and in the mode of execution, bore evident marks of a great original genius. His courage was cool and determined, and accompanied with an admirable presence of mind in the moment of danger. His temper might, perhaps, have been justly blamed as subject to hastiness and passion, had not these been disarmed by a disposition the most benevolent and humane. . Such were the outlines of Captain Cook's character; but its most distinguishing feature was that unremitting perseverance in the pursuit of his object, which was not only superior to the opposition of dangers, and the pressure of hardships, but even exempt from the want of ordinary relaxation. During the long and tedious voyages in which he was engaged, his eagerness and activity were never in the least abated. No incidental temptation could detain him for a moment: even those intervals of recreation which sometimes unavoidably occurred, and were looked for by us with a longing that persons who have experienced the fatigues of service will readily excuse, were submitted to by him with a certain impatience, whenever they could not be employed in making a farther provision for the more effectual prosecution of his designs."

"In person Captain Cook was of strongly knit frame, above six feet high, and, though a well-looking-man, he was plain both in address and appearance. His head was small; his hair, which was of a dark brown colour, he wore tied behind. His features were very expressive; his nose exceed

ingly well shaped; his eyes, which were small, and of a brown cast, were quick and piercing, and his eyebrows prominent, which gave his countenance altogether an air of austerity. 'He was beloved by his people,' says Mr. Samwell, who looked up to him as a father, and obeyed his commands with alacrity. The confidence we placed in him was unremitting; our admiration of his great talents unbounded; our esteem for his good qualities affectionate and sincere." "

Captain Cook died in the fifty-second year of his age. At the age of twenty-seven, it will be remembered, he entered the British Navy as a common sailor. His means of education had been very slender. His time on board the collier vessel must have been well and diligently employed, since, in the space of twenty-five years, to which his life was afterwards prolonged, he had, by surprising self-culture, rendered himself capable of performing services which still cause him to be remembered both by his own countrymen and by the world at large.

Several expeditions, more expensively equipped, have been sent out since Cook's time, in the hope of finding the long-desired north-west passage to India. The history of these expedi tions to the Arctic Seas is full of a romantic interest. The voyages of Parry and Franklin, of Ross, Beechey, Back, and other brave explorers of these strange regions, will always be read with interest. Important discoveries have been made,

and extraordinary toils, sufferings, and hardships endured, by these intrepid men, who shared the spirit of enterprise which animated Captain Cook.

The most memorable of these Arctic expeditions was that sent out in 1845, under the command of Sir John Franklin, consisting of two ships called the "Erebus" and "Terror." These ships did not return. Years passed away, and no news was heard of Franklin and his party. Several expeditions were sent out in search of them, but returned without success, although traces had been found of them, and they had been heard of from the Esquimaux. In 1856 Lady Franklin made a final effort to recover her husband and his party, or at least to find out what had become of them, and sent out Captain M'Clintock in the "Fox" for that purpose. By him the fate of Franklin and his companions was at last ascertained. Carefully following up their traces, Captain M'Clintock and his party arrived at a place called Cape Victoria, where they discovered a large cairn, or heap of stones, in which was found a document containing an account of the lost expedition. It was to this effect:-That the two ships had passed two winters beset and surrounded with ice and snow, in the hope that, in the summer, the ice would open and allow them to proceed that Sir John Franklin had died on June 11th, 1847; that nine officers and fifteen men had also died and that, in the following year, the two ships had been abandoned in the ice, and the crews had landed with the intention of pro

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ceeding by land to the Great Fish River. Quantities of clothing, working implements, and other relics, were scattered about in the neighbourhood. The history of the unfortunate crews after they had landed was gathered from the reports of the Esquimaux. It was a tale of terrible suffering. Imperfectly acquainted with the mode of travelling over the ice, they were soon worn out; and exhausted by starvation and illness, "they dropped as they walked along." All perished, and, but for their having travelled over a frozen sea, their remains would have been discovered. Gallantly did these heroic men perform their work; but though unable to give to the world the grand result of their terrible voyage, they died in the cause of their country, knowing that they had accomplished their great object, for they had at last made the Discovery of the North-West Passage.

JAMES WATT.

JAMES WATT, the improver of the steam-engine, was born at Greenock, in Renfrewshire, on the 19th

of January 1736.

If we are to judge of a man by his works, the name of James Watt will stand foremost in the list of great men that England has produced. The history of his life, like that of