THE YOUTH'S CABINET.

his boat with several seamen and rowed
toward her.

On approaching, he observed that her
hull was miserably weather-beaten, and
not a soul appeared on the deck, which
was covered with snow to a considera-
ble depth. He hailed her crew several
times, but no answer was returned. Pre-
vious to stepping on board, an open port-
hole near the main chains caught his eye,
and on looking into it, he perceived a
man reclining back in a chair, with writ-
ing materials on a table before him, but
the feebleness of the light made every-
thing very indistinct. The party went
upon deck, and having removed the
hatchway, which they found. closed,
they descended to the cabin.

'They first came to the apartment which
Captain Warrens viewed through the
port-hole, A tremor seized him as he
entered it. Its inmate retained its form-
er position, and seemed to be insensible
to strangers. He was found to be a
corpse, and a green damp mold had cov-
ered his cheeks and forehead, and veiled
his eye-balls. He had a pen in his hand,
and a log-book lay before him, the last
sentence in whose unfinished page ran
thus: ‘“ November 11th, 1762. We
have now been inclosed in the ice sev-
enteen days. The fire went out yester-
day, and our master has been trying
ever since to kindle it again without suc-
cess. His wife died this morning. There
is no relief.”

Captain Warrens and his seamen hur-
ried from the spot without uttering a
word. On entering the principal cabin,
the first object that attracted their at-
tention was the dead body of a female,
reclining on a bed in an attitude of deep
interest and attention. Her countenance

251
retained the freshness of life, and a con-
traction of the limbs alone showed that
her form was inanimate. Seated on the
floor was the corpse of an apparently
young man, holding a steel in one hand
and a flint in the other, as if in the act
of striking fire upon some tinder which
lay beside him. In the fore part of the
vessel, several sailors were found lying
dead in their berths, and the body of a
boy was crouched at the bottom of the
gangway stairs. ‘

Neither provisions nor fuel could be
discovered anywhere; but Captain War-
rens was prevented, by the superstitious
prejudices of his seamen, from examin-
ing the vessel as minutely as he wished
tohave done. He therefore carried away
the log-book already mentioned, and re-
turning to his own ship, immediately
steered to the southward, deeply im-
pressed with the awful example which
he had just witnessed of the danger of
navigating the polar seas in high north-
ern latitudes.

On returning to England, he made
various inquiries respecting vessels that
had disappeared in an unknown way,
and by comparing these results with the
information which was afforded by the
written documents in his possession, he
ascertained the name and history of the
imprisoned ship and of her unfortunate
master, and found that she had been
frozen in thirteen years previous to the
time of his discovering her imprisoned in —
the ice.— Westminster Review.

em ene

Somebody, and we wish we knew
who, says very beautifully: “As the
small planets are nearest the sun, so are
little children the nearest to God.”