cued. After this abortive attempt to get rid of the brute, not a man of the crew could muster courage to tackle Beauty, neither openly nor covertly, for the animal was now so thoroughly "wide-awake," that the instant any one looked at him at all suspiciously, his blood-red eyes sparkled direfully, and emitted a lurid glow, whilst his terrible jaws slightly snapped, and he drew back as though preparing to make a spring. Once or twice, however, certain of the crew had, with malice prepense, let fall from aloft a heavy block, calculated to drop exactly on the head of the terrible Beauty, but somehow the praiseworthy experiment failed of achieving the success it richly deserved. Sailors dearly love a joke, and therefore they consoled themselves for their disappointment, by invariably alluding to Sir Marmaduke and his dog, as "Beauty and the Beast!" and hinting that the names were convertible and applicable to either indifferently.

It is time now to quit the deck and introduce the reader to the interior of the yacht, The space from the quarter-deck nearly to the foremast, was occupied as a saloon, very roomy, considering the size of the yacht. The sides were handsomely panelled in richlyveined and highly-polished mahogany and rose wood, with gilt pilasters and mouldings. All round the saloon were broad softlycushioned lounges, which made up at night into comfortable sleeping berths for eight or ten individuals, if necessary. An oblong

table occupied the centre of the saloon, so constructed as to expand close up to the lounges at meal times, or to contract into a very small compass when space was desired. A large and beautifully-painted skylight overhead, and a pair of extremely handsome swinging lamps, were the other most noticeable objects; but the saloon possessed many minor articles of utility, ornament, comfort, and luxury. Immediately forward of the bulkhead were two state-rooms for the master and mate of the yacht, on the starboard side; and on the larboard was the sanctum of Mons. Blancmange, the French cook, where he practised the mysteries of his art. The crew, of course, berthed in the forecastle. Aft of the saloon was the steward's pantry, and in the recess beneath the cabin-stairs was his berth. Yet further aft were four state-rooms, and at the stern a "ladies cabin," which being exclusively intended for the use of fair guests, was fitted up as a most luxurious sea-boudoir

unfortunately unoccupied during the present cruise.

On the morning in question, the owner of the yacht and three of his friends, were seated at breakfast in the saloon, and a single glance at the table was sufficient to testify that the meal, nearly concluded, had been as luxurious as any that a first-class Paris café or West-end London club could furnish.

"I wonder if that lazy lubber, Muddle, means to turn out before noon ?" observed Mr. Fribble, jauntily sticking his short arms akimbo, and staring up through the skylight at the main rigging, under the fond impression that he had assumed a ship-shape attitude.

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"Steward," said Lord Silverton, are you sure Sir Marmaduke was awake when you called him?”

"Yes, my lord, he was wide awake, and reading an old number of Bell's Life." "But what did he say?"

"He said, my lord, that his constitootion is delicate, and that he preferred to breakfast in his state-room."

"Constitution delicate! why he has the strength of a bear, and the digestion of an ostrich. What did you give him for breakfast?"

"He asked for the round of cold beef, and some ham and tongue, and two bottles of pale ale."

"That is a breakfast after the good old fashion of Queen Bess, and will infallibly strengthen his delicate constitution ! But I think, steward, that you have not told us all that Sir Marmaduke said ?"

"No, my lord. He also said that if his dog was not allowed to enter the saloon, he didn't care to take his meals in it, and that in future he and Beauty would—mess together!"

'Impossible! he didn't say that?"

"He did, indeed, my lord, and when I refused to bring Beauty down to the stateroom, Sir Marmaduke threw a bottle at my head."

Laly Lumbercourt, in a tone of bitter determination.

"Nor I!" "Nor I!" "Nor I!" instantly echoed the other gentlemen.

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Steward, couldn't you contrive to poison him?" asked Captain Wildair.

"I'll give five pounds to any man who will pitch him overboard!" energetically protested Mr. Fribble.

