Ye friends bid the majestic tomb arise,
But do not close it until Colma dies!
My life fhall vanifh like a faithlefs dream,
With my dear friends I'll reft befide the ftream;
When folemn night fteals flowly o'er the heath,
Amid the blaft my ghoft fhall mourn their death
The hunter from his lowly booth fhall hear,
My foothing voice he shall both love and fear!

ELEGY OF MORAR.

RYNO AND ALPIN.

Ryno. STILL is the wind-no more the beating rain
Defcends in torrents o'er the far-ftretch'd plain;
Wide in the heavens the feathery clouds are spread,
And the refplendent fun now fhows his head;
O'er the green hills he fhoots his golden beam,
While from the vale defcends the foaming ftream;
Sweet are its murmurs as it rolls along,
But ah! far fweeter is the voice of fong;
'Tis ALPIN, lonely mourner of the dead,

His eyes are red with tears, and bent his head;
Ah ALPIN, why alone upon the hill-

Why doft thou mourn like the autumnal breeze,
That roars aloud among the leafless trees;
Or like the roaring of the reftless wave,

That oft the lonely fhore is feen to lave.

Alpin. Friends once fo honour'd, RYNO, now no more,
With tears, and fong, their lofs I long deplore:
Youth gives thee ftrength, and paints thy ruddy face,
With manly fmiles and unaffected grace;

While thus in manhood's prime, fo bold and young,
Thou'rt fair the dwellers of the plain among;
But age fhall fee thy youthful powers decay,
And all thy manly charms fhall fade away
Like Morar, fall'n into the filent tomb,
The fons of fong fhall mourn thy early doom.
For thee no more the valleys fhall rejoice,
Nor echo to the mufic of thy voice;
Thy fhield fhall in the ruin'd hall be hung,
And thy bow lie neglected and unftrung.

Swift as the roe wert thou, O MORAR fair!
Thy eyes fhot terror like the meteor's glare;

His

His wrath was like the form that rends the oak,
His fword was deadly as the lightning's ftroke;
His voice was like the ftream when fwoln with rain,
Like thunder rolling o'er the diftant plain;
How many has that nervous arm laid low,
Return'd from war how peaceful was his brow`;
His face was like the fun's refplendent light,
Or moon that gilds the filence of the night;
Calm as the ample lake's wide spreading breast,
When the hoarfe tempeft has been hush'd to rest.
Now dark and narrow is thy dwelling place,
With three uneven steps thy grave I trace;
Four ftones with mofs o'ergrown are all I fee,,
Are all that now remain, to tell of thee;
A tree whofe foliage to the air is caft,
And grafs that whiftles to the founding blast;
Point to the early hunter's wiftful eye,
The place where thy neglected reliques lie.
Fall'n art thou Morar to a lowly state,
But no-fad mother mourns thy hapless fate;
No love lorn maiden feeks thy grave and weeps,
For him that in the narrow dwelling fleeps:
Ah dead is the who gave the hero birth,
Ah funk is MORGLAN's daughter in the earth!
Who on his ftaff is this-with eyes of tears,
Who tott'ring walks beneath a load of years;
It is thy fire whose head befpeaks him old,
The fire of none but thee whom I behold.
He heard the tidings of thy well earn'd fame,
For mighty hofts had spread thy matchless name,
Well fkill'd in arms and valorous in war,
Why did thy wound not reach his aged ear?
Long may'ft thou wretched parent mourn and weep
The dead are careless for their fleep is deep!
No more thy well known voice fhall pierce his ear,
No more awake when morning's dawn is near.
When fhall the long expected morn arife,
To pierce the grave and ope the slumberer's eyes?

Thou conqueror bold! thy lofs I now deplore,
Thou whom the warlike bands fhall fee no more;
No more the darkfome grove where reigns the night,
Shalt thou illumine with thine armour bright;
What tho' to thee no youthful fon belong,
Thy name fhall flourish and " ftill bloom in fong ;"
To future times fhall give thy well-known fame,
And from the wreck of time preserve thy name!

THE LAMENT OF ARMIN.

Let the wild waving winds of bleak autumn arife,
O'er the heath let the mountain ftreams roar,
Ye tempefts now howl while ye blacken the skies,
Let the oak yield its fhadow no more.

Thro' the clouds of dark even dispersed and broken,
Let the moon faintly fhew its wan beam;
Ye fhadows the time in my breast ye awaken,
Now paffed away like a dream!

When my daughter fell lovely and fair as Aurora,
And Arindal mighty and brave;

As fair as the moon on the hills was my Daura,

His look like the mift on the wave.

From the field dyed with blood and beftrew'd with grim flaughter,

Young Armar in confidence came;

He fought the fair hand of my sweet smiling daughter,
And won the foft heart of the dame.

