bility of his body. The leopards in the Tower, who have a tolerably large cage, bound about with the quickness of a squirrel, so that the eye can hardly follow their movements. In Africa, they are some times found of extraordinary size and rapacity. Their relative size principally distinguishes the leopard and the panther, the latter being ordinarily the larger. M. Cuvier considers them distinct species; although they are doubtless often mistaken by travellers, from their great similarity.

'We have been favoured, by a gentleman who was formerly in the civil service at Ceylon, with the following description of an encounter with a leopard or panther, which in India are popularly called tigers:

"I was at Jaffna, at the northern extremity of the Island of Ceylon, in the beginning of the year 1819; when, one morning, my servant called me an hour or two before my usual time, with, Master, master! people send for master's dogs-tiger in the town!' Now, my dogs chanced to be some very degenerate specimens of a fine species, called the Poligar dog, which I should designate as a sort of wiry-haired greyhound, without scent. I kept them to hunt jackals; but tigers are very different things: by the way, there are no real tigers in Ceylon; but leopards and panthers are always called so, and by ourselves as well as by the natives. This turned out to be a panther. My gun chanced not to be put together; and while my servant was doing it, the collector, and two medical men, who had recently arrived, in consequence of the cholera morbus having just then reached Ceylon, from the continent, came to my door, the former armed with a fowling-piece, and the two latter with remarkably blunt hog-spears. They insisted upon setting off without waiting for my gun, a proceeding not much to my taste. The tiger (I must continue to call him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, as those of Ceylon huts in general, spread to the ground like an umbrella; the only aperture into it was a small door,

about four feet high. The collector wanted to get the tiger out at once. I begged to wait for my gun; but no-the fowling-piece (loaded with ball, of course,) and the two hog-spears were quite enough. I got a hedge-stake, and awaited my fate, from very shame. At this moment, to my great delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we should have cut without them, as the event will show. I was now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute afterwards. The whole scene which follows took place within an enclosure, about twenty feet square, formed, on three sides, by a strong fence of palmyra leaves, and on the fourth by the hut. At the door of this the two artillery-men planted themselves; and the Malay captain got at the top, to frighten the tiger out, by worrying it-an easy operation, as the huts there are covered with cocoa-nut leaves. One of the artillerymen wanted to go in to the tiger, but we would not suffer it. At last the beast sprang; this man received him on his bayonet, which he thrust apparently down his throat, firing his piece at the same moment. The bayonet broke off short, leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest remained in the animal, but was invisible to us: the shot probably went through his cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him, as he instantly rose upon his legs, with a loud roar, and placed his paws upon the soldier's breast. At this moment, the animal appeared to me about to reach the centre of the man's face; but I had scarcely time to observe this, when the tiger, stooping his head, seized the soldier's arm in his mouth, turned him half round staggering, threw him over on his back, and fell upon him. Our dread now was, that if we fired upon the tiger, we might kill the man: for a moment there was a pause, when his comrade attacked the beast exactly in the same manner as the gallant fellow himself had done. He struck his bayonet into his head; the tiger rose at him-he fired; and this time the ball took effect, and in the head. The animal staggered

He still

backwards, and we all poured in our fire. kicked and writhed; when the gentlemen with the hog-spears advanced, and fixed him, while some natives finished him, by beating him on the head with bedge-stakes. The brave artillery-man was, after all, but slightly hurt: he claimed the skin, which was very cheerfully given to him. There was, however, a cry among the natives that the head should be cut off: it was; and, in so doing, the knife came directly across the bayonet. The animal measured scarcely less than four feet from the root of the tail to the muzzle. There was no tradition of a tiger having been in Jaffna before; indeed, this one must have either come a distance of almost twenty miles, or have swam across an arm of the sea nearly two in breadth; for Jaffna stands on a peninsula on which there is no jungle of any magnitude."

