ally performed the faithful creature's services himself, going his rounds every evening, and barking as well and as loud as he could, in imitation of his deceased friend.

"Note. Such is occasionally the eccentricity of character, that I am correct in adding, this man either lent or subscribed a million of rubles to assist the empress in the beginning of the Swedish war, or on some other great national emergency.'

*

*

on a large circular picture for a ceiling, the subject Cupid and Psyche, his imperial majesty entered the room, surrounded by his family, and followed by a numerous train of courtiers of both sexes. He began rallying the painter on the seeming ease with which he painted; and, laughing, told him any body could do that: upon which Doyen begged bis majesty would make the essay, giving him his pallet and brushes. The emperor filled a brush with black paint, and made a long black stroke over the eye, on the face of Psyche, which he was then painting, and asked Doyen, with a smile, whether it was not

The painter agreed the touch was vigorous, and said it was the eye-brow of Psyche. In that case, fair ladies, said the emperor, significantly, and bowing to the company, On puit juger du reste,' one may guess at the rest."

"Introduction.—Wit admits of being related; humour is better seen than described the following scrap partakes of both :"Scrap. By marriage Admirala spirited touch,' and what it meant. Greig was brother-in-law to a Mr.Cook, a ropemaker at Cronstadt, a very worthy, but rather a formal and eccentric character, He had bad a few friends to pass the day with him from Petersburgh; and for one of them a bed was made up on a sofa, in the same room where he himself slept. The old gentleman had taken a glass or two more than usual, and the conversation, in the course of the evening, had turned on a court-mourning then ordered for the stadtholder of Holland. Cook had been loudly reprobating the idea, that because a great personage chose to slip his cables, and run for the other world, every body should be obliged to put on black. They went to bed; and, a few minutes after, his friend was ready to burst with laughter, to see the little man still sitting up in bed tottering with the extinguisher in his hand, ready to put out the candle, when, on seeing a black beetle running along the floor, he exclaimed in half drunken accents, 'So you! so you ! so you little d- -d black son of a bitch, so you must go in mourning too for the Dutch king, must ye?" Doyen, a French artist at Petersburgh, seems to have possessed the ready wit and happy talent (which is never taken by surprise) so essential to promotion at court. The following anecdotes illustrate this :

"In the reign of the Emperor Paul, when Doyen and myself occupied the same apartment in the Hermitage, and were pursuing our respective operations, One day, when Doyen was employed

"The emperor one day, puffing and blowing out his cheeks, (as was his custom,) strutted up to Doyen, who was painting a large picture of Cupid and Psyche, and told him he would set to bin for the head of Psyche, which was then wanting. The painter, though taken by surprise, was not thrown off his guard; but, making a very low bow, replied, that had he wanted the head of an emperor, he would not have wanted a better model, but for a Psyche he must beg to be excused. The sprightly monarch, patting him on the shoulder, told him he had acquitted himself better than he expected, and had come off like a true courtier, with flying colours."

We now copy more miscellaneous matter :—

"Introduction.-Though the Russians had great reason to rejoice when the reign of the Emperor Paul was over, (indeed it was necessary to the welldoing of the empire,) yet much is to be said in his favour. He was an affectionate husband and father, a generous friend, and a liberal sovereign; often extremely amiable, always polite and witty; and though certainly not a handsome man, yet there was in his looks an air of wholesome health and cheerfulness, that impressed every one much in his favour. I think he could

ANCIENT CONJURING RHIME.
"Saint Magnus, control thee, that martyr of treason;
Saint Ronan, rebuke thee, with rhyme and with reason;
By the mass of Saint Martin, the might of Saint Mary,
Be thou gone, or thy weird shall be worse if thou tarry!
If of good, go hence and hallow thee,—

If of ill, let the earth swallow thee,

If thou'rt of air, let the grey mist fold thee,-
If of earth, let the swart mine hold thee,-
If a Pixie, seek thy ring,-

If a Nixie, seek thy spring;

If on middle earth thou'st been
Slave of sorrow, shame, and sin,

Hast eat the bread of toil and strife,

And dree'd the lot which men call life,

Begone to thy stone! for thy coffin is scant of thee,

The worm, thy play-fellow, wails for the want of thee;

Hence, houseless ghost! let the earth hide thee,

Till Michael shall blow the blast, see that there thou bide thee!-
Phantom, fly hence! take the Cross for a token,

Hence pass till Hallowmass !-my spell is spoken."

THE SYBIL'S SONG.

