vessels. In one instance they were found traced upon the stone with ink. Within some of the vessels was also found a liquid, which upon exposure rapidly evaporated, leaving a brown sediment, which, as already noticed, was analysed by Mr. Prinsep, and offered some traces of animal and vegetable matters. »

་་

But the most important articles found in the topes are coins; and these are valuable, especially for proving that a race of kings, not descended from the Greeks of Bactria, adopted the Greek language, legends, and symbols upon their coins, and also because they enable us to ascertain approximately the period at which the topes were erected. Mr. Wilson, after a dissertation equally remarkable for learning and acuteness, concludes that these topes are the shrines of the supposed relics of the last Buddha, and that the date of those found on the upper Indus is posterior to the Christian era.

Mr. Masson, in a memoir on the several topes he opened and examined, observes that to all of them a common story seems to be attached by the Mohammedans, namely, that treasure is concealed in them, and many of them have been greatly injured by persons in search of the supposed riches. The following tale is told of the finest of the Darunta topes:

"A certain cunning man of Delhi once inquired of an Afghan whence he was. The reply was, 'From Darunta.' The cunning man asked if he was acquainted with Nandàra Tope, and was answered in the affirmative. The cunning man proffered to the Afghan, that if he would extract from the tope, and bring to him, the stone on the eastern face, first illuminated by the rising sun, he should receive a reward of five thousand rupees. The Afghan returned from Delhi to Darunta, and, having the tope continually in his sight, was constantly reminded of the cunning man's promise. About to start again for Delhi, without deeming the offer of much validity, he repaired to the tope before sunrise, watched the rising of the luminary, identified the stone, and extracted it. He carried it to Delhi, and presented it to the cunning man, who instantly paid him the promised sum, and, taking a hammer, broke the stone in his presence. The astounded Afghan beheld a quantity of gems and jewels beyond price. The cunning man remarked, O blockhead, but for your simplicity you had surpassed in wealth the richest monarch on earth. »

Mr. Masson's investigations were undertaken originally at his own cost, but at an early period he proposed to transfer his

actual and all future collections to the East India Company, on condition of their defraying the expenses of his operations." The proposal was accepted, and from 1834 to 1837 he was sedulously employed in this pursuit. Various accounts of his discoveries were published from time to time, and several excellent papers on the coins were published by Mr. James Prin sep in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; the subject soon engaged the attention of the numismatists and scholars on the continent, and much new light was thrown on the few points where India is connected with classical antiquity. Mr. H. H. Wilson, who, from the very beginning, had taken an active interest in Mr. Masson's researches, proposed to the East India Company the publication of a complete account of his discoveries, and that body not only consented to incur the risk and expense of the work, but ordered that after appropriating such a portion of the edition as their various establishments require, the remaining copies should be presented to Mrs. Masson, as an additional mark of the sense they entertained of the merits of her son. Mr. Wilson has not merely given full descriptions of the coins, but has gone far towards determining their chronological order, so as to make them as nearly as possible a numismatic history of the Bactrian kingdom. He has also inserted a valuable memoir on the ancient geography of Ariana, and the routes pursued by Alexander in his marches through that country. Taken as a whole, the work is a valuable contribution to Eastern history, and will serve both as a guide and an encouragement to further investigations. (ATHENÆUM.)

THE TWO ADMIRALS,

A TALE OF THE SEA.

By J. Fenimore Cooper. 3 vols. Bentley.

How far number and order are elements of the picturesque, is a question on the adjustment of which a good deal of pretty argument might be expended. We are not sure whether any grand battle-piece, even by Bourgognone himself, could

equal in pictorial effect the solitary duello. We are not sure whether, had Mr. Cooper wrought with the power of his earlier days, the manœuvres of the fleet, commanded by Admirals Oakes and Bluewater, could have excited the same thrilling interest as attended the hair-breadth 'scapes and daredeyil achievements of the Ariel or the Waterwitch. But the case is not fairly tried in the novel before us; for, though we have here and there flashes of the old spirit, it is but for a moment. Mr. Cooper in the Two Admirals' is as prolix as usual, but the prolixity is languid and wearisome, as compared with the busy interesting minuteness of his earlier manner of narration, irod

The time of the 'Two Admirals' is the middle of last century; the scene opens on the coast of Devonshire, where an officer in guard of a Signal Station (who has been degraded from a higher rank, owing to his drunken habits), his melancholy wife, and his beautiful daughter, make precisely the group, into the midst of which a young handsome stranger from the colonies, like Wycherly Wychecombe, is sure to introduce trouble. An additional entanglement for the course of true love presents itself in the circumstances of the Baronet's family, with which the aforesaid Wycherly is distantly connected. A fair estate and a fine fortune are capriciously willed away, in accordance with an old family usage; and one claimant to the same is a certain Tom Wychecombe, of whom we conceive a tolerable Iago would have been made, had not Mr. Cooper steered a little wide of the course originally laid down. Such, with the owner of the estate, are the principal shore figures-if Wycherly deserve the name, he being a sailor as nimble on the deck as he is gallant upon the cliffs in perilling his life to gather a nosegay for sweet Mildred Dutton.

