and to one who was ignorant of the fact it would have appeared as if a thousand monsters were engaged in deadly combat behind the bloody mist that obstructed the view. Gradually these effects subsided, and when the discoloured water again settled down to the long and regular swell of the ocean, the fish was seen, exhausted, and yielding passively to his fate. As life departed, the enormous black mass rolled to one side; and when the white and glistening skin of the belly became apparent, the seamen well knew that their victory was achieved.

"What's to be done now?" said Barnstable, as he stood and gazed with a diminished excitement at their victim. "He will yield no food, and his carcass will probably drift to land, and furnish our enemies with the oil."

"If I had but that creater in Boston Bay," said the cockswain, "it would prove the making of me; but such is my luck for ever! Pull up, at any rate, and let me get my harpoon and line. The English shall never get them while old Tom Coffin can blow."

"Don't speak too fast," said the strokesman of the boat. "Whether he get your iron or not, here he comes in chase!"

"What mean you, fellow ?" cried Barnstable.

Captain Barnstable can look for himself," returned the seaman, "and tell whether I speak truth."

The young sailor turned, and saw the Alacrity bearing down before the wind, with all her sails set, as she rounded a headland, but a short half-league to windward of the place where the boat lay.

"Pass that glass to me," said the captain, with steady composure. "This promises us work in one of two ways: if she be armed, it has become our turn to run; if not, we are strong enough to carry her." A very brief survey made the experienced officer acquainted with the true character of the vessel in sight; and, replacing the glass with much coolness, he said, "That fellow shows long arms and ten

teeth, besides King George's pennant from his top-masthead. Now, my lads, you are to pull for your lives; for, whatever may be the notions of Master Coffin on the subject of his harpoon, I have no inclination to have my arms pinioned by John Bull, though his Majesty himself put on the irons."

The men well understood the manner and meaning of their commander, and, throwing aside their coats, they applied themselves in earnest to their task. For half an hour a profound silence reigned in the boat, which made an amazing progress. But many circumstances conspired to aid the cutter; she had a fine breeze, with smooth water and a strong tide in her favour; and, at the expiration of the time we have mentioned, it was but too apparent that the distance between the pursued and pursuers was lessened nearly half. Barnstable preserved his steady countenance; but there was an expression of care gathering around his dark brow, which indicated that he saw the increasing danger of their situation.

"That fellow has long legs, Master Coffin," he said in a cheerful tone. "Your whale-line must go overboard, and the fifth oar must be handled by your delicate hands."

Tom arose from his seat, and, proceeding forward, he cast the tub and its contents together into the sea, when he seated himself at the bow-oar, and bent his athletic frame with amazing vigour to the task.

"Ah! there is much of your philosophy in that stroke, Long Tom," cried his commander. "Keep it up, boys, and, if we gain nothing else, we shall at least gain time for deliberation. Come, Master Coffin, what think you? We have three resources before us; let us hear which is your choice. First, we can turn and fight and be sunk; secondly, we can pull to the land, and endeavour to make good our retreat to the schooner in that manner; and, thirdly, we can head to the shore, and possibly, by running under the guns of that fellow, get the wind of him, and keep the air in our nostrils, after the manner of the whale! But for the tow the

black rascal gave us, we should have been out of sight of this rover!"

"If we fight," said Tom, with quite as much composure as his commander manifested, we shall be taken or sunk; if we land, sir, I shall be taken for one man, as I never could make any headway on dry ground; and if we try to get the wind of him by pulling under the cliffs, we shall be cut off by a parcel of lubbers that I can see running along their edges, hoping, I dare say, that they shall be able to get a skulking shot at a boat's crew of honest seafaring men."

