nevertheless possessed of only seven vertebræ, as in ordinary animals. Those bones are, however, extremely elongated, and their articulation is admirably adapted to the purpose which they are called upon to fulfil. The back of the giraffe slopes considerably from the shoulders to the tail, and at first sight the fore-legs of the animal appear to be longer than the hinder limbs. The legs themselves are, however, of equal length, and the elevation of the shoulder is due to the very great elongation of the shoulder-blades.

The singular height of this animal is entirely in accordance with its habits and its mode of acquiring food. As the creature is accustomed to feed upon the leaves of trees, it must necessarily be of very considerable stature to be able to reach the leaves on which it browses, and must also be possessed of organs by means of which it can select and gather such portions of the foliage as may suit its palate. The former object is gained by the great length of the neck and legs, and the latter by the wonderful development of the tongue, which is so marvellously formed that it is capable of a considable amount of prehensible power, and can be elongated or contracted in a most wondenful manner. As far as is at present known, the giraffe is a silent animal, having never been known to utter a sound, even when struggling in the agonies of death.

HAUNTED SHIPS.

BY FREDERICK W. SAUNDERS.

TELL you it ain't no use trying to laugh it off and explain the matter by saying that there is no earthly reason why one ship should be more unlucky than another in the long run, and that everything depends on the captain and the officers and crew-'twon't do. If reason says that, experience shows to the contrary," exclaimed Jack Brace, vehemently bringing his paw down upon the table with a force that made the bottles aud glasses dance again, and went a long way towards convincing his auditors. "Just look at the case of that down-east schooner, that happened only two or three years ago," he continued. "There she was, a bran new craft, just off the stocks, put together in the best manner, without regard to expense, and as pretty a model as ever slid from the ways. Her captain, who had been waiting some time for her to be completed, was as smart a young fellow and as good a sailor as ever straddled a gangway; her crew were all picked men, and everything was done for her that experience could suggest or money buy. Now you chaps, who talk so much about your reason and your philosophy, would have thought a man a fool who should have predicted that she would be one of the unluckiest crafts that over floated; and that, without being cast away, she would never complete a single voyage. And yet, how was the case? She took her cargo aboard at some port in the State of Maine, and started for Philadelphia. When a week out, she put into Boston, where she had no business to be, as it was a long way out of her course. No sooner was her anchor down than every man-Jack aboard of her tumbled his traps into the boat and came ashore; and

the captain notified the owners that they must find some one else to take charge of her, as neither himself nor his crew could be hired for any money to put foot on her deck again. The owners were, very naturally, surprised and indignant. Another crew was immediately put aboard, so that she hove up anchor and went to sea the same afternoon, and not the slightest doubt ever entered the head of any one that she would continue the voyage. What, then, was the surprise of the owners upon hearing next morning that the schooner lay at anchor at Nantasket Roads with not a soul on board!

"The captain and mate soon made their appearance at the owner's office, looking very glum and thoughtful. They reported that, having run half the distance between Boston Light and Race Point by twelve at night, they concluded to put back. They were very sorry, they said, to disappoint the owners, but they didn't like the craft, and would prefer not to go in her. The crew were closely questioned, but they only shook their heads, looked at each other, and said they didn't fancy the schooner; nothing further could be got from them by any amount of questioning. There was a great deal of difficulty in procuring another crew; captains and mates were plenty enough, but the story had got about among the men in port that the vessel was queer, and they could not be persuaded to go in her. As a last resort, a complete crew, officers and men, were shipped in New York without being informed of the circumstances, sent to Boston and hurried on board.

"This time the experiment was successful, the schooner was got round to Philadelphia; but no sooner was she made fast alongside the wharf than all hands left her, hot foot. The cargo was taken out, and the return freight put on board; but that was as far as they could go; the story had been carried to all the principal ports, and chaps were shy of her. In this condition she lay a month, and shippers began to grumble at their freight being delayed, when, by an offer of double wages, a set of roughs were engaged and sent down from York. They were a precious set of highbinders, fresh from the slave trade or worse. Their captain was every inch a scamp; and take them altogether, you would not be inclined to dispute their assertion that they were a match for the world, the flesh, and the old fellow himself.' Well, these fellows were put on board, and with the help of an unlimited amount of corn whiskey, and no end of hard swearing, the schooner was worked down the Delaware, and on her way to Portland.

"Five days from that time she was picked up adrift in Massachusetts bay, and towed into Boston the men having left in the boat and gone ashore, bag and baggage, when off Provincetown. She laid at Boston about a year, was sold and unsold a dozen times, each owner trying his best to make something of her, but she cost more than she come to, and burned the fingers of every one who had anything to do with her, until at length some one having got possession of her for a incre song, he wisely broke her up and sold the material.

"Now, how does that jibe ?" continued Jack Brace, with a triumphant glance around the table. "How does that jibe with your talk about good or ill luck sticking by a craft as long as she floated?"

"Is all that yarn true?" asked Joe Grummet, puffing a cloud of tobacco smoke into Jack's face.

"Every word of it. I have got two or three Boston papers in my chest that makes mention of some of the circumstances; not in full, of course, for the owners would try to hush it up, so as not to give the vessel a bad name, but enough to show that I'm not blowing a false breeze. I got the particulars from a couple of shipmates who sailed in the schooner at different times."

town that figures in your lie about the haunted schooner."