"Champion, famed for warlike toil,
Art thou silent, Ribolt Troil?
Sand, and dust, and pebbly stones,
Are leaving bare thy giant bones.
Who dared touch the wild bear's skin
Ye slumber'd on, while life was in ?-
A woman now, or babe, may come
And cast the covering from thy tomb.
"Yet be not wrathful, Chief, nor blight
Mine eyes or ears with sound or sight!
I come not, with unhallow'd tread,
To wake the slumbers of the dead,
Or lay thy giant reliques bare;

But what I seek thou well can'st spare.
Be it to my hand allow'd

To shear a merk's weight from thy shroud;
Yet leave thee sheeted lead enough

To shield thy bones from weather rough.
"See, I draw my magic knife-
Never while thou wert in life
Laid'st thou still for sloth or fear,

3C

When point and edge were glittering near;
See, the cearments now I sever—
Waken now, or sleep for ever!

Thou wilt not wake-the deed is done,—
The prize I sought is fairly won.

"Thanks, Ribolt, thanks,-for this the sea
Shall smooth its ruffled crest for thee,-
And while afar its billows foam,
Subside to peace near Ribolt's tomb.
Thanks, Ribolt, thanks-for this the might
Of wild winds raging at their height,
When to thy place of slumber nigh,
Shall soften to a lullaby.

"She, the dame of doubt and dread,
Norna of the Fitful-head,
Mighty in her own despite-
Miserable in her might;
In despair and frenzy great,-
In her greatness desolate;
Wisest, wickedest who lives,
Well can keep the word she gives."

1

NORWEGIAN FISHING SONG, A
"Farewell, merry maidens, to dance, song, and laugh,
For the brave lads of Westra are bound to the Haaf;
And we must have labour, and hunger, and pain,
Ere we dance with the maids of Dunrossness again.
"For now, in our trim boats of Noroway deal,
We must dance on the waves, with the porpuss and seal.
The breeze it shall pipe, so it pipe not too high,
And the gull be our songstress whene'er she flits by.
"Sing on, my brave bird, while we follow, like thee,
By bank, shoal, and quicksand, the swarms of the sea;
And when twenty-score fishes are straining my line,
Sing louder, brave bird, for their spoils shall be thine.
"We'll sing while we bait, and we'll sing when we haul,
For the deeps of the Haaf have enough for us all :
There is torsk for the gentle, and skate for the carle,
And there's wealth for bold Magnus, the son of the earl.
"Huzza! my brave comrades, give way for the Haaf,
We shall sooner come back to the dance and the laugh!
For life without mirth is a lamp without oil;
Then mirth and long life to the bold Magnus Troil!"
ATHENEUM VOL. 10.

SCENES IN CANADA.*

Selection from the contents of this work will exemplify its qualities. On Lake Ontario the author says,

"The most remarkable phenomenon which this and the other lakes exhibit, is that increase and rise of their waters which is said to take place at regular periods. It occurs, in a moderate degree, every seven years, and to a very great extent once in thirty or forty. In the year 1816, the waters of Lake Ontario were seven feet and a half perpendicular above their average height, and Lake Erie was affected in a similar way. I have visited the shores of Lake Ontario several times, accompanied by a person who resides upon them, whose intelligence and indisputable veracity made me put full confidence in the information he gave, and from whom I received proofs of the accuracy of what I have now stated. I likewise saw the remains of a large storehouse which had been built a few years before, in a situation that seemed quite inaccessible to the lake, although the waters have sur rounded and nearly demolished it.

"This singular phenomenon affords a problem very difficult to solve. The quantity of water that must be required to increase the depth of Lake Ontario, and all the other lakes, seven and a half feet perpendicular, is so vast, that it is impossible to conceive where its source can lie. The height of the waters of the lakes, indeed, varies a few inches almost daily; but this is occasioned by changes in the direction of the wind. When it is east or north-east, the waters are driven back, or at least impeded in their course, and consequently an accumulation takes place, which makes the lakes rise; but if it blows from the south or south-west, the direction in which they flow, their waters are burried towards the St. Lawrence, and, of course, decrease in height in proportion to the strength of the wind.

"Sir Alexander Mackenzie, during his voyage to the north-west, observed

that the waters of the rivers and lakes which he navigated underwent consid. erable variation in their height, the increase and decrease sometimes amounting to two or three feet; which proves that this phenomenon is not confined to the lower lakes. If this augmentation of the waters took place only at irregular periods, we might suppose that it proceeded from the occasional melting of those immense quantities of ice and snow which are accumulated in the northern regions; but even this would scarcely be adequate to produce the effect which cannot at present be rationally accounted for."