"You speak with as much truth as philosophy, Tom," said Barnstable, who saw his slender hopes of success curtailed by the open appearance of the horse and foot on the cliffs. "These Englishmen have not slept the last night, and I fear Griffith and Manual will fare but badly. That fellow brings a capful of wind down with him; 'tis just his play, and he walks like a race-horse. Ha! he begins to be in earnest ! "

While Barnstable was speaking, a column of white smoke was seen issuing from the bows of the cutter, and, as the report of a cannon was wafted in their ears, the shot was seen skipping from wave to wave, tossing the water in spray, and flying to a considerable distance beyond them. The seamen cast cursory glances in the direction of the passing ball; but it produced no manifest effect in either their conduct or appearance. The cockswain, who scanned its range with an eye of more practice than the rest, observed, “That's a lively piece for its metal, and it speaks with a good clear voice; but if they hear it aboard the Ariel, the man who fired it will be sorry it wasn't born dumb."

"You are the prince of philosophers, Master Coffin !” cried Barnstable. "There is some hope in that. Let the Englishman talk away, and my life on it the Ariel's don't believe it is thunder. Hand me a musket; I'll draw another shot."

The piece was given to Barnstable, who discharged it several times, as if to taunt their enemies, and the scheme

was completely successful. Goaded by the insults, the cutter discharged gun after gun at the little boat, throwing the shot frequently so near as to wet her crew with the spray, but without injuring them in the least. The failure of these attempts to injure them excited the mirth of the reckless seamen, instead of creating any alarm; and whenever a shot came nearer than common, the cockswain would utter some such expression as-" A ground swell, a long shot, and a small object, make a clean target ;" or, "A man must squint straight to hit a boat."

As, notwithstanding their unsuccessful gunnery, the cutter was constantly gaining on the whale-boat, there was a prospect of a speedy termination of the chase, when the report of a cannon was thrown back like an echo from one of the Englishman's discharges, and Barnstable and his companions had the pleasure of seeing the Ariel stretching slowly out of the little bay where she had passed the night, with the smoke of the gun of defiance curling above her taper masts. A loud and simultaneous shout of rapture was given by the lieutenant and all his boat's crew at this cheering sight, while the cutter took in all her light sails, and, as she hauled up on a wind, she fired a whole broadside at the successful fugitives. Many stands of grape, with several round shot, flew by the boat, and fell upon the water near them, raising a cloud of foam, but without doing any injury. "She dies in a flurry," said Tom, casting his eyes at the vortex into which the boat was then entering.

"If her commander be a true man," cried Barnstable, "he'll not leave us on so short an acquaintance. Give way, my souls give way! I would see more of this loquacious cruiser."

The temptation for exertion was great, and it was not disregarded by the men. In a few minutes the whale-boat reached the schooner, when the crew of the latter received their commander and his companions with shouts and cheers that rung across the waters, and reached the ears of the disappointed spectators on the verge of the cliffs.

331

RIP VAN WINKLE.

1785.

WASHINGTON IRVING.

Born, 1783; Died, 1859.

Washington Irving was a distinguished American man of letters, with an intense love both of romance, and of the poetry and humour of common life. He embodied these in numerous graceful sketches, and in later life became ambassador to Spain for the United States, when he studied Spanish literature, and profited by it so as to write the standard life of Columbus.

Rip Van Winkle, founded on a curious legend common to many natives, appeared in the "Sketch Book," in 1820. The reader should bear in mind that New York was originally settled by Dutchmen.

Henry or Hendrick Hudson was an English sailor, one of the captains who made ineffectual attempts to discover the North-West passage to India from Europe. He sailed twice at the expense of English companies, the third time at that of the Dutch East India Company. In the course of his explorations in 1609, in a vessel named the "Half Moon," he sailed up the river called afterwards by his name. In his ensuing voyage, in 1611, he entered the bay called Hudson's, hoping that it would lead to India, but there his men, weary of cold and hardship, mutinied against him, and sent him and his son adrift in an open boat amid the ice, so that he was never heard of more. When the Dutch afterwards settled on the banks of the Hudson, the legend arose of his haunting the Kaatskill Mountains as here described.

WHOEVER has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains.

They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the goodwives as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and paint their bold outlines on the pure evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of grey vapours about their