is about a mile in circumference, and rises near four hundred feet in height from the water's edge. There is but one spot at which a landing can be effected, and this is on the side that faces the main land; formerly, this part of the rock was fortified, but at present the fortifications are dismantled. There is an extraordinary cavern or rather fissure in the rock, which penetrates through its whole substance, and at low water it can be passed through on foot.

The Bass, in former times, was the retreat of a hermit, it afterwards came into the possession of a family of the name Lander. In 1405, when it became necessary to send Prince James, afterwards James the First of Scotland, to France, to secure him against the machinations of the Duke of Albany, this rock afforded the exile a temporary place of refuge. After leaving this place, the unfortunate Prince was taken prisoner by the English while passing Flamborough-head, and remained in prison for nineteen years. After the restoration, the rock was purchased by government for the sum of four thousand pounds, and converted into a state-prison, and during the struggles of the Scotch against episcopacy, many of the most noted among the Covenanters were confined in this dreary spot.

It was the last part of Great Britain that submitted to the authority of William, Prince of Orange, after the expulsion of James the Seventh of Scotland and Second of England. The garrison for several months held out against the newly constituted authorities, and made many daring attacks upon them; this they effected by employing a boat which they could lower or raise at pleasure. They only gave up possession of the fortress on the failure of the supplies, which had, until then, been remitted them from France. The name of the officer who at this time headed the garrison, was David Blair, third son of Blair of Ardblair, who retired afterwards to France, where he died. Although the fortress is dismantled, the dungeons in which the Covenanters were confined still remain entire. About half way up

a grassy slope, towards the peak, there is a small ruinous chapel, containing a baptismal font.

It is a singular fact, that the Solan geese, which are so numerous on this rock, are not found in any numbers on the eastern coast of Scotland, except at this place, at Ailsa Crag, and at St. Kilda. The rock is now let on lease to a tenant residing on the main land, who employs a number of hands, at proper seasons of the year, to collect the birds and eggs. The method of taking these animals is much the same as that employed at St. Kilda, and already described *.

Mr. Daniell, in his Picturesque Tour round Great Britain, says, "In the course of a season, about one thousand birds are taken, they sell for ninepence each; the fat is used as cart-grease, and the feathers fetch a guinea per stone, Dutch, of twenty-two pounds."Fue

The Kittiwakes (a species of gull,) are numerous here; their name seems to be derived from their peculiar cry, which sounds, however, as much like the words get away as any other. The clamour of these, and a variety of other sea-fowl that inhabit the rock, is absolutely deafening. However strange the remark may seem, yet the birds are in fact kept under lock and key, the islet being accessible only in one place, which has a gate secured by these fastenings. There is someting paradoxical, and even absurd, in the notion, that a man should be privileged to call the thousands, and tens of thousands, of Solan geese, that freely wing the air in this region, his own; yet, as they are attached to this single spot, they are, to all intents and purposes, as much private property as the live stock on a farm. The propietor of the rock pays annually twelve geese to the church of North Berwick, as part of the minister's stipend.

The grassy part on the top of the rock affords food to about twenty sheep; these are in great request among the epicures, on account of their delicate flavour. See Saturday Magazine, Vol. H., p. 228.

WE have already given a short description of this singular creature, which is found only in Australia, but in a recent part of the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, there appears so excellent au account of the natural history and habits of the Duck-Bill, from the able pen of Mr. Bennet, that we are induced to return to the subject, the more particularly as his observations were made on the living animal. The Duck-Bill, on account of its burrowing habits, is called by the colonists the Water-Mole.

In describing his first sight of a living Ornithorhynchus, Mr. Bennet says,

We soon came to a tranquil part of the river, such as the colonists call a pond, on the surface of which numerous aquatic plants grew. It is in places of this description, that the water-moles are most commonly seen, seeking their food among the aquatic plants, whilst the steep and shaded banks afford them excellent situations for forming their burrows. We remained stationary on the banks, with gun in rest, waiting their appearance with some degree of patience; and it was not long before my companion quietly directed my attention to one of these animals paddling on the surface of the water, not far distant from the bank on which we were then standing. In such circumstances they may be readily recognised by their dark bodies, just seen level with the surface, above which the head is slightly raised, and by the circles made in the water around them by their paddling action. On seeing them the spectator must remain perfectly stationary, as the slightest noise or. movement of his body would cause their instant disappearSee Saturday Magazine, Vol. I., p. 115.

