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12. Alaska contains thousands of magnificent glaciers that move down to the Pacific Coast from the lofty mountain range skirting the Pacific. Some of these glaciers are more than fifty miles long, and are the grandest in the world. Greenland is covered to a great depth by a vast ice-sheet that sends forth to the coast many great glaciers, which supply the icebergs that float southward into the Atlantic Ocean.

13. Dr. Kane describes the Great Glacier of Humboldt on the coast of Greenland, as follows:

"This line of cliff rose, a solid glassy wall, three hundred feet above the water-level, with an unknown, unfathomable depth below it; and its curved face, sixty miles in length, from Cape Agassiz to Cape Forbes, vanished into unknown space, at not more than a single day's railroad travel from the Pole. The interior, with which it communicated, and from which it issued, was an unsurveyed mer de glace [sea of ice] to the eye, of boundless dimensions.

14. "Yet here were no water feeders from the south. Every particle of moisture had its origin within the Polar circle, and had been converted into ice. Here was a plastic, moving, semi-solid mass, obliterating life, swallowing rocks and islands, and plowing its irresist ible march through the crust of an investing sea."

64. THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS.

King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport, And one day as his lions fought, sat looking on the court; The nobles filled the benches, with the ladies in their

pride,

And 'mongst them sat the Count de Lorge, with one for whom he sighed;

And truly 't was a gallant thing to see that crowning show, Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.

Ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws; They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their paws;

With wallowing might and stifled roar, they rolled on one another,

Till all the pit with sand and mane was in a thunderous

smother;

The bloody foam above the bars came whisking through the air;

Said Francis, then, "Faith, gentlemen, we're better here than there."

De Lorge's love o'erheard the king, a beauteous, lively dame,

With smiling lips, and sharp bright eyes, which alway seemed the same;

She thought, "The Count, my lover, is brave as brave can be;

He surely would do wondrous things to show his love

of me;

King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine; I'll drop my glove, to prove his love; great glory will be mine."

She dropped her glove, to prove his love; then looked at him and smiled;

He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions

wild;

The leap was quick; return was quick; he has regained his place;

Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.

"By Heaven!" said Francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he sat:

"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that."

LEIGH HUNT.

65. THE CLANSMAN'S REVENGE.

[A Scottish chief once ordered one of his followers to be flogged for some offense against discipline. This poem describes how the clansman revenged what he considered an insufferable disgrace.]

1. "Maclaine! you've scourged me like a hound;
You should have struck me to the ground;
You should have played a chieftain's part;
You should have stabbed me to the heart.

2. "You should have crushed me unto death;—
But here I swear with living breath,

That for this wrong which you have done,
I'll wreak my vengeance on your son,—

3. "On him, and you, and all your race!"
He said, and bounding from his place,
He seized the child with sudden hold,-
A smiling infant, three years old,—

4. And starting like a hunted stag,

He scaled the rock, he clomb the crag,
And reached, o'er many a wide abyss,
The beetling seaward precipice;

5. And leaning o'er its topmost ledge,
He held the infant o'er the edge:-
"In vain thy wrath, thy sorrow vain;
No hand shall save it, proud Maclaine!"

6. With flashing eye and burning brow,
The mother followed, heedless how,
O'er crags with mosses overgrown,
And stair-like juts of slippery stone.

7. But midway up the rugged steep,

She found a chasm she could not leap,
And kneeling on its brink, she raised
Her supplicating hands, and gazed.

8. "O, spare my child, my joy, my pride! O, give me back my child!" she cried: "My child! my child!" with sobs and tears, She shrieked upon his callous ears.

9. "Come, Evan," said the trembling chief,— His bosom wrung with pride and grief,"Restore the boy, give hack my son, And I'll forgive the wrong you've done."

10. "I scorn forgiveness, haughty man!
You've injured me before the clan;
And naught but blood shall wipe away
The shame I have endured to-day."

11. And as he spoke, he raised the child,
To dash it 'mid the breakers wild,
But, at the mother's piercing cry,
Drew back a step, and made reply:-

12. "Fair lady, if your lord will strip,

And let a clansman wield the whip,
Till skin shall flay, and blood shall run,
I'll give you back your little son."

13. The lady's cheek grew pale with ire,
The chieftain's eyes flashed sudden fire;

He drew a pistol from his breast,

Took aim, then dropped it, sore distressed.

14. "I might have slain my babe instead.
Come, Evan, come," the father said,
And through his heart a tremor ran;
"We'll fight our quarrel man to man.”

15. "Wrong unavenged I've never borne," Said Evan, speaking loud in scorn; "You've heard my answer, proud Maclaine: I will not fight you,—think again.”

16. The lady stood in mute despair,

With freezing blood and stiffening hair;
She moved no limb, she spoke no word;-
She could but look upon her lord.

17. He saw the quivering of her eye,
Pale lips and speechless agony,—
And, doing battle with his pride,
"Give back the boy,-I yield," he cried.

18. A storm of passions shook his mind-
Anger, and shame, and love combined;
But love prevailed, and bending low,
He bared his shoulders to the blow.

19. "I smite you," said the clansman true;
"Forgive me, chief, the deed I do!

For by yon Heaven, that hears me speak,
My dirk in Evan's heart shall reek!"

20. But Evan's face beamed hate and joy;
Close to his breast he hugged the boy:
"Revenge is just, revenge is sweet,
And mine, Lochbuy, shall be complete."

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