Sailed down the calm stream of the night, In a moment all as death was still :
T'ill gently, as a flake of Snow,

Then, like an echo in a Hill
Once more I dropt on earth below,

Far off one melancholy strain ! And girdled as with a rainbow zone, Too heavenly pure to rise again,The Cot beloved I call mine own.

And all alone the dreamer stood

Beside the disenchanted flood, “ Sweet Cot! that on the mountain-side

That rolled the rocky banks along Looks to the stars of Heaven with pride, With its own dull, slow, mortal song. And then flings far its smiling cheer

- What wafted off the Fairies ? hush ! O'er the radiant Isles of Windermere,

The storm comes down the glen--crushBlest ! ever blest ! thy sheltered roof!

crush Pain, grief, and trouble, stand aloof

And as the blackening rain-cloud broke, From the shadow of thy green Palm-Tree !

The Pine Tree groans to the groaning Oak ! Let nought from Heaven e'er visit Thee,

Thunder is in the waving woodBut dews, and rays, and sounds of mirth ;

And from Rydal-mere's white-flashing flood And ever may this happy Earth

There comes thro' the mist an angry roar, , Look happiest round thy small domain !

Loud as from the great sea-shore. Thee were I ne'er to see again,

Well, I ween, the Fairies knew Methinks that agony and strife

The clouds that the sudden tempest brew, Would fall even on a Fairy's life,

And had heard far-off the raging rills, And nought should ever bless mine eyes

As they leapt down from a hundred hills, Save the dream of that vanished Paradise. -The hush'd bee-hives were still as death- From the toppling crags and the sable

And the ghostlike moan that wails and raves And the sleeping Doves held fast their breath,

caves, Nestling together on the thatch ;

E'er the night-storm in his wrath doth come, With my wing-tip I raised the latch,

And bids each meaner sound be dumb And there that lovely Lady shone,

So they sailed away to the land of rest, In silence sitting all alone,

Each to the spot that it loved the best, Beside the cradle of her Child !

And left our noisy world ! And ever as she gazed, she smiled

N.
On his calm forehead white as snow ;
I rock'd the cradle to and fro,
As on the broom a Linnet's nest
Swings to the mild wind from the west ;

THE KNIGHTS ERRANT.
And oft his little hands and breast,
With warm and dewy lips I kist.

No II.
• Sweet Fairy!' the glad Mother said,
And down she knelt as if she prayed-

το μελλον τις οιδα και
While glad was I to hear our name
Bestowed on such a beauteous frame,
And with my wings I hid mine eyes,

It seems as if colonies had always Till I saw the weeping kneeler rise

been the chief means by which civiliFrom her prayer in holy extacies !"

zation is extended and improved. The COTTAGE FAIRY ceased < and Night, civilized states carry with them the

The colonies which proceed from That seem'd to feel a calm delight In the breath of that sweet-warbling tongue, mother country; and the nature of

experience and acquirements of the Was sad at closing of the song, And all her starry eyne look'd dull, their situation enables them to cut Of late so brightly beautiful ;

themselves off from the influence of Till on the Fox-glove's topmost cup its prejudices. The FAIRY OF THE LAKE leapt up,

The Phenicians and Egyptians, And with that gorgeous column swinging, who established themselves on the By fits a low wild prelude singing,

coast of Greece, and from whom that And gracefully on tip-toe standing, With outstretched arm, as if commanding,

country derived all its civilization, had The beauty of the Night again

observed in their native land the bad Revived beneath her heavenly strain.

effects of a priesthood-monopolizers Low, sad, and wild, were the tones I heard, at once of knowledge and power; and Like the opening song of the hidden Bird, they took care that no similar estabE'er music steeps th' Italian vales

lishment should find room in their From the heart of a thousand Nightingales; new possessions. Hence, most proBut words were none; the balmy air

bably, the immense superiority of the Grew vocal round that Eltin fair,

Greeks in science and in art, over those Aud, like her fragrant breath, the song Dropp'd dewily from that sweet tongue,

more ancient nations which were their But 'twas a language of her own,

first instructors in both.

