overlooked the northern end of the lake, now covered with ice, a resolute miner, Andreas Spire, of Lugnitz, in the Grisons, carried the match into the shaft, and, cutting off the end of the fusee, which he then covered with loose powder, attached to it the match, calculated to burn for fifteen minutes, so as to allow time for his escape. As soon as it was kindled, he hastened along the gallery, accompanied by a companion who carried the lantern. On his reappearance at the mouth of the tunnel, a pistol-shot announced his return to the anxious multitude.

The excitement had now reached its highest point; in eight minutes all was to be decided. They passed, and nothing was heard; at the eleventh, when all had begun to despair of success, two dull reports, immediately succeeding each other, were heard from beneath; but the earth was not perceived to tremble, nor was any change observed in the frozen surface of the lake. For a moment, the consternation was universal. No one doubted that the explosion had failed. At once a rejoicing shout from below announced its success. Old and young rushed tumultuously down to the mouth of the shaft, from which a black torrent of mud, driving before it a cloud of smoke, burst forth with raging violence.

The

This triumphant issue of a bold enterprise was in itself highly exciting; but it was still more moving and beautiful to witness the emotion of the simple-minded peasants, whom it raised to the summit of happiness. They congratulated each other with looks and gestures--their hearts were too full for words. They remained until sunset, gazing at the wild outbreak of the waters. rest of the day was devoted to feasting and exultation; amidst which the heartfelt gratitude expressed by the villagers to Sulzberger, and the others who had shared the labour of the preceding days, was absolutely affecting. On visiting the tunnel the day after, the joyful spectators found the scene already changed. From the mouth of the shaft the stream now flowed, as clear as crystal, down the deepened bed of the Aa, towards the plain of Gieswyl.

The rocks on every side were covered with the most fantastic and beautiful frost-work, formed by the frozen mist arising from the spray of the torrent. The lake had already fallen three feet; and the plain of Gieswyl was once more, after an interval of 100 years, covered with water. The sluices at the tunnel's mouth were therefore reduced from twelve to seven and a half feet of aperture, and the discharge became more gradual. By the 15th of January, the surface of the lake had sunk fourteen feet, and a considerable space of land left bare.

By the 25th of February, the lake had fallen to the level of the tunnel's mouth; and the promised land appeared a large space of black mud, covered with the trunks of float-timber, and visited by swarms of crows, feeding on the insects and worms on its surface. Some years must yet elapse before the ground can become valuable for agricultural purposes; the greater part consisting of unfruitful sand and clay. The villagers have, however, already begun to cultivate it here and there; and some promising crops of potatoes might have been seen last June in places formerly many feet below the surface of the lake.

The entire expense of the work, from its commencement in 1790 to the present year, amounted in money-payments to 51,826 francs (Swiss), or about L.5000 sterling; and in voluntary labour, not reckoned in this sum, to 19,000 days-work-an immense expenditure to be raised by a small and poor community. It is to be hoped that it will be repaid by the produce of such remarkable and praiseworthy exertions.

The above is an abridgment of an article in Tail's Edinburgh Magazine for May 1837, the details of which, the writer mentions, are from a work published at Zurich, in Switzerland.

PAUL CUFFEE.

Ir is with much pleasure that we introduce to our readers a sketch of the history of Paul Cuffee, a negro not unworthy to be classed with Jenkins, Lott Cary, and Phillis Wheatley, all persons of colour remarkable for their intellectual acquirements. In the present sketch, it is not our intention to represent the black as possessed of a native equality of intellect with the white, and that education and other circumstances operate all the difference which is observable between them. This is a proposition, we believe, of too ambitious and extreme a character to be sustained, however pleasing it may be to the philanthropist. A much more moderate proposition seems to be the one which approaches nearest to the truth; and this is, that while, in the mass, the coloured races are far behind the whites, such examples of intellect and virtue as are seen in Cary and Jenkins, prove that there is no absolute difference in specific character between the black and white races, and lead us to hope that the former, by cultivation through successive generations, may reach the same point to which the latter have attained. This slow mode of advance, generation by generation, is shewn, indeed, by the history of civilisation among the white races, to be the universal law of social progress. Ages have been required to make the white race what it now is, and the improvement of the African mind must in like manner be the work of ages, and of ages, too, judiciously employed.

