THE small twinkling lights from millions of lesser stars, in that part of the firmament where she hung, round as a silver pot-lid-shield I mean-were swamped in the flood of greenish-white radiance shed by her, and it was only a few of the first magnitude, with a planet here and there, that were visible to the naked eye, in the neighbourhood of her crystal bright globe; but the clear depth, and dark translucent purity of the profound, when the eye tried to pierce into it at the zenith, where the stars once more shone and sparkled thick and brightly, beyond the merging influence of the pale cold orb, no man can describe now-one could, once-but rest his soul, he is dead -and then to look forth far into the night, across the dark ridge of many a heaving swell of living water-but, "Thomas Cringle, ahoy-where the devil are you cruizing to?" So, to come back to my story. I went aft, and mounted the small poop, and looked towards the aforesaid moon, a glorious resplendent tropical moon, and not the paper lantern affair hanging in an atmosphere of fog and smoke, about which VOL. II.

aft, what a beauteous change! Now each mast, with its gentle swelling canvass, the higher sails decreasing in size, until they tapered away nearly to a point, though topsail, topgallant-sails, royal and sky-sails, showed like towers of snow, and the cordage like silver threads, while each dark spar seemed to be of ebony, fished with ivory, as a flood of cold, pale, mild light streamed from the beauteous planet over the whole stupendous machine, lighting up the sandwhite decks, on which the shadows of the men, and of every object that intercepted the moonbeams, were cast as strongly as if the planks had been inlaid with jet.

There was nothing moving about the decks. The lookouts, aft, and at the gangways, sat or stood like statues, half bronze, half alabaster. The old quartermaster, who was cunning the ship, and had perched himself on a carronade, with his arm leaning on the weather nettings, was equally motionless. The watch had all disappeared forward, or were stowed out of sight under the lee of the boats; the first Lieutenant, as if captivated by the serenity of the scene, was leaning with folded arms on the weather gangway, looking abroad upon the ocean, and whistling now and then either for a wind, or for want of thought. The only being who showed sign of life was the man at the wheel, and he scarcely moved, except now and then to give her a spoke or two, when the cheep of the tiller-rope, running through the well-greased leading flocks, would grate on the ear as a sound of some importance; while in daylight, in the ordinary bustle of the ship, no one could say he overheard it.

Three bells! "Keep a bright lookout there," sung out the Lieutenant. "Ay, ay, sir," from the four