indifferent musician, and worse mechanic, I shall not attempt minutely to describe the peculiarities of this marvellous flute. Nothing could be more true, more tasteful, or more surprising, than was his execution; nothing more picturesque or interesting than his figure, as he bent down to the instrument, as if in devotion to his art.

This remarkable man is a half-pay colonel in the French service, though a German by birth. His limbs received their summary amputation by two quick-sent cannon shots, at the battle of Dresden, I believe. Since he was disabled, he has lived in his present retirement,

"passing rich with forty pounds a year;"

and happy it is for him that nature endowed him with a tasteful and mechanical mind, while art furnished him with that knowledge of music without which his life would have been a burden.

I do not consider myself at liberty to enter into the particulars of his eventful story, which he told with great frankness and simplicity. But with regard to his flute playing, he actually brought the moisture to my eyes by the touching manner in which he recounted his despair on discovering that he had lost his arm; the leg was in comparison an unregretted member. It needs not be told that he was an enthusiast in music; and when he believed himself thus deprived of the best enjoyment of his life, he was almost distracted. In the feverish sleep snatched at intervals from suffering, he used constantly to dream that he was listening to delicious concerts, in which he was, as he had been wont, a principal performer. Strains of more than earthly harmony seemed sometimes floating round him, and his own flute was ever the leading instrument. He awoke in ecstasy; the tones vibrated a while upon his brain; but, recalled to sensation by a union of bodily pain and mental agony, his inefficient stump gave the lie direct to all his dreamy paradise; and the gallant and mutilated soldier wept like an infant for whole hours together.

XLIII.—THE WHALE FISHERY.

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

THE method of taking the whale, as practised by all nations, and for every species, is nearly as follows: The whale is compelled to come frequently to the surface, for the purpose of breathing. The nearest boat approaches from behind, from which the harpoon is launched into the huge carcass. This it is almost impossible to disengage, it being provided with two strong barbs. If not instantly killed, the whale sinks, and sinks often to a great depth. Exhausted by the immense superincumbent pressure of the water, he sometimes comes up dead. Frequently he sinks only a short distance; but as soon as he rises, the whalemen endeavor to plunge into him the lance, an instrument of the finest steel, sharpened with the keenness of the surgeon's lancet.

Attached to the harpoon is a line, which, as the animal is disposed to sink or dash through the waves, is suffered to run loose around a small post in the stern of the boat; and it often flies with such rapidity that the harpooner is enveloped in smoke, and it frequently becomes necessary to pour on water, to prevent the friction from generating flame. They often bind line after line together. If the line becomes entangled while the whale is sinking, the boat sometimes rears one end aloft, and makes a majestic dive into the deep. In the contest the boat is sometimes dashed to shivers, and the men experience no pleasant immersion, if they are fortunate enough to escape without broken limbs.

The whale, stung with the fatal wound, sometimes dashes along the surface with a deathlike energy; and the little boat, almost under water, flies with the velocity of the wind. If he escape, he escapes with a prize on which he has no cause of congratulation; for he carries, deeply buried in his body, one or more of the sharp instruments, and drags off several hundred fathoms of rope.

Our whalemen have found irons in the

carcass of a whale, known to have been planted there several years before, on another ocean. As the warp flies, it sometimes throws its coils around the body of a man, and dragging him over in a moment, carries him into the ocean depths, from which he never more emerges. Sometimes it only dislocates or breaks the legs and arms of the unfortunate men who become entangled in the folds.

A captain of a New London ship was caught by two coils of the warp, one around his body, and another around his leg. He had the presence of mind immediately to seize his knife, and after a while succeeded in cutting himself loose. He was carried, however, to a great depth, and when he returned to the surface, was almost exhausted. The whale, when roused to desperation, makes an onset with his mouth only. Then he crushes a boat to atoms, and the men escape by jumping into the sea. A sperm whale destroyed two boats of a Nantucket ship, and then attacked the ship; but being obliged to turn over nearly on his back to use the under jaw, with which he does execution, he made little impression on the vessel.

The whaler sometimes roams for months without finding his prey; but he is buoyed up by the expectation of finally reaping the profits of a great voyage. To some minds the pursuit of such gigantic game has a tinge of the romantic. There must be a thrilling excitement in the adventurous chase.

"the blood more stirs

To rouse a lion than to start a hare."

Many become passionately attached to the business, notwithstanding its privations, and reluctantly leave it at last. They have moments of most pleasing anxiety, and meet with some incidents of the most enlivening cast.

On the south-east coast of Africa is Delego Bay, a calm, smooth place, frequented by vessels from various parts of the world. In this bay, a few years since,* a whale was observed

*Written in 1834.

almost equally distant from an American and an English ship. From both the boats were lowered, manned, and pushed off in an instant. They sped with the velocity of the wind. The English, at first ahead, perceiving their rivals gaining on them, bore wide off to keep them out of reach of the whale. When the two boats were nearly abreast, one of the American sailors leaped from his seat, and with extraordinary agility hurled the ponderous harpoon over the English boat. It struck the monster in the vital part; the English boat shrunk back under the warp; the waves were crimsoned with blood; and the American took possession, while the whole bay echoed and reëchoed with repeated shouts of applause.

*

XLIV.-GELERT.

SPENCER.

[From a volume of poems published in England, in 1835. the author died in the preceding year.]

William Robert Spencer

THE spearman heard the bugle sound,
And cheerly smiled the morn,

And many a brach,† and many a hound,
Attend Llewellyn's horn.

And still he blew a louder blast,
And gave a louder cheer;

"Come, Gelert! why art thou the last
Llewellyn's horn to hear?

66

"O, where does faithful Gelert roam?
The flower of all his race!

So true, so brave – a lamb at home,
A lion in the chase!"

* Warp, the line attached to the harpoon.
† A female hound; pronounced brake.

That day Llewellyn little loved

The chase of hart or hare;

And scant and small the booty proved,
For Gelert was not there.

Unpleased, Llewellyn homeward hied,
When, near the portal seat,
His truant Gelert he espied,
Bounding his lord to greet.

But when he gained the castle door,
Aghast the chieftain stood:

The hound was smeared with drops of gore;
His lips and fangs ran blood.

"Monster, by thee my child's devoured!" The frantic father cried,