fire among these lava streams which have been running lately We have only to look about for a crevice in some of the eruptions of last week, and your kettle will be set a-boiling in ə moment."

In fact, in the very lava current, the surface of which was so cool that we made it our breakfast table, without even our pat of butter being melted, we found not only beat enough in a chink to boil water, but by removing a stone or two, could gain a peep at the red-hot rock, still glowing in the interior. Let people think of this, who, in consequence of the coolness of the exterior crust of the globe, distrust the assertion of the geologists about the probable existence of in ternal fires. It may also be useful to recollect that we can place our hand on the outside of a fiery furnace of only a single brick in thickness, and that, too, without discomfort. The actual presence of such facts on a great scale, on the summit of a volcano in eruption, immediately sets the mind thinking and speculating; whereas, when we meet the same things in the kitchen-garden walk of life, they fail to make any profitable impression.

After breakfast we set out to make the complete circuit of the outer cone, within which lay the great volcanic vent, then in very fierce commotion. We had thus an opportunity of seeing the performance from every point of the compass; and though it was magnificent in all, the most interesting process, by far, was the actual stream of liquid lava, the very commencement of which we had witnessed the night before. On that occasion, as it was dark, we could not approach the orifice, but were obliged to content ourselves with a distant view. We now went close to the spot whence the lava issued from the mountain side in the manner of a gigantic spring, apparently coming from below, and bubbling, as it made its way out, began to flow down a pretty steep surface, like a river of fire, as indeed it was. I took notice that from the first mo ment of its leaving the opening in the ground, the surface began to excoriate, that is, to acquire a skin or crust, which, as

the stream advanced, became thicker and thicker, till, at the extremity of the current, it formed a hard, rough hide, not unlike that of a rhinoceros, only less regular; for it was broken into innumerable angular pieces of all shapes and sizes, which, as the mass of lava rolled forward, were tumbled, with a loud, crackling noise, confusedly over one another.

I measured the velocity of the stream near the opening, and found it to advance about one foot in two seconds, which is about a third of a mile in an hour. Then it was quite liquid, and very like the melted iron or copper of a foundery. We thrust our staves into it with great ease, and even forked out great lumps, on which we placed coins, and having thrust them into the soft mass with the end of a stick, they remained embedded in the lava when it cooled. At the extreme end of the current, where the ground was less steep, the motion became very slow, being about a yard in six minutes, or ten yards in an hour - two hundred and forty yards in a day.

To see all these things to any good purpose, it was necessary to go pretty close much closer than I at all liked, or than I should have ventured under any other guidance than that of old Salvatore, who accompanied Sir William Hamilton on his visit to Mount Vesuvius, during the celebrated eruption of 1784, exactly fifty years before.

I did not altogether relish the taste with which he entertained me with stories of the risks he had run, and of the accidents which had happened to persons who had accompanied him on former occasions. It is true he always made it appear the only danger arose from neglecting his advice, and that if I would but attend to what he said, we should get safe round the hill. This was all very well; but once or twice, when the stones were whizzing about near us, the possibility of the guide himself being knocked down crossed my imagination — and then what a scrape I should have been in, with only a little boy, as ignorant of this critical navigation as myself!

"A few years ago," commenced Salvatore, "just after a pretty heavy shower of stones had fallen, not very far within

us, that is, between the cone and us, I came up the mountain with a party of gentlemen, one of whom insisted upon not only going round the cone, as we are now doing, but actually into the crater, although I told him that such an adventure was fraught with much more danger than the thing was worth. "Pooh! pooh! danger!' exclaimed this pig-headed gentleman; `what care I for danger? Am I not a soldier? Why, man, I have faced the foe before now! Lead the way; I'll follow!'

"I merely remarked," continued Salvatore, who is himself as brave as steel," that to face a human enemy and to face an active volcano were two very different things."

"Are you afraid to go?' asked the gentleman.

