lighted up with that smile is more than beautiful; and hark! while the closing orbs are lifted upwards, the lips, the tongue, and the heart give utterance to the joyous exclamation-"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

O. H.

STAFFA.

THIS singular and gorgeous specimen of nature's masonry is situate about nine miles north from Iona, and fifteen west from Mull. The form of the island is oblong and irregular; its coast is steep and rugged; its length about a mile, and its breadth from four to five furlongs.

Staffa is accessible only at one point, on the southeast, where the surface gradually slopes towards the sea. Here, therefore, the traveller lands; and, commencing his circuit round the island, finds more than half its circumference occupied by handsome colonnades of natural pillars, resting on an irregular pavement formed of the bases of similar columns, and extending as far under the sea as the eye can trace it. The forms and diameters of the pillars are various; generally, however, presenting a pentagonal or hexagonal surface, and measuring from one to three feet across. Such of the columns as remain entire have a jointed appearance; and, when these joints are narrowly examined, it is found that the upper surface of each is concave, having a corresponding convexity in the inferior surface of the other. This arrangement, nevertheless, is sometimes reversed ; and occasionally the corresponding surfaces are quite plain.

The rest of the island exhibits the same basaltic appearances, but the pillars are bent and twisted in various