When this began to take somewhat of a scientific turn,—

"I have heard," said the Proff," from several sources, that the northern vicinity of Soandso affords a very rich and interesting field for geological and mineralogical study, and that some valuable specimens of either description are to be found in the neighborhood of the village of Drittenbreeks, on the banks of the little river Dritten."

"That was where our ingenious friend, Mr. Coal Hunter, found his fossil cow, was it not? A most appropriate result to geological rumina

tions!"

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Yes, and as the weather is beautiful, I do not see why you should not go out some Saturday with the view to an investigation. You can make a regular scientific excursion of it, and try if you can't collect a few tolerable specimens for lecture. We are sadly in want of some let me tell you. The distance, moreover, is but a joke to a young chap like you— eight or nine miles only, by the footpath across the hills."

"I most cordially embrace the proposal," cried Bob. "I will be off on Saturday first; the day after to-morrow, isn't it?" (turning to me-I assented.) "And you shall go with me, Grim. My eyes! won't we make a day of it? An excursion, geological, mineralogical, and general funological! Such an excursion is right after my own heart. I have long entertained the notion, and if it don't afford me some entertainment in return, there is no such thing as gratitude left in human ideas."

"Yes, and as you are botanical," continued the professor,“ (though I can't say I care much for the science myself,) this is just the very season for you-and the very weather-and for entomology, too, if you have given any attention to it."

"Oh, haven't I? I have studied it with some interest, I promise you."

"Bless me, your acquirements are endless! What charm could this study have for a medical Student?"

"The greatest of all-to render him fly, to be sure."

"Mr. Whyte, Mr. Whyte, take care.

Upon this the sage drew forth his pipe from a recess behind the furnace, lighted it, and, drawing his chair close to the fender, was speedily lost in the mazy depths of some Archimedean problem, which I sincerely hope he smoked his way to the bottom of; while Rob and I, entering into eager discourse, began to lay the plan of our intended excursion.

But first we agreed that, as soon as the professor withdrew, the porter of the rooms should be despatched for a supply of that singular and anomalous fluid which has been denominated Edinburgh Yill-the investigation of whose constitution and qualities I would beg here earnestly to recommend to the scientific reader, convinced as I am that an inquiry, instituted and carried out on the principles of the inductive or experimental philosophy, would be rewarded by the most overwhelming results.

Next day, towards evening, two original-looking youths were seen (by those who had nothing better to do than look at them) meandering arm-inarm through the streets of Soandso, wending rather a zigzag way towards a certain thoroughfare, whose unusual width was narrowed to a

lane by immense battalions of old bedsteads, cupboards, grates, sign boards, chests of drawers, rickety tables, and mirrors of misanthropic tendencies-that is, if one might judge from the unnatural reflections they cast upon the honest folks around.

Long did they trace their devious course through this maze, now knocking their shins against a secondhand cradie, anon startled by the apparition of a ready-made coffin, with such an alarming announcement as-"Deaths undertaken on the shortest notice." It was ourselves-Bob Whyte and his inseparable adherent, Grim, whose pen is now tracing these lines.

Well, up and down we wandered, till at length we stumbled on the identical article of which we were in search-viz., a square wooden box of portable dimensions, with a padlock and key, and a broad leathern strap attached, whereby it might be slung across the shoulders—a pedler's case, in short. This valuable object we secured by immediate purchase, and bore it away rejoicing.

On the succeeding morning, Saturday, June 22nd (I am particular in dates, having been up the Levant, where they grow, since then,) we met at an hour when the widow Night, putting away her sables, was going into half-mourning-excuse me, reader-we met in the apparatus-room of the university, and arranged our accoutrements previously to sallying forth.

When fully equipped, I contemplated Bob. His broad muscular shoulders where cased in a middle-aged velveteen shooting-jacket; other clothes of the lightest woollen-stuff completed his apparel, and slanting on the curly pate of the fellow was perched a broad-brimmed white beaver, of a most knowing cut. Across his back was slung the box, and his right hand grasped a cudgel, of whose dimensions the club of Hercules may give an idea correct enough for all general purposes.

This stick, which Bob had christened his "Jacobin Club," from its levelling propensities, was of weight enormous, and hirsute with knotty spines. Upon its frowning head were certain spots (not stains!) which he averred were received when it had formed his errant sire's cicerone once at Donnybrook. In a generous fit one day he presented it to me; but when he went away across the sea I restored it to him, telling him that, as he was going among strangers, he might possibly find it a useful friend in opening his way among the heads of society in his adopted land.

