XXXVI.

THE SAME.

In towns I am a sluggard. But when here
I rise ere jungle insects cease their cry
That cry all night. I cannot close my eye
Amid this unseen store of beauty, where
An instant calls up many a by gone year.
Such spots make deeper my deep memory
Of Thee, dear Spirit, which until I die
Will deepen still. More often drops the tear,
While I am wandering by the mountain side,
For Thee whom oft I've soothed with Nature's beauty;
And, oh! it was my pleasure and my pride,
Though thy near fate my boding bosom knew,
A sunbeam shining through the cloud of Duty,
To soothe thee-till thou fadedst from my view,

XXXVII.

REST HOUSE.

In this small building, with its earthen floor,

There is a luxury that is denied

To sojourners in palaces. Here pride,

If any where, is humbled. From this door
Of rude construction I now feast me more
With splendor and magnificence, allied
To the most touching beauty, than more wide
And bolder scenes afford. While o'er and o'er
I view with fresh delight yon Waterfall,
White-robed, and beautiful, and ever blending
The loveliest light with its most plaintive voice,
I do not want society. 'Mid all

My bosom's grief, those waters now descending
So fair, so bright', my heart almost rejoice.

XXXVIII.

CLOUD AND WATER FALL.

Behold that white cloud rising from the bed
Of the bright Waterfall. Slowly itsteals,
And noiselessly, as though the vapour feels
Its way to upper air ere it durst tread
The atmosphere. As by a spirit led,
It still ascends in breathless silence-reels
Hither and thither--but at last appeals
More boldly to its energy and speed;
And like a sea bird, brooding on the air,
Away on white and cloudy wings it flies:
It veiled the half-hidden fall, and did appear
As a bright shadowy film before the eyes;
Its spectral form now upward see it rear,
And from the Fall another phantom rise.

XXXIX.

FAREWELL.

I leave this Valley, not reluctantly,
But with the feeling of a lover tried
By all vicissitudes. My mental pride,

We may

Which deemed that under cope of the blue sky bear all things singly-now doth sigh For social converse. Yet 'twere vain to chide My chosen solitude. And I defied

One day of rain without society.

But grew more humble with the second. Yet
I have seen clouds that flitted by as fast
As insects of the air, and mists as fleet
As spirits of light,-which did entirely shroud,
With one white, dense, impenetrable cloud,
The Valley for an instant-and then past.

Poctical Sketches, &c. *c

XXVIII.

"And now before the mind's eye is extended

The billowy ocean foaming in the gale;
As Voyagers around Hope's Cape oft view

A swollen sea of mountain and of vale."

I must leave this to the imagination of the reader, who is an attentivo observer of Nature by sea or land. When I passed the Cape, the gales were to me the only pleasure I felt, the only relief I experienced from the most painful and afflictive voyage or journey (and I have known both) I ever experienced. Watching over the sickness and suffering of One whose memory is dearer to me than any living being (Heu quanto minus est cum reliquis versarí quam tui meminisse ;)-with fellow passengers,-the pang of remembering some of whom will never, to my dying hour, pass away from my mind; my solitary and my melancholy pleasure was to sit in a safe corner at the ex, treme end of the stern of the vessel, and to watch the mountain-billowsnear and distant, as the ship dipped down to the level of the surface of the engulphed ocean, and then bore me up to an equal height with the next enormous billow. The sky, during such gales, is generally clear, blue, and unruffled; presenting a strange contrast with the raging sea beneath. The vast seabirds, especially the snow-white Albatrosses, hover above the foaming billows in flocks. The light, reflected from the clear blue sky and the brilliant sun, is exactly what I have described in the resemblance to a fine mountainous country. The sea is sometimes green as grass, fields of which seem to clothe the swelling sides of the mountain billows. To give a more distinct notion of the sensations of a voyager in such situation and circumstances, I subjoin an extract from my journal."I have not witnessed so fine a scene, as the en presented this day, since we embarked.

