put the tortoise in my way! I felt greatly renewed. | and never shall I forget the tears that flowed from I sat down at the foot of a pine, gazed on the heav- them as they listened to it, albeit it had long been ens, thought of my poor wife and children, and again, more familiar to them than a tale thrice told. Sinand again thanked my God for my life, for now I cerely do I wish, good reader, that neither you nor felt less distracted in mind, and more assured that I may ever elicit such sympathy, by having underbefore long I must recover my way, and get back to gone such sufferings, although no doubt such sympamy home." thy would be a rich recompense for them.

The Lost One remained and passed the night, at the foot of the same tree under which his repast had been made. Refreshed by a sound sleep, he started at dawn to resume his weary march. The sun rose bright, and he followed the direction of the shadows. Still the dreariness of the woods was the same, and he was on the point of giving up in despair, when he observed a rackoon lying squatted in the grass. Raising his axe, he drove it with such violence through the helpless animal, that it expired without a struggle. What he had done with the turtle, he now did with the rackoon, the greater part of which he actually devoured at one meal. With more comfortable feelings, he then resumed his wanderings-his journey I cannot say for although in the possession of all his faculties, and in broad daylight, he was worse off than a lame man groping his way in the dark out of a dungeon, of which he knew not where the door stood.

It only remains for me to say, that the distance between the cabin and the live-oak hummock to which the woodsman was bound, scarcely exceeded eight miles, while the part of the river at which he was found, was thirty-eight miles from his house. Calculating his daily wanderings at ten miles, we may believe that they amounted in all to four hundred miles. He must, therefore, have rambled in a circuitous direction, which people generally do in such circumstances. Nothing but the great strength of his constitution, and the merciful aid of his Maker, could have supported him for so long a time.

Audubon.

Fox-coloured Sparrow.-Dr. Wilson, who was almost in the daily habit of visiting my friend Bachman, with whom it was my good fortune to reside while at Charleston, was fond of talking about birds, many of which he knew more accurately than ordiDays, one after another, passed-nay, weeks in nary ornithologists are wont to do. "My dear Mr. succession. He fed now on cabbage-trees, then on Audubon," he said, "I have several beautiful foxfrogs and snakes. All that fell in his way was wel-coloured sparrows in my aviary, but of late some of come and savoury. Yet he became daily more them have been killed, and I wish you would tell emaciated, until at length he could scarcely crawl. me by what other birds the murders can have been Forty days had elapsed, by his own reckoning, when committed." I laid the charge first on the bluejays; he at last reached the banks of the river. His clothes but he replied that even they appeared as if greatly in tatters, his once bright axe dimmed with rust, his molested by some other species. A day elapsed, face begrimmed with beard, his hair matted, and his the doctor returned, and astonished me not a little, feeble frame little better than a skeleton covered by informing me that the culprit was a mockingbird. with parchment, there he laid himself down to die. I went to his house on the eighth of December; Amid the perturbed dreams of his fevered fancy, he and, while standing on the piazza, we both saw the thought he heard the noise of oars far away on the mockingbird alight on one of the fox-coloured sparsilent river. He listened, but the sounds died away rows, in the manner of a small hawk, and peck at on his ear. It was indeed a dream, the last glimmer the poor bird with such force, as to convince us that of expiring hope, and now the light of life was about its death must soon ensue. The muscular powers to be quenched for ever. But again, the sound of of the finch, however, appeared almost too much oars awoke him from his lethargy. He listened so for the master-songster of our woods; it desisted eagerly, that the hum of a fly could not have escaped for a moment, out of breath, and we could observe his ear. They were indeed the measured beats of its pantings; but it did not fail to resume its hitheroars, and now, joy to the forlorn soul! the sound of to unknown character of tyrant. A servant was human voices thrilled to his heart, and awoke the tumultuous pulses of returning hope. On his knees did the eye of God see that poor man by the broad still stream that glittered in the sunbeams, and human eyes soon saw him too, for round that headland covered with tangled brushwood boldly advances the little boat, propelled by its lusty rowers. The Lost One raises his feeble voice on high; it was a loud shrill scream of joy and fear. The rowers pause, and look around. Another, but feebler scream, and they observe him. It comes-his heart flutters, his sight is dimmed, his brain reels, he gasps for breath: It comes-it has run upon the beach, and the Lost One is found.