In Egypt To grosser human sense unknown;

all knowledge was the privileged posAnd while in blissful reverie

session of one profession, and applied My soul lived on that melody,

solely to its purposes.

In Greece,

a

SERPENT.

one.

education and knowledge were left gyptians have been succeeded by the free to all. Ambition and love of Kopts. fame, those most powerful of all in- So possible, nay so easy, does the centives, the only ones which lead to ruere in pegus appear to me, that I truly great things in science and art, see nothing improbable in an opinion had no influence in Egypt, but were which some consider as blasphemous. allowed free scope in Greece, and long After a few centuries have gone over exerted their rightful sway over the their heads, the inhabitants of Enga reason and imagination of all men. land, France, Germany, Spain, and

Whether the Anglo-American col- Italy, may be robbers, pirates, spiritonies shall ever surpass the European less hordes,-devoid of science, art, mother-country in" civilization and commerce, or industry, or, what is as culture of intellect, as much as the bad, they may become creatures tame, Greeks did their oriental ancestors; unproductive, unenergetic. They may and whether the future advantages of retain the externals of refinement, America (if such she have) shall owe with the vicious torpor of the Chinese. their origin to bold departure from the

SIR AGELASTUS. institutions, opinions, prejudices, and manners of Europe,--these are questions which cannot be answered till

ON THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT SEA after the lapse of more centuries than

It is possible, nay it is probable, that some thousand years ħence, This animal, like the Kraken (of the inhabitants of those newly-peopled which in our last Number we traced countries may surpass the Europeans the history), is said to shew itself on of our time, as much as these do their the surface of the ocean only during ancestors--the Franks and Saxons of calm weather. It appears at times the days of Charlemagne. In their extended like a vast beam ; at other turn the Americans may be surpassed times only shewing different portions in the same proportion by colonies of of its body, and resembling a long their own.

There is no end to the chain of casks or floats. According to improvement of intellect. Our species the old histories, it is a strange and may yet be only in the infancy of its terrible sea monster, which greatly acquirements. Sir MACROSCopon. deserves to be taken notice of by those

who are curious to look into the ex

traordinary works of nature. The No III.

first mention which we find made of Facilis descensus Averni.

this animal, is in the sacred writings.

No doubt the Leviathan of Scripture That the rude man of nature should is by many commentators considered be able, without example or instruc- as the whale, but a careful perusal of tion, and by his own efforts alone, to those passages in which it is mentionlift himself from a condition nearly ed, appears to us to lead to a different resembling that of the brutes, into conclusion. Thus, in the 27th chap. one of elegance and refinement; that, of Isaiah, verse 1st, it is said, “In without aid from above or from abroad, that day the Lord, with his sore, and Centaurs and Lapithae could ever great, and strong sword, shall punish fashion themselves into Athenians, I leviathan, the piercing serpent, even have no capacity to believe. If any leviathan that crooked serpents and one will shew me by what possible he shall slay the dragon that is in the means the Iroquese and Guaranis sea.” The same animal is alluded to could bring theinselves even into the in Job, chap. 27. “He divideth the lowest state of European civilization sea with his power, and by his underand cultivation, I shall give up my standing he smiteth through the proud. scepticism.

By his spirit he hath garnished the That a people at once moral and re- heavens ; his hand hath formed the fined may degrade themselves into a crooked serpent." The appellation of horde of barbarians or brutes, I have “ crooked” is very characteristic of no difficulty in conceiving. The cive the appearance of the animal, as deilized and virtuous Spartans have sunk scribed by some modern writers. It into savage banditti and become Main- can scarcely be said to apply to the ets. The active and intellectual E- whale, which is, moreover, frequently

VOL. III.

us.

