an antelope. I instantly put spurs to my horse, and, with my attendants, gave chase. After an unrelaxed gallop of full three miles, we came up with the dog, who was then within a short stretch of the creature he pursued; and to my surprise, and at first, vexation, I saw it to be an ass. But, on a moment's reflection, judging from its fleetness it must be a wild one, a species little known in Europe, but which the Persians prize above all other animals, as an object of chase, I determined to approach as near to it as the very swift Arab I was on would carry me. But the single instant of checking my horse to consider, had given our game such a head of us, that, not withstanding all our speed, we could not recover our ground on him. I, however, happened to be considerably before my companions, when, at a certain distance, the animal in its turn made a pause, and allowed me to approach within pistol shot of him. He then darted off again with the quickness of thought; capering, kicking, and sporting in his flight, as if he were not blown in the least, and the chase were his pastime.

"He appeared to me about ten or twelve hands high; the skin smooth, like a deer's, and of a reddish colour; the belly and hinder parts partaking of a silvery grey; his neck was finer than that of a common ass, being longer, and bending like a stag's, and his legs beautifully slender; the head and ears seemed large in proportion to the gracefulness of these forms, and by them I first recognized that the object of my chase was of the ass tribe. The mane was short and black, as was also a tuft which terminated his tail.

No line whatever ran along his back, or crossed his shoulders, as are seen on the tame species with us. When my followers of the country came up, they regretted I had not shot the creature when he was so within my aim, telling me his flesh is one of the greatest delicacies in Persia but it would not have been to eat him that I should have been glad

to have had him in my possession. The prodigious swiftness and peculiar manner, with which he fled across the plain, coincided exactly with the description that Xenophon gives of the same animal in Arabia. (Vide Anabasis, b. i.) But, above all, it reminded me of the striking portrait drawn by the author of the book of Job.

6

"I was informed by the mehmander, who had been in the desert, when making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Ali, that the wild ass of Irak Arabi differs in nothing from the one I had just seen. He had observed them often, for a short time, in the possession of the Arabs, who told him the creature was perfectly untameable. A few days after this discussion, we saw another of these animals; and pursuing it determi nately, had the good fortune, after a hard chase, to kill it and bring it to our quarters. From it I completed my sketch. The Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, in his most admirable account of the kingdom of Caubul, mentions this highly pictu resque creature under the name of goorkhur; describing it as an inhabitant of the desert between India and Afghanistan, or Caubul. It is called gour by the Persians, and is usually seen in herds, though often single, straying away, as the one I first saw, in the wantonness of liberty.'

"Let this account be compared with the description in Job:

'Who hath sent out the wild ass free?

Or who hath loosed the bands of the brayer?
Whose house I have made the wilderness,
And his dwellings the barren lands.

He scorneth the multitude of the city,
And regardeth not the crying of the driver.
The range of the mountain is his pasture,
And he searcheth for every green thing."

Јов хххх.

"From the circumstance of the wild ass delighting in the most bar ren and arid regions, we gather the propriety of a passage in Isaiah, where the extreme desolation of the land of Israel, which was to be occa sioned by the troops of Nebuchadnezzar, is foretold:

city:

Because the palaces shall be forsaken, The multitude of the city shall be left; The forts and the towers shall be dens for ever, A joy of WILD ASSES, a pasture of flocks.' Ch. xxxii. 13, 14. "From the character of his habitation, it is obvious that the wild ass can subsist on the coarsest and scantiest fare. Professor Gmelin states that his female onager sometimes went two days without drinking, and that brackish water was better liked by her than fresh. A few blades of corn, a little withered grass, or the tops of a few scorched shrubs or plants, appear sufficient to satisfy the cravings of his appetite, and render him contented and happy. Hence we may conceive the extreme state of wretchedness to which Judah was exposed, by the dearth which Jere miah describes in the fourteenth chapter of his book:

'The wild asses stood in the high places, They snuffed up the wind like dragons; Their eyes failed because there was no grass.'

Ver. 6.

