upon brine as me, you would think less of its agitation. But to tell you the truth, the fresh smell of land has given me my landsman's арpetite for something cooked under a roof, and I should have no objections at this moment to exchange our cold meat basket for a hot beefsteak, or pork sausage, or grilled fowl, or something else warm and savoury. Besides, I own I feel curious to know what those same cocks yonder are about. They look by that light as black as negers, and remind me of the cannibals in Robin Crusoe, dancing round the fire that roasted their prisoners. But come, let's go and have a nearer peep at them.”

The two gentlemen now proceeded along the beach in the direction of the fire, followed by O'Gollochar, who, though far from being proof against fear when any thing wearing the semblance of the supernatural came across him, was a perfect lion when he knew that he had to deal with mere men. Before they had proceeded many steps, the bending of the shore, and the occasional projections of the cliffs, excluded the view of the fire for some time, until the shifting of the intervening objects again per

mitted them to see the mouth of the cavern. They then perceived that the figures had disappeared, and that the blaze had fallen considerably lower, rising only by fits as portions of the inflamed mass, falling in from time to time towards the centre, roused its dormant energy. As they advanced, the huge vault rose before them from the smooth pebbly shore, at the distance of a few feet from the water's edge, in all the magnificence of Nature's own architecture.

The fire, composed of large pieces of broken drift wood, now burned with a subdued, but glowing glare. A heap of dry furze, lying in a corner, showed to what it had owed its former short-lived splendour. The natural walls of red sandstone were rendered still redder by the light that faded away as it rose upwards, and lost itself amidst the clouds of smoke, rolling along under the dome of the roof towards the open air. The spacious cavern, extending about forty or fifty yards inwards, appeared to be of irregular shape, and terminated in a solid face of rock, where the gleam discovered some fallen masses of stone, of many tons in weight, heaped

up one above the other, nearly to the roof. The floor was composed of a natural Mosaic of beautiful sea-polished pebbles, laid, by some high spring tide of former days, in a firm dry sand of a dazzling whiteness. There was not a vestige of that loathsome humidity and dankness, so generally disfiguring natural chambers of this description. All was dry as the artificial habitation of civilized man, save where a fountain, as pure as rock crystal, poured from an aperture at the further extremity, and after falling several feet with lulling music into a smooth oval basin it had worn for itself in the stone, ran with a rapid current that freshened the air of the place, in a channel of its own formation, towards the mouth of the cave and the sea. This fairy fountain, sparkling with the rays of light, gave to the whole the air of enchantment.

The enthusiastic Amherst was in raptures. "How romantic!" he exclaimed to his companion; "let us dispatch O'Gollochar to the boat for our provision basket, and let us eat our evening meal, and spend the night in this wonderful cavern. Those oblong blocks lying along

the wall of that inner recess, branching off to the right, will serve us for tables, seats, and beds, where we may sleep wrapped up in our cloaks, more comfortably than if we were on down. My heart bounds with delight at the wildness of the scene, and the novelty of our situation."

"Have a care, my young Don Quixote,” replied Cleaver; "such adventures as these are more likely to end in bloody noses than in beefsteaks. By the bye, talking of beef-steaks, I wish we had some nice juicy rumps to dress on that same fire, for now that the smoke begins to dissipate, it is in such right good case for cooking 'em, that one cannot look at it without thinking of a gridiron. But who knows whether we may not have a visit from the cocks who made this fire, and who knows what sort of gentry they may turn out to be ?"

"Oh! they are fishermen doubtless," said Amherst.

"I would not have you be too sure of that," said Cleaver;" but be they who they may, I am not the man to baulk you of your frolic, and as we have your fowling-piece there, and good

trusty cutlasses-weapons, which I do the more esteem, as they more rarely miss fire than your pop-guns-we may bid defiance to an enemy."

O'Gollochar was accordingly forthwith dispatched for the cold provisions, with orders to the boat's crew to return on board for the night.

On his return, the contents of the basket were spread on one of the stone-tables, and Amherst soon finished a hasty supper upon a cold sirloin of beef, washing it down with a glass or two of wine. Cleaver's appetite was not so easily satis fied. He eat, and cut, and came again, ever and anon surveying the fire, and grumbling in unavailing regret, that it should be suffered to burn in smokeless glow, and that its beautiful cherry-red should be expended, without his having a beef-steak to dress upon it.

"If I had only had even a frying-pan, and an onion, and a little butter, what a glorious hash I might have made! But," added he, with a sigh, as he put his last morsel, a thin slice coiled upon the fork, into his mouth," there is no help for it, we must e'en go to roost as we

are."

They accordingly now retired into the inner