.

VOL, IX.

ance, so acute are they in sight or hearing, or perhaps in both, and they seldom re-appear when they have been frightened. By remaining perfectly quiet when the animal is " up," the spectator is enabled to obtain an excellent view of its movements on the water; it seldom, however, remains longer than one or two minutes, playing and paddling on the surface, soon diving again and re-appearing a short distance above or below, generally according to the direction in which it dives. It dives head foremost with an audible splash.

Although the animal may "come up" close to the place where the sportsman is standing, it would be useless to attempt to level the gun, for that action alone would cause its instantaneous disappearance; but after waiting patiently until the animal dives, and watching the direction in which it sinks, preparation must be made to receive it with the discharge of the piece instantly on its re-appearance on the surface, which (when it descends unfrighted,) is almost certain to take place in a short time. A near shot is necessary, a distant one is almost hopeless; (and the aim should be invariably directed at the head, in which spot the shots are more likely to take effect than in the loose dense integuments of the body. I have seen the skull shattered by the force of the shot, when the integuments covering it have scarcely suffered injury.

When the fur of the animal is wet, it more resembles a lump of dirty weeds than any production feet of the male Ornithorhynchus has been said, by of the animal kingdom. The spur on the hinder those who have written on the subject, to contain a very deadly poison; this false idea Mr. Bennet set at rest by experiment. Speaking of one recently taken, he says,

274

This specimen being a male, and having heard so much related about the injurious effects resulting from a puncture of the spur, I determined to avail myself of the opportunity to ascertain the correctness of the assertion. As soon, therefore, as it became lively, (it had been wounded,) I put its "poisonous" spurs to the test. I commenced by placing my hands in such a manner, when seizing the animal, as to enable it, from the direction of the spurs, to use them with effect; the result was, the animal made strenuous efforts to escape, and in these efforts scratched my hand a little with the hind-claws, and even, in consequence of the position in which I held it, with the spur also. But although held so rudely, it neither darted the spur into my hand,

nor did it even make an attempt to do so.

Mr. Bennet made many other attempts with animals which were unwounded, but could never induce one of them to make use of their spurs.

The burrows of the Ornithorhynchus have one entrance, usually about the distance of a foot from the water's edge, and another under the water, communicating with the interior by an opening just within the upper entrance.

During his search after these animals, Mr. Bennet made frequent inquiries of the natives as to the fact of this animal laying eggs or not, but the answers he obtained were seldom satisfactory, perhaps from each party mistaking the other's meaning. It is now a clearly-ascertained fact, that the young are suckled by their mother, and, consequently, it is not at all probable that they are hatched from eggs. When one of the blacks was asked on what the young were fed, his answer was, "All same you white fellu first habe milliken, then make patta (eat) bread, yaul, &c." After many fruitless attempts, Mr. Bennet succeeded in capturing a full-grown female unhurt, but after keeping it for a few days, it managed to escape from its place of confinement. He afterwards succeeded in taking two young ones, of which he gives the following account :

On arriving at the termination of a very large burrow, a growling was distinctly heard, but although the animals were so far exposed that their fur was seen, and although

there was abundance of growling, no attempt was made on the part of the animals to escape. On being taken out they were found to be full-furred young ones, coiled up, asleep, and they growled exceedingly on being exposed to the light of day. There were two, a male and female, of the dimensions of ten inches, from the extremity of the beak to that of the tail. They had a most beautifully sleek and delicate appearance, and seemed never to have left the burrow.

when they saw the fine condition of the young Mullagongs. The eyes of the aborigines, both young and old, glistened

The exclamations of "Cobbory fat," (large, or very fat,) and "Murry budgeree patta," (very good to eat,) became so frequent and so earnest, that I began to tremble for the safety of my destined favourites; and having given them in charge to the natives to convey to the house, I turned and rode back more than once, from a fear lest they should be all devoured. But I was wrong in my calculation on the natives' power of resisting temptation, for they brought them all home safe, and were delighted with the reward of tobacco which was given them for their trouble.

I arrived with my little family of Ornithorhynchi safe at Sidney, and as they survived for some time, an opportunity was afforded me of observing their habits. The animals appeared often to dream of swimming, as I have frequently seen their fore-paws in movement as if in the act. They usually reposed side by side, like a pair of furred balls, and awful little growls issued from them when disturbed; but when very sound asleep, they could be handled with impunity. They were very playful at times, sporting together like young puppies.

