U3 MY FIKST VOYAGE. 



Humber, and in the course of a week onr consorts arrived without 

 having met with any adventure, but it was not till another week had 

 nearly elapsed that the convoy got to Cork, and the two London ships 

 made the Thames exactly six weeks after our arrival in the Humber. 



As soon as our owner heard of the escape and the ready thought 

 which accomplished it, he made the skipper a present of a handsome 

 silver call, bearing an appropriate inscription. The captain is now an 

 old man, and the call is one of his treasures. 



In a fortnight we had discharged the cargo, and the vessel was laid 

 up for the winter, which I proceeded to spend with my friends, per- 

 fectly detennined that as this had been my first, so it should be my 

 last voyage. How I kept my determination, shall be told in a future 

 number. 



ON THE ADVANTAGES OF BOTANICAL STUDY. 



Of the three kingdoms in nature each possesses an interest peculiar to 

 itself, so that he who has made any one of them his peculiar study, 

 is apt to think that the one in which he delights is the most pleasant 

 and profitable. However this may be, it would be difficult to find a 

 person who is at all acquainted with scientific objects and pursuits, who 

 would not allow that there is both pleasure and profit in the study of the 

 animal kingdom in all its branches, and the same may be said as re- 

 spects the mineral kingdom ; but it is no uncommon thing to hear 

 the question asked, with respect to the study of botany, what profit 

 is there in it ; or, to what purpose can it be applied ? 



Such a question insinuates that it is the general impression that 

 botanical study is not profitable. That this impression is an erroneous 

 one, it will be our endeavour to prove. It would appear, however, 

 that the moderns are not peculiar in this idea, from the fact that 

 botanical science is of but recent origin. 



The Greeks, who left us so many splendid productionsin ^nearly 