The box at his back contained a telescope, a geologist's hammer, a box of chalks for drawing, a book of blotting paper for preserving flowers, a tin receptacle for insects. Hooker's " British Flora" (latest edition, containing the cryptogamia,) and a soda-water bottle, filled to the stopper with genuine Farintosh, the mere aroma of which made your soul feel that the Arabian alchemists, who in seeking for gold discovered alcohol, had no cause to grumble at the alternative.

For me, a boy's blue dress was my fit-out, and on my back, in vain emulation of Bob, I bore a student's japanned case of tin, whose contents, though scarcely botanical, were still of a floury description, consisting of

numerous hot rolls, whose scooped interiors afforded room in each for a rich stratum of ham-in short, a kind of half-natural sandwiches.

Having ascertained that we were all right, we left the apparatus-room, and, giving the key in charge to the porter, emerged into the street, and marched along to the sound of a lively air, which Bob whistled with admirable precision and effect.

As we went, happening to pass several edifices in Grecian taste, we forthwith began to discuss the subject of architecture.

"I am glad to think,” said Bob, “I am glad to see it daily more evident, that the strange and most questionable taste of valuing everything that is ancient in literature or art is on the decline—in fact about speedily to go out altogether. I am not aware of any humbug that has so long withstood the march of sovereign common sense as this. A man that can grope through two dead languages is even yet held in more honor than one that can walk over Europe without an interpreter, while our ears are dinned and our eyes blinded with affectation about the sublimity of the Greek tragedies, the wisdom of old heathen philosophers, or the astounding eloquence of Roman orators, and at the same time ten to one but the honest folks that are so havering in speech and on paper are altogether unacquainted with what they are ranting about, unless perchance by means of a translation by some clever modern, many times superior to the old original."

I endeavored to combat this sweeping criticism, but Bob would only agree with me on one point.

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Yes," said he," their architecture is indeed worthy of all the praise it gets, and more than can be given to it. The Greek temples must have been perfection; but they do not so much excite my admiration as the stupendous remains of the more olden eras-1 -the temples and pyramids on the banks of the great river of Egypt. Now the temples-and most noble they are— raise my wonder, and all that, but all is in a measure plain and aboveboard with regard to them, and there is pleasure interwoven with the astonishment. But then these pyramids there hangs around them a kind of magnificent mysterious obscurity-a strange, vague, indefinable, semi-supernatural sublimity, different from that which clothes any other earthly object. There they are, but how, when, by whom, or for what purpose they were placed there, who can show? Many a long rigmarole have I read of them, and many a history and many a use have I seen ascribed to them, but all is uncertainty-hardly deserving the name of hypothesis. I have seen them proved to be tombs, treasuries, observatories, altars, gnomons of mighty sun-dials, penetralia for superstitious mysteries, and, quaintest of all, images of Mount Ararat, standing amid the inundations of the river, as it stood among the waters of the Deluge, and erected to be worshipped as types of the Saviour mountain, the tale of which, marred by tradition, had thus descended to the sons of Ham. Now I would but add another opinion to the list to render the puzzle complete it is, that they are monuments set up whereby to remember great epochs. It is and has been the custom of men, in all places and at all times, to mark important events by the setting up of stones, single or in

heaps, rude or highly wrought, according to the state of civilization. Now I would suggest that one of these may have commemorated the expulsion of the Pales Hycsos-shepherd kings, or whatever other name chronologists may have gone to loggerheads about them by; another might have-"

"Stop," cried I;"if you are going on at that rate I can give you another explanation, about as probable, and certainly more original-viz. that they were just rough heaps of stones piled up in a geometrical figure (the Egyptians doing everything on such principles), to be at hand when wanted for useful purposes, such as the erection of temples, fortifications, &c., the same as piles of made bricks in a clay-field. You are well aware that there were no quarries in the valley of the Nile, and to think that the material was brought stone by stone from the mountains, as buildings were in the process of being raised, is absurd. Another fact I could bring in support of my hypothesis is the insignificance of the chambers they contain, compared with the bulk of the piles themselves, of whose builders the sole object seems to have been the heaping together of the greatest possible quantity of stone in the smallest possible space and safest possible figure."

