40 TliE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER Africa — we had the honour of listening to a sonnet of which they were the joint authors. Here it is : NIGHT ON THE RI\ER.

Slow throu-h ihe reaches of ihe oily siream. Unshapely, huge, and heap'd wiih cumbrous freight, The steamer drays along its ponderous weight. And panting, breathes a cloud of eddying steam ; Upon the deck the wearied negroes dream.

In sleep's fine ihraldom — 'huinblc, candid, great, — While o\crhead the moon in regal stale Trails robes of gauze cnmesh'd ivith astral gleam. The misly niglil exhales a poisonous balm From vague-spread margins, where the shadows lie. Of softly- 1 uf ted bush and tropic palm ; Then from the silence, echoless, on high Mounts thriiugh the tor(wr of the deadly calm, To ethereal plains the siren's pitrcing cry.