We row

mentioned in Scripture under its pro- my vessel within six English miles of the

aforesaid Molde, being at a place called per name. It does not appear,

that the writers

Jule-Næss, as I was reading in a book, I of Greece and Rome were acquainted

heard a kind of murmuring voice from a

mongst the men at the oars, who were eight with any animal which can be con

in number, and observed that the man at the sidered as synonimous with the Great

helm kept off from the land. Upon this I Sea Serpent. An amphibious animal inquired what was the matter, and was in of great size, which lived chiefly in formed that there was a Sea-Snake before fresh water, is mentioned by several I then ordered the man at the helm to of these authors. Of this kind was keep to the land again, and to come up with that described by Livy in his first

this creature, of which I had heard so many book of the Punic war, which struck

stories. Though the fellows were under such terror into the army of Regulus,

some apprehension, they were obliged to

obey my orders. In the mean time, this on the banks of the river Bagrada. Sea-Snake passed by us, and we were ob. The same animal is mentioned both

liged to tack the vessel about to get nearer by Pliny and Valerius Maximus.* It to it. As the snake swam faster than we was 120 feet in length, killed several could row, I took my gun, that was ready men, and was found to be almost in- charged, and fired at it; on this he immevulnerable. A singular story is also diately plunged under the water. told by Diodorus Siculus, lib. 3d, of ed to the place where it sunk down, which an Egyptian serpent, sixty feet long, in the calm might easily be observed, which was brought alive to Alexan

and lay upon our oars, thinking it would

come up again to the surface ; however it dria, as a present to Ptolemy the II.

did not. When the Snake plunged down, This creature was observed to leave the

the water appeared thick and red; perhaps water every day to prey upon the cattle some of the shot might wound it, the dis. of the neighbouring farmers. Many tance being very little. The head of this unsuccessful attacks were made upon

Snake, which it held more than two feet it, during which several men lost their

above the surface of the water, resembled lives, but at last it was surprised in a

that of a horse. It was of a grayish colour,

and the mouth was quite black and very narrow defile by means of a net made

large. It had black eyes, and a long white of strong ropes, and carried alive to

mane that hung down from the neck to the Ptolemy's court.

surface of the water. Besides the head and In modern times the Sea Serpent neck, we saw seven or eight folds or coils of appears to occur chiefly in the north- this Snake, which were very thick, and as

It is described at con- far as we could guess, there was about a siderable length, though with some

fathom distance between each fold. I recircumstances of exaggeration, by Eric

lated this affair in a certain company where Pontoppidan, to whose work we have there was a person of distinction present,

who desired that I would communicate to already had occasion so frequently to

him an authentic detail of all that happen. refer. He observes, that in all his

ed; and for this reason, two of my sailors, inquiries concerning it, he has hardly

who were present at the same time and spoken to one intelligent person of the place when I saw this monster, namely Manor of Nordland, who did not give Nicholas Pederson Kopper, and Nicholas the strongest assurances of its exist- Nicholson Anglewigen, shall appear in ence; and many of the northern trad.

court to declare on oath the truth of every ers think it is as ridiculous to be ques- particular herein set forth ; and I desire tioned regarding the Great Serpent, descriptions. I remain, sir, your obliged

the favour of an attested copy of the said as if they were asked, whether there

servant, (Signed) L. DE FERRY. be such fish as Cod or Eel. Along

Bergen, 21st February 1751. the Norwegian coast it is known by the names of Soe Ormen and Aaale Its'exact dimensions do not seem to Tust. The following letter from the be accurately known. According to Hon. Captain Lawrence de Ferry to

some accounts it attains the enormous Reutz of Bergen, serves to illustrate length of 100 fathoms, or 600 English the history of this animal.

. feet, but such a measurement, in all “ The latter end of August, in the year probability, much exceeds the truth. 1746, as I was on

voyage, in my return It is frequently mentioned by the from Trundheim, in a very calm and hot northern poets, particularly Peter Dass, day, having a mind to put in to Molde, it whose poetical description of it, comhappened that when we were arrived with mencing with * Hist. Nat. lib. viii. cap. xiv. Val. Max.

