mountain-giants, (its height is not more than 222 feet) yet the view from its summit is remarkable for extent and beauty; for being the most westerly point in Cumberland, it commands the whole shore, with its many creeks, bays, and harbours, for a long distance on either hand, together with a vast expanse of the Irish Sea; the Isle of Man, and a great extent of the Scottish coasts, are also distinctly seen. The rocks teem with various kinds of sea-fowl; and samphire grows here in abundance.

The town of Whitehaven is described as being one of the most handsome in all the northern counties. The approach from the north is singular, as the creek on which the town is built is so deeply seated between two promontories, that the adjacent lands overlook it on every side, and the heights are so much above the town, that only the roofs of the houses can be seen till the traveller is nearly at the entrance, which, on this side, is under a fine stone portico, embellished with the arms of the Lowther family. From the south, the prospect is more open, as the eye there commands the whole town and haven, together with the castle of the Earl of Lonsdale. The name, White haven, is supposed to have been naturally derived from the colour of the cliffs, a greyish white: there is however a tradition that a fisherman named White, the first person that frequented the bay, who, to shelter himself from the weather, built the first cottage (still standing in the Old Town), gave his name to the creek and hamlet of some half-dozen huts which succeeded this solitary erection: the old name, among the country-folk, seems to have been Whitton, which some translate White's Town, though White Town would appear to be the more plausible etymology.

Whitehaven has long been noted for the beds of coal in its vicinity, which have also contributed greatly to the trade of the port. It was Sir Christopher Lowther (whose father had become possessed of the lands of the dissolved monastery, about the middle of the seventeenth century) who first conceived the idea of opening collieries here; but not much progress was made till after the Restoration, when Sir John Lowther caused the mines to be worked on a very extensive scale; and, becoming the owner of the

sea-coast between high and low watermark for two miles northward, laid the foundation of the present haven. This haven, which has since been greatly improved, is now protected by several moles of stonework; one of these, bending in form of a crescent, has a battery, and a lighthouse at its extremity; at low water, the haven forms a dry dock for the shipping. The coal staith (or magazine), adjoins the harbour; here the coals, brought from the pits in waggons impelled by their own weight along the tramways, are deposited on an under-floor, until the ships are ready to receive them. Most of the coal exported from this haven is conveyed to Ireland: the quantity raised annually, on an average of twenty years, has been calculated at about 90,000 chaldrons.

Some of these coal mines are said to be amongst the most extraordinary in the world. In some parts, the mines are sunk to a depth of 130 and 160 fathoms, and are extended far under the sea: here, only about onethird of the coal is removed, the intervening portions being left, in pillars, from 12 to 18 yards square, and about 3 yards high, to support the roof. These are the deepest coal mines that have hitherto been wrought; as miners have not elsewhere penetrated to so great a depth below the surface of the sea; for the very deep mines in Hungary, Peru, &c., are situated in mountainous districts where the surface of the earth is elevated to a great height above the level of the ocean. The subterranean passages by which men and horses descend through intersecting galleries to the coal-works are locally termed Bearmouths where these have not been made, no horses can be employed underground, and the workmen are let down the shaft by the windlass. The veins of coal usually lie in strata lying at intervals one above another, and are frequently interrupted by breaks of hard rock, which the miners call dykes. Those works which are at the greatest depth below the level of the sea, produce the largest quantity of fire-damp; and the utmost care is requisite to keep the mines ventilated with perpetual currents of fresh air to expel these noxious exhalations : for if ever, by any accident, these poisonous gases are set on fire, they produce dreadful explosions, bursting out

of the pits like eruptions from fiery mountains: and in this way, the coal in many collieries has several times been set on fire, continuing to burn for many months, and even years, until extinguished by large streams of water conducted into the mines in sufficient quantity to fill those parts where the coal was burning.1

How wonderful,-how past finding out,-are the ways of the CREATOR! How great is His goodness! How unsearchable the depths of His wisdom!

