direction; the latter replied in the
affirmative. Columbus, yet doubtful whether it might not be some
delusion of the fancy, called Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, and made the
same enquiry. By the time the latter had ascended the roundhouse, the
light had disappeared. They saw it once or twice afterwards in sudden
and passing gleams, as if it were a torch in the bark of a fisherman
rising and sinking with the waves, or in the hand of some person on
shore, borne up and down as he walked from house to house. So transient
and uncertain were these gleams, that few attached any importance to
them; Columbus, however, considered them as certain signs of land, and,
moreover, that the land was inhabited."--IRVING'S _Columbus_, vol. i.

{B} "It was on Friday, the 3d of August 1492, early in the morning, that
Columbus set sail on his first voyage of discovery. He departed from the
bar of Saltes, a small island in front of the town of Huelva, steering
in a south-westerly direction," &c.--IRVING. He was about fifty-seven
years old the year of the Discovery.

{C} "On the 13th September, in the evening, being about two hundred
leagues from the island of Ferro, he, for the first time, noticed the
variation of the needle, a phenomenon which had never before been
remarked. Struck with the circumstance, he observed it attentively for
three days, and found that the variation increased as he advanced. It
soon attracted the attention of the pilots, and filled them with
consternation. It seemed as if the very laws of nature were changing as
they advanced, and that they were entering another world subject to
unknown influences."--_Ibid._

TO SWALLOWS ON THE EVE OF DEPARTURE.

BY THE SAME.

"The day before V----'s departure for the last time from the
country--it was the 4th of August, one of the hottest days of the
season--as evening fell, he strolled with an old school-fellow
through the cool green avenues and leafy arcades of the
neighbouring park, where his friend amused him by pointing out to
his attention vast multitudes of Swallows that came swarming from
all directions to settle on the roofs and gables of the
manor-house. This they do for several days preparatory to their
departing, in one collected body, to more genial climates."--_MS.
Memoir._

I.

Joyous Birds! preparing
In the clear evening light
To leave our dwindled summer day