This is no tale of fiction, but the relation of an actual occurrence, which might be embellished, no doubt, but which is better in the plain garb of truth. The notes by which I recorded it were written in the cabin of the once lost live-oaker, about four year after the painful incident occurred. His amiable wife, and loving children, were present at the recital,

despatched to the rescue, and peace was restored; but the finch was almost reduced to its last gasp, and shortly after expired. This very mockingbird we strongly suspected of being the individual that had killed a bluejay of exceedingly meek disposition, a few weeks before. It was ultimately removed into a lonely cage, where it is yet passing its days, perhaps in unavailing penitence.

NATURAL

Audubon.

HISTORY.

THE GAYAL.

THERE are several species of the genus to which our domestick ox belongs. The one represented at the head of the following page, is the largest.

The gayal, Bos gavaus, has sometimes been considered as a bison; but it has few or none of the characters of the true bisons. These are light and agile animals for their size, and have great part of

their power thrown into the neck. The gayal, on | horns, which curls down upon the forehead. The the other hand, is a heavy and clumsy animal; and dewlap is large and pendulous, and makes the porthe neck, especially the part of it next the head, is tion of the neck next the head appear more feeble small and feeble. The only character which it has in common with the bisons, other than those which belong to the whole genus bos, is that of fourteen pairs of ribs; and, although our domestick oxen, and the varieties of other countries which most resemble them, have only thirteen pairs, yet fourteen is not a constant, and therefore cannot be regarded as properly a typical character of the bisons. The Eastern one has fourteen, but the American has fifteen.

than it really is; it also gives an apparent depth to the chest, out of all proportion to its width. The abdomen is large, but contracts toward the groin, as if the body were slightly compressed by a girdle there. The udder of the female is small. The legs are thick and stout; the principal hoofs broad, and the false ones much larger in proportion than those of the domestick ox. The hair is very short, with the exception of that on the forehead, already The full-grown male of the gayal is nine feet and mentioned, and a small bunch on the end of the tail. a half long, and exactly half as much in height. The colour is brown in various shades. The charThe body is rounded and rather clumsy in appear-acters and also the habits of this animal resemble ance; and both the middle of the back and the set- the ox more than they do the buffalo; but it breeds ting of the neck are depressed, which give a hump- indiscriminately with either. like appearance to the interscapular portion of the It is chiefly found upon the southwestern and ridge; but there is no true hump; yet, in conse-southern slopes of the secondary hills to the Himaquence of this ridgy appearance, the animal stands four or five inches higher on the fore-legs than at the crupper, and the hinder part of that curves downward to the tail, which is slender and not very long. The front is square, broad and flat, the insertions of the horns being ten inches apart. The horns curve slightly outward and upward, while the ears, which are nearly of the same length as the horns, and slender in proportion to their length, droop down till their direction is nearly the reverse of that of the horns. The eyes are rather small in proportion to the size of the animal. Both sexes have a small tuft of white curled hair between the bases of the VOL. II.-37

laya, and on those to the south of the Burhampûtra. When in the wild state, it is rather a woodland or jungle animal; but it is domesticated in large herds by the people to the eastward of India. It does not extend into the dry districts.

THE YAK.

The Yak, Bos grunniens of Pallas, is not very accurately named by that naturalist, as its voice is a sort of subdued and broken low, rather than a grunt. This is the mountaineer of Central Asia, being found in the Himalaya and Altai ridges, and in the connecting ones, and their spurs eastward as far as

[The Brahminy Bull.J

is the sacred bull in most parts of India, and esThe general shape of the Brahminy bull, which pecially in the valley of the Ganges, may be under

"Mr. Townsend, I don't like these Irish hurricanes. Here we are eight days from Hampton Roads, and only just clear of Bermuda. We must make more easting soon, or we shall lose the outward bound West Indiamen, and be compelled to trust to chance customers."

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stood from the figure. In Benares, and those other ling, had been walking fore-and-aft, along the starcities which are crowded with the more wealthy and board-quarter-deck for half an hour, in silence, caredevout Hindoos of high caste, these animals are ex-lessly swinging the spy-glass, with which, ever and ceedingly numerous, thronging the streets, and the anon, he swept the horizon; he now paused in his courts, and areas of the temples. They are fed to promenade, and addressed the first mate. the utmost profusion, and they are very fat, indolent, and inoffensive. When left without these attentions, they are smaller and much more active, but they have been so long domesticated, or rather under the protection of the people, that there are many varieties in appearance. When they are fat, the hump on the shoulders and the dewlap are very much produced, and in all conditions they have the skin of the neck furrowed with transverse wrinkles. Their general colour is dun, passing into blackish on the upper part, and whitish on the under. There are many varieties of these hunch-backed ones in India, but it is not easy to say which is the original race, or whether those which are found wild be in a state of nature, or have been left in the changes of society which the country has undergone. These humped oxen have the voice less deep than the others, and the form of the hind quarters and the insertion of the tail are different from the European varieties.