"If an intelligent being from some other sphere had alighted on this globe during that remote period when the vegetation now dug out of the coal formation covered the surface with its gigantic growth, might he not have marvelled why there should be such a profusion of vegetable forms, and such a colossal development of vast forests of tree ferns and other huge primeval plants of sombre foliage, when no vertebral animal was there to enjoy and enliven the almost universal solitude? But let ages roll by, and let that same being revisit our world at the present time. Let him traverse the little island of Britain, and see there 15,000 steam engines moved by coal dug out of the earth, and produced by these same ancient forests. Let him see these engines performing the work of 2,000,000 of men, and moving machinery which accomplishes what would require the unaided labours of 400,000,000 of men, and he could not doubt but such a result was one of the objects of that rank vegetation which covered the earth ere it was fit for the residence of such natures as now dwell Let him go it. upon to the coal-fields of other countries, and especially those of the United States, stretching over 150,000 square miles, containing a quantity absolutely inexhaustible, imparting comfort to millions of inhabitants, and giving life and energy to every variety of manufacture; and irresistible must be the conviction, that such coal-fields— destined to pour out their wealth through all coming time, long after the present forests shall have been levelled-do indeed offer a beautiful example of prospective

1 For the source whence is gleaned this description of Whitehaven and its coal-mines, vide "Beauties of England and Wales," "Burn's History of Cumberland," &c.

benevolence on the part of the DEITY! In those remote ages, while yet the earth was unfitted for the higher races of animals that now dwell upon it, it was eminently adapted to nourish that gigantic flora which would produce the future fuel of the human race, when that crown of all God's works should be placed upon the earth. Ere that time should arrive, those primeval forests must sink beneath the ocean, and be buried beneath deposits of rock, thousands of feet thick. But during that measureless period, all those chemical changes essential to convert them into coal would be accomplished; and, at last, man would find access, by his ingenuity and industry, to the deep-seated beds whence his fuel might be drawn. Nor would these vast repositories fail, until the consummation of all things. Surely, there was no waste of creative power, but a far-reaching plan of benevolence, in the profusion of vegetable life in the earlier periods of our planet !"1

How little do we think of these things, when we pile the lumps of coal upon our blazing fire! It comes to us as a matter-of-course; and we remember not-perhaps we have never heard-how the creative agency of ages was requisite to form the every-day fuel which we consume.

There is something inexpressibly solemn in the thought that our Heavenly FATHER was thus planning for the supply of our wants, through so many vast periods, before even our nature had sprung into being; and that the little particles of daily comfort which we need, were, from unfathomable eternity, gradually preparing for our use beneath His most loving care. May not this help us to conceive, how this same kind FATHER doth now-in the embryo-state of our new creation in His dear SONdaily so mould the life of each of us, as to cause it to work out the "far more exceeding weight of glory," even the " things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard," in the never-ending kingdom of the future. It may be that many of the apparently small things of frequent occurrence in which our finite mind can see no object, will be, like the forests of the Pre-Adamite world, actually the progenitors of the phases of our everlasting destiny; Dr. Hitchcock's "Religion of Geology."

and that the character of our usefulness in eternity, will (so to speak) date its birth from the fashion of our pursuits now. And sometimes, when by the breath of the "wind which bloweth where it listeth," we are brought into mysterious spirit-contact with other souls, what if this too should be the prelude to close consanguinity of saintly communion in the world to come, even the preparing of the stones which shall lie side by side in the heavenly temple, smoothing the roughnesses that soul may fit into soul as angle into crevice, and blending into exquisite harmony the diversities of natural character which possibly must evermore survive even amongst the children of grace.

ROSA.

NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND; OR, THE TWO FORTUNE-TELLERS.

(Continued from Vol. XIX. p. 466.)

FOR many days Betty Chip hovered between life and death. Meantime by the Vicar's orders, the rags were taken from the windows, and the broken panes thoroughly mended; the parish sent a nurse, who was soon followed by a brush, a broom, and a pail, then the floor was swept and well scrubbed, two high-backed wooden chairs came down from the vicarage, Mrs. Rivers saw that the poor dame was supplied with all the necessaries ordered by the doctor, and little Minnie, the Vicar's youngest daughter, made posies of the sweetest flowers growing in her garden plot, and sent her own white china mug to hold them in, and all to please and cheer the poor sick girl. Morning and evening Betty Chip was prayed for by name in Church, and every day Mr. Rivers knelt by her side, but alas! Betty was often delirious, and could neither notice him, or the nurse, or her grandmother; and was quite insensible to the nice clean sheets, and soft pillow, which now made her bed so tidy and comfortable. At last there came a decided change; her