Barnstable looked at his watch, and again at the cliffs, when he exclaimed in joyous tones

"Give strong way, my hearties! There seems nothing better to be done; let us have a stroke of a harpoon at tha impudent rascal."

The men shouted spontaneously, and the old cockswain suffered his solemn visage to relax into a small laugh, while the whale-boat sprang forward like a courser for the goal. During the few minutes they were pulling towards their game, long Tom arose from his crouching attitude in the stern sheets, and transferred his huge frame to the bows of the boat, where he made such preparation to strike the whale as the occasion required. The tub, containing about half of a whale-line, was placed at the feet of Barnstable, who had been preparing an oar to steer with, in place of the rudder, which was unshipped in order that, if necessary, the boat might be whirled round when not advancing.

Their approach was utterly unnoticed by the monster of the deep, who continued to amuse himself with throwing the water in two circular spouts high into the air, occasionally flourishing the broad flukes of his tail with graceful but terrific force, until the hardy seamen were within a few hundred feet of him, when he suddenly cast his head downwards, and, without an apparent effort, reared his immense body for many feet above the water, waving his tail violently, and producing a whizzing noise, that sounded like the rushing of winds. The cockswain stood. erect, poising his harpoon, ready for the blow; but, when he beheld the creature assume this formidable attitude, he waved his hand to his commander, who instantly signed to his men to cease rowing. In this situation the sportsmen rested a few moments, while the whale struck several blows on the water in rapid succession, the noise of which re-echoed along the cliffs, like the hollow reports of 30 many cannon. After this wanton exhibition of his territ.e strength, the monster sunk again into his native element, and slowly disappeared from the eyes of his pursuers.

"Which way did he head, Tom?" cried Barnstable, the moment the whale was out of sight.

"Pretty much up and down, sir," returned the cockswain, whose eye was gradually brightening with the excitement of the sport; "he'll soon run his nose against the bottom, if he stands long on that course, and will be glad to get another snuff of pure air; send her a few fathoms to starboard, sir, and I promise we shall not be out of his track."

The conjecture of the experienced old seaman proved true, for in a few minutes the water broke near them, and another spout was cast into the air, when the huge animal rushed for half his length in the same direction, and fell on the sea with a turbulence and foam equal to that, which is produced by the launching of a vessel, for the first time, into its proper element. After this evolution, the whale rolled heavily, and seemed to rest from further efforts.

His slightest movements were closely watched by Barnstable and his cockswain, and, when he was in a state of comparative rest, the former gave a signal to his crew to ply their oars once more. A few long and vigorous strokes sent the boat directly up to the broadside of the whale, with its bows pointing towards one of the fins, which was at times, as the animal yielded sluggishly to the action of the waves, exposed to view. The cockswain poised his harpoon with much precision, and then darted it from him with a violence that buried the iron in the body of their foe. The instant the blow was made, long Tom shouted with singular earnestness—

"Starn all !"

"Stern all!" echoed Barnstable; when the obedient seamen, by united efforts, forced the boat in a backward direction, beyond the reach of any blow from their formidable antagonist. The alarmed animal, however, meditated no such resistance; ignorant of his own power, and of the insignificance of his enemies, he sought refuge in flight. One moment of stupid surprise succeeded the entrance of the iron, when he cast his huge tail into the air with a violence that threw the sea around him into increased commotion, and then disappeared, with the quickness of lightLing, amid a cloud of foam

"Snub him!" shouted Barnstable; "hold on, Tom; he rises already."

"Ay, ay, sir," replied the composed cockswain, seizing the line which was running out of the boat with a velocity that rendered such a manœuvre rather hazardous, and causing it to yield more gradually round the large loggerhead, that was placed in the bows of the boat for that purpose. Presently the line stretched forward, and, rising to the surface with tremulous vibrations, it indicated the direction in which the animal might be expected to re-appear. Barnstable had cast the bows of the boat towards that point, before the terrified and wounded victim rose once more to the surface, whose time was, however, no longer wasted in his sports, but who cast the waters aside as he forced his way, with prodigious velocity, along their surface. The boat was dragged violently in his wake, and cut through the billows with a terrific rapidity, that at moments appeared to bury the slight fabric in the ocean. When long Tom beheld his victim throwing his spouts on high again, he pointed with exultation to the jetting fluid, which was streaked with the deep red of blood, and cried

"Ay, I've touched the fellow's life! It must be more than two foot of blubber that stops my iron from reaching the life of any whale that ever sculled the ocean!”