CRUISE OF THE SPARKLER.

It was upon a bright morning in July, 1814, that the American privateer schooner Sparkler, which had been becalmed for eight and forty hours, about sixty miles outside the Bermudas, at last caught the breeze from the northwest and made all sail for the south'ard and east'ard.

Very true, Captain Benson," replied the first mate, who was at this moment standing on a gun, and leaning against the starboard bulwarks: "but"Sail ho!" sung out the look-out aloft. "Where away!" hailed Benson, while all hands sprung up at the announcement.

"Right ahead, sir," was the reply.

This news spread life throughout the vessel, and all hands being instantly mustered, ring-tails and bonnets were rigged, sail increased as much as possible, and our schooner wing-and-wing, continued her course, bearing down for the stranger; while her crew, delighted at the prospect of something professional, were speculating as to the value of the chase and the consequent amount of prize-money.

In half an hour, Benson hailed the look-out; "mast head, there what do you make her out to be?" "A large ship, sir," replied the look-out; "her starboard-tacks boarded, standing southwest."

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Keep her more to the south'ard, Mr. Townsend," said Captain Benson, on receipt of this information, "we'll cut her off."

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"She's a stout lump of a ship, sir," replied the mate as he obeyed the order," she may be a man-of-war." She was of that class of vessels designated in Very good, we have the weathergage," answernautical parlance, "Baltimore clippers:" and it need-ed Benson, as he went forward to take another look. ed but one glance at her symmetrical form to per- In an hour's time the stranger was plainly to be ceive that she was well worthy of her name. About seen. She was evidently a large ship, and from her two hundred tuns in burden, long, low and sharp, she build and appearance looked much like a man-ofwas yet of great breadth beam, while her beautiful war. This seemed more fully apparent a short time tapering masts seemed almost to reach the sky. after for the chase, which had till now appeared unconscious of the presence of the privateer, suddenly hauled her wind and made all sail towards her, while the rapidity with which her course was changed, and her canvass crowded, seemed proof positive that she was a man-of-war.

Upon her snow-white decks, which were without spring or rise, were mounted sixteen long brass twelve pounders, eight on a side, not run out of the ports, as in a man-of-war, but slewed fore and aft: while her ports were closed, and her hull painted so exactly like that of a merchantman, in various colours, that it required a sharp eye and near observation to discover that she was other than she seemed, a peaceful merchant vessel from Fell's Point, bound to the Spanish Main.

In addition to her batteries, she mounted midships, upon a traversing carriage, a long brass forty-two pounder, while her cutlass-racks, arm chests, and boarding-pikes, the last lashed to the boom, showed she was also well prepared for close quarters, and to finish by boarding the work cut out by the great guns. She was withal well manned. Of her crew of one hundred and eighty men, the greater part were now upon deck, having just finished making sail, and in their dark faces and muscular forms, as they carelessly lounged about, might be read the proof that these trusts were bestowed worthily, upon men who would fight to the death in defence of their striped and spangled bunting.

The captain of the privateer, dressed with some pretensions to nicety, but wearing a common tarpaw

This manoeuvre produced some surprise on board the Sparkler.

"A Scotch prize, Captain Benson," observed the first mate as he handed him the glass.

"Perhaps so,” replied Benson composedly, "clear away long Tom there, and double shot both batteries, we will soon see what she is."

It was now about noon, and the vessels being on opposite courses, had approached within five miles of each other, and this distance was rapidly diminishing.

"The chase is now within range, sir," reported Townsend.

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Very good, sir. Let drive at him with long Tom and send up the gridiron at the fore," replied Benson.

The flag of the United States waved in the breeze, and the forty-two spoke in thunder the moment the order was given.

This was a touch of his quality, which the chase had not expected at the hands of the privateer, and

the smoke clearing up, showed her bearing off before the wind, crowding all sail.

"So much for your man-of-war, Mr. Townsend," said Benson, pointing out this change of course; "she is pulling her heel, and goes off before the wind because that is the worst point in a schooner's sailing. Run out the batteries, load long Tom, and open the magazine. We will try this fellow a little any how."

"Good pluck, that," said St. John, laughing at the bravery of his live freight; "however, perhaps --" Whizz-z-z came a forty-two pound shot from the long Tom of the privateer, which interrupted his soliloquy, and passed through his main-royal, and shortly after, another walked through the bunt of all three top-sails; and a moment after, a third struck his starboard quarter, knocking the splinters about in every direction, while the ladies below screamed at the top of their lungs to mend the matter.