Their eyes being placed so high on the head, they do not see objects well in a straight line, and consequently run against everything in the room, and upset whatever was easily overturned. They were particularly cleanly in their habits, and were constantly cleaning their fur, using their hinder feet after the manner of a comb. In the room in which they were confined was a chest of drawers, and they

were frequently found on the top of them. It was some time before it could be discovered in what manner they reached this elevated spot; at length it was found out, that they succeeded in reaching it by climbing up between the back of the drawers and the wall, placing their feet against the wall and pressing hard with their back against the back of the drawers. With all the care that could be bestowed upon them, they lived but a few weeks.

WIT.

BARROW's description of WIT, as it is seen in a virtuous lightens the intellect by good sense, conveyed in jocular and wise man, is a picture of himself. "It is when it enexpression; when it infringes neither on religion, charity, and justice, nor on peace; when it maintains good humour, sweetens conversation, and makes the endearments of society more captivating; when it exposes what is vile and base to contempt; when it reclaims the vicious, and laughs them into virtue; when it answers what is below refutation; when it replies to obloquy; when it counterbalances the fashion of error and vice, playing off their own weapons of ridicule against them; when it adorns truth; when it follows great examples; when it is not used upon subjects improper for it, or in a manner unbecoming, in measure intemperate, at an undue season, or to a dangerous end. BETTER it is, toward the right conduct of life, to consider what will be the end of a thing, than what is the beginning of it; for what promises fair at first may prove ill, and what seems at first a disadvantage, may prove very advantageous.-WELls.

CUSTOM SO far regulates the sentiments, at least of common minds, that I believe men may be generally observed to grow less tender, as they advance in age. He who, when life was new, melted at the loss of every companion, can look in time, without concern, upon the grave into which his last friend was thrown, and into which himself is ready to fall; not that he is more willing to die than formerly, but that he is more familiar to the death of others, and therefore is not alarmed so far as to consider how much nearer he approaches his end. But this is to submit tamely to the tyranny of accident, and to suffer our reason to lie useless. Every funeral may justly be considered as a summons to prepare for that state into which it shows us that we must some time enter; and the summons is more

loud and piercing, as the event of which it warns us is at less distance. To neglect at any time preparation for death, is to sleep on our post at a siege; but to omit it in old age is to sleep at an attack.-Rambler.

EXTERNAL happiness and misery are not in this life always theatre of Divine retribution; but there is a life beyond the the consequences of virtue and vice; this world is not the grave, where the good will receive their reward, and the -MICHAELIS. THOUGH the expectations of mankind are perhaps generally wicked be punished.more sanguine than the event will warrant, yet it is surely a comfort inexpressibly great, to be the instruments of doing what good we can, though it should not amount to so

much as we could wish.-TUCKER.

EXPERIENCE teaches us that those faculties of our nature that are most cultivated become most acute: if intellectual pursuits are neglected, the intellect itself becomes weakened; in proportion as the senses are exercised, they are strengthened; in proportion as the pleasures they afford us stand high or low in our estimation, we graduate towards the brute, which knows no pleasures but those of sense; or towards the angel who knows no pleasures but what are spiritual.-KIRBY.

here, has the unspeakable satisfaction of knowing that the dear companion is safely arrived at the haven of eternal rest; and that a few revolving years will re-unite them in a state of unchangeable happiness, beyond the power of death, sin, or sorrow, for ever! [From an old Periodical.]

NEWSPAPER LITERATURE.

No. IX.

IN entering upon the subject of the Newspaper-Press of America, and in endeavouring to elicit therefrom an argument against an unlicensed or unrestricted newspaper-press in this country, it may be necessary to premise, that we shall diverge as little as possible from a bare narration of facts, discarding political bias, and deductions that may admit of dispute. Our only object is, to treat the subject as a literary, rather than as a political question; although, from its peculiar nature, it may be sometimes difficult wholly to avoid overstepping the line we have thus laid down.

