FARMERS AND FISHERMEN. 389 



and soft is the mossy bank beneath him, and sweet the 

 air around, redolent with the balmy breath of flowers, and 

 filled with the melody of birds singing their evening hymn. 

 How rarely does the extinction of life from other than 

 natural causes overtake these dwellers on the land, com- 

 pared with the frequent fate of those who do business in 

 the great waters ! How astounded would be the natives of 

 our inland vales, and the shepherds on a thousand hills, if 

 ever and anon their hitherto steadfast and enduring boun- 

 daries were rent by earthquakes, and, literally "adding 

 field to field," one fine piece of pasture was lifted up and 

 laid upon another, entombing for ever alike the corn and 

 its cultivators, the shepherds and their sheep. No very 

 pleasant greetings m the market-place would ensue among 

 the grain-merchants, wool-growers, and cattle-dealers, 

 when the morning's news might chance to be — that the 

 Lammermoors had subsided 1500 feet, and were entirely 

 under water; that " Eildon's triple height" had been 

 turned over, peaks downmost ; that the debris of Penicuik 

 was scattered over the vestiges of Peebles ; and that the 

 good town of Dalkeith was lying (its fine body of militia- 

 men fast fossilising) at the bottom of a coal-pit. Yet 

 equally disastrous, though not quite similar, calamities 

 not unfrequently befall those whose precarious lot it is to 

 cultivate the sea. — Blackwood's Magazine, March 1856. 



