Igdrasyl-The Wide-Awake Gift, and Know-Nothing Token for 1855-Wisdom, Wit, and Whims-Maxims of Washington -Webster and his Master-pieces-The Out doors at Idlewild-You have heard or Lion-Father Clark, or the Pioneer Preacher-Lilies and Violets-Physical and Analytical Mechanics-Fudge Doings -Ups and Downs-Mayne Reid's Forest Exiles--Brother Jonathan's Cottage- Hagar the Martyr-Nelly Bracken- Country Life and other Stories-Angel Children, or Stories from Cloudland- Exposition of the Grammatical Structure of the English Language-Thoughts to Help and Cheer-The American Sports- man-Pius Ninth, the Last of the Popes -The Bible Prayer-Book-The Light of the Temple-Sermons, chiefly Practical, by Rev. Charles Lowell-The American Almanac-History of Printing-Diction- Wolfert's Roost, by Washington Irving- The Coquette, or the History of Eliza Wharton-Miranda Elliot, or the Voices of the Spirit-The Bells: A Collection of Chimes-The Sons of the Sires-Professor Barnard's Report-Youman's Classical Atlas-John H. Griscom's Anniversary Discourse before the New York Academy James's Inquiry into the Nature of Evil- Cosas de Espana-Bartlett's American Agitators and Reformers-Professor Bar- nard's Letters on College Government- Harvestings in Prose and Verse, by Sybil Hastings-Melville's Israel Potter-Roe's Long Look Ahead-The History of Con- necticut, by G. H. Hollister-Burnham's History of the Hen Fever-Mrs. Stowe's Primary Geography-Read's New Pas- toral-Memoirs of Lady Blessington- C. W. Elliott's St. Domingo-Professor Darby's Botany of Southern States. A BATCH OF NOVELS.-Dollars and Cents, by Miss A. B. Warner-Blanche Dear- wood-Alone, by Miss Marion Harland- Our World-Southern Land, by a Child of the Sun-The Old Inn, by Josiah Barnes-Cone Cut Corners-Ironthorpe, by Paul Creyton-Tales for the Ma- rines, by Harry Gringo-Don Quixotte- Grace Lee, by Miss Kavanagh-Mammon, by Mrs. Gore-Kenneth, by Miss Yonge -Douglass Jerrold's Men of Character -Amyas Leigh, by Charles Kingsley- A FEW HISTORIES.-Barry's History of Massachusetts-Holland's History of Western Massachusetts-Zschokke's His- tory of Switzerland-Lamartine's History of Turkey-Astie's Louis the Fourteenth, and the Writers of his Age-Life of Sam Houston-Fowler's History of the War- Hase's Church History-Lives of the Chief Justices of the United States. SOME MISCELLANIES.-Maginn's Miscella- nies-Kern's Landscape Gardening- Hayward's Papers and Reports of the Landseer's Twins-Ary Scheffer's Tempta- tion of Christ-Lockwood's Last Judg. ment-Hall's April Shower-Rodger's Statues, Ruth, The Skater, and Love in a Pet-Miss Hosmer's Medusa and Daphne -H. K. Brown's Statue of Washington- Leutze's Washington at Monmouth-The H. K. Brown's Equestrian Statue of Wash- ington-The Crystalotype-The Illustra ted Magazine of Art-The Crayon. PUTNAM'S MONTHLY. 3 Magazine of Literature, Science, and Art. VOL. V.-JAN. 1855.-NO. XXV. THE OCEAN AND ITS LIFE. IGH on the terrible cliff that over HIGH hangs the Charybdis of the ancients, stood King Frederick, of Sicily; and by his side the fairest of Europe's fair daughters. Often and often had he gazed down into the fierce seething cauldron beneath him, and in vain had he offered the gold of his treasure and the honors of his court to him who would dive into the whirlpool and tell him of the fearful mysteries that were hid beneath the hissing, boiling foam. But neither fisherman nor proud knight had dared to tempt the God of mercy, and to venture down into the dread abyss, which threatened death, sure, inevitable death, to the bold intruder. But better than gold and honor, is fair maiden's love. And when the king's beautiful daughter smiled upon the gazing crowd around her, and when her sweet lips uttered words of gentle entreaty, the spell was woven, and the bold heart found that would do her bidding, forgetful of worldly reward, and alas! unmindful, also, of the word of the Almighty! He was a bold seaman, and his companions called him Pesce-Colo, Nick the fish, for he lived in the ocean's depths, and days and nights passed, which he spent swimming and diving in the warm waters of Sicily. And from the very cliff on which the king had spoken his taunting words, from the very feet of his fair, tempting child, he threw himself down into the raging flood. The waters closed over him, hissing and seething in restless madness, and deeper VOL. V.-1 and darker grew the fierce whirlpool. All eyes were bent upon the gaping gulf, all lips were silent as the grave. Time seemed to be at rest; the very hearts ceased to beat. But lo! out of the dark waves there arises a snowwhite form, and a glowing arm is seen, and black curls hanging down on the nervous neck of the daring seaman. And, as he breathes once more the pure air of heaven, and as his eyes behold once more the blue vault above him, he stammers words of thanks to his Maker; and a shout arose from cliff to cliff, that the welkin rang, and the ocean's roar was hushed. But when their eyes turned again to greet the bold man who had dared what God had forbidden, and man had never ventured to do, the dark waters had closed upon him. They saw the fierce flood rush up in wild haste; they saw the white foam sink down into the dark, gloomy gulf; they