Furling the iron sails * with numbed hands,
Firm on the deck the great adventurer stands;
Round glittering mountains hears the billows rave,
And the vast ruin thunder on the wave.-
Appall`d he hears!—but checks the rising sigh,
And turns on his firm band a glistening eye.—
Not for himself the sighs unbidden break,
Amid the terrors of the icy wreck;

Not for himself starts the impassion'd tear,
Congealing as it falls;-nor pain nor fear
Nor death's dread darts impede the great design,
Till Nature draws the circumscribing line ‡.
Huge rocks of ice the' arrested ship embay,
And bar the gallant wanderer's dangerous way.—
His eye regretful marks the goddess turn
The' assiduous prow from its relentless bourn.
And now Antarctic Zealand's drear domain
Frowns, and o'erhangs the' inhospitable main.
On its chill beach this dove of humankind
For his long wandering foot short rest shall find,
Bear to the coast the olive branch in vain §,
And quit on wearied wing the hostile plain.-
With jealous lour the frowning natives view
The stately vessel and adventurous crew;

* Our sails and rigging were so frozen that they seemed plates of iron.'

The breaking of one of these immense mountains of ice, and the prodigious noise it made, is particularly described in Cook's Second Voyage to the South Pole.

After running four leagues this course, with the ice on our starboard side, we found ourselves quite embayed, the ice extending from north north-east, round by the west and south to east, in one compact body; the weather was tolerably clear, yet we could see no end to it.'

To carry a green branch in the hand on landing is a pacific signal universally understood by all the islanders in the South Seas.'

Nor fear the brave nor emulate the good,.
But scowl with savage thirst of human blood!
And yet there were who in this iron clime
Soar'd o'er the herd on Virtue's wing sublime;
Revered the stranger-guest, and smiling strove
To soothe his stay with hospitable love;
Fann'd in full confidence the friendly flame,
Join'd plighted hands, and name exchanged for
name*.

To these the hero leads his living store +,
And pours new wonders on the' uncultured shore,
The silky fleece, fair fruit, and golden grain;
And future herds and harvests bless the plain.
O'er the green soil the kids exulting play,
And sounds his clarion loud the bird of day;
The downy goose her ruffled bosom laves,
Trims her white wing, and wantons in the waves;
Stern moves the bull along the' affrighted shores,
And countless nations tremble as he roars.
So when the daughter of eternal Jove,
And ocean's god, to bless their Athens strove,
The massy trident with gigantic force
Cleaves the firm earth-and lo! the stately horse;
He paws the ground, impatient of the rein,
Shakes his high front, and thunders o'er the plain.
Then Wisdom's goddess plants the embryon seed
And bids new foliage shade the sultry mead;

The exchange of names is a pledge of amity among these islanders, and was frequently proposed by them to Captain Cook and his people; so also is the joining noses.

+ Captain Cook left various kinds of animals upon this coast, together with garden-seeds, &c. The Zealanders had hitherto subsisted on fish, and such coarse vegetables as their climate produced; and this want of better provision, it is snpposed, induced them to the horrid practice of eating human flesh.

Mid the pale green the tawny olive shine,
And famish'd thousands bless the hand divine.
Now the warm solstice o'er the shining bay
Darts from the north its mild meridian ray;
Again the chief invokes the rising gale,
And spreads again in desert seas the sail;
O'er dangerous shoals his steady steerage keeps,
O'er walls of coral* ambush'd in the deeps;
Strong Labour's hands the crackling cordage twine,
And sleepless Patience heaves the guardian line †.
Borne on fierce eddies black Tornado springs,
Dashing the gulfy main with ebon wings;
In the vex'd foam his sweeping trail he shrouds,
And rears his serpent crest amid the clouds;
Wrapp'd in dark mists with hideous bellowing
roars,

Drives all his tempests on, and shakes the shores.
Already has the groaning ship resign'd

Half her proud glories to the furious wind.
The fear-struck mariner beholds from far,
In gathering rage, the elemental war;

