its spine must be broken! What an injured and persecuted race of animals this poor mole belongs to! What a shame it is that it should be so treated and so misunderstood! Did we rightly read its uses, we should preserve, instead of killing it; should keep it in a cage of honour instead of setting traps for it. In stirring up the soil, the mole makes it more light and porous. In passing through the earth, it only obeys that conservative instinct which keeps it in hostility with a radical enemy that ravages the vested rights and profits of the farmer. The mole eats no plant; anatomical inspection proves it to be non-frugiverous. Examine its dental construction, and you will see at once that it is a carnivorous animal. Open its stomach, and you will find no symptom of vegetable nourishment, but merely the undigested remnants of the reptile it devours,—the hard skin and larvæ of the insect called (rather vulgarly, by the by) the maybug, an insect which, like itself, lives in the dark bowels of the earth for a while, voraciously devouring the seeds under ground, and subsequently, in its metamorphosis, robbing the trees of their verdure, and ruining the fruit in its germ." "Do let me finish it," said I, impatiently. "No, no! I'll take it to the river yonder and drown it; that will be a much easier death. Poor little thing! Yes, yes; it's the spine that's broken; poor little thing! How smooth. How smooth. What sweetly pretty paws!" He thus murmured till he reached the river, when he flung the mole in, and stood for at least twenty minutes on the brink; looking for fish I thought, or perhaps moralizing, as I was myself, stretched on the long grass, sub tegmine fagi, for I was on the verge of a magnificent beech forest. He at last came towards me, his watch, (a beautiful Breguet,) which he had till then kept hidden in a secret pocket, in his hand. "It lived exactly eighteen minutes and twelve seconds," said he, as he approached. "What?" exclaimed I, starting up, for he took me by surprise. I had quite forgotten him and his hapless victim for at least half that time. Why, the mole," answered he. "What! In the water ?" 66 Yes, to be sure. I am now convinced that it is truly of the pig species: it persisted to swim against the stream till the last; it's a very curious illustration of the received theory. I must put it in my journal; -pray wait a bit.” "Come along, come along," said I, impatiently. "You will have time enough for that: I must push on." Certainly, to be sure; you are very right: but it was a curious adventure, wasn't it?" 66 Very," said I, and I strode on, hating the humbug sensitiveness that shrunk from the manly pursuits of the field, but could gloat on dying agonies for science' sake! "Bless my soul! but you walk very fast," exclaimed at length the panting philosopher, out of breath, and both face and scalp glowing deep crimson. "Am I going too fast for you? Because, if soI would have added; but he cut me short. we can part here, "Not at all, not at all: I am particularly fond of walking fast. But the fact is, I have a good number of things about me. I like to make myself comfortable in travelling." Comfortable indeed! I wonder you don't hire a man to carry your baggage and tools." Bless me! that would cost me at least twenty-four kreutzers a-day.". "About eightpence English?" "Very nearly; labour is excessively dear in this part of the country; and these forest-guides never take less than labourer's hire." "Indeed!" exclaimed I, staring at the gold chain which was fastened to his Breguet,-a fifty-guinea repeater, at least. "I make it a point to carry my own things. I'm an old traveller, I assure you. I'm never taken in." "You have a variety of implements?" ८८ Everything, I fancy, which a geologist, mineralogist, or natural philosopher should have for his personal convenience." "Convenience!" thought I. "But I don't load myself as travellers generally do. For instance, I have no pocket compass; the different strata tell me my course, as I before observed. Nor any thermometer. I have another method for finding out what weather is coming." "What is that, pray?" "Why this ;-wait a little,—just a moment." we I saw the poor devil wanted a respite from the "slapping pace had been going at, and I stopped while he unbuckled his spade, and fell to work digging in various places, till at last he came to an anthill. Ay, now I have it," said he, unmercifully turning up myriads of the unfortunate insects, and destroying the labour of months: "this is it. This is the way to know the weather. If the ants build at the top, it is sure to be fine, and vice versû ;—that's the unerring way, I assure you, known to all proficients in natural philosophy. I am surprised you were not aware of it." "If I had, I should not have practised it." c Bless my soul! why not?" But I gave him no reason. After several attempts at conversation, which I did not encourage, he asked me suddenly, "Do you carry a pocket glass?" * "No," replied I;" not always: sometimes on ascending a hill." Why that's the very place you want it least," said he, laughing. Flies are much more common in the low grounds, particularly in these thick-wooded passes.". odd While I pondered as to what possible relation flies could have to a pocket telescope, my companion held on a rigmarole train of reasoning, which I did not understand, walking all the while in a very sort of sidelong motion, with his face upturned, and his eyes, as I thought, remarkably wide open. I really began to have some misgivings as to his sanity, and sidled away from him as much as the narrow path allowed: when, all of a sudden, he struck himself a most violent slap in the face with his left hand, fumbling in his waistcoat pocket with the right, stopping short, and exclaiming in manifest glee, "Heureka! Heureka! I have it, I have it!" "For Heaven's sake, what ails you ?" asked I, staring at him, but keeping at a reasonable distance. Ails me? nothing, but that I have a gigantic gnat or mosquito in my eye. I have it fast: it sha'n't escape me." I here stepped close up to him, offering to take the fly out of his eye; but he repulsed me with one hand, holding the lid