"Now, my lads," said St. John, quietly addressing his crew, "send up our ensign at the peak, and stand by to shorten sail.”

Meanwhile, on board the English West Indiaman, (for such was the stranger,) all was confusion and dismay. Her commander had from the first suspected the schooner was an American privateer, but had adopted the bold course of standing towards her in chase, to give the impression that he was a man-of-vateer might distinctly see his colours, he then put war, well knowing that it was in vain to hope to escape by superiour sailing from a Baltimore clipper. The report of the Sparkler's long forty-two, however, and the sight of the shot, which struck the water just ahead of him, had dispelled all his hope of frightening her; and now, as a last resource, he put his helm up, and bore away to the southeast, hoping to leave his pursuer astern until some other ship might heave in sight to save him.

Continuing his course for a moment, that the pridown his helm, hauled close upon the wind, and stood towards her, justly considering it folly to attempt farther escape while every shot raked him fore and aft. That he might go into action in true man-of-war fashion, St. John next ordered to take in the royals, fore and mizzen top-gallant-sails, and flying-jib; hauled up the courses, and depressed both batteries for close quarters, and made every preparation for small arms and cutlasses, to beat off the privateer if possiThis was certainly his wisest course, and his ves-ble, and, in any event, to send some of the Jonathans sel being a fast sailer, and under a press of canvass, made rapid headway. She was the largest class of English West Indiamen, about twelve hundred tuns in burden, and was now from Plymouth, bound to Kingston, Jamaica, with a very valuable cargo, and a number of passengers; and, to defend the whole carried sixteen twelve pounders and a crew of forty

to Davy's locker.

This change in the Englishman's course produced a corresponding one in the privateer. He shortened sail, and perceiving that the Indiaman intended to show fight, continued to blaze away with his long forty-two, directing his shots solely to her decks, not wishing either to carry away her spars, or hit her between wind and water, and thoroughly under"Clear away those guns, my lads, and open the standing gunnery, his round shot coursed along the magazine," said the commander of the Indiaman, decks and cabin of the Indiaman with terrible preciswho, though he wished to escape, yet had a stom-ion, causing some fright and some positive injury to ach for dry knocks; "I wish we had a forty-two her timid passengers. pounder, for then we'd fight the Yankees on better terms."

men.

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"I hope, Captain St. John," said a passenger, who at this moment came up to the companion-way, "I hope, sir, you do not intend to fight the American." Certainly I do, Mr. Tompkins," replied St. John, "he shall not take all our cargo, and the ship into the bargain, without fighting for it, I promise you. Why, our cargo alone is worth fifty thousand pounds sterling! Jonathan shall not make his fortune this time if I can prevent him."

They were, however, soon huddled up in the run in security, not one caring to fight for his dinner; St. John having coldly told them that they would certainly be captured by the privateer, but that he was determined to have the satisfaction of peppering the Yankees somewhat any how.

This, however, was not so safe an undertaking; for, as the privateer rapidly neared them, grape-shot were added to round in her forty-two, which scattered around with their wonted fatal and appalling effect, while the round shot continued to perform his "But sir," continued Tompkins, anxiously, "con-usual careful and scientifick manner, tearing up the sider the lady passengers. I beg you, sir, to surrender to the American, and perhaps he will treat us well, while, if you fight him, he will be enraged, and

"Kill all our males, and carry our women and children into captivity beyond Babylon, as the scripture has it," interrupted St. John, hastily-" Consider the devil! All the ladies have to do, is to stay below and be quiet; and you, doubtless will fight to the last in defence of your wife and daughter; so there's another hand to work our guns. I mean he shall treat us well, and as for his rage, why we'll get angry too. Come, Mr. Tompkins, there's a musket for you."

"I sha'n't touch it, sir," said Mr. Tompkins, "it's against my principles to fight, and I will bring the matter before the passengers, to see if they will permit you to throw away their lives in this manner;" and so saying, he went below.

decks, dashing in the bulwarks, and knocking those terrible missiles, the splinters, among the crew; while the crowds of armed men, now distinctly seen clustering about the decks of the privateer, showed full plainly that she was amply prepared for the combat hand to hand.

As one after another of the Indiaman's crew were cut down by one or the other of these destructives, the remainder, instead of being cowed, were, with true bull-dog spirit, only the more exasperated, working ship with great speed and undaunted bravery; and when the privateer began to open upon them with his larboard battery, they immediately returned the same in coin very spiritedly; and the long fortytwo of the American being now neglected for the moment, the combat became more equal, each vessel working eight twelve-pounders of a side.

The commander of the privateer was much surprised at meeting such determined resistance where