Horrid and harbourless, where all life dies,
Advent'rous mortals, urg'd by thirst of gain,
Thro' floating isles of ice and fighting storms,
Roam the wild waves in search of doubtful shores,
By west, or cast, a path yet unexplor❜d.

SHIPWRECK,

Beheld from the Shore of ST. KILDA in the Orkneys.-Time, Evening.

The sea pie ceas'd

At once to warble; screaming from his nest
The Sulmar soar'd, and shot a westward flight
From shore to sea: on came, before her hour,
Invading Night, and hung the troubled sky
With fearful blackness round: sad Ocean's face
A curling undulation shiv'ry swept

MALLET.

From wave to wave; and now impetuous rose,
Thick cloud and storm, and ruin on his wing,
The raging South, and headlong o'er the deep
Fell horrible, with broad-descending blast.
Aloft, and safe beneath a shelt'ring cliff,
Whose moss grown summit on the distant flood,
Projecting frowns, Aurelius stood appall'd!
His stunn'd ear smote with all the thund'ring main,
His eye with mountains surging to the stars,
Commotion infinite!-Where yon last wave
Blends with the sky its foam, a ship in view
Shoots sudden forth, steep falling from the clouds,
Yet distant seen, and dim; till onward borne
Before the blast, each growing sail expands,
Each mast aspires, and all th' advancing frame
Bounds on his eye distinct: with sharpen'd ken
Its course he watches, and in awful thought
That Pow'r invokes whose voice the wild winds hear,
Whose nod the surge reveres, to look from heav'n,
And save, who else must perish, wretched men,
In this dark hour, amid the dread abyss,
With fears amaz'd, by horrors compass'd round.
-And lo! his secret seat,
Where never sun-beams glimmer'd, deep amidst
A cavern's jaws voraginous and vast,

The stormy Genius of the Deep forsakes;
And o'er the waves, that roar beneath his frown,
Mol. II.

Ascending baleful, bids the Tempest spread,
Turbid and terrible with hail and rain,

Its blackest pinion; pour its loud'ning blasts
In whirlwind forth, and from their lowest depth
Upturn the world of waters. Round and round
The tortur'd Ship, at his imperious call,
Is wheel'd in dizzy whirl: her guiding helm
Breaks short; her masts in crashing ruin fall,
And each rent sail flies loose in distant air.
Now, fearful moment! o'er the sounding hull
Half Ocean heav'd, in one broad billowy curve
Steep from the clouds with horrid shade impends.
Ah, save them, Heav'n! it bursts in deluge down
With boundless undulation: shore and sky
Rebellow to the roar ! at once ingulf'd,
Vessel and Crew beneath its torrent swept,
Are sunk to rise no more.-Aurelius wept !
The tear unbidden dew'd his hoary cheek:
He turn'd his step; he fled the fatal scene,
And brooding in sad silence, o'er the sight
To him alone disclos'd, his wounded heart
Pour'd out to Heav'n in sighs: Thy will be done,
Not mine, Supreme Disposer of events!
But Death demands a tear, and man must feel
For human woes: the rest Submission checks.

REFLECTIONS

During an EVENING'S WALK on the BANKS of the Avon,

LOWLY thy flowing tide

Came in, Old Avon, scarcely did mine eyes,

As watchfully I roam'd thy green-wood side,
Behold the gentle rise.

With many a stroke and strong,

The lab'ring boatmen upward ply'd their oars;
And yet the eye beheld them lab'ring long
Between the winding shores.

Now down thine ebbing tide
The boat unlabour'd quickly flits along;
The helmsman idly marks its easy glide,
And sings his wonted song.

Bold o'er the rocks, that lay

So silent late, the shallow current roars ;.
Fast flow thy waters on their seaward way,
Thro' wider spreading shores.

Avon! I gaze and know

The moral emblem'd in thy varying way;
It speaks of human joys, that rise so slow,
So rapidly decay.

Kingdoms that long have stood,

And slow thro' many a year attain'd at last
To strength and pow'r, thus on the ebbing flood
Rush to their ruin fast.

Thus tardily appears

The course of time to manhood's envied stage-
But that attain'd, how quick the ebbing years
Then hasten to old age!

THE MID-WATCH,

On the Night before an Action.

WHEN 'tis night, and the mid-watch is come,

And chilling mists hang o'er the dark'ned Main,

Then sailors think of their far distant Home,
And of those friends they ne'er may see again:
But, when the Fight's begun,

Each serving at his gun,

Should any thought of them come o'er your mind,
Think only-should the day be won!
How 'twill cheer

Their hearts to hear

That their own Dear Sailor he was one.

