STANZAS, Written while sailing through the Delaware Water-Gap. ONWARD with gliding swiftness, Yon radiant clouds are drooping The eagle soars around us, To which with eager, upward wing, The rough night blast high o'er us, And, through the forest's tangled depths The foliage trembles to his breath, Onward! dim night is gathering, We feel the cool fresh air Yon light is beaming from our home, NATURAL HISTORY. ON THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. Ir is rather a subject of surprise that, in our general associations, and mixed societies, in times so highly enlightened as the present, when many ancient prejudices are gradually flitting away, as reason and science dawn on mankind, we should meet with so few, comparatively speaking, who have any knowledge of, or take the least interest in, Natural History; or if the subject obtain a moment's consideration, it has no abiding-place in the mind being dismissed as the fitting employ of children and inferior capacities. But the natural historian is required to attend to something more than the vagaries of butterflies, and the spinnings of caterpillars, His study, considered apart from the various branches of science which it embraces, is one of the most delightful occupatious that can employ the attention of reasoning beings. And perhaps none of the amusements of human life are more satisfactory and dignified than the investigation and survey of the workings and ways of Providence in this created world of wonders, filled with his never absent power. It occupies and elevates the mind, is inexhaustible in supply, and, while it furnishes meditation for the closet of the studious, gives to the reflections of the moralizing rambler, admiration and delight, and is an engaging companion that will communicate an interest to every rural walk. We need not live with the humble denizens of the air, the tenants of the woods and hedges, or the grasses of the field; but to pass them by in utter disregard, is to neglect a large portion of rational pleasure open to our view, which may edify and employ many a passing hour, and, by easy steps, will often become the source whence flow contemplations of the highest order. Young minds cannot be too strongly impressed with the simple wonders of creation by which they are surrounded; in the race of life they may be passed by, the business of life may not admit attention to them, or the unceasing cares of the world may smother early attainments; but they can never be injurious. They will give a bias to a reasoning mind, and tend in some after thoughtful, sobered hour, to comfort and to sooth. The little insights that we have obtained into Nature's works, are many of them the offspring of scientific research; and partial and uncertain as our labours are, yet a brief gleam will occasionally lighten the darksome path of the humble inquirer, and give him a momentary glimpse of hidden truths. Let not, then, the idle and the ignorant scoff at him who devotes an unemployed hour No calling left, no duty broke, to investigate a moss, a fungus, a beetle, or a shell, in "ways of pleasantness and in paths of peace." They are all the formation of Supreme Intelligence, for a wise and worthy end, and may lead us by gentle steps and degrees to a faint notion of the powers of infinite wisdom. They have calmed and amused some of us worms and reptiles, and possibly bettered us for our change to a new and more perfect order of being. THE SUPERCILIOUS OWL. THIS curious horned owl is a native of Guiana, in South America, and its habits agree with those of the rest of its tribe. The owls seek their prey during the twilight, the formation of their eye allowing them distinct vision only at that time. The eye of the owl is extremely large, and is contained within a bony case, in form something like the frame of a watchmaker's eye-glass: its large size, and peculiar internal arrangement, allowing free entrance to every ray of light, and consequently the power of seeing at times when other birds, on account of the darkness, are unable to avail themselves of the same sense. The extremely downy nature of its feathers, and the peculiarly light construction of its bones, allow it to drop upon its prey with so little noise or agitation of the air, as to render success in taking it by surprise nearly certain. The principal food of these birds consists of mice, and other small animals, which roam abroad in the evening in search of food and they are consequently very useful in the neighbourhood of granaries. THE CHASSEUR ANTS OF TRINIDAD. One morning my attention was arrested at Laurel Hill by an unusual number of black birds, whose appearance was foreign to me; they were smaller, but not unlike an English crow; and were perched on a calabash-tree near the kitchen. I asked the house negress, who at that moment came up from the garden, what could be the cause of the appearance of those black birds? She said "Misses, dem be a sign of the blessing of God; dey are not de blessing, but only de sign, as we say, of God's blessing. Misses, you'll see afore noon-time, how the ants will come and clear the houses." At this moment I was called to breakfast, and thinking it was some superstitious idea of her's, I paid no further attention to it. In about two hours after this, I observed an uncommon number of Chasseur Ants crawling about the floor of the room; my children were annoyed by them, and seated themselves on a table, where their legs did not communicate with the floor. The ants did not crawl upon my person, but I was now surrounded by them. Shortly after this, the walls of the room became covered by them; and next they began to take possession of the ta bles and chairs. I now thought it necessary to take refuge in an adjoining room, separated only by a few ascending steps from the one we occupied, and this was not accomplished without great care and generalship, for had we trodden upon one, we should have been summarily punished. There were several ants on the step - of the stair, but they were not near so numerous as in the room we had left; but the upper room presented a singular spectacle, for not only were the floor and the walls covered like the other room, but the roof was covered also. The open rafters of a West India house, at all times afford shelter to a numerous tribe of insects, more particularly the cockroach; but now their destruction was inevitable. The chasseur-ants, as if trained for battle, ascended in regular, thick files to the rafters, and threw down the cockroaches to their comrades on the floor, who as regularly marched off with the dead bodies of cockroaches, dragging them away by their united efforts with amazing rapidity. Either the cockroaches were stung to death on the rafters, or else the fall killed them. The ants never stopped to devour their prey, but conveyed it all to their storehouses. The windward windows of this room were of glass, and a battle now ensued between the ants and the jackspaniards, on the panes of glass. The jack-spaniard may be called the wasp of the West Indies; it is twice as large as a British wasp, and its sting is in proportion more painful. It builds its nests in trees and old houses, and sometimes in the rafters of a room. These jack-spaniards were not quite such easy prey, as the cockroaches had been, for they used their wings, which not one cockroach had attempted to do. Two jack-spaniards, hotly pursued on the window, alighted on the dress of one of my children. I entreated her to sit still, and remain quiet. In an inconceivably short space of time, a party of ants crawled upon her frock, surrounded, covered the two jackspaniards, and crawled down again to the floor, dragging off their prey, and doing the child no harm. From this room I went to the adjoining bed-chamber |