The marine figures are better drawn. The two admirals are a Pylades and Orestes, the course of whose long career in glorious war and generous friendship, has never been severely troubled till one of them, Bluewater, begins to perplex his mind with that question fraught with so much vexation a hundred years since, the Hanoverian succession. On

the landing of Charles Edward in Scotland, Bluewater is so far influenced by his Jacobite sympathies, as to hold himself apart from an action with the French, until affection for his brother officer, rather than duty to King George, hurries him on to interpose at a critical moment, Sir Gervaise Oakes was all but overmastered,-nor was the bitterness of such a position made the less galling by a consciousness that he owed that imminent peril to the desertion of a brother in arms, the staunch companion of many a victory :

stance,

The reader will not overlook the material circumstance, that all we have related occurred amid the din of battle. Guns were exploding at each instant, the cloud of smoke was both thickening and extending, fire was flashing in the semi-obscurity of its volumes, shot were rending the wood and cutting the rigging, and the pier cing shrieks of agony, only so much the more appalling by being extorted from the stern and resolute, blended their thrilling accom paniments. Men seemed to be converted into demons, and yet there was a lofty and stubborn resolution to conquer mingled with ́alt, that ennobled the strife and rendered it heroic. The broadsides that were delivered in succession down the line, as ship after ship of the rear division reached her station, however, proclaimed that Monsieur des Prez had imitated Sir Gervaise's mode of closing, the only one by means of which the leading vessel could escape des truction, and that the English were completely doubled on. At this moment, the sail-trimmers of the Plantagenet handled their braces. The first pull was the last. No sooner were the ropes started, than the fore-top-mast went over the bows, dragging after it the main with all its hamper, the mizen snapping like a pipe-stem at the cap. By this eruel accident, the result of many injuries to shrouds, backstays, and spars, the situation of the Plantagenet became worse than ever; for, not only was the wreck to be partially cleared, at least, to fight many of the larboard guns, but the command of the ship was, in a great measure, lost, in the centre of one of the most infernal mélées that ever accompanied a combat at sea. At no time does the trained seaman ever appear so great as when he meets sudden misfortunes with the steadiness and quiet which it is a material part of the morale of discipline to inculcate. Greenly was full of ardour for the assault, and was thinking of the best mode of running foul of his adversary, when this calamity occurred; but the masts were hardly down when he changed all his thoughts to a new current, and called out to the sail-trimmers to 'lay over, and clear the wreck.' Sir Gervaise, too, met with a sudden and violent check to the current of his feelings. He had collected his Bowlderos, and was giving his instructions as to the manner in which they were to

ba,q.de 12 Sİ

follow, and keep near his person, in the expected hand-to-hand encounter, when the heavy rushing of the air, and the swoop of the mass from above, announced what had occurred. Turning to the men, he calmly ordered them to aid in getting rid of the incumbrances, and was in the very act of directing Wycherly to join in the same duty, when the latter exclaimed-See, Sir Gervaise, here comes another of the Frenchmen close upon our quarter. By heavens, they must mean to board!' The vice-admiral instinctively grasped his sword-hilt tighter, and turned in the direction mentioned by his companion. There, indeed, came a fresh ship, shoving the cloud aside, and, by the clearer atmosphere that seemed to accompany her, apparently bringing down a current of air stronger than common. When first seen, the jib-boom and bow-sprit were both enveloped in smoke, but his bellying fore-top-sail, and the canvass hanging in festoons, loomed graudly in the vapour, the black yards seeming to embrace the wreaths, merely to cast them aside. The proximity, too, was fearful, her yard-a l-arms promising to clear those of the Plantagenet only by a few feet, as her dark bows brushed along the admiral's side. This will be fearful work, indeed!' exclaimed Sir Gervaise. A fresh broadside from a ship so near, will sweep all from the spars. Go, Wychecombe, tell Greenly to call in-Hold!-'Tis an English ship! No Frenchman's bowsprit stands like that! Almighty God be praised! 'Tis the Cœsar — there is the old Roman figure-head just shoving out of the smoke!' This was said with a yell, rather than a cry, of delight, and in a voice so loud that the words were heard below, and flew through the ship like the hissing of an ascending rocket. To confirm the glorious tidings, the flash and roar of guns on the offside of the stranger announced the welcome tidings that Le Pluton had an enemy of her own to contend with, thus enabling the Plantagenet's people to throw all their strength on the starboard guns, and pursue their other necessary work without further molestation from the French rear-admiral. The gratitude of Sir Gervaise, as, the rescuing ship thrust herself in between him and his most formidable assailant, was too deep for language. He placed his hat mechanically before his face, and thanked God, with a fervour of spirit that never before had attended his thanksgivings. This brief act of devotion over, he found the bows of the Caesar, which ship was advancing very slowly, in order not to pass too far ahead, just abreast of the spot where he stood, and so near that objects were pretty plainly visible. Between her knight-heads stood Bluewater, conning the ship, by means of a line of officers, his hat in his hand, waving in encouragement to his own people, while Geoffrey Cleveland held the trumpet at his elbow. At that moment three noble cheers were given by the crews of the two friendly vessels, and mingled with the increasing roar of the Caesar's artillery. Then the smoke rose

502