Near Lake Erie we have a natural exhibition of another sort :—

"Here, (says Mr. H.) for the first time, I was gratified with an opportunity of listening to a frog concert, as I * passed a mill-pond which swarmed with bull-frogs. The noise which these animals make is so disproportioned to their size, that it startles the ear not a little. At first, several of them utter their notes at intervals, like the performers in an orchestra tuning their instruments; then they all join, as if by one impulse, in a chorus, deep, loud, and discordant, beyond any sound I ever heard produced by animals."

The following, however, relates to a more remarkable animal phenomenon, which we do not remember to have seen so explicitly noticed before.

"Being fatigued with riding," our author begins, " I dismounted, and seated myself at the foot of a large tree that overbung a small stream, in which little trout sported incessantly. Every breeze was loaded with vegetable fragrance; but at intervals I felt a most intoxicating perfume, the source of which I was for some time unable to discover. At last I saw two small snakes creep from under a decayed tree that lay near me, and found, from the momentary increase of the odour, and its diminution as they retired, that it

*Sketches of Upper Canada, domestic, local, and characteristic, &c. &c. By John Howison. Edinburgh, Nov. 1821.

403

proceeded from them. These animals his eyes to wander from his prey, otherwise the charm would have been instantaneously dissolved. But I determined to effect this, and accordingly threw a large chip of wood into the pond. It fell between the two animals-tbe snake started back, while the frog darted under water, and concealed itself among the mud.

(as I was afterwards informed,) while basking in the sun, emit a delightful fragrance; but they are destitute of this peculiarity when dead. I followed the snakes for a little way, and for the first time learned that such animals had the power of fuscinating men. Whenever I advanced within a certain distance of them, they turned round and coiled up,

and heavenly fragrance fill'd

The circuit wide."

He proceeds to state instances of the fascinations of these creatures, (attributable to fear, as be thinks,) and certainly goes farther than we can well credit

on hearsay testimony.

"Upper Canada is not infested with any snakes of a dangerous kind, except the rattlesnake, which, however, is very rare in the cultivated parts of the country. Garter snakes and black snakes are to be met with every where, but they seem quite harmless.

66

"In Upper Canada, it is almost universally believed, that snakes possess that power of fascination which has so often been denied to them by naturalists. Many people have had the fact demonstrated to them by being witnesses of it, and this was the case with me. One summer day, when strolling through the woods, came to the edge of a small pond of water, on the surface of which floated a frog in a state of motionless repose, as if basking in the sun. I carelessly touched his back with a stick, but contrary to my expectation, he did not move; and, on viewing him more closely, I perceived that he gasped in a convulsive manner, and was affected with a tremor in his hind legs. I soon discovered a black snake coiled up, lying near the edge of the pond, and holding the frog in thraldom by the magic of his eyes. Whenever he

moved his head from one side to the other, his destined victim followed it, as if under the influence of magnetic attraction; sometimes, however, recoiling feebly, but soon springing forward again, as if he felt

"A strong desire with loathing mixed." The snake lay with his mouth half open, and never for a moment allowed

"It is asserted by some that snakes occasionally exert their powers of fascination upon human beings, and I see no reason to doubt the truth of this. An old Dutch woman, who lives at the Twelve Mile Creek in the Niagara district, sometimes gives a minute account of the manner in which she was charmed by a serpent; and a farmer told me that a similar circumstance once occurred to his daughter. It was on a warm summer day, that she was sent to spread wet clothes upon some shrubbery near the house. Her mother conceived that she remained longer than was necessary, and seeing her standing unoccupied at some distance, she called to her several times, but no answer was returned. On approaching, she found her daughter pale, motionless, and fixed in an erect posture. The sweat rolled down her brow, and her hands were clenched convulsively. A large rattlesnake lay on a log opposite the girl, waving his head from side to side, and kept his eyes stedfastly fastened upon her. The mother instantly struck him with a stick, and the moment he made off, the girl recovered herself and burst into tears, but was for some time so weak and agitated, that she could not walk home."

Without looking for connexion, we will now copy a pathetic Indian story from the shores of Lake Erie :

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"An Indian woman, and her child, who was about seven years old, were travelling along the beach to a camp a few miles distant. The boy observed some wild grapes growing upon of the bank, and expressed such a strong desire to obtain them, that his mother, seeing a ravine at a little distance, by which she thought she could gain the edge of the precipice, resolved to gratify him. Having desired him to remain where he was, she ascended the steep, and was allured much farther into th