man. The ration which each now received was three pounds of flour, two pounds of beef, and a pint of peas.

It is easy to imagine with what tears grace was said over the suppers of that evening. There was little sleep on either side of the wall. The bonfires shone bright along the whole circuit of the ramparts. The Irish guns continued to roar all night; and all night the bells of the rescued city made answer to the Irish guns with a peal of joyous defiance.— Macaulay.

Breach'-es, ruptures or gaps in a fortifi

cation.

In-de-fat'-i-ga-ble, untiring, unwearied.
Lux'-u-ries, pleasures and indulgences.

Ex-hal'-ed, sent or breathed out.
Sen'-tin-els, soldiers watching on guard.
Bar-ri-cade', a barrier usually made in
haste.

DICTATION EXERCISE.

The peninsula of Kamtschatka measures in extreme length about seven hundred miles. It is almost entirely of volcanic origin, and the huge rugged chain of mountains by which it is longitudinally divided comprises at the present day five or six volcanoes in a state of almost uninterrupted activity. The climate of its central and southern portion is, strange to say-for the latitude is about that of Moscowcomparatively mild and equable, and in the deep sequestered valleys formed by the spurs of the central range of mountains, the vegetation has an almost tropical freshness and luxuriance.

A SHIPWRECK.

ONE morning I can remember well how we watched from the Hartland Cliffs a great barque, which came drifting and rolling in before the western gale, while we followed her up the coast, parsons and sportsmen, farmers and preventive men, with the Manby's mortar lumbering behind us in a cart, through stone-gaps and track-ways, from headland to headland. There was a maddening excitement of expectation as she ran wildly towards the cliffs at our feet, and then sheered off again inexplicably; her foremast and bowsprit, I recollect, were gone short off by the deck; a few rags of sail fluttered from her main and mizen. But with all straining of eyes and glasses, we could discern no sign of man on board.

Well I recollect the mingled disappointment and admiration of the preventive men, as a fresh set of salvors appeared in view, in the form of a boat's crew of Clovelly fishermen; how we watched breathlessly the little black speck crawling and struggling up in the teeth of the gale, under the shelter of the land, till, when the ship had rounded a point into smoother water, she seized on her like some tiny spider on a huge unwieldy fly; and then how one still smaller black speck showed aloft on the main-yard, and another, and then the desperate efforts to get the top-sail set, and how we saw it tear out of their hands again, and again, and again, and almost fancied we could hear the thunder of its flappings above the roar of the gale, and the mountains of surf which made the rocks ring beneath our feet; and how we stood silent, shuddering,

expecting every moment to see whirled into the sea from the plunging yards one of those same tiny black specks, in each one of which was a living human soul, with sad women praying for him at home!

And then how they tried to get her head round to the wind, and disappeared instantly in a cloud of white spray, and let her head fall back again, and jammed it round again, and disappeared again, and at last let her drive helplessly up the bay, while we kept pace with her along the cliffs; and how at last, when she had been mastered and fairly taken in tow, and was within two miles of the pier, and all hearts were merry with the hopes of a prize which would make them rich, perhaps, for years to come-one-third, I suppose, of the whole value of her cargo-how she broke loose from them at the last moment, and rushed frantically in upon those huge rocks below us, leaping great banks of slate at the blow of each breaker, tearing off masses of ironstone which lie there to this day to tell the tale, till she drove up high and dry against the cliff, and lay, like an enormous stranded whale, grinding and crashing herself to pieces against the walls of her adamantine cage.

And well I recollect the sad records of the log-book which was left on board the deserted ship; how she had been waterlogged for weeks and weeks, buoyed up by her timber cargo, the crew clinging in the tops, and crawling down, when they dared, for putrid biscuitdust and drops of water, till the water was washed overboard and gone; and then notice after notice, "On this day such an one died," "On this day such an one was washed away," the log kept up to the last, even when there was only that to tell, by the stern businesslike merchant skipper, whoever he was; and how at

last, when there was neither food nor water, the strong man's heart seemed to have quailed, or perhaps risen, into a prayer, jotted down in the log-"The Lord have mercy on us!"—and then a blank of several pages, and, scribbled with a famine-shaken hand, "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth; "—and so the log and the ship were left to the rats, which covered the deck when our men boarded her.

And well I remember the last act of that tragedy; for a ship has really, as sailors feel, a personality, almost a life and soul of her own; and as long as her timbers hold together, all is not over. You can hardly call her a corpse, though the human beings who inhabited her, and were her soul, may have fled into the far eternities; and so we felt that night, as we came down along the woodland road, with the north-west wind hurling dead branches and showers of crisp oakleaves about our heads; till suddenly, as we staggered out of the wood, we came upon such a picture as it would have baffled Correggio, or Rembrandt himself, to imitate. Under a wall was a long tent of sails and spars, filled with preventive men, fishermen, Lloyd's underwriters, lying about in every variety of strange attitudes and costumes; while candles, stuck in bayonet-handles in the wall, poured out a wild glare over shaggy faces and glittering weapons, and piles of timber, and rusty iron cable that glowed red-hot in the light, and then streamed up the glen towards us through the salt misty air in long fans of light, sending fiery bars over the brown transparent oak foliage and the sad beds of withered autumn flowers, and glorifying the wild flakes of foam, as they rushed across the light-stream, into troops of tiny silver