zzled Champollion; but over the centre were two figures in bas-relief,
that could not well be mistaken, inasmuch as the sword and scales
plainly indicated that the one on the starboard side was Justice, while
the cap on the point of a lance "seemed to fructify" that her companion
was no other than Miss Liberty.

Liberty goes bare-headed now--our rulers, wisely reflecting that she is
upwards of fifty years old, and has arrived at years of discretion, have
ordered her to leave off her child's cap. There are among us those who
think that the stripping will go further, and that, in a short time, she
will be as bare as Eve.

The noses of both goddesses had been knocked off shortly after they
condescended to mount guard on the stern of the good ship Albatross, in
consequence of coming into frequent collision with the gunwale of the
jolly-boat, as she ascended and descended to and from her station at the
stern davits. At her quarter davits, on each side, hung one of those
light, swift, and somewhat singularly shaped boats, called whale-boats.
Eight iron nine-pounders on each side, thrust their black muzzles
through their respective ports, and gave her, in spite of her
bright-varnished sides, a warlike appearance.

The upper part of her cut-water was fashioned into a scroll, like the
volute of an Ionic pillar, forming what is called, by naval architects,
a "billet head;" and which, for its neatness and beauty, is very
generally adopted, both in national vessels and merchantmen. Nor was the
bow without its share of hieroglyphics; on one side were displayed a
bee-hive, a bale of cotton, and a crate of crockery; and on the other, a
globe, an anchor, a quadrant, and a chart partly unrolled.

Her royals were set flying, a technicality that I shall not attempt to
explain; she had no flying-jib, nor any of those pipe-stem spars that
are got aloft only in port, to make a ship look more like the devil than
she otherwise would, and are always sent down and stored away when she
goes to sea. Ships, forty years since, carried no spars aloft but such
as were stout enough to carry sail upon, in fair weather or
foul--sliding-gunter sky-sail masts, and other useless sticks, were as
much unknown to ship-builders and riggers, as railroads and steam-boats.

Sitting upon the weather hen-coop, attached to the companion, or entrance
to the cabin, with spectacles on nose, and a well-worn bible on his
knees, sat an elderly man, the commander of the