“Om Soe-ormen veed jeg ey nogen Beskeed," lib. i. cap. ult.

ern Ocean.

a

At

In the curious description of Nor- Bang. As soon as it reached the shore of way, by Jonas Ramus, there is the fol- this river, it proceeded, on the dry land, to lowing passage:

the Spæriler Sea; it appeared like a mighty " Anno 1687, a large Sea-Snake was

mast, and whatever stood in its way was

thrown down--even the very trees and huts; seen by many people in Dramsfiorden; and, at one time, by eleven persons together. It

the people were terrified with its hissing was in very calm weather; and so soon as

and frightful roaring ; and almost all the

fish, in the aforesaid sea, were devoured or the sun appeared, and the wind blew a little, it shot away just like a coiled cable

that drove away by it. The inhabitants of Odale

were so terrified at this monster, that none is suddenly thrown out by the sailors ; and they observed that it was

would venture to go to the sea to follow

some time in stretching out its many folds. Olaus Mag. would any body walk along the shore.

their customary fishing and wood-trade, nor nus, in his Hist. Sept. lib. xxi. c. 24, speaks

the end of the autumn, before the waters of a Norwegian Snake 80 feet long, but not thicker than a child's arm.

were frozen, this monster was seen at a dis

• Est in littoribus Norwegicis vermis glauci coloris, longi. every body; its head was as big as an hogs.

tance, and, by its enormous size, surprised tudine xl cubitorum, et amplius vix spis

head, and the thickness of its body, as far situdinem infantis brachii habens.'”

as the same appeared above water, was like With regard to this last mentioned

a tun; the length of the whole body was animal, we are entirely of Pontoppi- vast ; it reached, as far as the spectators dan's opinion, that there must have could judge, the length of three Norway been some mistake in the measure- dannen-trees, and rather exceeded.” ment, as the thickness of a child's arm An amphibious serpent, equally teris quite disproportioned to such a rific, is described by Olaus Magnus in length. The existence of the animal his xxvii. chapter : itself we can scarcely doubt, as Olaus “ Those that visit the coasts of Norway affirms, “ Hunc vermem sæpius vidi, tell us of a very strange phenomenon, nameab ejus tactu, nautarum informatione, ly, that there is in these seas a snake 200 abstinens.” There is, in all probabi- feet long, and 20 feet round, which lives in lity, some typographical error.

the hollows of the rocks, and under the

cliffs, about Bergen, and goes out in the It appears, from several

passages

in the works of the Scandinavian writers,

moonlight nights to devour calves, sheep, that there is a current belief in the catches star-fish, crabs, &c. It has a mane

and swine ; or else it goes to the sea, and existence of a great serpent of an am- two feet long; it is covered with scales, and phibious nature, which, like that men- has fiery eyes ; it disturbs ships, and raises tioned by the ancient historians, does itself up like a mast, and sometimes snaps not confine its depredations to the wa- some of the men from the deck." ter. Whether this animal should be We consider it extremely improbaconsidered as synonimous with the ble, that so great a change in the hagreat Sea Serpent, which, according bits of any animal should take place, to some accounts recently received as that presumed, by the alleged fact from America, is also reported to have of the Great Snake dwelling in the been observed on shore, or otherwise, deep only, after having attained a conit is not at present easy to determine. siderable degree of maturity. Such According to Pontoppidan, it is said, changes never take place without corby the people who inhabit the Nor responding alterations in the most imwegian coast, that the latter species is portant organs and functions of the not generated in the sea, but on the animal itself, and alterations of that land ; and that when they become so nature have never been observed to large that they cannot easily move occur in any of the snake tribe, or upon the ground, they go into the sea among cetaceous animals. It is scarceand attain their full growth. In fa- ly more probable, that it should be vour of this tradition, we may quote even an occasional inhabitant of the the following passage from the Mun- land, although it is very likely that it dus Mirabilis of Happelius :

possesses the

power of living for a long “ Nicolaus Gramius, minister at Londen period of time in moist or marshy in Norway, gives, 16th Jan. anno 1656, of ground, or even among rocks, if accisuch a serpent, the following account, from dentally deserted by the waters. Such the report of Gulbrandi Hougsrud and Olaus Anderson, that they had seen, in the

accounts must have originated in the tast autumnal inundation, a large water ser

circumstance of some great snake havpent, or worm, in the Spæriler Sea ; and it ing been carried on shore by unusually is believed that it had been seen before in high tides, or forced, by the inundation Mios, and had been hitherto hid in the river of a river, into the wet grounds in its

66

a

a

vicinity.* We shall return to the Sea- of one of these skins. This report exSerpent, more properly so called. cited the curiosity of Pontoppidan,

