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new senses, and new powers and instruments of thought, until he at last weighed the sun as in a balance, and seemed to have gained a view of the infinitude of space, and was lost in the fearful extent of his own discoveries.

We descended towards the shore of what is called the Sound of Jura, through many a dell and bosky wood, sometimes loitering as we stopped to examine the objects of our study—sometimes gayly walking over the barren moor.

The sea-shore presented us with a new field of inquiry, and a new class of objects; many curious and beautiful species of fuci grow on these shores, and of several of the smaller and finer kinds we were enabled to acquire specimens, with the view of enriching our common herbarium. "On the summit of Knockmordhu," said Campbell, "we were talking of the wonderful adaptation of plants, but is there not something in the economy of these algæ, that shews a wise and intelligent provision, as clearly as does the conformation of any part of the human body? How comes it that the invisible seed of the lichens should be of the same specific weight, or lighter than the air, so that the most precipitous rock that the wind blows upon is furnished with them in abundance? And their sister tribe, these fuci, that thrive only within reach of the wave, the seeds of these are almost equally minute, that they too may be fitted to lodge in the asperities of the rock, and they are of the same weight of the sea water, and float about in it continually; so that every dash of the spray is full of them, and they fix upon every fragment that is detached from the cliff."

As the ebbing tide began to discover to us the black side of the rocky islets, we procured a boat at a small hamlet that overhung a little bay, and went on a mimic voyage of discovery. While we returned again to the main land, the warmth of the day, and the beautiful transparency of the water, which, as the whole extent of the west coast is rocky shore, is highly remarkable, tempted Campbell to propose that we should amuse ourselves with swimming. Owing to a horror I had acquired when a boy, from an exaggerated description of the danger of the convulsive grasp of a person drowning, or dead grip as it is called, I always felt an involuntary repugnance to practise this exercise in company with others. However, we now indulged in it so long, that I began to feel tired, and was swimming towards the rocky shore, which was at no great distance. Campbell, who had now forgot his philosophical reveries, in the pleasure of a varied and refreshing amusement, was sporting in all the gayety of exuberant spirits, when I heard a sudden cry of fear. I turned, and saw him struggling violently, as if in the act of sinking. I immediately swam towards him. He had been seized with cramp, which suspends all power of regular exertion, while at the same time it commonly deprives its victim of presence of mind; and as poor Campbell alternately sunk and rose, his wild looks as I approached him, and convulsed cries for assistance, struck me with a sudden and involuntary panic, and I hesitated to grasp the extended hand of my drowning friend. After a moment's struggle he sunk, exclaiming, My God! with a look at me of such an expression, that it has ten thousand times driven me to wish my memory was a blank. A dreadful alarm now struck my heart, like the stab of a dagger, and with almost a similar sensation of pain; I rushed to the place where he disappeared, the boiling of the water, caused by his descending body, prevented a distinct view, but on looking down, I thought I saw three or four corpses, struggling with each other, while, at the same moment, I heard a loud and melancholy cry from the bushes on the steep bank that overhung the shore. As the boiling of the water settled, I was partly relieved from extreme horror; but I had the misery to see Campbell again; for the water was as clear as the air. He stood upright at the bottom among the large sea-weeds—he even reached up his arms and exerted himself, as if endeavouring fruitlessly to climb to the surface. I looked in despair towards the shore, and all around. The feeling of hopeless loneliness was dreadful. I again distinctly heard the same melancholy cry. A superstitious dread came over me as before, for a few seconds; but I observed an old gray goat, which had advanced to the jutting point of a rock; he had perhaps been alarmed from the unusual appearance in the sea below,