"In plainer prose, the sea, from the stern of the vessel, appeared one mass of congregated waters, rolling immensely high, one billow after the other, showing every variety of hill and valley, and every diversity of light and shade. At other times, when the sun shone, and the surface of the sea became brighter' it looked like the undulations of a fine country, such as the green mountains of Roxburghshire in Scotland. Again, the scene changed by a sudden squall; and the boiling of the ocean, throwing up flakes of foam, resembled a snow-storm. Again, it was like a boiling cauldron, as if evil spirits from beneath stirred up the waters into violent fermentation. One appearance was pre-eminently beautiful. When the sun shone, the tips of the waves reflected his rays, which showed a light green colour, like the leaves of the budding trees in spring. To complete the scene, imagine the slip scudding before the wind, followed by these mountain waters, as if pursued by so many enemies, —or like a vast bird of prey, chased by more formidable foes."

XXXII-XXXIX.

In the Valley of Rambodde,—where these verses were written on my first Visit in 1834,-1 spent two days quite alone in the Rest House. Except at very early hour in the morning, and sometimes for a brief while between the showers, I was confined a close prisoner. The humidity of the atmos phere is the chief, and almost solitary objection to this beautiful Valley. It is the same fu other similar situations in all mountainous countries. Rambodde is always a beautiful spot. But with my feelings on my first visit, it was peculiarly delightful to me. The Falls are very striking.

Laconics.

Providence frequently makes wicked men the instruments of good, as a wise physician useth poisonous herbs for medicine.

There is no heart however base, that has not some redeeming quality, as the green herb is often seen springing from the withered tree, or creeping over the sterile rock

The Schoolmaster is abroad, preaching a. crusade against the infidels Ignorance and Superstition, to recover the Holy Land of Reason, the Sainted Sepulchre of Truth.

Poverty is more frequently clad in velvet thau in sackelbth, and wealth dwells less in the palace than in the hut.

ED. C. M.

CEYLON MOSS.

مت

The plant, from which this article is prepared, belongs to the Algee family and is the Kaddel Pási of the Tamils, the Agar Agar of the Malays, and the Sanchou of the Chinese. It grows, almest invariably adhering to the roots and stalks of the sea weed called Váttálé, in the shallow parts of the Calpentin lake, particularly about the small islands opposite to Palliwasellorry and Kandakudah. It is collected at all seasons. When taken out of the water, at is spread thin upou the ground to dry in the sun, and carefully weeded. It is then soaked for a day in fresh water, and afterwards washed and dried alternately, till it is entirely freed from the particles of weed which adhere to its filaments, and turns white. The whiter it is required to make the moss the more washing is necessary.

Mosses in general, as articles of food, appear to have been known to the inhabitants of the Malay coasts and China from the earliest periods. Mr. Davis in his very interesting work on the Chinese, Vol. II. P. 360, says that "a species of seaweed or fucus, found on the sea-beach in the neighbourhood of Macao, is used as a jelly, It is first steeped in fresh water, and hung up to dry: being then boiled in water, it acquires, on cooling, the consistence and appearance of a jelly, and is used with various fruits to form conserves."

The first time the use of Ceylon moss was made known to the inhabitants of Calpentyn was by a smali quantity prepared by a Malay man named Halji Bahar for Lient. Lerido, Commandant of the district, in the year 1806, and it has ever since been rendered an object of trade in the place. The quantity of moss prepared in former years was, however, not so great as it is at present: its qualities not being then sufficiently known to Europeans and the demand extremely limited. Whatever moss was prepared was dispose of to the Jaffna noormen, who exported it either to Madras, or Colombo under the name of "Jaffna Muss."

Dr. Sigmond, in a paper read at a meeting of the Medic-Botanical Society of London states that Ceylon Moss has been found very superior in several respects to the Mosses of Iceland and Carrigheen, and he recommends the jelly made from it as a must desirable nutrition for women in their accouchments, being free from all the objections which are found to exist with malt liquors, and other beverages and diets well calculated to nourish and support the mother, but highly injurious in their effects upon the delicate frame of the child.