“I don't much admire it,' said I. 'But as I think I know how to evade the danger when it comes, having been at the work nearly half a century, I'll go into the crater, if you are determined upon the adventure. Only I again warn you,

that there is great danger to an inexperienced stranger.'

"Well, well, come along,' cried the impatient stranger; and away he went, the young man flourishing his stick like a sword, while I, the old man, only shrugged my shoulders.

"Now, sir,' said I, 'the only plan by which we can hope to accomplish this adventure in safety, is to be perfectly steady, and to stand as cool and collected as if nothing were happening, should a shower of stones come about our ears. I hope we may have none while we are in this awkward place; but should we be so unfortunate, mind, your only chance is to stand and look upwards.'

"O, nerves! is that all? you shall see!' So away we went," said Salvatore," climbed the lip of the cup, descended the fearful abyss, and, though half choked with the fumes, saw all we wished to see, and were actually on our return, when the mountain roared like thunder, the ground shook, a furious eruption took place, and myriads of stones were shot a thousand feet into the air."

666 Now, sir,' I called cut, 'stand your ground; make good

use of those nerves you spoke of; look up; be steady; and you may yet escape.'

"But the facer of mortal foes quailed before those of nature; he looked up, as he was bade; but when he beheld a cataract of fire falling on his head, the courage he had boasted of on the plain forsook him on the hill, and incontinently he fled. For my part," continued the old man, "I was too much afraid to fly. I never saw such a shower of stones, and only wonder that we were not both demolished. As it was, my companion had not run far before he was struck down by three stones, one of which broke his leg; the others stunned him, and I had enough to do to carry him on my shoulders out of the Much work we had to get him to Naples, where the hotel keepers and the Italian doctors, between them, had the plucking of this precious pigeon for the next six months."

cone.

LIX.-HELVELLYN.

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

[This poem commemorates the fate of Mr. Charles Gough, a young man who, in the spring of 1805, attempting to cross over Helvellyn, a mountain in Cumberland, England, to Grasmere', slipped from a steep part of the rock, where the ice was not thawed, and perished. His remains were not discovered till three months afterwards, when they were found guarded by his dog.]

I CLIMBED the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn;

Lakes and mountains beneath me gleamed misty and wide; All was still, save by fits when the eagle was yelling, And, starting around me, the echoes replied;

On the right, Striden-edge* round the Red-tarn was bending, And Catchedicam* its left verge was defending,

One huge, nameless rock in the front was ascending,

When I marked the sad spot where the wanderer had died.

*Striden-edge and Catchedicam are subordinate peaks of Helvellyn The Red-tarn is the name of a mountain lake.

Dark green was that spot 'mid the brown mountain heather,
Where the pilgrim of nature lay stretched in decay,
Like the corpse of an outcast, abandoned to weather,
Till the mountain winds wasted the tenantless clay.
Nor yet quite deserted, though lonely extended,
For, faithful in death, his mute favorite attended,
The much-loved remains of her master defended,
And chased the hill fox and the raven away.

How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber?
When the wind waved his garment, how oft didst thou start!
How many long days and long weeks didst thou number,
Ere he faded before thee, the friend of thy heart?
And O, was it meet that -no requiem read o'er him,
No mother to weep, and no friend to deplore him,
And thou, little guardian, alone stretched before him,-
Unhonored the pilgrim from life should depart?

When a prince to the fate of the peasant has yielded,
The tapestry waves dark round the dim-lighted hall;
With scutcheons of silver the coffin is shielded,

And pages stand mute by the canopied pall.

Through the courts, at deep midnight, the torches are gleaming;
In the proudly-arched chapel the banners are beaming;
Far adown the long aisle sacred music is streaming,
Lamenting a chief of the people should fall.

But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature,

To lay down thy head like the meek mountain lamb; When, 'wildered, he drops from some cliff huge in stature, And draws his last sob by the side of his dam.

And more stately thy couch, by this desert lake lying,
Thy obsequies sung by the gray plover flying,
With one faithful friend but to witness thy dying,

In the arms of Helvellyn and Catchedicam.