and he walks up to the very place, and he takes a stick and makes a line here, and a line there. 'Here,' he says, 'is the palace;' there,' he says, 'is the gate;' and he shows us what has been all our lives beneath our feet without our ever having known anything about it. Wonderful! wonderful! Is it by books, is it by magic, is it by your prophets, that you have learned these things? Speak, O Bey; tell me the secret of wisdom."

The reader will find the interest unflagging with which Mr. Layard tells of "The successive steps of the operation; to catch, as almost the coldest and most unimaginative will do, the infection of his zeal, to enter into his anxieties and his hopes; to behold chamber after chamber, hall after hall, unfold themselves, as it were, from the bosom of the earth, and assume shape, dimensions, height; to watch the reliefs that line the walls gradually disclosing their forms; as the rubbish clears away, the siege, and the battle, and the hunting piece, becoming more and more distinct; the king rearing more manifestly his lofty tiara, and displaying his undoubted symbol of royalty; the attitude of the priest proclaiming his office; the walls of the besieged city rearing their battlements; the combatants grappling in mortal struggle; the horses curvetting; the long procession stretching out slab after slab, with its trophies of victory or the offerings of devotion; above all, the huge symbolic animals, the bulls or lions, sometimes slowly struggling into light in their natural forms, sometimes developing their human heads, their outspread wings, their downward parts-in their gigantic but just proportions-heaving off, as it might seem, the encumbering earth."* So in Milton's noble description, if we only add the broad-horned bull to the lion and the stag,

celebrated for the beauty of their hues and the fineness of their woof; their furniture exhibited graceful forms; their apartments displayed elegant design and brilliant colouring; and their palaces were lined with relief, displaying high artistic power. "Their sculpture, by every appearance, was indigenous, original, taken from Assyrian life, representing Assyrian form and costume; it does not Egyptianize till a comparatively late period. It is, doubtless, the parent of Persian art as exhibited at Persepolis and elsewhere. But while we speak of its real artistic power, we are anxious to give no exaggerated estimate of its value as sculpture. It is well to prepare the visitors to the Ninevite Gallery at the British Museum for that they must not expect, as well as for what they may. It is by gigantic dimensions it intimates power; by a stern sedateness of countenance and splendour of dress, kingly majesty. The lofty tiara adds to the solemn dignity of the human head; the draperies, hard in outline, mere layers of alabaster instead of folds, are worked into a kind of network of embroidery. It is at the same time singularly true and absolutely untrue; it does not, on some of the reliefs, give more than two fore legs to a pair of horses in a chariot; there is no graduation in size; and yet there is a spirit and freedom in its outline, a force and energy in its forms, a skill in grouping, which ventures on some of the boldest attitudes into which the figure of the warrior can be thrown; it is that which is to sculpture what action, according to Demosthenes, was to oratory-life.' -Quarterly Review.

F. S. W.

KAKABIKKA; OR, SCENES AMONG THE ICEBERGS.

DREARY is the region of Baffin's Bay, and still more dreary that dark, frowning, inhospitable, watery wilderness, the Frozen Ocean. The fogs that there prevail are fearful, and the cold extreme, while thick ice and mountainous icebergs endanger and arrest the course of the hardiest mariner. There the whale, the walrus, and the seal inhabit the water; while in the islands are found the musk ox, the rein-deer, and the wolf; the moose, the Arctic fox, and the white bear. Yet dreary, and dark, and frowning as is that inclement domain, in spite

of its ice and icebergs, its thick fogs and intense cold, there the Esquimaux finds a home, wandering on its sterile shore, and sailing in his kayak on its perilous

waters:

Appalling solitude, and gloom profound, And wide-spread desolation reigns around.

Not a moving thing is seen on the water; neither whale, nor whale-boat, seal, walrus, nor Esquimaux's kayak. Not a sound is heard, neither the voice of man, the roar of wild beast, nor the scream of bird. The mountainous icebergs, many of them two hundred feet high, stand up in pyramidic, spiral, and other picturesque forms. When the sun rose, the rich, blue, purple of the horizon was erowned with an arch of brilliant red; but now the Aurora Borealis is abroad, and very beautiful is its appearance. Vivid lightning, white, red, and yellow, appears darting through the air, and waving bands of light are falling

from the heavens in showers.

The

"merry dancers," of all shapes and colours, are flitting to and fro in inconceivable brightness:

A thousand beauteous forms around us rise,
And beams of living light illume the skies.

On the edge of a frozen bay are seen a cluster of Esquimaux huts, built of whalebone, and covered with snow. Three or four Esquimaux, with long knives in their belts, are preparing their sledges; the dogs which are to draw them are already in their rude harness, while other dogs are barking around, one of them with a young Esquimaux on his back. Two Esquimaux women, grotesquely attired, are eating a piece of seal, now and then giving part of it to the young Esquimaux. Children of the frozen waste! Inhabitants of the dreary north! though scanty are your comforts, your wants are proportionably small! If the icy wind be not tempered to you, you are hardened to the icy wind; and if you have no dainties, neither is your appetite delicate:

Your huts are homely and your climate drear,
And dark and desolate; yet God is there!

