whole four pairs were urged by one man's will; and not a word is spoken by any but the man who stands up in the stern and directs the movements of him who holds the rudder strings. Hark! there's a cry comes o'er the sea, as of one in agony, in the heaving ship. Pull for your lives, brave lads, give way-there's hope e'en now: and the tears of the widow and the orphan shall be spared, and clasping hands, and thick joyful accents, and mothers' prayers, and fathers' blessings, be your recompense. Ye need no other, for the brave and good are ever better paid by gratitude than gold.

A well-known poetess, Agnes Strickland, has celebrated the Life-boat, in never-dying verse,

"The life-boat! the life-boat! when tempests are dark
She's the beacon of hope to the foundering bark!
When, 'midst the wild roar of the hurricane's sweep,
The minute-guns boom like a knell o'er the deep.
"The life-boat! the life-boat! the whirlwind and rain,
And white-crested breakers oppose her in vain ;
Her crew are resolved, and her timbers are stanch,
She's the vessel of mercy-God speed to her launch!
"The life-boat! the life-boat! how fearless and free
She wins her bold course o'er the wide rolling sea!
She bounds o'er the surges with gallant disdain ;
She has stemm'd them before, she will stem them again.

"The life-boat! the life-boat! she's mann'd by the brave,
In the noblest of causes commissioned to save.

What heart but has thrill'd in the seaman's distress,
At the life-boat's endeavours, the life-boat's success!

"The life-boat! the life-boat! no, vessel that sails

Has stemmed such rough billows, and weathered such gales;
Not e'en Nelson's proud ship, when his death-strife was won,
Such true glory achieved as the life-boat has done."

I will now tell you how an open boat like this is made capable of living in a raging, tempestuous

sea. The sides are lined with air-tight copper boxes, which renders it so perfectly buoyant that it will not sink even when loaded to the water's edge; and even should it turn over-which from its construction is very unlikely-it will instantly right itself again. This simple and excellent contrivance was invented by a London coachmaker, called Lionel Lukin, a man whose sympathies were always with the distressed, and especially with those whose lives were passed at sea. After de

voting about sixty years of his life to business, he retired to Hythe, in Kent, where he finished his well-run course in February, 1834. His body lies in the churchyard of Hythe, which is situated on a rising ground, overlooking the sea; a fit restingplace for one whose talents had been devoted to the means of saving the lives of his fellow-countrymen on the water. He obtained a patent for his first boat in 1785, since which time, many others of improved construction have been built; so that now the Lifeboat is found in almost every port and ship-yard in the kingdom. Many Life-boats, besides ropes, spare oars, lines, and so forth, are furnished with an apparatus invented by Captain Manby, for carrying a rope to the distressed vessel. It consists of a wide mouthed cannon or mortar, from which is shot a ball with a long rope attached; which being fired over the vessel, enables the poor sailors on board to fasten the rope, and by that means obtain a communication with the shore.

There are many other contrivances for lessening the dangers to which seamen are exposed, such as belts and bags filled with air, which being fastened round the swimmer's waist enables him to support himself in the water for a great number of hours. There is also the Night Life-buoy, for the assistance of any person who should chance to fall overboard

in the night. It consists of two hollow copper balls, united by a wooden rod, between the balls a hollow pole is placed, loaded at the bottom with lead to keep it upright; a fusee is fixed on the top of the pole, which ignites the moment the apparatus drops from the stern of the ship: thus it is not only a mark for the drowning seaman to reach, but is of sufficient buoyancy to support him till a boat arrives to his assistance.

In most shipyards you will notice a long, low building with folding doors in front; in this is kept the Life-boat, with ropes, spars, and oars, to be used at a moment's notice.

THE ORIGIN OF THE TURBAN.

HE Turban is the Turkish hat or ornament for the head, and is composed of TO fine linen, wreathed into a bundle, broad at the bottom to enclose the

head, and lessening for ornament towards the top. The custom of wearing it had this origin: the barbarous people having the Grecian army once at a great advantage, at or near the hill Thermopylæ, there was no other remedy, but some few must make good a narrow passage, while the main body of the army might escape; which some brave spirits undertook to accomplish; and knowing that they would meet an inevitable death, had care of nothing but their sepulture, much regarded of old ; wherefore, each of them carried his winding-sheet wrapped about his head, and then, with the loss of their own lives, saved their fellow-countrymen ; whereupon, for an honourable memorial of their exploit, the Levantines used to wrap white linen about their heads, and the fashion so derived was adopted by the Turks.

FINGAL'S CAVE.

s I have already given you a description of the Grotto of Antiparos, you will not be displeased at this picture of a far more wonderful place, the cave of Fingal-which has been visited by the most clever and scientific men of this and other

countries; and all with the same expressions of surprise, wonder, and delight. This natural curiosity is situated in the island of Staffa, one of the group called the Hebrides, on the north coast of Scotland. This superb natural monument is supposed to be the product of a subterraneous combustion, or heaving up of the sea, at an early period of the world's history. The arch is formed of rocky prisms inclining in all directions, supporting a roof of the same materials, twenty feet thick at its lowest part. The sides of the cave present, as you see in the picture, the appearance of an immense

number of pillars, placed side by side with all the regularity of the most perfect architecture.

"I have seen," says an eminent French traveller, 'many ancient volcanoes, and I have given descriptions of several basaltic causeways and delightful caverns in the midst of lavas, but I have never found anything which comes near to this, or can bear any comparison with it, for the admirable regularity of its columns, the height of the arch, the situation, the form, the elegance of this production of nature, or its resemblance to the masterpieces of art, though art has had no share in its construction."

And Dr. Van Troil, another eminent writer, observes-that "however splendid the porticoes of the ancients appear to our eyes, from the ostentatious magnificence of the descriptions we have received of them; and with whatever admiration are we seized on seeing the colonnades of our modern edifices, yet with the cave of Fingal, formed by Nature in the island of Staffa, it is no longer possible to make a comparison; and we are forced to acknowledge, that this piece of nature's architecture far surpasses that of the Louvre at Paris, that of St. Peter's at Rome, all that remains of Palmyra and Poestum, and all that the genius, taste, and luxury of the Greeks were ever capable of inventing."

The cave is approached from the sea, which flows into it and fills its entire length and breadth. In very calm weather, a boat may sail into it; but if such an attempt should be made when the waves are in the slightest degree agitated, the vessel would be dashed to pieces. The only way of entering at such times is by a causeway on the eastern side, not more than two feet broad, formed by the bases of broken pillars, which being con