But the steward only grinned, and avowed that Beauty was an awful dog, a dog of tremendous powers of self-defence, a dog of impenetrable cunning, and that he had already baffled, and defied, and defeated the combined efforts of the whole crew to compass his destruction.

"Well, gentlemen, as you are unanimous, we must consider the question as settled. Let us now go on deck."

The scene on deck had not materially changed. The old pilot yet smoked his pipe and stared at Beauty, who rested his huge jowl between his fore-paws on the deck, and with eyes nearly closed, appeared to doze, but no one was deluded by the hypocritical pretence.

The breeze had almost died away, and a current setting in against the yacht in her passage between two islands, she barely "held her own," making scarcely any perceptible headway. These rocky islands rose to a considerable height, their summits being shrouded in snow, which even clung in some parts, in heavy masses down to within a hundred yards or less of the level of the sea, and the lower levels were dark, barren, and desolate; and the shores were abrupt, craggy, black, fantastic rocks. Not a human dwelling was to be seen-not a sign of animal life. All was savage, fiercely wild, almost appalling. And yet, in sheltered valleys of these and neighbouring islands, and on the mainland, many solitary families dwelt. The yachtsmen had evidence of this in a striking and novel sight that greeted them as soon as the Seabird slowly beat up the narrowest part of the sund, or shallow strait between the isles, and emerged on a wider expanse of water. Before them a vast space was literally covered with innumerable flocks of sea-birds of various species, busily occupied in preying on fish swarming near the surface; and from twenty to thirty open fishing boats were also engaged in the destruction of the finny tribe. The fishermen were all Quäners, or "Fins," as their Norsk neighbours frequently term them.

The Norwegians regard the Quäners as an
inferior race.
However that may be, they

are an industrious and peaceable people on
the whole, although little more than half-
civilized; and even were they still lower in
the scale of civilization, they would yet be
deserving of some degree of respect, as
well as of interest and pity, on account |
of the steady manner in which they devote
themselves to their fisheries, thus materially
contributing to the commercial prosperity of
their adopted country. They spend by far
the greater portion of their life afloat in
their open boats, exposed to all weathers,
and enduring extreme hardships and priva
tions almost from their cradles to their graves.
The remuneration they derive from fishing
is miserably small-yet it contents them,
and contentment is everything.

The Quaners in question were not attempt. ing to capture the fish swimming near the surface, but were fishing with draught nets sunk to a considerable depth. Occasionally a man would lean over the gunwale of a boat, and stoop for some minutes with his face almost touching the water. He was in the act of using the Norwegian water-telescope-an instrument probably unknown to the fishermen of most other countries. It is of very simple construction and of the highest degree of usefulness. A tube of some four feet in length, fitted with glasses, is the water-telescope, and most of the fishermen make their own, as rudeness of construction is no bar to its efficiency. The water on the Norwegian coast is clear as crystal, and extremely deep, therefore, by plunging one end of the telescope in the sea, and gazing intently through the upper glass, the fisherman can see even small objects, with the utmost ease, at the depth of from sixty to a hundred feet. They are thus enabled, in the first place, to discover whether any droves of fish are on "the ground" at all; secondly, at what depth; and thirdly, whether jagged rocks, or other obstructions, would endanger their nets. This water telescope is therefore invaluable to Norwegian fishermen, but we believe it would be of little or no service on the British coasts, as the water of our shallow seas and firths is generally the reverse of being "clear as crystal."

A couple of the Quäner boats came alongside the yacht to offer their fish for sale, and a quantity were at once purchasedalthough by the way, they did not prove

very appetising, even when cooked by that accomplished artiste, Monsieur Blancmange, for they all happened to be store-sei, a large and beautiful looking fish, but of coarse quality. There are, however, on this very part of the coast of Finmark no less than sixteen different species of fish (the names of which we jotted down when crusing there) some of which are of delicious flavour. The poor Quäners were magnificently remunerated for their fish, and were permitted to board the yacht, and even to descend to the cabin, which they appeared to admire and marvel at as much, or probably a great deal more, than you, or I, reader, would the gorgeous saloons of Her Majesty's own yacht.