closed with the other, and evidently suffering under a severe smarting, for the scalding tears were bursting out between his fingers. He at last succeeded in opening, a small tortoise-shell-cased looking-glass with his right hand, and fixing himself in a firm attitude with legs astride, elbows raised, and mouth wide open, he proceeded cautiously to emancipate the unfortunate fly' which he had caught so cunningly. He after some time succeeded in picking out the little atom, which had been drowned in tears, and then, wiping his bloodshot eye, and putting his mirror carefully up again, he exclaimed, in a tone of most ludicrous triumph, "Well, Sir; do you now see the advantage of a pocket-glass? You observe how independent it makes a man? I never travel without it, particularly in low and marshy grounds, where, as you most probably understand, these annoying insects are more particularly on the wing, I am very subject to catching them in my eyes.' "You seem to have the knack," said I; and I now thoroughly made up my mind that this fly-catching, mole-killing, fish-torturing philosopher was an ass of the first quality. Everything that passed for the rest of the day gave me still more abundant proofs; and the niggardliness he displayed in all the little transactions of eating and drinking till we reached Erbach, (for I could not shake him off,) made me set him down for a very shabby fellow into the bargain. One instance may suffice-We had to cross a rivulet at a place where the late rains had swollen it so much as to require the aid of a little ferry-boat, which lay there for the convenience of the country people. The boy who pushed it backwards and forwards demanded two kreutzers (about three farthings) each for the passage. The philosopher got into a violent rage; swore it was an imposition; that one kreutzer was more than enough; that he did not value the money, not he, (the common cant of penny wise, pound foolish' economists,) but that he would sooner wade the river than submit. This he accordingly attempted; but, to my great enjoyment, and the extravagant delight of young Charon who put me across, he stumbled in the middle, fell flat on his face, and came out drenched, dismal, and discomfited, with the loss of several of his precious specimens, his fishing-rod broken, and the contents of his knapsack soaked through and through. One public good resulted from this mishap; the journal of mineralogical, geological, and philosophical research was utterly blotted out. "The reading world," as the phrase goes, thus escaped an awful addition to the taxes on time; and a second advantage will flow from the adventure, if those who may see this record of it at the same time profit by the moral it contains. The night at length set in, and we were safely lodged in the inn at Erbach, just in front of the old castle, whose curiosities I had a longindulged intention of exploring. The little town looked well, as we approached it, enveloped in a warm haze, which threw a veil of concealment on half the beauties of the neighbouring woods and valleys, heightening the rest, and just allowed the castle-turrets to appear, shadowed with the mystery of mist and imagination. After a magnificent supper, consisting of a basin of boiled bread and milk, a salad, and a huge pancake, the common bill of fare of a German evening repast in a rural district, the philosopher and myself retired. I told him of my intention to part company there; begged him to proceed on his journey on the morrow; wished him good night; and heartily hoped I had lost sight of him for ever. Not so! for scarcely had I sunk into a profound sleep, the delicious effect of air and exercise on him whose breast is not overloaded with that perilous stuff" which Macbeth speaks of, when my bed-room door was suddenly burst open, and my wide-staring eyes beheld the figure of the philosopher, ungarmented, except in the scant drapery of a blue check shirt, a red cap on his head, and a pipe in his hand. "For God's sake, get up! Jump, jump!" exclaimed he. "A most beautiful sight! Look, look! There rises Scorpio over the chimneys, in conjunction with the Virgin! Look, look!" Starting out of bed at the first invitation, I turned my gaze in the direction he pointed to; bewildered, for a moment, by commingling associations of snakes, scorpions, and tom cats, and a thousand incongruous fancies connected with house-roofs and conjunctions too numerous for momentary disentanglement. In my half-waking confusion I never dreamt of Scorpio and Virgo; and it was only when I fixed my eyes on the brilliant mystery first named, shining high above the lofty ridge of the castle walls, that I knew my philosopher added a smattering of astronomy to his alogies and ologies; and I almost cursed my stars for dooming me to endure the infliction of this persecuting caricature of science, both by day and night. I, however, quickly turned him out of my room, betook myself to bed again, and quite forgot him and his absurdities, till a chance informant lately told me that he was the possessor of at least 3000l. a-year; and that his air of poverty and meanness was assumed to remove suspicion of his personal wealth,— not worth, he invariably carrying a large sum about him. I then determined that he was fair game for " a sketch,"-in his double capacity of noodle and niggard. THE FEMALE CONVICT-SHIP. BY THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY. THE tide is in, the breeze is fair, Oh! none of those heart-cradled prayers That fast-receding ship: No tearful eyes are strain'd to watch And there are none to wave the scarf, Yet women throng that vessel's deck- The young in guilt, and the depraved, The girl, who from her mother's arms Was early lured away; The harden'd hag, whose trade hath been To lead the pure astray! A young and sickly mother kneels Apart from all the rest; And with a song of home she lulls The babe upon her breast. She falters,-for her tears must flow,— And nought is heard among the crowd 'Tis sunset. Hark! the signal gun;— All from the deck are sent The young, the old, the best, the worst, Their wailings, and their horrid mirth, But long the lurid tempest-cloud |