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CORAL. THE SAVOYARD'S RETURN.

CORAL.

THE shores of the Persian Gulf, the chief extent of the Red Sea, and the western coasts of America, are so choked up with coralline substances, that though ships force a passage through them, boats and swimmers scarcely find it possible to make their way. These aquatic groves consist of different things, and assume an inconceivable variety of appearances. The coral plants sometimes shoot out like trees without leaves; they often spread forth a broad surface, like a fan, and not unfrequently a bushy head, like a fagot. Sometimes they resemble a plant with leaves and flowers, and often the antlers of a stag.

THE SAVOYARD'S RETURN.

OH! yonder is the well-known spot,
My dear, my long-lost native home!
Oh! welcome is yon little cot,

Where I shall rest, no more to roam!
Oh! I have travel'd far and wide,
O'er many a distant foreign land;
Each place, each province I have tried,
And sung and danced my saraband.
But all their charms could not prevail
To steal my heart from yonder vale.

Of distant climes the false report

Allured me from my native land;
It bade me rove-my sole support
My cymbals and my saraband.
The woody dell, the hanging rock,
The chamois skipping o'er the heights;
The plain adorn'd with many a flock,
And, oh! a thousand more delights,

That grace yon dear beloved retreat,
Have backward won my weary feet.

Now safe return'd, with wandering tired,
No more my little home I'll leave;
And many a tale of what I've seen
Shall while away the winter's eve.
Oh! I have wander'd far and wide,

O'er many a distant foreign land;
Each place, each province I have tried,
And sung and danced my saraband;

But all their charms could not prevail
To steal my heart from yonder vale.

THE CONGER EEL

THERE is something in the form of the eel that reminds us strongly of the serpent tribe; at the same time its fins and gills plainly liken it to fishes; so that eels in general seem to occupy a place which connects them partly with both. When at its full size, the conger eel has been known to measure ten feet in length. It is a hazardous prize when hooked, and our British fishermen often find it so to their cost. Congers will entwine themselves round the men's legs, and fight with desperate fierceness for their lives. An incident of this kind occurred some time since near Yarmouth; the animal rose half its height, and knocked the man down who had taken it, before he could kill it. It weighed about sixty pounds, but some exceed a hundred weight.

These creatures are enormously voracious, and concealed in the mud, they lie in wait for any prey that may pass. If too large to be immediately devoured or overcome, it is said that the conger will coil himself round his victim, and thus detain it till his teeth can take effect. Congers are found on the British shores in various parts.

By the grass and hedge-row cropp'd,
Where our asses have been grazing;
By some old torn rag we dropp'd,
When our crazy tents were raising:
You may see where we have been;
Where we are-that is not seen.
Where we are, it is no place
For a lazy foot to trace.
Over heath and over field,

He must scramble who would find us;
In the copse-wood close conceal'd,
With a running brook behind us.
Here we list to village clocks;
Livelier sound the farm-yard cocks,
Crowing, crowing round about,
As if to point their roostings out;
And many a cock shall cease to crow,
Or ere we from the copse-wood go.

THE SQUIRREL.

THE pretty red Squirrel lives up in a tree,
A little blithe creature as ever can be;

He dwells in the boughs where the Stockdove broods,
Far in the shades of the green summer woods;
His food is the young juicy cones of the Pine,
And the milky Beech-nut is his bread and his wine.
In the joy of his nature he frisks with a bound

To the topmost twigs, and then down to the ground;
Then up again, like a winged thing,

And from tree to tree with a vaulting spring;

Then he sits up aloft, and looks waggish and queer, As if he would say, Ay, follow me here!"