"The extreme propensity of the Jews, prior to the Babylonish captivity, to associate themselves with the heathen nations by which they were surrounded, in acts of idolatrous and obscene worship, has given occasion to the prophet to refer to another trait in the character of this animal, namely, the violence of its lust, and its unrestrainable eagerness to satisfy the promptings of desire: How canst thou say I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? See thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary, traversing her ways; a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure: in her occasion who can turn her away? All they that seek her, will not weary themselves; after her season, they will find her.' ch. ii. 23, 24. Every means used to restrain them from their idolatrous purposes proved unavailing: they

The

"The ignorance and self-conceit of man is strongly asserted in Job xi. 12, by a reference to this animal: 'Vain man would be wise, though he be born a wild ass's colt;' ass-colt, not ass's colt, for, as Dr. Harris observes, colt is put in opposition to ass, and not in government. whole is a proverbial expression, denoting extreme perversity and ferocity, and is repeatedly alluded to in the Old Testament. Thus, Gen. xvi. 12, it is prophesied of Ishmael that he should be, a wild-ass man ; rough, untaught, and libertine as a wild ass. So Hosea, xiii. 15, He (Ephraim) hath run wild (literally assified himself) amidst the braying monsters.' So again in ch. viii. 9, the very same character is given of Ephraim, who is called 'a solitary wild ass by himself,' or perhaps a solitary wild ass of the desert; for the original will bear to be so rendered. This proverbial expression has descended among the Arabians to the present day, who still employ, as Schultens has remarked, the expressions' the ass of the desert,' or the wild ass,' to describe an obstinate, indocile, and contumacious person. In Job xxiv. 5, robbers and plunderers are distinguished by the odious term of (peraim) wild asses. The passage refers, evidently, says Mr. Good, 'not to the proud and haughty tyrants themselves, but to the oppressed and needy wretches, the Bedoweens and other plundering tribes, whom their extortion and violence had driven from society, and compelled in a body to seek for subsistence by public robbery and pillage. In this sense the description is admirably forcible and characteristic." So the son of Sirach says (Eccles. xiii. 19): As the wild ass (onager) is the lion's prey in the wilderness, so the rich eat up the poor." "

THERE are few things so delightful at any age, or in any point of our passage through life, as novelty; and, in the present day, it seems to be sought after with singular avidity.

To the traveller, who has roamed through the loveliest and most celebrated scenes, no tidings can be so welcome and exciting as those of an untrodden and interesting country; however distant, or difficult of access, it matters not: his fancy broods over it with enthusiasm, and he longs to wander there. In the world of literature also, the appearance of genius, of lofty or beautiful sentiment and description, in a spot where we expected only to meet with the weeds and briers, in fine, with the desert of the mind, seldom fails to awake in us kindly and favourable sentiments. On the rude and tempest-beaten shores of the Shetland Isles, a gentleman of high literary name and attainments, and a friend of the writer, happened, during the last summer, to land, with the view of exploring, at leisure, this remote territory. He traversed the whole of the principal isle, Lerwick, and several of the smaller ones, delighted, it could not be said with the softness or beauty of nature, but with its fearful and magnificent features. Not a bush or shrub, much less any thing resembling a tree, was to be seen in the whole territory. Sad, miserable, and moss-covered hills and wastes were eternally present to the eye; on the mountain, the valley, or the slopes, sheltered from the biting winds, not a blade of verdure was visible. Mounted on a sheltie, he passed over the melancholy wastes, till he began almost to love their barrenness and silence. For the inland lochs, that are met with at every league, are deep and clear, and stored with abundance of fine fish; and the voes, or arms of the sea, enter into the

land so frequent and so far, that the traveller, in spite of the great width of the island, never finds himself more than two or three miles from the sea. These voes are in general narrow, and bordered on each side by lofty and savage rocks of every form, amidst which are sometimes scattered the fishermen's huts; for the most excellent fish of every kind abound in them. These voes would often have the appearance of noble rivers, or inland lakes, were it not for the almost eternal swell and tumble of the water, coming from the north and western oceans on each side. The shores of the isles excel those of almost every other land in grandeur and wildness. Fitful and Sunborough Heads are already well known to every reader of the "Pirate;" the terrors as well as height of the former have been greatly exaggerated in that beautiful tale. One circumstance of this traveller's journey in the Shetlands gave him more surprise, as well as pleasure, than any part of their strange and impressive features of nature; it was the discovery, if it may be so called, of a lady of high poetical feeling and talent, a woman who had not only felt keenly the power and charm of her own impressive scenery, but had had the hardihood, even on "Torneo's sullen shore," to woo, gently and successfully, the muses that are thought to be natives of a warmer land. Miss Campbell is a native of Lerwick, the only place that bears the likeness of a town; her father, who was once the physician there, died some years ago, leaving little heritage to his daughter, save the talents and feelings that heaven had given her.

