A child tells you it is a Mermaid's Purse, and, giving the empty bag a shake, you straightway conclude that the maids of the sea know "hard times," as well as those of the land.

For it is thus with mermaids: one who beholds them must needs find them more beautiful than any one else, and the mermaid's blood being mixed with the water that bathed the shores, her beauty was transferred to both.

THE MERMAID'S CAVE As I have never been in a truly house, I cannot know of all the kinds of carpets or coverings that Folks use on the floors.

So, now, here came Dolphy, with flapping fins, wild eye, and his story of a mermaid's cave.

Those shells looking so much like rattles would amuse a lot of babies if they could play in the mermaid's cave.

There are others curiously shaped, looking like coral sprays, and here and there they look like helmets; then there is another form that seems to have long fingers running out, and is called "mermaid's gloves.

" The form called "Venus flower-basket," large and basket-shaped, might answer for a mermaid's work-basket, and hold her thimble, scissors, and thread.

Hence the strait takes a northerly direction, and was named Mermaid's Strait, after our little vessel which had thus first sailed through it.

This group was named by the French Dampier's Archipelago, and as there is ample proof of its being the place which that navigator visited, the name has been admitted by us; but we have also extended it to the islands forming the east side of Mermaid's strait, which are laid down by the French as a part of the mainland.

These dangerous reefs were named Rowley's Shoals, in compliment to the discoverer of the westernmost (the Imperieuse), the situation of which is assigned by me to be 13 minutes 30 seconds to the eastward of Captain Rowley's account: the middle shoal, seen by us last evening, is certainly the one that Captain Clerke saw; but the third or north-easternmost, distinguished by the Mermaid's name, seems to be a new discovery.

On the middlemost shoal no rocks were uncovered; but on the south-east end of the Mermaid's Shoal several were observed.

On our passage to the north coast we saw the Imperieuse and Clerke's Shoals, and also discovered a third, the Mermaid's.

As any assistance therefore was preferable to none, I accepted the proffered services of a young man who was strongly recommended by his Excellency the Governor, and he was on the point of joining me, when a surgeon of the navy, Mr. James Hunter, who had just arrived in charge of a convict ship, volunteered his services which were gladly accepted, and he was immediately attached to the Mermaid's establishment.

While the billow mournful rolls, And the mermaid's song condoles; Singing glory to the souls Of the brave!

Lucy Ashton plights her troth to Edgar master of Ravenswood, and they exchange love-tokens at the Mermaid's Fountain; but her father, sir William Ashton, from pecuniary views, promises her in marriage to the laird of Bucklaw, and as she signs the articles Edgar suddenly appears at the castle.

Lucy Ashton, being attacked by a wild bull, is saved by Edgar, who shoots it; and the two falling in love with each other, plight their mutual troth, and exchange love-tokens at the "Mermaid's Fountain."

While the billow mournful rolls, And the mermaid's song condoles, Singing glory to the souls Of the brave.

The stem of the casuarina on which the Mermaid's name and the date of our visit had been carved was almost destroyed by fire; and the inscription in consequence so nearly obliterated that the figures 1818, and two or three letters alone remained visible.

ROWLEY'S SHOALS consist of three separate reefs, the westernmost is the Imperieuse, the middle Clerke's, and the north-easternmost the Mermaid's.

The south end of Mermaid's Shoal is in 17 degrees 12 minutes South, and 119 degrees 35 minutes East, and extends to the northward for seven miles; but its termination in that direction was not seen.

Then steer either over the Mermaid's or Bathurst's tracks, which will carry a ship round the projections of the coast as far as Cape Grafton, as far as which, if the weather is fine, there can be no danger of proceeding through the night; but it must be recollected, that at Cape Grafton the coral reefs approach the coast, and, consequently, great care must be used.

During the Mermaid's voyages, Araucaria was observed in the vicinity of Mount Warning, in New South Wales, which lies in the parallel of Norfolk Island (29 degrees South); thence northerly it was very sparingly seen towards the tropic, within which, however, as far as latitude 14 degrees, it is very abundant, forming upon several islands the only timber.

The reef that so nearly sealed the Mermaid's fate with Captain King, we found to lie half a mile north-west from the north-east end of Three Hummock Island.)

The Virgin with her crown, over the fountain, was paltry enough, but I saw that this was originally a mermaid's statue.

"His boat-falls are as loose as a mermaid's locks, your Honor, and he shows few men in his tops; there are enough of the rogues left, however, to give us another shot.