Black Erath beheld the tranfaction in anguish,

He came like a fon of the fea;

Fair maid on yon ifle does thy dear lover languish,
'There Armar is waiting for thee.'

She enter'd his fkiff and they plow'd the rough billow,
And came to an ifland of reft;

Where the fruit it fhone red, and green grew the willow,
To make the two fond lovers bleft.

Oh, where is my lover? oh, where ftrays my Armar?' She cried as fhe pafs'd through the grove:

'Oh, come and relieve the fufpenfe of thy charmer,
Oh, come to the arms of thy love.'

On the fea-beaten fhore then in forrow fhe fate her,
While forrow perplexed the maid;

But Erath had acted the part of a traitor,
And the innocent virgin betray'd.

O'er the blue fparkling wave came the tones of her forrows,
And roufed the rage of my fon;

From the spoils of the chace with his bow and his arrows,

By his fide his five faithful dogs run.

Then binding the traitor to th' oaks twining branches,

He left him to groan in despair;

And on the falt wave the young Arindal launches,

To refcue his fifter so fair.

But ah! can I paint the diftrefs of my story,
For Armar let fly the gray dart;

It pierced the breaft of my fon in his glory,
And drank the red drops of his heart.

The bold dafhing oar for a while is fufpended,
He pants on the rock by the flood;

Oh, Daura! thy forrow with madnefs is blended,
To fee the red ftream of his blood.

The boat it now yields to the ftroke, and it shivers
By the force of the loud yelling wave;

His form to the ocean now Armar delivers,

To die or his Daura to fave.

But the blaft it blew fudden and cold from the mountain,
And beat up the waves on the fhore;

It awakes the falt tear in my eyes' wat'ry fountain,
For he funk and he never rose more.

Alone on the rock did my Daura fit crying,
To the pale moon fhe told her complaint;

I heard the foft found when the wind it was dying,
Her voice grew more tender and faint.

Ere the light of the eaft or the tints of the morning
The sky with their luftre had fir'd;

Ere the gray hues of day had begun a returning,
Sunk in grief, my fair daughter expir'd.

When the tempefts roar loud, and the thunder is rolling,
And the wind whiftles loud in the north;

When the storms in the mountains and vallies are howling, And the angry lightening darts forth;

I fit by the rock in a mournful delusion,

When the far waning moon fets in night;

I converfe with their fhadows and court the illufion,
It gives me a pleasing delight.

Such was the mufic of the fons of fong,

When liftening chiefs in rapture gather'd round;
The voice of Cona, firft the bards among,
Enchanted numbers with its lovely found.
But age has damp'd the vigour of my foul;
The fongs of bards the penfive Offian hears;
Ye dark brown years in mournful cadence roll,
Ye wound my bofom, and awake my tears!
No more upon their fweeping wings they bring,
The days of joy and fong and feftive mirth;
They feem to fayah why does Offian fing?
Let him recline upon his parent earth.'

While

While others fleep, my lonely voice remains,
Like the fhrill blaft that moves the waving trees;
The dark mofs whiftles on the wintry plains,
Which from his bark the ftormy failor fees!

DECIUS.

Perth.

EXTRACTS

From the Port Folio of the Rev. Mr URE, of Kilbride, with which the Editor has been honored by the Right Hon. the EARL OF BUCHAN.

LAND VEGETABLES, SUBSERVIENT TO THE FOOD OF FISHES.

THAT the vegetable productions of the land may be fub. fervient to the food of fishes who never come near the fhore, will appear, when we confider that many of them are carried on the furface of the ocean for fome thousand miles. A proof of this is daily obfervable on the fhores of the weftern ifles of Scotland, where large nuts, natives of Ameri ca are found, and which could not be brought there by any other means than the current of the fea. If a nut of at leaft half an ounce weight is carried on the furface of the fea for the space of nearly 4000 miles, how far will not the smaller and lighter vegetable particles be carried. That many species of fish collect their food partly from what floats on the furface of the water is an undeniable fact. Decayed vegetables and land animals and infects may float on the furface in vaft abundance though unperceived by feamen, who feldom pay attention to fuch minutiæ, or thefe particles may be fo finall as to escape the notice of the most attentive obferver. I doubt not but if a skilled botanift were to examine the wreck thrown up by the Atlantic on the fhores of the Hebrides, he would find, befides the above mentioned nuts, many other productions of North America.

That not a few fhell fifh now found foffil, and which are by Whithurft and most other naturalifts believed to be antideluvian, and to have lived in the ocean at the original formation of the primitive islands, gathered their food from the furface of the fea is evident from their conftructions. Thefe fhells are commonly called Nautili, or Sailors. They are fhaped in fuch a manner as to answer the purpose of boats to the animals who inhabited them. Many of them are furnished with long fpines by which an equilibrium could ea

L 2

fily