As rolls the rising vortex, stands aghast,
Folds the rent sail, or clasps the shivering mast!
Onward, like night, the frowning demon comes,
Showers a dread deluge from his shaken plumes;
Fierce as he moves the gulfed sand uptears,
And high in air the shatter'd canvass bears.
Hardly the heroes in that fateful hour
Save the torn navy from his whelming power;

The coral rocks are described as rising perpendicularly from the greatest depths of the ocean, insomuch that the sounding line cannot reach their bottom; and yet they were but just covered with water. These rocks are now found to be fabricated by sea insects.

We had now passed several months with a man constantly in the chains heaving the lead.'

But soon from industry's restoring hand
New masts aspire and snowy sails expand.
On a lone beach a rock built temple * stands,
Stupendous pile! unwrought by mortal hands;
Sublime the ponderous turrets rise in air,
And the wide roof basaltic columns bear;
Through the long aisles the murmuring tempests
blow,

And ocean chides his dashing waves below.
From this fair fane along the silver sands
Two sister virgins wave their snowy hands;
First gentle Flora +-round her smiling brow
Leaves of new forms and flowers uncultured glow;
Thin folds of vegetable silk behind

Shade her white neck, and wanton in the wind;
Strange sweets where'er she turns perfume the

glades,

And fruits unnamed adorn the bending shades. Next Fauna treads, in youthful beauty's pride, A playful kanguroo § bounding by her side; Around the nymph her beauteous pois || display Their varied plumes, and trill the dulcet lay;

* On one part of this isle there was a solitary rock, rising on the coast with arched cavities like a majestic temple.

+ Flora is the Goddess of modern Botany, and Fauna of modern Zoology: hence the pupils of Linnæus call their books Flora Anglica-Fauna Danica, &c. 'The Flora of these islands contained thirty new plants.'

In New Zealand is a flag, of which the natives make their nets and cordage. The fibres of this vegetable are longer and stronger than our hemp and flax; and some, manufactured in London, is as white and glossy as fine silk. This valuable vegetable will probably grow in our climate.

The kanguroo is an animal peculiar to those climates: it is perpetually jumping along on its hind legs, its fore legs being too short to be used in the manner of other quadrupeds.

The poi-bird, common in those countries, has feathers of a fine mazarine blue, except those of the neck, which are of a

A giant bat*, with leathern wings outspread,
Umbrella light, hangs quivering o'er her head.
As o'er the cliff her graceful steps she bends,
On glittering wing her insect train attends.
With diamond eye her scaly tribes survey
Their goddess nymph, and gambol in the spray.
With earnest gaze the still enamoured crew
Mark the fair forms, and as they pass pursue;
But round the steepy rocks and dangerous strand
Rolls the white surft, and shipwreck guards the
So, when of old, Sicilian shores along,

[land. Enchanting sirens trill'd the' alluring song, Bound to the mast the charm'd Ulysses hears, And drinks the sweet tones with insatiate ears; Strains the strong cords, upbraids the prosperous

gale,

And sighs, as Wisdom spreads the flying sail.
Now leads Benevolence the destined way,
Where all the loves in Otaheite stray.
To bid the arts disclose their wondrous powers,
To bid the virtues consecrate the bowers,
She gives her hero to its blooming plain :-
Nor has he wander'd, has he bled in vain!

beautiful silver gray, and two or three short white ones, which are in the pinion joint of the wing. Under its throat hang two little tufts of curled white feathers, called its poies, which, being the Otaheitan word for earrings, occasioned our giving that name to the bird; which is not more remarkable for the beauty of its plumage than for the melody of its note.'

The bats which Captain Cook saw in some of these countries were of incredible dimensions, measuring three feet and a half in breadth when their wings were extended.

+ As we passed this island many of its trees had an unusual appearance, and the richness of the vegetation much invited our naturalists to land; but their earnest wishes were in vain from the dangerous reefs and the violence of the surfs.'