86 COTYLE RIPARIA. 



The maxim " Be merciful, because you have need of mercy," is one 

 thing ; but I would rather put it on this ground, " Be merciful, because vou 

 feel your Divine origin." So Father Felician to Evangehne, in Longfellow's 

 story — 



" O daughter ! thy God thus speaketh T\'ithin thee ! " 



Before leaving the subject of Sandy station and its birds, I may say I 

 have rarely seen any place presenting so many interesting features. Here 

 you may dig up bones of extinct animals, Roman pots, coins, &c. pretty freely. 

 One day, having to wait some time for a train, I said, " Let us spend the interval 

 in excavation ;" having, therefore, obtained a spade and man from a cottage, 

 we soon turned up a Roman coin, which I now have. While looking at the 

 Sand-Martins' nests, the diggers brought me a human skull, which they had 

 just found ; and I gave them a trifle to bury it again. Not a single stone 

 occurs in this fine bed, except perhaps a black pebble or so at the bottom. 



the reading of the above announcenieiit concluded in B chui'ch, when a fine cock Partridge, 



as if aware of the powerful protection just accorded him, boldly entered the sacred edifice, and, 

 marching up the middle aisle, stationed himself for a couple of minutes in front of the pulpit. 

 Here this unwonted church-goer was, for the time, carefully taken in charge, and afterwards 

 restored to liberty, it being contrary to the law just promulgated to detain him a prisoner." 