The leopard of India is called by the natives the "Tree Tiger," from its habit of ascending a tree, when pursued, or for the purpose of enabling it to spring securely on its prey. It is doubtless able to effect this ascent, by the extraordinary flexibility of its limbs, which give it the power of springing upward; for, in the construction of the feet, it has no greater facilities for climbing than the lion or the tiger. It cannot clasp a branch like the bear, because the bone called the clavicle is not sufficiently large to permit this action. The Indian hunters chase the leopard to a tree; but even in this elevated spot it is a task of great difficulty to shoot him; for the extraordinary quickness of the creature enables him to protect himself by the most rapid movements. The Africans catch this species in pitfalls, covered over with slight hurdles, upon which there is placed a bait. In some old writers on natural history there are accounts of the leopard being taken in a trap, by means of a mirror, which, when the animal jumps against it, brings down the door upon him. This story may have received some sanction from the disposition of the domestic cat, when young, to survey her figure in a looking-glass.

'In Wombwell's Meragerie there was recently exhibited a species of leopard, of a deep black colour, with blacker spots. This animal was somewhat smaller than leopards in general, and of very ferocious appearance. Black leopards, or panthers, are commonly found in the East Indies; but it is considered that the colour is only accidental: and it is affirmed, that a black and a yellow cub have been taken from the same nest.'

The cats we find are a long-tailed family,' Grimalkin being placed at one extremity and the lion at the other; and to each individual of the species the society has done ample justice.

LUTHER.

A more than human form
Emerging leaned majestic o'er my head,
And instant thunder shook the conscious grove.
Then melted into air the liquid cloud;
Then all the shining vision stood revealed.

Aken'side.

WHILST bards invoke the fabled muses' aid,
Who dwell, 'tis said, on Pegasëan heights,
Or from the ray-crowned patron of the lyre
Beg Apollonean sweetness, that their songs
In tuneful verse may hand to deathless fame
The warrior's triumph and the din of arms,
Or wake the sounding strings to spread the praise
Of some Mæcenas; I, with trembling hands,
And tongue unused to sing such lofty strains,
With holy rev'rence take the tuneful shell,
To sing of days gone by; to thee, my God,
1 dedicate my humble lay, inspire

My darkened soul with one enlight'ning spark
Of that blest fire, which blazed in Milton's breast,
When with an angel's golden harp he sung
'Of man's first disobedience;' breathe on me
Thy heavenly-gifted spirit, that my lips
May sing the man, whose soul, upheld by thee,

Dared in thy cause to wage unceasing war,
Triumphantly 'gainst Satan and his host.

The sun no more his light-creating beams
Affords to man-th' ethereal arch is veiled
In Stygian darkness; ever and anon,

The lightning darts from out th' electric cloud,
And for a moment spreads such light around,
As makes the next still darker.-

-

Two youths, whose limbs can scarcely yet aspire
To full-grown manhood, silent move along,

And scarce dare breathe when great Jehovah speaks..
But see, a flash, whose echo rends the pole,
Darts from on high and spreads an awful splendour
Around its path, the messenger of death,
Ordained to cut the vital thread of one
Of these devoted youths; behold, he sinks
A blackened corpse upon his fellow's arm,
But he, whose faculties were numbed by fear,
Possessed no power to bear the lifeless load;
The lightning-blasted corpse fell stiffened on the
ground.

With agonizing feelings Luther kneels
O'er the dead body of his youthful friend:
At first his tongue refused to do its office,
But in a while his falt'ring lips pronounced
These mournful accents: Wake, my dear Alexius,
Nor leave your friend in this disastrous state.
He speaks not-moves not-and a solemn dread
Freezes my faculties with icy coldness:
One moment full of health and youthful vigour,
The next inactive as the sculptured stone.
One triumph more o'er Adam's fallen race
The king of terrors has achieved, with dart
Pointed with lightning. Merciful Jehovah!
Whose secret actions man can never fathom,
If, in compassion to my youthful years,
Thou wilt a father's fost'ring hand extend,
And save thy servant from the raging storm,
My grateful lips shall spread thy boundless praise,