The ladies' garland. [volume] (Harpers-Ferry, Va. [W. Va.]) 1824-1828, 1825-12-17
THE TOURIST.
a PICTURE DRAwM Ar SEA

sea, June -.
But there is apleasure beyond what this
little world, enclosed In wooden walls can al
iord--the pleasure of looking abroad upon the
boundless ocean, of watching its changing as
poets, its restless agitation its eternal heayipes
There is grandeur in such an expanse of wa
ter, stretching beyond the limits Of vision, and
on all sides mnshng with the skies, even when
It's surface is calm and placid But how is its
magnihcence heightened, when it is dashed into
tumult, and the pillows are crested with foam!
| have stood for hours, to survey the waves roll
ing and tumbling in the verge OF the horizon
with which they appear to be blended 1t is at
such moment, that man feels his weakness and
lnsgnlilcance, while the elements are in commo-
ton, the seas are dashing around him in all their
terror and subllmity, and fathomless abyss
yaWning beneath, insulated as he is from the rest
of the world, and devoid of human assistance
his confidence is limited to plank, and that
apparently too fragile to withstand for a mo
ment the violence and conclusion of the waves
In spite OF all the convictions of safety, and of
all resolutions to meet whatever may come with
flrmness and tortltude, the imagination startled
by the creallng OF masts, the pining of winds,
and the dashng Of the surge, will sometimes
descend to the bottom of the ocean, and survey
such horrors as are depicted in the the dream Of
Clarence.
hat sights of ugly death within mine ewes
Methought saw thousand fearful couches;
4 Thousand men that fishes gnawed upon;
Wedges OF gold, great anchors, heaps Of pearl,
inestimabIe stones, unyalued Jewels,
All scattered in the bottom of the sea.
Some lay IN dead mems skulls and in those hoies
Where eyes did once InhaDIt, there were crept
AS >tWere IN scorn OF eyes, rejecting gems,
That wood The Shiny bottom of the deep,
And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatter'd BY"
When the imagination has once reached the
bottom OF the ocean, ii is very easy for it to ex-
tend ITS rambles through coral groves and those
green recesSes, which poets and naturalists,
scarcely less ianciiul, have supposed TO exist
Button thinks that the depths OF the sea exhibit
all the varieties of hill anu dale, earth and rock,
that we observe on dry land and that its plants
and shrubs have similar distribution. Accord
ing to others, these vegetables and submarine
productions are Of the most gorgeous and splen-
did coiors, vielng in richness and beauty with
the most picturesque scenery OF the earth above
Fancy may go a step further, and people these
bright abodes with the inhabitants OF the deep,
or those tabled gods and goddesses, which the
poets OF antiquity called INTO existence. >
At 10 O'Clock on the night Of this storm CAPT
DAVIS called me to the deck (ior the rain was so
severe as to drive the passengers to the cabin,)
for the purpose of witnessing what mariners
term CARPO sAlNTo, or sacred body---a pheno-
menon | was very anxious to see. A ball of fire
was visible at the top of the nlain-nast, emitting
a light not unlike that of lamp Indeed so
striking was the resemblance, that at first sus
pected some one had been playing off a quiz, by
sending up lamp, or that one of the crew was
aloft with 4 Ii ht.
But the reality of the nhenomenon xvas soo,