upon me suddenly, and my thoughts, while in peril, were but few. The danger now appeared more imminent, and a watery grave every moment more probable; yet there was leisure afforded for reflection, and the sensibilities and powers of the mind were roused to an unusual state of excitement by the conflicting elements on every side. A retrospect of life, now perhaps about to close, presented all the scenes through which I had passed in rapid succession and in varied colours, each exhibiting the lights and shades by which it had been distinguished. . . . . But the most impressive exercise of mind was that referring to the awful change approaching. . . .

....

"The hours that followed were some of the most solemn I have ever passed in my life. Although much recurred to memory that demanded deep regret and most sincere repentance, yet I could look back upon that mercy that had first brought me to a knowledge of the Saviour with a gratitude never perhaps exceeded. Him, and him alone, I found to be a refuge, a rock in the storm of contending feelings, on which my soul could cast the anchor of its hope for pardon and acceptance before God. . . . . I could not but think how awful would my state have been, had I in that hour been ignorant of Christ, or had I neglected and despised the offers of his mercy."

During the whole of that day the storm continued, and at intervals they beheld, through the clouds and rain, one or other of the waterspouts, but they finally disappeared without doing them any damage. It is not easy for an individual who has never beheld them, to realize the sensations produced, when solitary voyagers on the Pacific, from their light canoes or deckless boats, descry these sublime objects towering from the water to the sky, while the

powerful agitation of the former indicates the mighty process by which they are sustained.

Many are the narrow escapes which have been made from waterspouts, but we can only afford space to tell of one other. It occurred to a ship in the Pacific Ocean. It was sailing before a fresh breeze when a waterspout was descried coming towards it. The captain instantly summoned the crew on deck and prepared to take in sail. On it came nearer and nearer. The column was well defined, extending in an unbroken line from the sea to the clouds, which were neither dense nor lowering. Around the outside of the liquid cylinder was a kind of thick mist, and within, a substance resembling steam, ascending apparently with a spiral motion. The water at the base of the column was violently agitated, while the spray which was thrown off from the circle formed by the lower part of the column, rose several feet above the level of the sea. At first it bore down direct upon the ship, but when within a short distance it changed its course slightly and passed by, leaving the thankful crew to pursue their voyage.

Many gallant ships have sailed to southern climes and never more been heard of. May it not be possible that their loss was owing to the destructive power of waterspouts?

We are told that waterspouts sometimes break upon the land and do great damage. Upon one occasion one broke over the harbour of Honolulu in one of the South Sea Islands. "It was first observed," says Cheever, "moving along slowly, of about the thickness of a hogshead, accompanied by a violent ebullition of the water at its base. Upon touching the reef the column broke, causing a sudden rise of the sea of three feet on the beach. Great numbers

of fish were said to have been destroyed by the force of the falling water. Other waterspouts have at different times broken on the land here, and have washed away houses and drowned inhabitants. They are experienced in the Atlantic, where I have myself observed them, as well as in the Pacific. Trees are torn up by them, valleys flooded, eminences ploughed away, deep pits excavated, and habitations, harvests, and cattle borne away."

MISCELLANEA of the sea. If being affected by the moon proves a creature mad, then, undoubtedly, the sea is a lunatic! The tide-in other words, the regular semidiurnal advance and retreat of the sea upon the shore, are caused by the influence of the moon, which, owing to the law of gravitation, attracts toward it that portion of the sea over which at any time it happens to be passing, and thus raises a sort of protuberance or wave. At the opposite side of the earth a precisely similar wave or elevation of the sea takes place; the cause in this case being, that the attractive power of the moon tends to draw the earth away from the sea, while, in the former case, it tends to draw the sea away from the earth. Thus, by the same power-the attractive force of the moon- -a similar result is obtained on two exactly opposite points of the earth, namely, the elevation of the sea; and thus high tides are produced. As the moon continues her progress round the world she draws, as it were, these two high tides along with her, and thus, necessarily, leaves the low tides behind her. The moon encircles the earth once every twenty-four hours; therefore, two full and two ebb tides occur every day.

But the moon is not alone in her influence on the tides. The sun also acts a part, but his distance being so great he affects them very little, until in the varied course of his

evolutions he and the moon act in concert,-pull together, in fact, in the same direction, and so vigorous is their united effort that they produce very high, or what we call spring tides. When these luminaries act in opposition the result is very low, or neap tides. Spring and neap tides occur twice a month. The tide takes six hours to rise and

six to fall, but as the

circling of the moon round the earth is not precisely within the twenty-four hours, so the tides are constantly changing a few minutes, not quite half an hour, every day. The earth at the tropics is nearer to the moon than elsewhere, so that the tides are highest there, while they diminish as we approach the poles.

There are numerous secondary influences at work in the world which modify the tides; thus, in the Mediterranean there is little or no tide, owing to the narrowness of the entrance at the Straits of Gibraltar, which prevents the tidal wave from having much effect; the conformations of land, too, in many places modify the tides; but the foregoing particulars are the broad outlines relative to the phenomenon of tides which it were well to bear in remembrance.

The salt in the sea is that which renders it so useful as a cleanser of the land. The ocean is, in fact, the scavenger of the world. Into it all that is filthy or noxious is ultimately conveyed and neutralized or dissipated. The saltness of the sea varies in different places, and in consequence of its saline properties the sea cannot freeze until it reaches a very low temperature, and the ice when formed is by no means perfect. The salt is expelled in the process of freezing; and when in the Polar regions the surface of seaice is melted by the summer sun and formed into pools, the water is found to be fresh and good.

The phosphorescence of the sea is one of the most curious and splendid of the phenomena in nature. Often the whole ocean is seen to sparkle with what appears to be a host of stars as bright as those in the sky, and the track left in the wake of a ship seems to be a sheet of liquid flame. When the sea is in this condition, spray thrown up by oars or dashed from the bow of a ship glitters like a mass of molten silver. For a long time the cause of this phosphoric light remained a deep mystery to scientific men, but they at last discovered that it is caused by the presence of myriads of animalculæ of the Medusa species, most of which are invisible to the naked eye, being not only minute, but excessively thin and transparent, and the degree of brilliancy with which these tiny creatures emit their beautiful light is supposed to depend on the condition of the atmosphere. The same species of phosphorescence is emitted by decaying vegetable matter, rotten wood, and dead fish. A traveller, in writing of his experiences in the Pacific Ocean, gives the following account of a remarkable phosphoric appearance of the sea :

"We had often before observed luminous points, like sparks of fire, floating here and there in the furrow of our vessel, but now the whole ocean was literally bespangled with them. Notwithstanding the smoothness of the surface, there was a considerable swell of the sea, and, sparkling as it did on every part as with fire, the mighty heavings of its bosom were indescribably magnificent. It seemed as if the sky had fallen to a level with the ship, and all its stars, in tenfold numbers and brilliancy, were rolling about with the undulations of the billows.

"The horizon in every direction presented a line of uninterrupted light, while the wide space intervening was one