"Bah!" interjected Bob.

Thus conversing we padded along, while the rising sun poured around us all the glorious freshness and fragrance of a midsummer morning. Leaving behind us the scattered outskirts of the populous suburbs of Soandso, we marched northward along a road winding through cultivated fields and dense plantations, everything around rejoicing in the beauty of early day, and raising in our hearts a feeling of exhilaration like that excited by the clear laugh of a youthful maiden's glee.

Now the path would ascend a gentle inclination, from the summit of which we could see a bright expanse of landscape stretching far before us and on either side, with the sinuous road winding through it, like a tangled piece of yellow tape, now hid behind a wood-crowned eminence, now lost amid a spreading flood of deep green foliage, far and widely inundating the noble prospect; scattered also over which were to be caught frequent glimpses of skyey water, which the eye delighted to puzzle itself withal, endeavoring to trace them into a river or lengthened lake; while in the front distance upsprang before the view the lofty hills, the object of our travel, steeped in a rich and vapoury aerial tint, that varied in its warmth from the deepest blue to the lightest and most heavenly rosiness. Then, as we descended the acclivity, while this bright scene seemed to sink from the sight around us, we would have haply on one side the way a hay-field, with the farm-people, male and female, crowding jocund at their early labor, and laughing and talking loudly as they turned and tedded the odorous grass. Anon, when we reached the bottom of the hollow, a streamlet would salute us, rattling cheerily between and under its bosky banks, dipping suddenly beneath the road, then popping its noisy prattle out at the other side, and running merrily away, like a pretty child playing at bo-peep with you.

Nay, the very air thrilled with the clear melody of birds about and over us, and once from out a thick green wood, about two fields off or so, a

dulcet music came floating to our ears, which Bob, standing still in a rapture, averred, upon his credit, to be that of the nightingale, Heaven's own high chorister.

Presently, as we walked on, our eyes would be attracted to the sombre pinnacles of some dusky old ruin, the castle erst of grim baron or gallant knight, rising majestically dark from out the deep green foliage that surrounded it; and half a mile farther we would come to a princely modern mansion, with pillared gateway and sweeping avenue, far up which could be spied a man walking with a gun in his hand and a couple of dogs at his heels-the gamekeeper on his morning rounds.

All was brightness, warmth, freshness, and promise, and as we marched along we ceased to talk, and whistled and sang in very lightness of heart. Farther and farther as the morning advanced into day, the highway became thronged with country folks, young men and maidens crowding into the town, for it was a great corn and cattle market-day; their quaint dresses contrasting strangely in cut and texture with what we had been used to see worn by townspeople. Frequent herds of cattle and flocks of sheep passed us, and carts, cars, and waggons, and now and then a group of young horses, prancing along with their ears flaunting with gay ribbons.

But when we had travelled thus for two or three hours, stopping frequently to admire points of view, to chat with young country girls tripping lightly to the fair, to sketch a cottage near a wood, or to smoke a cheroot under a green tree, at length our stomachs (admirable chronometers!) began to indicate the hour for breakfast. The first symptom of this came from my companion, who solemnly declared that the vacuum of Torricelli was a joke to what existed in his interior, and that though the former, in some opinions, might be actually filled with the vapor of water or of mercury, yet the latter, in his own opinion, required a supply of a decidedly more stimulating description.

To this I replied by proposing an immediate attack upon the contents of my plant-case. This was negatived by my friend, whose idea was that we should retire from the public path, and in some sequestered spot enjoy the luxury of a rustic breakfast, with a rest at the same time. With this view he was about to lead the way up a beautiful green lane, when suddenly our attention was attracted to a figure which, rounding a turn in the road a short way in advance, came into view moving swiftly toward

us.

It was a slight but very well made young man, in age apparently a little beyond twenty years. He wore a short, round coat, of what had once been green corduroy, a waistcoat of a thick, heavy shawl stuff, very brilliant in its pattern, but somewhat frayed and buttonless, yet clean. It was open, exposing a shirt of a blue check, round which a Turkey-red cotton handkerchief had been tied by way of neckcloth. His other garments were of that kind, a thin pair of which, when in company with a light heart, is wisely said to have an amazing facility in going through the world (brave boys). To one side of his head drooped gracefully a glazed cap, glistening in the sunbeams, and over his shoulder he bore a long sword, with an old leather hat-box dangling from its point behind him.