By Captain Bonnycastle. A9 
ships in the dock yard were all component parts of it. Ab- 
stracted by such a scene from all the petty feelings of our 
nature, which habitand circumstances cause to be zenerally 
uppermost, the mind of the contemplative man soars away 
into the realms of boundless space, forgets for a while the 
clog that holds it here, and with a full certainty of its own 
comparative insignificance amid the works of creation, re- 
turns humbly to a consciousness of its present state, having 
added one more to the endless reasons which cause it to 
adore the inscrutable wisdom of the Almighty Architect of 
the Universe. 
On the 7th September, last year, (1826,) whilst coming 
up from the gulf, the weather had been cold without much 
wind, the litle there was being from the south west. At 
two o'clock A. M. in the night, the mate, whose watch it was 
on deck, suddenly aroused the captain in great alarm, from an 
unusual appearance on the lee bow. The night was starlight, 
but suddenly the sky became overcast over the high land of 
Cornwallis county, and a rapid instantaneous and immensely 
brilliant light, resembling the Aurora Borealis, shot out of the 
hitherto gloomy and dark sea on the lee bow, and was so 
vivid that it lighted every thing distinctly evento the mast 
head. The mate having alarmed the master, put the helm 
down, took in sail and called all hands up. 
The captain then called me up, but the light which had 
been only from one quarter, now as suddenly spread over the 
whole of the sea between the two shores, aud the waves 
before tranquil now becaine much agitated. I shall never 
forget the scene which presented itself when I came on deck. 
The whole sea as far it could be distinguished, was one 
blazing sheet of awful and most brilliant light such as I ne- 
ver before saw, although I have frequently observed the lu- 
minous appearance which the ocean occasionally presents. A 
Jong and vivid Jine of light, superior in brightness to the 
parts of the sea not immediately near the vessel, showed us 
the base of the high frowning and dark land abreast of us ; 
G the 
