through the breakers, and was thrown up, high and dry, on the sands, where hundreds of spectators were ready to give him a cheer."

"Well done! He was a brave man."

"I had rather hear of one improvement in life-boats and life-rafts, than a hundred in guns, mortars, and bomb-shells. Better be clever in preserving life than in destroying it, boys. Let us be merciful one to another; for we have had great mercy shown us by our heavenly Father."

"What is the meaning of tackle, Captain?"

"Tackle is a sort of general name for ropes and blocks, or pullies. There are boom, bowline, fish, and garnet tackles; luff, port, quarter, reef, and relieving tackles; ridge, rolling, rudder, runner, and main and fore-stay tackles; with tack, stock, top, train, and winding tackles; and a dozen other sorts beside."

"There are many stories told of sailors, whose names are taken from different parts of a ship. What is the meaning of cringle, junk, bob-stay, and halyard?"

"A cringle, boys, is a small hole, formed in the boltrope of a sail; junk is old cable; a bob-stay is a rope that confines the bowsprit downward to the stem, or cut-water; and the halyards, a word made, I expect, from haul yards, are the ropes, or tackles, used in hoisting and lowering a sail on its mast or stay.

But

now, boys, there's another sea term that the old sea Captain has never explained to you; it is the term, 'sheer off,' which means, to remove to a greater distance."

"Ay, Captain! Captain! Every body knows that. You want us to sheer off, that is clear. Well, we will take the ship with us that you called such names.

"Don't call it a ship, boys! Don't call it a ship! If smugglers were to lay hold of a ship of your building, to trade in, it would make their fortune. Why the revenue officers would never take it for a ship."

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Captain, you do make sad game of it; but we shall, perhaps, show you a better some day."

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A better! Why you can't show me a worse, that is certain. Let me see! Did I tell you the meaning of sheer off?"

"Oh yes, you did. And now we will go. Thank you, Captain, for all you have told us."

Captain Ross and Lieutenant Parry-Baffin's Bay-WhalesEsquimaux Indians-Pulling noses-The looking-glass-Red snow-Return home-Hecla and Griper-Ships frozen upWhite whales-Winter at Melville Island-Snow blindnessFury and Hecla-Captain Parry reaches Hudson's Bay and Savage Islands-Aurora Borealis -Scurvy-Captain Parry returns home-Another expedition-Fury lost-The last attempts to discover a northern passage-Captain Back goes in search of Captain Ross-Both return safe. "HAUL to the wind, boys! sailing sou'west with the wind wind! Attend to your sails!

Haul the wind! You are nor'ard. Haul to the Brace the yards more

for'ard! Slacken the starboard, and pull in the larboard braces! Haul the lower sheets further aft! Put the helm aport! There, you have hauled to the wind four points. Now, if you want two points more, trim all sharp, and you'll get 'em."

"We do not understand you at all, Captain."

"I dare say not, boys! I only wanted to bring your figure-heads a few points nearer to the wind. If I didn't overhaul my sea-tackle now and then, may be I might forget that I had been a sailor."

"Do you know any thing about Captain Ross and Captain Parry?"

"Do I, boys! Ay, and about Captain Lyon and Captain Back, too. You are sailing to the North Pole, I see, among the whales and the walruses. Have a care, for you will want a p.-jacket and a sou'-wester there, I promise you. Take care of your noses and your finger-ends. But, come! what have you to say about Captain Ross."

"We only want you to tell us about him, and all about the Frozen Regions."

All about the Frozen Regions! No! no! boys. It has pleased God that we should know, at present, but very little about them. We know that they are locked up with frost the greater part of the year, and that the sun, for a time, leaves them altogether. We know, too, that the few people who live there know nothing, or next to nothing, about God, and are ignorant of the Bible, and of salvation by Jesus Christ. But our knowledge of the Frozen Regions is very small.

Once in his life, the old sea Captain was as far north as Davis' Straits and Baffin's Bay, and he was not unthankful when he found himself in a warmer latitude." Well, Captain! please to tell us all that you can remember about Captain Ross."

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"I'll do my best in this trip, my hearties, and make all the sail I can. Now, are you ready." "Yes, Captain: please to begin."

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Captain Ross and Lieutenant Parry left England on the 8th of April, 1818. The captain commanded the Isabella, and the lieutenant the Alexander, and by about the end of May, they came in sight of Cape Farewell, the southern end of Greenland, where icebergs, in abundance, were floating about. They then went to Whale Island; and, after that, pushed up Baffin's Bay, near to Wayget Island; but here they were stopped by the ice, so they fastened the ships to an iceberg."

There was no getting farther then. Those icebergs must be very dangerous.'

"They saw plenty of walruses and whales; for the whalers had never been among them there. It was in August, that a storm came on that tried them hard, dashing the ice against the ships, breaking their anchors and cables, and crushing one of their boats. But these things could not be helped. They got out of the ice at last, and then fell in with some Esquimaux, who had never seen any but their own people.'

"How surprised the Esquimaux must have been !"

They were surprised, and frightened, too, boys;