Lord Silverton requested the old pilot, who acted as tolk, or interpreter, to ask the Quäners what they thought of his cabin? He did so, and their spokesman, after rolling his eyes round, and looking upwards and downwards, finally shook his head, and hoarsely ejaculated that the English have

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meget penge" (much money), and it must be admitted that his remark was sensible and suggestive enough. The English gentlemen regarded the persons of their visitors with considerable interest. The Quäners were all below what we regard as a standard or medium height, but were very powerfullybuilt fellows. Their features were by no means prepossessing, being harsh, and in one or two instances absolutely savage in expression; their complexion was nearly copper-coloured; their eyes dark, and glaring; their hair reddish, and hanging all around their faces and necks in long tangled masses. Their outer dress consisted of a huge kofta, or tunic, made of sheep-skin, or rein-deer skin, or of very coarse wadmal (a woollen stuff) as the case might be; and their leggings and boots were also of rein-deer skin, or else of untanned leather. Altogether, they had a wild, savage, and somewhat repulsive appearance.

When they were about to quit the yacht, Captain Wildair and Mr. Fribble, actuated by a spirit of disinterested generosity, offered to present them with Beauty as a parting gift, eloquently praising his many matchless qualities. But the ruse was of no avail. The Quaners each and all stared at Beauty and walked round him as he reclined on the deck, and then they grunted and looked at each other with an expression that betokened anything but a feeling of admiration or

friendliness towards the valuable animal tendered for their acceptance. They contented themselves with coolly saying a few words to the pilot, who interpreted thus:

"Dey say, no like Boo-tee! him bad hund, have do evil eye, and frighten fish away! Dey no have Boo-tee never, not at all, no how, no way!"

This was, alas too evidently the fact, for when the gentlemen began to press the Quaners to accept Beauty, and even offered them a few specie dollars to take him, the sagacious fishermen at once sprang into their boats, and without a word of adieu rowed away, apparently afraid lest the diabolicallooking dog should be handed over to their tender mercies against their will.”

In a short time the tide slacked, and the wind freshened, and consequently the yacht gathered way, and gallantly breasted the waters, steering through the fleet of fishing boats, and the prodigious flocks of sea-birds, which were so fearless that they permitted the vessel to almost dash them aside in her passage. And now the open sea was once more gained, and the gentlemen aboard the yacht each proceeded to "kill time" by amusing himself as inclination prompted. Captain Wildair went forward, and cracked away with a rifle at any innocent bird that flew overhead, or floated on the water within range of the piece; Mr. Blank seated himself on the taffrail with a thumb-worn copy of Burns's Poems in his hand, fancying (and very truly, too) that few people had ever read “Tam o'Shanter," or the "Cottar's Saturday Night," under more romantic circumstances; the Honorable de Laly Lumbercourt and Mr. Fribble "paired off" and went below to have an intellectual game at chess, as they said, but in reality they went to drink pale ale and smoke some choice East Indian cigars over the chess board; and Lord Silverton himself remained a long time on deck, conversing with the old pilot and the master of his yacht, on nautical subjects. As to Sir Marmaduke Muddle, he remained below in his state room in solitary dignity, but repeatedly sent up the steward to report as to the whereabouts of his amiable pet Beauty, and as philanthropists tell us that the man who evinces a warm attachment to a dumb animal must certainly possess a feeling heart and be of a benevolent disposition generally, far be it from us to deny that the gigantic sporting baronet was an exception to the rule.