*

A kayak, or canoe, manned by four Esquimaux, Kakabikka among them, has pushed off from the shore. Kaka

bikka has been taught a little English by a missionary, and he is not altogether ignorant of Christianity. The kayak has now approached the icebergs. A seal lifts his head near the canoe, and in an instant Kakabikka strikes him with a light harpoon, to which is fastened by a string a seal-skin bag, blown up like a bladder. The seal plunges beneath the boiling waves, but soon the bladder that has been taken under water is again on its surface, revealing the spot where the creature is about to reappear. Again Kakabikka strikes the seal, which is soon overcome, and hauled into In the dreariest climes a the canoe.

provision has been made for man :

seen

Where one eternal winter reigns around, His food and raiment in the deep are found.

It is early in the morning, and a whaler is seen lying motionless on the waters. A whale, struck with the harpoon, has rushed downwards to the shadowy depths of the unfathomable deep. A flag has been hoisted in the boat, to give intelligence to the ship. An alarm has been given by stamping on the deck of the whaler; the shout, "A fall! a fall!" has aroused the men in their hammocks, and they have rushed on deck, and leaped into different boats, with a part of their clothes tied together with a string. Now they are making for the fast-boat, and soon will the wounded whale, rising again to the surface of the deep, find abundant employment for all. Kakabikka, in a canoe, is regarding with wonder the great kayak, the whaler. The whale has risen; he has struck one end of the fast-boat with his tail, and some of the crew are in the air, and others are floundering in the sea. thinks he who trims his lamp with oil, of the perils of those who risk their lives in the fishery of the Frozen Ocean,

Little

Where frightful solitudes and silence sleep, And man o'ercomes the monarch of the deep.

A discovery ship is in great danger of being crushed by the floating icebergs. Kakabikka is on board, as interpreter to the Esquimaux and other Indian tribes. The crystal, snow-capped mountainous masses, hurried on by a rapid current, are in fearful commotion among the whirling waters, the winds are loud, the waves are high, and the thundering

sound of the iceberbs, dashing one against another, splitting, breaking, and falling over, is terrible. The wild spray of the sea is flying high above them all. The clamour is fearful to hear, and the scene dreadful to behold. Now the discovery ship is whirled round and round, and now partly raised from the water by opposing icebergs pressing against her sides. See the towering mass that is now approaching her! Well may the crew lift up their heads to Him who alone can restrain the fury of the elements, and deliver those who trust in him :

Alike his power in cold and burning lands;
Mid frozen icebergs and in sultry sands.

:

"I met an Indian, he was one of the Yellow-knives; and when I fell in with him he had suffered from hunger; he could shoot no deer, he could catch no fish. I smoked my pipe with him, and gave him food. 'I knew,' said he, that the frost would be hard, and that the deer would not be taken; I will tell you why a Chippewyan came among the Yellow-knives, pretending to be our friend; he was in secret an enemy. He hunted with us, and dragged the net, and threw the line. We told him, if a deer was beaten, the bad deed would be known, and that no other deer would come to the place. The Chippewyan laughed; he believed us not. He put on his snow shoes, and went silently to where a herd of deer fed on a frozen swamp; he got behind them, but they heard him and fled. The snow was not hard enough to bear them, for it was spring; they sank in it up to their haunches. He killed all but one: that one he beat cruelly, and laughed when it died. It was a cruel deed; but he was a Chippewyan. Now,' said he, 'I shall know if there be any truth in the sayings of the Yellow-knives.' Since then, who has seen a deer cross his path? who has stripped off his skin and tasted his flesh? Not one! The deed is known to the fleet-footed ones, and they will not come near:"

The discovery ship is just visible through the fog, and five or six seamen in a boat, with Kakabikka among them, are rowing towards an iceberg, on the lower part of which a herd of walruses are huddled together, one almost on another. There they are, with their great bulky bodies, their finny, flabby limbs, and their long tusks hanging from their upper jaws! They move not till a musket is fired, and then they tumble over each other, pell mell, into the water. Some of the men have leaped from the boat to the iceberg, and one of the wounded walruses, tenacious of life, is now struggling violently beneath the spear of Kakabikka.

While man extends his empire o'er the main,
The walrus and the whale resist in vain.

