Homes of the mighty, whose renown The breathing forms of Parian stone, 'Tis still the same-where'er we tread, Left to decay and thee! And still let man his fabrics rear, August in beauty, grace, and strength, Days pass-Thou, Ivy, never sere, And all is thine at length! FELICIA HEMANS'. Bees venture out of their hives every month in th year, and may occasionally be seen on some fine mil days in January, busily improving each shinin hour' in gathering food from the snowdrops, &c. The golden saxifrage, called also golden moss, an stonecrop (chrysoplenium), in the absence of othe flowers, affords its little aid to give life and beaut to the garden. The bramble (rubus fruticosus) sti retains its leaves, and gives a thin scattering of gree in the otherwise leafless hedges; while the berries o the hawthorn, the wild rose, and the spindle-tree afford their brilliant touches of red. The twigs o the red dog-wood, too, give a richness amid the gene ral brown of the other shrubs. Hunting and shooting are among the favourit amusements of this season. Skating, also, is muc practised by young persons. Sur un frele crystal l'hyver guide leurs pas; Telle est de nos plaisirs la legere surface; Glissez, Mortels; n'appuyez pas. 'er ice the rapid skaiter flies, JOHNSON. s month, the farmer carries out manure to s, and repairs quickset hedges; taking adof the dry and hard ground, during frost. -n resounds with the flail, barley being now 1 for malting. He lops forest trees, and cuts or winter use. About the end of the month, eather, peas and beans are sown, and vetches 1 or fodder. Hogs are killed for bacon, and d hams are smoked. mena and Natural History of the Arctic Regions. Le early volumes of Time's Telescope, and in 1 very superior description, and convey to the mind most vivid and heart-chilling picture of the drear appearance of this desert region. The situation the ships, at times, must have been tremendous; an nothing could have been more awful than to behol sea and shore, hill and valley, in short, Nature he self, under the aspect of one continued iceberg; n sound to break upon the silence, but the explosion of the ice, or the howling of the wolves; and n living thing to meet the eye, except some ravenou and half-famished animal. Where the NORTH POLE, in moody solitude, Spreads her huge tracts and frozen wastes around; Form a gigantic hall; where never sound Stalks like some woe-struck man along the desert way. No sweet remain of life encheers the sight; Would freeze to marble. Mingling day and night, The sun rolls ceaseless round his heavenly height, And leaves the long bleak night of half the year to rise. The effect which exposure to severe frost has, i benumbing the mental as well as the corporeal facul ties, was strikingly exemplified in two young gentle men of the Hecla, when they returned from a land excursion in these Hyperborean regions. On bein sent for by Captain Parry, when they came int his cabin, they looked wild, spoke thick and indis tinctly, and it was impossible to draw from them rational answer to any question he put to them After being on board for a short time, the menta appeared gradually to return with the reirculation, and it was not till then that a could easily persuade himself that they had drinking too freely.-(Journal, p. 108.) uter used while in the polar circle was prom snow, either naturally or artificially disSoon after the ships were laid up for the t was necessary to have recourse entirely to - process; the snow for this purpose being of the drifts which had formed upon the ice e ships, and dissolved in coppers, heated by 5. s. It was always found necessary to strain rso procured, on account of the sand drifted Iville Island, after which it was quite pure lesome (p. 109). e 26th October, 1819, the sun afforded t light for reading and writing from half-past M. till half-past two, the rest of the twentyurs being spent by candle-light. Nothing xceed the beauty of the sky to the S.E. and sun-rise and sun-set; about this period, horizon, there was generally a rich, bluish and a bright arch of deep red above, the one g imperceptibly with the other (p. 112.) ffect produced by touching any metallic subn the open air with the naked hand, exactly ed that occasioned by the opposite extreme ise heat, taking off the skin from the part . Whenever any instrument which had been me exposed to the atmosphere, so as to be: down to the same temperature, was suddenly t below into the cabins, the vapour was incondensed all around it, so as to give the ment the appearance of smoking, and the were covered almost instantaneously with a Dating of ice, the removal of which required caution, to prevent the risk of injuring them t had gradually thawed, as they acquired the ature of the cabin. When a candle was placed in a certain direction from the instrumen with respect to the observer, a number of very m nute spicule of snow were also seen sparklin around the instrument, at the distance of two o three inches from it (Journal, pp. 112, 113). About the latter end of October, it became abso lutely necessary for those composing the expeditio to secure themselves for the winter; and, in doin this, the sailors displayed wonderful ingenuity an perseverance. The only way to preserve the ship was, by cutting a passage for them through the ice and to accomplish this, they, in the face of snow storms, actually worked nineteen hours during th first day! Our readers may have some idea of th extent of this undertaking, when we inform the that the length of this canal was four thousand an eighty-two yards, and that the average thickness the ice was seven inches. At a quarter past three the third day, they tracked the ships through th canal into winter quarters, an event which was co memorated with three hearty cheers'. Here the they were to remain for at least eight months; duri three of which a glimpse of the sun would not be sible; and it became immediately necessary to co mence preparations for meeting this new and extr ordinary situation. Not a moment was lost in t commencement of their operations. The masts we all dismantled, except the lower ones; and a ki of housing was formed on deck, supported by u right planks, over all of which a thick wadding-ti such as usually covers waggons, was thrown way of roof, and formed a comfortable shelter, least from the snow and wind. The boats, spa running sails, and rigging, were all removed to t land, in order to afford the crews room for exe cising on deck, whenever the inclemency of the we |