At length Lord Silverton sauntered below, and on entering the saloon discovered hs highly-gifted friends Mr. Fribble and the Honorable de Laly Lumbercourt, intensely interested in not exactly a game of chess, although it was played on the chess boardbut in what we may not inappropriately designate the compass-game ! Very probably not one of our readers ever before heard of this exciting and exceedingly intellectual game, and therefore we must briefly describe it. You turn over a chess board, and on the back thereof you draw with a piece of chalk a large circle, from the centre of which straight lines radiate-in fact, you design a mariner's compass, with the thirtytwo points complete. Then you search about the cabin, or the state-rooms, or (most likely place of all) the cook's caboose, until you succeed in capturing a beetle, or a spider, or a black clock, or any other lively insect. This being duly secured, you say to your friend :-" Lumbercourt, I'll bet you a Victoria that the spider makes his exist either North East, or South West!" To this he replies-" Done ! " and so the wager is arranged. Thereupon you carefully, tenderly, place the captured spider in the exact centre of the compass, and if he is sulky, and rolls himself in a ball, and refuses to move, you gently prick him with a pin, and compel him to crawl in whatsoever direction he pleases. Well, supposing the spider crosses the circle in a North East or South West direction, you win the sovereign; but if he obstinately creeps to any other quarter of the compass, you lose! Can anything be more exquisitely simple and instructive than this beautiful game-not exactly of chance, but of insect instinct? We trow not. All honour to the strong-minded inventor!

After watching the result of four or five compass-games, Lord Silverton left his friends absorbed in this innocent and mentally-stimulative recreation, and entered the sanctum of Monsieur Blancmange, to consult with the chef on that vitally important topic (in a yacht) the commissariat department. Mons. B. was delighted with the honour of a visit from my lord, and they were occupied a long time together in taking stock, and "voting supplies," and devising expedients, and suggesting ways and means to furnish materials for future banquets, when a gradually increasing hubbub on deck, in which stamping of feet, clapping of hands,

shoutings, and laughter all mingled, forcibly attracted their notice.

"Whatever is going on forward, I wonder?" said Lord Silverton.

Monsieur Blancmange shrugged his shoulders, grimaced expressively, and performed a rapid pantomimic action as he replied—

"Dat villain bool-dogue, Milord! Ah, oui, certainement, Milord, tout court, it dat monstre bête, de bool-dogue, Sir Moodle's!"

"What! Beauty again! Hang the brute, he is perpetually causing disturbances. There will be no peace in the yacht until he is-settled!" and thus muttering, Lord Silverton hastily ascended to the deck, where he at once saw that this time the maligned innocent, Beauty, was not the cause of the uproar, but Beauty's master, Sir Marmaduke Muddle, who was the centre of a ring on the forecastle, nearly all the crew, and the gentlemen, having assembled in a circle, and to appearance they were deriving very considerable amusement from a scene in which the worthy baronet was a principal actor.

"What's the meaning of all this, steward?" angrily exclaimed Lord Silverton to the official he addressed, and who happened to have come aft-where no one remained but the man at the wheel?

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Only Sir Marmaduke, my lord, who's been a-putting on the gloves, a-taking a little exercise, 'cause his constitootion's delicate !"

"This is unbearable! he and his horrible dog make a perfect bear-garden of my deck! I won't permit it any longer, come what may!" and he strode forward and forthwith vetoed the "manly exercise," and broke up "the ring" of admiring spectators with little ceremony. We need hardly explain the affair to the intelligent reader, who will already have rightly guessed that Sir Marmaduke Muddle, having learnt from the steward that Lord Silverton had quitted the deck and was likely to remain a considerable time below, thought this a highly favourable opportunity to enjoy a "divarsion" (as an Irish gentleman would term it) for which his soul had long pined; and so he took two pairs of boxing-gloves, and hastened to the forecastle, where, in spite of the remonstrances of Captain Deadeye, the master of the yacht, (who had no objection personally to the proposed manly exercise, but dreaded the displeasure of Lord Silverton), he induced a black-muz zled seaman, who was quite a scientific boxer, to "put on the gloves ;" and accord