And thús, brave Tar, if you a Mistress kind,
Have left on shore; some pretty girl and true!

Who many a night doth listen to the wind,

And sigh to think how it may fare with you:
Oh when the Fight's begun,

Each serving at his gun,

Should any thought of her come o'er your mind,
Think only-should the day be won!

How 'twould cheer

Her heart to hear

That her own True Sailor he was one.

PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS,

AND USEFUL NAVAL PROJECTS.

PRIZE QUESTIONS, and PREMIUMS, offered by FOREIGN and DOMESTIC SOCIETIES.

DOMESTIC.-Premiums offered by The Society insituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufa&ures, and Commerce.

FOR

Preserving Fresh Water sweet.

OR the best account, verified by trials, of a method of preserving fresh water during long voyages; the gold medal, or fifty guineas.

Accounts and descriptions of the methods made use of, with thirty gallons of the water, to be produced on the last Tuesday in December 1799.

Purifying brackish water.-For discovering the best method of purifying brackish water, so as to fit it for use; the silver medal, or fifteen guineas.

Certificates, and an account of the method used, to be produced on the second Tuesday in February 1800.

Substitute for, or Preparation, of Yeast-For discovering a substitute for, or preparation of yeast, that may be preserved six months; the gold medal, or thirty guineas.

Specimens to be produced on the last Tuesday in November 1799. N. B. This is one of the great desiderata for the comforts of the Navy.

Preserving Salted Provisions. For discovering the cheapest method of preserving salted provisions from becoming rancid, or rusty; the gold medal, or thirty guineas.

Accounts and certificates to be produced on or before the first Tuesday in February 1800.

Substitute for Tar.-For discovering the best substitute for tar, equal to Stockholm tar, and prepared from materials the produce of Great Britain; the gold medal, or one hundred guineas.

One hundred weight, with certificates, and the process, to be delivered on the first Tuesday in March 1800.

Transit Instrument.-For the invention of a cheap and portable instrument, for the purpose of finding the latitudes and longitudes of places; the gold medal, or forty guineas; to be produced on the last Tuesday in January 1800.

Probably the best answer to this question is already given in the late Admiral Sir C. Knowles's receipt, Nav. Chron. vol. ii. p. 97.

Taking Whales by the Gun Harpoon.-For the greatest number, not less than three, by one person, ten guineas.

-Certificates of the taking the whales to be produced on the last Tuesday in December 1799.

Driving Bolts in Ships.-For a model of a machine for driving bolts, particularly copper, into Ships, superior to any now in use; the gold medal, or forty guineas.

To be produced on the first Tuesday in February 1800.

FOREIGN PRIZE QUESTIONS.

The Batavian Economical Society, authorised by the Directory of the Batavian Republic, has proposed the following question as the subject of a prize, which natives or foreigners may answer:

Are there any means, hitherto unknown, and sufficiently effective, to restore so completely, without the mixture of pernicious ingredients, the taste and smell of stinking water, as to render it a pure, cooling, and wholesome beverage; and what are these means?

For a satisfactory answer to this question the author will be entitled to a prize of 6ooo florins.

In the answer the following particulars are recommended to be attended to: 1st. That the means be not too expensive, or causing too much trouble; that they do not occasion the consumption of much fuel; and that the mode can be employed at sea, on board ships heavily laden, and frequently exposed to violent agitation. zd That the method does not require too much art, and may be easily applied by seamen. 3d. That it be certified capable of producing the same effects in every temperature. 4th. That they be not prejudicial, by corroding the copper vessels in which ship's provisions are boiled.

If the author communicates any ideas leading to the discovery of the above mentioned objects, so that they may be found to answer, after repeated experiments, he will receive a third part of the premium. The remainder of the sum will be paid as soon as the Society has been convinced of the certainty of the result by experiments made in different climates.

The papers are to be transmitted in the usual form, directed to C. J. J. Desout, at Harlem, Secretary General to the Batavian Society, on or before the 28th of February 1800.

The Society of Agriculture at Copenhagen has proposed three prizes to be paid by the Admiralty, one of five hundred, one of an hundred, and one of fifty rix dollars, for the best paper on the rearing of timber proper for ship-building.-The questions are, 1.What soil is best suited to the different kinds of wood, and what care is required