With this explanation of our views, we turn to Paul Cuffee, who presents us with an example of great energy of mind in the more common affairs of life, as Cary and Wheatley exhibited the finer and higher degrees of intellectual endowment. The father of Paul was a native of Africa, from which country he was brought as a slave to Boston, in North America. Here he remained in

slavery for a considerable portion of his life, but finally, by industry and economy, he amassed a sum which enabled him to purchase his personal liberty. About the same period, he married a woman of Indian descent; and continuing his habits of industry and frugality, he soon found himself rich enough to purchase a farm of a hundred acres at Westport, in Massachusetts. Here a family of ten children was born to him, four sons and six daughters, all of whom received a little education, and were ultimately established in respectable situations in life. Paul, the fourth son, was born in the year 1759. When he was about fourteen years of age, his father died, leaving a considerable property in land, but which, being at that time comparatively unproductive, afforded only a very moderate provision for the large family which depended on it for subsistence. After assisting his brothers for a time in the management of this property, Paul began to see that commerce then held out higher prospects to industry than agriculture; and being conscious, perhaps, that he possessed qualities which, under proper culture, would enable him to pursue commercial employments with success, he resolved to betake himself to the sea. A whaling-voyage was his first adventure in the capacity of a mariner, and on his return from this, he made a trip to the West Indies, acting on both occasions as a 'common man at the mast.' His third voyage occurred in the year 1776, at which period Britain was at war with America. Paul and his companions were taken prisoners by the British, and detained for about three months at New York. On being liberated, Paul returned to Westport, where he resided for several succeeding years, assisting his brothers in their agricultural pursuits.

We have now to mention a circumstance most honour

able to Paul Cuffee. The free negro population of Massachusetts was at that period excluded from all participation in the rights of citizenship, though bearing a full share of every state burden. Paul, though not yet twenty years of age, felt deeply the injustice done to himself and his race, and resolved to make an effort to obtain

for them the rights which were their due. Assisted by his brothers, he drew up and presented a respectful petition on the subject to the state legislature. In spite of the prejudices of the times, the propriety and justice of the petition was perceived by a majority of the legislative body, and an act was passed, granting to the free negroes all the privileges of white citizens. This enactment was not only important as far as regarded the state of Massachusetts; the example was followed, at different periods, by others of the united provinces, and thus did the exertions of Paul Cuffee and his brothers influence permanently the welfare of the whole coloured population of North America.

After accomplishing this great work, our hero's enterprising spirit directed itself to objects of a more personal character. In his twentieth year, he laid before his brother David a plan for opening a commercial intercourse with the state of Connecticut. His brother was pleased with the scheme; an open boat, which was all that their means could accomplish, was built, and the adventurers proceeded to sea. Here David Cuffee found himself for the first time exposed to the perils of the ocean, and the hazard of the predatory warfare which was carried on by the private refugees on the coast. His courage sank ere he had proceeded many leagues, and he resolved to return. This was a bitter disappointment to the intrepid Paul, but he was affectionate, and gave up the enterprise at his elder brother's desire. After labouring diligently for some time afterwards in the fields, at the family farm, Paul collected sufficient means to try the scheme again on his own account. He went to sea, and lost all the little treasure which by the sweat of his brow he had gathered. Not discouraged by this misfortune, he returned to his farm-labours only to revolve his plans anew. he could not now purchase what he wanted, he set to work, and with his own hands constructed a boat, complete from keel to gunwale. This vessel was without a deck, but his whaling experience had made him an adept in the management of such a bark. Having launched it

As