heard the thundering roar and the hideous hissing below; the waters rose and the waters fell, but the bold, daring seaman was never seen again. And so it is even now. Little is known of the fearful mysteries of the great deep, and the hungry ocean demands still its countless victims. For the calm of the sea is a treacherous rest, and under the deceitful mirror-like smoothness reign eternal warfare and strife. Oceanus holds not, as of old, the Earth, his spouse, in quiet, loving embrace; our sea-god is a god of battles, and wrestles and wrangles in never-ceasing struggle with the firm continent. Even when apparently calm and slumbering, he is moving in restless action, for "there is sorrow on the sea, it cannot be quiet." Listen, and you will hear the gentle beating of playful waves against the snowy sands of the beach; look again, and you will see the gigantic mass breathe and heave like a living being. No quiet, no sleep, is allowed to the great element. As the little brook dances merrily over rock and root, never resting day and night, so the great ocean also knows no leisure, no repose. It is not merely, however, that the weight of the agitated atmosphere presses upon the surface of the vast ocean, and moves it now with the gentle breath of the zephyr, and now with the fierce power of the tempest. Even when the waters seem lashed into madness by the raging tornado, or rise in daring rebellion under the sudden, sullen fury of the typhoon, it is but child's play compared with the gigantic and yet silent, lawful movement, in which they ascend to the very heavens on high, where "He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds," and then again sink uncomplaining to the lowest depths of the earth. As the bright sun rests warm and glowing on the bosom of the cool flood, millions of briny drops abandon the mighty ocean and rise, unseen by human eye, borne on the wings of the wind, up into the blue ether. But soon they are recalled to their allegiance. They gather into silvery clouds, race around the globe, and sink down again, now impetuously in a furious storm, bringing destruction and ruin, now as gentle rrain, fertilizing and refreshing, or more quietly yet, as brilliant dew pearls, glittering in the bosom of the unfolding rose and filling each tiny cup held up by leaf and blossom. Eagerly the thirsty earth drinks in the heavenly gift; in a thousand veins she sends it down to her lowest depths, and fills her vast invisiTble reservoirs. Soon she can hold the rich abundance of health-bringing waters no longer, and through the cleft and eliff they gush joyfully forth as merry, chattering springs. They join rrill to rill, and rush heedlessly down Tthe mountains in brook and creek, until they grow to mighty rivers, thundering over gigantic rocks, leap fearlessly down lofty precipices, or gently rolling their mighty masses along the inclined planes of lowlands, become man's obedient slaves, and carry richly laden vessels on their broad shoulders, before they return once more to the bosom of their common mother, the great ocean. How quietly, how silently nature works in her great household. Unheard and unseen, these enormous masses of water rise up from the broad seas of the earth, and yet it requires not less than one-third of the whole warmth which the sun grants to our globe, to lift them up from the ocean to the region of clouds. Raised thus by forces far beyond our boldest speculations, and thence returning as blessed rain, as humble mill-race, or as active, rapid high-road carrying huge load from land to land, the ocean receives back again its own, and thus completes one of its great movements in the eternal change through water, air, and land. But the mighty ocean rests not even in its own legitimate limits. When not driven about as spray, as mist, as river, when gently reposing in its eternal home on the bosom of the great earth, it is still subject to powerful influences from abroad. That mysterious force which chains sun to sun, and planet to planet,. which calls back the wandering comet to its central sun, and binds the worlds in one great universe, the force of general attraction, must needs have its: effect upon the waters also, and under the control of sun and moon, they perform a second race around the globe on which we live. When the companions of Nearchus, under Alexander the Great, reached the mouth of the Indus, nothing excited their amazement in that wonderful country so much as the regular rise and fall of all the ocean-a phenomena which they had never seen at home, on the coasts of Asia Minor and Greece. Even their short stay there sufficed, however, to show them the connection of this astonishing change with the phases of the moon. For "sweet as the moonlight sleeps upon this bank," it is nevertheless full of silent power. Stronger even than the larger sun, because so much nearer to the earth, it raises upon the boundless plains of the Pacific a wave only a few feet high, but extending down to the bottom of the sea, and moves it onwards, chained as it were to its own path high in heaven. Harmless and powerless this wave rolls along the But lands placid surface of the ocean. arise, New Holland on one side, South |