And these have been her sure and almost sole consolation in her own native "world in miniature," (where, however, every passion and pride of the larger one are found,) have cheered her to look

forward to futurity, with a faint hope of fame, if not of riches. Alas! it was faint indeed! We have heard of more than one being, left desolate on some shore in the midst of the seas, where groves and streams were around him, but no human voice; having carved his name on the bark of the trees, in the hope that, should any voyager land when he was no more, his name might thus be preserved from perishing. A similar feeling, probably, urged the Shetland poetess to persevere, amidst neglect, obscurity, and the coldness of those who, in her better days, had smiled on her way. A more discouraging situation can hardly be imagined, to a woman still in the prime of life, of a fine imagination and exquisite sensibility, with not a kindred spirit around her, and shut in, by her own stormy sea, from all intercourse with the world beyond. The productions of Miss Campbell are chiefly in verse, and consist of pieces descriptive of the wild scenery of her own isle, of the often equally wild yet simple manners and sentiments of its natives, varied with striking traits of feeling and passion.

The following lines are from a piece called the " Valley of Ten," (a romantic vale in Koningsburgh.) A youth, who has long quitted his native place for a distant voyage, recals it with passionate regret :

"How dear are the days of the past to my soul; How sweet are the scenes of my childhood and youth!

Roll back, ye blest moments of innocence, roll, When the bosom was glowing with nature and truth;

When my feet fondly roved the bare mountains among,

And green fertile vale spreading fair to the

view

Where the mountain-stream rushes in beauty along,

Like the murmuring burn through the valley

of Teu.

"And there is the path-way along the burnside,

Where I wandered with Ellen, sweet flower of the vale!

Dear, loveliest Ellen! my long-promised bride, How cold is thy dwelling, thy beauty how pale!

When the rising waves dashed on the echoing shore,

And over the surges the loud tempest blew, Did'st thou listen with anguish and dread to

the roar,

And think upon William, far distant from Teu ?

"And I, my beloved one, would seek thy cold grave,

But honor forbids that a son of the wave

To share it and join thee again in the sky;

Should shrink, like a coward, when battle is nigh!

And battle is near, and to-morrow we go ;

Ye scenes of delight, an eternal adieu! Soon, soon from this bosom the life-blood shall flow,

And these dim eyes be closed-but far distant from Teu."

The "Wedding day of Albert, a northern Tale," is one of the most beautiful pieces of this little collection. The festive scene is interrupted by the sudden presence of a girl he had formerly loved : "Albert! they said I was betrayed, Left and abandoned for a wealthier maid; But, oh, my love! I knew it could not be, And they who told the story knew not thee! They did not know thy soul-thy faith sincere, And all that made thee to this heart so dear. They watched my steps; they told me I was

wild,

And would not let me go my love to seek. "But I at length their watchfulness beguiled, And I am here. But, Albert, I am weak

And sick at heart; for I had far to roam
On the wild beach where wilder surges foam;
Eager mid blackening rocks I careless

sprung,

And scared the eagles from their callow

young.

Ah, me! I wander-lady, I have done,
And will away," she turned her to depart-
"The rose he gave is withered quite and gone,
And thou art withered too,-my broken heart."

The following lines from "Inchdarrack" show that the lonely authoress images scenes fairer than her

own:

"The wilderness of shrubs and flowers
That drink the balmy summer showers,
And forest branches bending low,
To catch the breezes as they blow;
These beam alone in fancy's eye,
That views them richly gliding by;
'Mid barren rocks, and vallies drear,
And the stern precipice of fear.
"Sorrow awoke my earliest lay,
And sorrow shrouds its closing day:
Inchdarrack! to thy groves adieu!
These eyes no more thy groves shall view;
Save when, perchance, in midnight dream,
To wander 'neath their shade I seem;
"Or think I climb thy flowery brae,
Or hear the murmur of thy river:
Alas! the vision flits with night away,
The storm-beat isle must be my home for ever."