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celery, which abounds in their favorite haunts, and on which they chiefly feed.

But Benjamin's most interesting excursion, during his stay on this island, was his visit to the village and castle of Carisbrook, about a mile back of Newport. Except the ruins of a fine old Gothic church, the motherchurch of the whole isle, and in the palmy days of papal supremacy, connected with a priory, the village contained little to attract a tourist; and passing the small brook, which skirts it and gives name to the whole locality, he made his way, with a boy for his guide, up a steep hill, on the sides and summit of which stood the dilapidated walls and towers of Carisbrook castle, once an extensive and strong fortress, but in 1726 little better than a mass of ivy-mantled ruins.

The outer wall and fosse of the castle encircled the hill so near its base as to enclose a very large area, in the lower portion of which and contiguous to the wall, had been erected those parts of the vast structure designed for household and other ordinary civic uses; while high above, on the crest of the commanding height, stood the massive and round towers of the keep, the strongest and most ancient part of the fortress, the ascent to which was by a steep and narrow stair-way of a hundred stone steps.

Within this citadel was the famous well, said to have been, when dug, the deepest in the world. To assist him in forming some judgment of its depth, Benjamin dropped a stone into it, and though great quantities of rubbish had accumulated above its original bottom, yet he found it to be about fifteen seconds before the stone was heard to strike. A more accurate estimate of its depth, however, could be formed, probably, by comparing it with the well then actually in use, in the lower part of the castle. That well was known to be thirty fathoms deep;

and as the water in both the wells was doubtless supplied from the same source and at the same level, the height of the upper well's mouth above that of the lower one, being added to the thirty fathoms mentioned, would give the true original depth of the upper well, and make it about three hundred feet. From this lower well the people in and about the castle obtained their daily supplies of water, which they raised by means of a very large wheel and axle with a barrel for a bucket. "It makes," says the journal, "a great sound, if you speak in it, and it echoed the flute which we played over it, very sweetly."

The old man, who acted as nominal keeper of the place, but whose chief occupation was selling cake and beer at the castle-gate, told Benjamin that the castle was originally founded in the year 523, by one Whitgert, a Saxon chief, who had conquered the island, and from whom it bore, for many ages, the name of Whitgertsburg. Indeed, in its present name there is a trace of its Saxon conqueror.

This castle was extensively repaired, strengthened, and embellished by Queen Elizabeth, in 1598; in testimony whereof, Benjamin found on the walls, in several places, the following brief inscription :-"1598, E. R. 40:"-meaning, doubtless, that in the year 1598, the 40th of her reign, Elizabeth, Regina (queen), caused these repairs to be made.

Since the middle of the 17th century, Carisbrook castle has been remembered in history, chiefly from its conI nection with the fortunes of Charles I., king of England. In the latter part of 1647, that misguided monarch, in a sudden but characteristic freak of mind, filled out the measure of his wayward career, by voluntarily placing himself in the custody of Colonel Hammond, a generous and humane man, but belonging, as was well

known, to the party led by Charles's most powerful antagonist, Oliver Cromwell, the ablest of that age; in which custody, kindly treated, but strictly guarded, the unthroned king remained till about the end of 1648, when he was removed, for a brief space, first to Hurstcastle in Hampshire, and thence to London, to trial, sentence, a scaffold, and the axe, in January, 1649, as a traitor to his country.

The castle-towers, on the crest of the hill, afforded a wide and beautiful prospect, including most of the island, which is about sixty miles in circuit, and is represented as being occupied by a sound and able-bodied population, with its soil even then well cultivated, and producing, says Benjamin's journal, "plenty of wheat and other provisions, and wool as fine as Cotswold."

The wool-growers of the present day, who clip their fleeces from the purest merinos and saxonies, may smile to see the wool of Cotswold offered as a standard. That standard has doubtless risen since 1726, among the farmers of the Isle of Wight, as well as elsewhere; and the same region has witnessed other changes of yet graver moment; for while the once massive walls of Carisbrook castle have become heaps of rubbish, testifying that the age of lawless power and rapine they originally betokened, has passed away, the fields of the Isle of Wight have been improving, with the increasing stability of private rights and social order, till they now constitute one of the most productive and beautiful districts in the whole realm of England.

Before leaving the island, the Berkshire touched at Yarmouth. The most striking object Benjamin noticed at this place, was a finely-executed marble statue, in armor, on the tomb of Sir Robert Holmes, a former governor of the island. This statue was said to have been executed in Italy for Louis XIV. of France, and

intended for one of the ornaments of his magnificent palace at Versailles; but the vessel, which was taking it to France, being wrecked on the island in the time of Sir Robert, he got possession of the statue and directed that after his death it should be placed on his own tomb.

At length, on the 9th of August, the wind came fair, and taking leave of England, mainland and island, the Berkshire stood away for America. The voyage was not marked by any events of magnitude; but a few of its incidents, having something of instruction or entertainment, are here noticed.

On the 21st of August, in the afternoon, when about six hundred miles from land, a small bird, blown off to sea during some recent thick weather, lighted, or rather fell on deck; but was too much exhausted even to take nourishment, and died in a few hours, though tenderly treated. The occurrence, not without interest in itself, is remarkable chiefly for the great distance from land when it happened.

An entry of more value for the information it conveys to the general reader, is made in the journal under date of September 2d, relative to the dolphin. It is not commonly known among landsmen that this fish is eaten; but two dolphins being caught in the morning of the day named, they were fried for dinner, and "tasted tolerably well." Among mere landsmen, moreover, the prevalent notion of the appearance and character of this fish, is probably that which has been received from the poets and artists, who have given it a form wholly unlike its real one, and who have a fanciful tradition that, in the dying moments of the dolphin, a succession of quick-shifting brilliant colors play over its body as life is ebbing away.

These notions are mere fancies, the dolphin being

THE DOLPHIN, AND THE SHARK.

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as beautiful and well-shaped a fish as any that swims ;” making "a glorious appearance in the water," the body being "of a bright green mixed with a silver tint, and the tail of a shining golden yellow." On being taken out of the water, however, these splendid dyes all vanish together, giving place to a uniform pale gray, the usual hue of death. One of the most successful baits for the dolphin is a candle with a feather fixed in each side, to imitate the appearance of its frequent food, the flying fish; and three large dolphins thus caught one day, made a sufficient dinner for the whole ship's company, twenty-one in number.

On Wednesday, the 14th of September, in the afternoon, occurred one of the most sublime and awe-giving spectacles the material universe can present to human eyes-an eclipse of the sun nearly total, full ten twelfths of its disk being covered by the intervening moon.

With the wind almost unvaryingly ahead, the consequent slow progress, and an ill-assorted dull company, the passage was now becoming exceedingly wearisome; and the supply of bread was getting so low that on the 20th of September, they were all put upon a specific allowance of two and a half biscuits a day. They had run so far south, too, that the weather was uncomfortably hot; and on the day after the allowance was ordered, the ship idly rocking in the calm and the heat being very oppressive, Benjamin was about to refresh both his body and his spirits by a cooling bath in the sea, when a shark, “that mortal enemy to swimmers," was fortunately discovered in season to prevent what would, otherwise, have proved probably his last bath.

The habits of the shark are interesting. This one is represented as "moving round the ship at some distance, in a slow majestic manner," waited on by his usual retinue of little pilot-fishes, the largest of them