"I believe you have saved yourself the trouble of using the bayonet you have rigged for a lance," said his commander, who entered into the sport with all the ardour of one, whose youth had been chiefly passed in such pursuits; "feel your line, Master Coffin; can we haul.alongside of our enemy? I like not the course he is steering, as he tows us from the schooner."

""Tis the creater's way, sir," said the cockswain; “you know they need the air in their nostrils when they run, the same as a man; but lay hold, boys, and let us haul up to him "

The seamen now seized their whale-line, and slowly drew their boat to within a few feet of the tail of the fish, whose progress became sensibly less rapid as he grew weak -with the loss of blood. In a few minutes he stopped running, and appeared to roll uneasily on the water, as if suf fering the agony of death.

"Shall we pull in and finish him, Tom?" cried Barnstable; a few sets from your bayonet would do it."

The cockswain stood examining his game with cool discretion, and replied to this interrogatory

"No, sir, no-he's going into his flurry; there's no oc casion for disgracing ourselves by using a soldier's weapon in taking a whale. Starn off, sir, starn off! the creater's in his flurry!"

The warning of the prudent cockswain was promptly obeycu, and the boat cautiously drew off to a distance, leav ing to the animal a clear space while under its dying agonies. From a state of perfect rest, the terrible monster threw its tail on high as when in sport, but its blows were trebled in rapidity and violence, till all was hid from view by a pyramid of foam, that was deeply dyed with blood. The roarings of the fish were like the bellowings of a herd of bulls, 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 its 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.

Lake George.-CLUB-ROOM.

"It was a still
And calmy bay, on the one side sheltered
With the brode shadow of an hoarie hill;
On the other side an high rock toured still."

"Waiting to pass, he saw whereas did swim
Along the shore, as swift as glaunce of eye,
A little gondelay, bedecked trim,
With boughs and arbours woven cunningly,
That like a little forest seemed outwardly;
And therein sat a lady fresh and faire.”

FAERIE QUEENE,

Ir any of my readers have ever visited these transparent waters, and have wound their way among the thousand Little woody islands which sprinkle their surface from Fort

George to the Falls of Ticonderoga, they may have remark ed, just beyond Bolton, at the bottom of a beautiful inlet, or bay, formed by two craggy promontories of the western shore, a small dwelling-house, upon which the fingers of Time seem to have wrought more ruinously than man, in the pride of his dominion, is accustomed to allow them. It stands lone and desolate. Storms have shattered its roof, and wild shrubs have already sprung up in dark profusion over its avenues; while the white-columned portico, which was wont to look so cheering to the eye of the passenger, has put on the damp and mouldering garment of decay.

Some years ago business led me to the Canadian frontier by that route. I travelled alone in a light wagon. A part of the road, which was extremely rugged, stretched along the bold shore of the lake; sometimes winding up the craggy side of the mountain, and sometimes running close to the precipice, which, from the height of two or three hundred feet, flung its huge and dusky shadow into the mirror beneath. As I was anxious to reach my inn before night-fall, and blue mists were already beginning to gather upon the lake, I quickened the pace of my horse wherever the smoothness of the road would permit. I had just passed a young foot-traveller, and was turning a sharp corner formed by a rock shelving out of the mountain's side, when my horse started suddenly, and, carrying the wheel of my wagon over a fallen fragment, dashed me to the ground. I fell near the edge of the cliff, where its surface was already considerably inclined. I seized upon a small projection of the rock. It loosened, and gave way under my grasp. I slipped downward, and found not even a bramble within reach, when I felt myself suddenly stayed by I knew not what. It was the young man I had just passed, who sprang forward, and, not without imminent hazard of fol lowing me in my fall, caught the skirt of my coat at the instant I was rolling over the brink. Supporting himself by the frail bough of a dwarf-oak which grew a little above, he held me hanging by a thread over "the dark valley of the shadow of death." The fragment which I had loos ened fell, and the sullen splash of the water which received it just reached my ear. From that moment I be came insensible.