lames which had spread along her upper deck, now mounted rapidly to
the mast and rigging, forming one general conflagration and lighting up
the heavens to an immense distance round. One by one her stately masts
fell over her sides. By half-past one in the morning the fire reached
the powder magazine; the looked-for explosion took place, and the
burning fragments of the vessel were blown high into the air, like so
many rockets.

The Cambria, with her crowd of sufferers, made all speed to the nearest
port, and reached Portsmouth in safety, shortly after midnight, on the
3d of March, 1825, the accident having taken place on the 28th of
February. Wonderful to tell, fourteen of the poor creatures, left on the
Kent, were rescued by another ship, the Caroline, on her passage from
Alexandria to Liverpool.

THE PELICAN.

The life of a pelican seems to be a very lazy, if not a very pleasant
one. Man, ever on the watch to turn the habits of animals to his own
account, observing how good a fisherman the pelican is, often catches
and tames him, and makes him fish for _him_. I have heard of a bird of
this kind in America, which was so well trained, that it would at
command go off in the morning, and return at night with its pouch full,
and stretched to the utmost; part of its treasure it disgorged for its
master, the rest was given to the bird for its trouble. It is hardly
credible what these extraordinary pouches will hold; it is said, that
among other things, a man's leg with the boots on was once found in one
of them.

Pelicans live in flocks; they and the cormorants sometimes help one
another to get a living. The cormorant is a species of pelican, of a
dusky color: it is sometimes called the sea crow. The cormorants are the
best divers, so the pelicans arrange themselves in a large circle at
some great distance from the land, and flap their great wings on the
surface of the water, while the cormorants dive beneath. Away swim the
poor frightened fish towards the shore; the pelicans draw into a
narrower circle, and the fish at last are brought into so small a
compass, that their pursuers find no difficulty in obtaining a plentiful
meal.

[Illustration: THE SEA TURTLE.]

CATCHING TURTLE.

There are two kinds of turtle; the one is called the green turtle, and
is much valued as a delicious article of food; the other the hawk's bill
turtle supplies the tortoise shell of commerce, which is prepared and
moulded