The animal described by Paul E. who was anxious to know the truth. gede, as seen by him during his se- and accordingly wrote for proper incond voyage to Greenland, must have formation ; but he could learn nobeen of this kind.

thing of it. He was, however, in• July 6th, a most hideous sea-monster formed, that in 1720, a Sea-Snake had was seen, which reared itself so high above lain for some time in a creek near that the water, that its head overtopped our place ; that it came there at high wamainsail. It had a long pointed nose, out of which it spouted like a whale. Instead

ter, through a narrow channel about of fins, it had great broad flaps like wings;

seven or eight feet broad, but went its body seemed to be grown over with shell away, after lying there a whole week, work, and its skin very rugged and uneven;

and left behind it a skin, which the it was shaped like a serpent behind, and informer, whose name was Korlack when it dived into the water again, it plung. Korlacksen, declared he saw and haned itself backwards, and raised its tail above dled. It lay with one end under wathe water a whole ship-length from its ter in the creek, and how long it was body."

could not be determined. The creek, T'he above account is the only one

within the channel, was several fawith which we are acquainted, in thoms deep, and the skin lay stretched which the Sea-Snake is said to spout out a great way ; but one end having water like the whale. It is indeed been floated on shore by the tide, singular, that that character has not lay there for a long time, and was seen been more frequently remarked ; and this omission induces us to suppose it soft and slimy consistence, as the body

This skin was of a

by every one. not improbable, that two kinds of ani- of the animal itself is also said to be, mals exist, bearing a general resemblance to each other, to both of which according to some accounts. Thus a the name of Sea-Snake has been

party of Norwegian sailors once caught

applied. The Orkney animal, afterwards of their vessel, where it lay till they were

a young one, and laid it upon the deck mentioned, appears, from the testi- obliged to throw it overboard, owing to mony of different witnesses, to have the insupportable fætor which emabeen provided with air-holes and a nated from a soft and viscid slime, to lengthened neck, and, consequently, which its body was partly dissolved.* with lungs; from which it follows,

All the accounts which we have read that it must frequently have had occasion to spout out water after the agree in this, that the slightest gust of manner of the more common cetaceous animal, and immediately causes it to

wind is particularly hateful to this animals. The Great Serpent, recent

sink to the bottom of the sea. This ly seen off the American coast, was sometimes visible, about the same place, for an entire day, but was not observ

* “ We have the same account from Pere ed to exert any such faculty. If that Labat, of a small Sea-Serpent about four character, as mentioned in the Green

feet long, and as thick as a man's arm. His

words • Nous l'attachames au mât land relation, was not the result of

après l'avoir assommé pour voir quelle some deception, it may be concluded, figure il auroit le lendemain. Nous con. that the animal described by Egede numes combien nôtre bonheur avoit été differed considerably from those usual- grand, de n'avoir point touché a ce poisson, ly observed in the North Sea, which qui sans doute nous auroit tous empoisonhave never been described as poss. ssed Car nous trouvames le matin qu'il of such a power, although various ac

s'étoit entierement dissous en une eau vercounts agree in stating, that when datre et puante, qui avoit coulé sur le they approach, they cause a great agi- pont, sans qu'il restat presque autre chose, tation in the water, and sometimes que la peau et la reste, quoi qu'il nous eut

paru le soir fort ferme et fort bon. Nous make it run like the current at a mill. conclumes, ou que ce poisson étoit empoi. It has been said to shed its skin an- sonné par accident, ou que de sa nature ce nually, like the Land-Snake ; and at n'étoit qu'un composé de venin. Je crois Kopperwiig, in Norway, it was affirm- que c'étoit quelque vipere marin. J'en ay ed, that a cover for a table was made parlé à plusieurs pescheurs et autres gens

de mer, sans avoir jamais pu étre bien * Petrus Undalinus makes mention of eclairci de ce que je voulois sçavoir touchant huge water-snakes being occasionally ob- ce poisson.' Nouveaux Voyages aux Isles served in some of the Norwegian Lakes.- Françoises de l'Amerique, tom. 5, cap. xiv. Cap. vii. p. 36.

Po 335.” Pontopp. vol. 2, p. 201.

are,

nez.