Kakabikka, with a supply of food, is in search of a straggling party, who, wandering on the shore to shoot ptarmagan and snow-buntings, have lost their way. Flags have been hoisted on poles, rockets have been sent up from the ship, and men have been dispatched in quest of the missing party; but in vain. Now, Kakabikka, all depends on thee! Though the Esquimaux knows not the way the wanderers may have taken, he knows several ways in which they could not proceed. This knowledge narrows the field of his inquiry, and enables him at last to fall in with them. They have just met, and a joyful meeting it is; for the stragglers, almost exhausted by two days' wandering, with hardly a mouthful of food, regard Kakabikka as their deliverer. Thus the instructed European is indebted to the friendly offices of the untutored Esquimaux :

When sultry climes or frozen wilds abound,
Where man meets man, a brother should be found.

bay ice has been driven by the current against a tall iceberg, piling up against it enormous fragments. The vessel yonder out of the current is impeded in her onward course, and her crew are at work, some sweeping away the snow, some sawing through the ice, and others dragging the pieces sawn off under the main field, to make a path for the ship. Kakabikka lends a helping hand; his grotesque figure and odd manners afford no small amusement to the laughing

An alarm is given, and not without reason, for three large Polar bears are seen taking huge strides in the direction of the ship. One of the crew has a musket, five or six others are armed with hand-spikes, and Kakabikka has hastily snatched up a hatchet. On come the bears, and one of them is even now climbing up the side of the ship. Take care of your head, sir Bruin, for the hatchet of Kakabikka is already in the air. That cleaving blow has arrested the progress of the shaggy intruder he will never climb up the side of another ship. A musket-ball has passed through the head of the second bear; and the third has descended the vessel's side, much more rapidly than he mounted it, struck by the hand-spikes that awaited him. The crew are now preparing to strip off the shaggy hides of their vanquished foes. God has indeed been good to man,

And clothed his arm with power, and made him king

O'er beast, and bird, and fish, and creeping thing.

*

The winter set in with all its rigour. The hull of a ship, dismantled of its masts, is fast frozen in the ice, and planks covered with thick cloth form a sort of housing over the deck. Ice and snow are seen all around, and the deck of the dismantled ship being clear, the crew are dancing there by way of exercise. Two of the seamen who have wandered on the ice have just returned, with frostbitten faces, and the surgeon is rubbing their cheeks with snow. Here comes Kakabikka, with a party of Esquimaux that he saw from the dismantled ship; he has pulled his nose as a token of amity; they have pulled theirs in return, and now he is introducing them to the sailors. The Esquimaux are starting back from looking-glasses, admiring the coloured glass beads which are showed to them, devouring with their eyes the hatchets and knives that are laid before them, and offering their seal-skin dresses, with the hope of obtaining them. How many advantages have white men, to which the poor Esquimaux is a stranger!

Neither the burning rays of India, nor the icy winds of the frozen regions can drive away death. It enters alike the habitation of the Hindoo and the hut of the Esquimaux. "What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?" An Esquimaux is attending the body of his wife to the grave. The corpse is dressed in all respects as if alive, and is drawn in a sledge by dogs to its last resting-place. A shallow grave has been dug, the body has been deposited in the ground, the attendants have departed, and the Esquimaux is left alone to converse with his deceased partner, before he quits the place of sepulture. Confused is the belief, and dim the spiritual hope of the Esquimaux; but the promise shall not fail, for the knowledge of the most High shall cover the earth. The red man shall yet magnify the Lord, and Kakabikkas of the icy north rejoice in God their Saviour:

It is the sabbath, and divine service is conducted by the captain on board the dismantled vessel; for no minister of the Most High is at hand, and many a frozen lake and wilderness of snow lies between sionary. The word of God is reverently the discovery ship and the nearest misread, a prayer is offered up to the throne vered to the attentive crew. of mercy, and a suitable sermon is deliKakabikka is among the assembled worshippers; may his heart be melted within him, and soul. The iceberg, the snowdrift, the a beam of heavenly light dart into his fog, and the frozen ocean are around the dismantled ship; but the praises of the Holy One are rising from her deck. The captain leads the choir, and among the voices of the crew is heard the voice of Kakabikka :

Where winter breathes his bleakest air around, The praises of Jehovah shall resound.

CHARITY.

THE desire of power in excess, caused angels to fall; the desire of knowledge to excess, caused man to fall; but in charity is no excess, neither can man nor angels come into danger by it.—Bacon.

siderable ingenuity and labour are expended. The female builds it on the ground, in some mossy bank near the water, of hay and dried fibres, and lines it with dry oak-leaves, or a similar material.

M. Herbert stated to the comte de Buffon, that he once lay concealed on the verge of the lake Mantua, in a hut formed of pine-branches and snow, where he had a good opportunity of observing some of the movements of this singular bird. Before him was a small inlet, the bottom of which was gently shelving, and was some two or three feet deep in the middle. here A water ouzel through various manoeuvres during more than an hour, entering the water, and at length emerging on the other side of the inlet, which it completely forded. It thus traversed the whole of the bottom,

X

went