In the immense, but thinly-populated, regions which form the United States, the inhabitants are blessed with a larger number of newspapers than the whole of Europe can boast of: their daily journals alone are upwards of fifty; and the total number of separate newspapers published within the States exceeds one thousand! In addition to these, a host of religious journals make their appearance at short and regular intervals; but the great majority of them are more conspicuous for polemical acrimony, than for their utility as a means of spreading religious knowledge. The character of their political journals has been so ably drawn by a late writer on American manners and society, (Monsieur de Tocqueville,) that we shall adopt his comprehensive description of their characteristics, and afterwards endeavour to prove the correctness of his remarks, by adducing a few examples of transatlantic journalism.

pos

The characteristics (says M. de Tocqueville) of the American journalist consist in an open and coarse appeal to the passions of the populace; and he habitually abandons the principles of political science to assail the characters of individuals, to track them into private life, and to disclose all their weaknesses and errors. Nothing can be more deplorable than this abuse of the powers of thought. It cannot be denied, however, that the effects of this extreme license of the press tend indirectly to the maintenance of public order. The individuals who are already in the session of a high station in the esteem of their fellowcitizens, are afraid to write in the newspapers; and they are thus deprived of the most powerful instrument which they can use to excite the passions of the multitude to their own advantage. The personal opinions of the editors have no kind of weight in the eyes of the public; the only use of a journal is, that it imparts the knowledge of certain facts; and it is only by altering or distorting those facts that a journalist can contribute to the support of his own views.

"

We cannot agree with the writer of the above passage, that "this extreme license of the press tends," either directly or indirectly, to the maintenance of public order;" on the contrary, we suspect that one species of the influence of these papers upon the taste and the morality of the American people," is developed in that absence of public order, which recent accounts from America prove to exist; and that some of the enormities of "Lynch law," tarring and feathering, &c., are to be traced to the gradual infusion of mental poison into the humbler classes, through the ready channel of the periodical press of America.

That 66 'the personal opinions of the editors have no kind of weight in the eyes of the public," will

readily be credited, when we find that the proprietors of newspapers in America, in a great majority of cases, do not employ even ordinary talent in their production; and that the persons who are so employed, are continually thrusting themselves individually before their readers, in a style that would be considered in England, as partaking of the most impertinent and disgusting familiarity. Thus, one of these gentry gravely apologizes to his readers for the non-appearance of his paper at the regular time of publication, by saying "that he was engaged that day in cow-hiding a fellow who had slandered him, and did'nt get through it early enough to get on with his paper!" Another states, as a absence of the usual editorial remarks in one of his numbers, that "the weather had been so cold, that he was obliged to sit up all night in his office with a couple of devils* rubbing his head to keep his ideas A third editor makes his own from freezing!" marriage the subject of his leading remarks, and "desires all his numerous readers to rejoice in his happiness." He then proceeds,—

cause for the

It is not good that man should be alone. The editor has the pleasure of informing his numerous and respectable readers, that he has taken a partner, not for one, two, or for the purpose of assisting in the labours of the printingany term of years; but so long as we both shall live: not office, but to participate in life's joys and vicissitudes.

The passages above quoted, it will be said, are harmless foibles; and such they are: for we should be sorry to offend the good taste of our readers, by adducing other passages which might be selected in abundance, and which do not possess the same harmless character.

ward will serve to show, how undignified in style, But the passages brought forand how different from an English newspaper, are the publications into which such foibles are constantly low scale of the American newspaper-press, is the suffered to intrude. Another point, which marks the cool effrontery with which its conductors insult the common-sense of their readers, by the insertion of the most improbable falsehoods, which they support with a circumstantiality of detail, that renders them broadly farcical. But a still more offensive feature in their journals, is the method in which the advocates of different opinions carry on their warfare with each other. Personal abuse of the lowest cast, is generally substituted for argument; and the common decencies of society, are frequently outraged in the language employed. In a recent arrival of Maryland papers, in one of the numbers, the editor prides himself upon having satisfactorily refuted the opinions of a rival, by proving that "his soul, his nasty little soul, is not large enough to fill the socket of a musquito's eye!"

There is, however, occasionally, some humour in the lucubrations of American scribes, although it is often much alloyed by being sadly out of place. The editor of a Charleston paper addresses the following to his readers;

An editor of the Mordecai Noah School, somewhere in the East, who was lately requested to advertise for an apothecary, and take his pay in drugs, utterly refused to trade; and says he will take nearly all sorts of produce in wooden combs, old clothes, cold victuals, &c., but he won't payment for papers and advertising, such as parsneps, take physic. The other day, a gentleman proposed to subscribe to the Republican, and to pay for it in tomb stones. With our eastern brother we can say, that we will take nearly all sorts of produce even including physic; bu we would rather be excused from tomb-stones.

Another editor amuses his readers at the expens of an opponent, in these terms:

* A cant term, applied to an errand-boy in a printing-office.