ingly the sailor and the baronet, each stripped to the shirt, sparred away to the perfect satisfaction of themselves and the spectators, until the unexpected presence of Lord Silverton unhappily put a premature stop to the exhilirating and noble performance, much to the disappointment alike of guests and crew, none of whom, however, dared to openly complain, with the exception of Sir Marmaduke, who pulled off his gloves and dashed them on deck as though they were gauntlets of defiance, and growled to the effect that "Silverton was a fellow with no pluck ;" a spoil-sport;" a spooney;" and "a muff;"--but his lordship only smiled, with an air of contemptuous indifference to the opinion of Sir Marmaduke Muddle.

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Forty-eight hours subsequent to this little episode, the Seabird dropped anchor in the harbour of Tromsö, much to the gratification of all on board. The town of Tromsö is situated on an island off the coast of Norland, in latitude 69° 40′ N.--and therefore considerably beyond the Arctic Circle. Its nearest neighbour is Hammerfest in Finmark, and southward, there is no other town nearer than Drontheim (as we call it, but Trondhjem in Norwegian) which is some four hundred and fifty miles distant.

Lord Silverton forthwith landed, and waited on the British consul, who, with some difficulty, procured an intelligent Norwegian, competent to act as interpreter to the English gentlemen during their proposed sojourn at Tromsö, for they had heard much of the hospitable spirit of its merchants, and the beauty and accomplishments of the ladies who, although natives of this remote and savage region, which many of them have never travelled beyond, are yet well-educated and highly refined! Extremely delighted were the young English strangers when they learnt that parties would be given in their honour at one house or other almost every evening during their sojourn, and they unanimously-for even the stubborn Muddle cordially agreed on this point-urged Lord Silverton to give one or more grand entertainments and balls on board his yacht, as some return for the prospective hospitalities they were to enjoy ashore. The owner of the Seabird was nothing loth, and he forthwith held a council with Captain Deadeye and Monsieur Blancmange, the result of which was that on the very day following their arrival in port, the seamen were set to work preparing awnings, &c., and Mons.

Blancmange, aided by the steward, and a volunteer or two from the crew, commenced operations for producing a grand banquet three days thereafter. The talented chef, however, sighed when he thought that the guests would probably not be qualified to appreciate the chef-d'œuvres of his art-but therein he erred.

Meanwhile, Lord Silverton, who never neglected any opportunity of acquiring information, went about the town and island, indefatigably inquiring into all matters of interest, national, political, commercial, and social. He found that Tromsö was a thriving modern town, of two or three thousand inhabitants, rapidly rising to a position of considerable commercial importance, owing mainly to its capital position as an immense entrepôt for the great fisheries of the far north. The town consists of one long winding street, and a few offshoots. All the houses are built of wood, and generally painted white, red, green, or other colours. The roofs of the majority of houses are sodded, the people considering that a good crop of grass and flowers overhead helps to keep their domiciles "bein and snug," as a Scotsman would say. The dwellings of the merchants and official personages are handsome and apparently very comfortable buildings. The great export of Tromsö is dried fish, which are sent in immense quantities to the Catholic countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and also to some parts of Norway and Sweden, and to Russia. The other exports are oil, bones, and skins. From England it imports coal and salt; from Russia, meal, &c., and from Hamburg and the Mediterranean various articles of necessity and luxury. Provisions of all kinds are extremely scarce and dear-nothing being plentiful at Tromsö but fish, which is the staple food of all but the upper classes. The island itself is about fourteen miles in circumference, and in the summer time is really a very pretty "gem of the sea," considering its degree of north latitude. The natives are very proud of their island, and their attachment to it is quite enthusiastic. They declare that they would not exchange it for the most favoured spot on earth, and that they have not the slightest desire ever to quit it for southern lands. True it is that man may enjoy the utmost happiness of which his nature is capable, everywhere, provided he possesses that priceless jewelcontentment. Finely, and forcibly, and