""Tisn't any lie!" exclaimed Jack Brace, springing from his chair, and thumping the table with his fist. "It's gospel truth, every word. I can show you the papers I spoke about, and bring people to prove every—”

"Well, well," drawled Joe, in a conciliating tone; "say your sermon about the schooner, then, if that suits you better; but to tell you the truth, Jack, I only believe the schooner story to accommodate you; so take warning and don't spin another such a twister to-night, for I could not hoist in more than one such yarn in a day, and promise to believe it, even to please my best friend."

"Well, go in-go in lemons," said Jack, recover

"Why," said Joe, placing a quart pewter mug to his lips, and gazing attentively at the ceiling overhead for several minutes, while the "Adam's apple" in his brawny throat bobbed up and down, keeping time to a muffled thump, thump, thumping, that was going on somewhere in his internal economy; "why, the fact is, Jack Brace, you've wandered away from your text most consumedly. You began about ships being unlucky, and I said as how the greater part of this ill luck, if called by its right name, would be logged as incompetency of officers. Whereupon you right away heaves in stays, comes round on the other tack, and spreads yourself on a stupid twister about a haunted schooner. Now that's a different thing. If you come to talk about a ship being troubled with spooks and galhoblins and queers, I shall agree with you right off the reel, because I've been shipmates with that sort of thing myself."

"Now, Joe," said Tom Pipes, who had hitherto kept his nose in his porter pot, and a profound silence generally, "can you say, on your honor as a shell-back, that you was ever shipmates with a regular double and twisted, right up and down spook? -none of your half-and-half affairs that can be explained away, but a real, no mistake queer, such as we read about?"

"Yes, I can;" said Joe, thumping his pot on the table to attract the attention of the bar maid. "Did you ever know of the Gil Blas of Liverpool, a regular old fashion built ship, with a quarter gallery and to'gallant poop, such as you don't see now-a-days, except in pictures ?"

"Never saw her," said Jack Brace. "Nor me too," echoed Pipes.

"Well," resumed Joe, "If you never saw her, it's pretty certain you never will, for she's among the by-gones now. Well, in the year '32, I was one of the crew of the ship Dashaway, that went ashore and was hogged on the back side of Cape Cod. She went ashore in light weather, so that there wasn't much difficulty in getting her off; but she was condemned upon being overhauled by the underwriters, so of course the crew went adrift, and myself, with most of the rest, made our way to Boston-the same

"Dry up!' said Joe, authoritatively;-"you've blowed your gale, now give me a chance. Well, as I was saying, Boston being the nearest port, we drifted round there. As we passed up the harbor I noticed the Gil Blas, laying with her anchor hove short, apparently all ready for a pilot. She was a well-looking craft enough, of about eight hundred tons, and except for her old-fashioned build and rig, there was nothing to make a sailor man give the second look at her. Arrived at the city the rest of the boys, who had never been at Boston before, followed me round to my old boarding-place at the foot of Hanover Street, where I found a number of old shipmates laying on their oars, waiting for a chance to turn up. I should have liked well enough to stop ashore and cruise about the town a bit, but having lost my ship, there was of course no wages coming to me, so there was nothing for it but to get afloat again as soon as possible. The next morning after our arrival, as we were all sitting in the bar-room, smoking and spinning amusing little lies to each other, the door comes open with a bang, and in rushes the shipping-office runner in a deuce of a hurry, with,' Hurrah, boys! who's for Canton ?" "I am!' says I, smart as a cricket. "And I, and I,' sung out all the rest. "That's right,' says the runner; are there of you?"

'how many

"Fifteen,' says Jack Rollock, counting noses. "Fifteen, eh? Well, I shall want five more, besides a cook and steward; so while I run round into Ann Street and hunt 'em up, you'd best go down to the office and sign; and I say, boys, get your traps all ready to go aboard this afternoon, for they want to get to sea to-night, d'ye understand ?"

"All right,' says Jack; but what's the name of the craft anyway?"

"The Gil Blas,' replied the runner. And he passed out of the door and down the street as quick as he'd come.

"Well, she's queer; that's what's the matter with her. There's more aboard of her than what's put down on the manifest, or gets wages either.' "Pooh-nonsense; it's only a sailor's yarn.' "Well, then, if it's only a sailor's yarn, there are better men than ever you or me in this town-men with long tails swinging abaft their starns,-who think the same thing, let me tell you, You wouldn't suppose the Lloyd's, or the board of underwriters in this here town of Boston, could be led away by a sailor's yarn, as you call it, do you? You needn't answer, because I know you are a man of sense. Well, now let me give you a little pocket geography of this here same homely-looking scow of a Gil Blas. Well, then, in the first place, you must know, she lost her spars no end of times; but as she's an old craft, that's not to be wondered at. That's not the worst of it, however; from the time she was launched until this day, she never took a cargo that she didn't wet, sweat, or damage in some way, so that the underwriter had to lose a good proportion of what she and cargo were worth-d'ye mind that? Well, she kept on that way from bad to worse, rating lower and lower at the offices every voyage, until this time they refused to insure her at any price, which of course prevented her going to sea. To get rid of this difficulty, the owners had her hauled on to the railway and thoroughly examined. Her bottom was found to be as sound as a nut, and after a good many hems and haws, they finally managed to get her insured at high rates, in small sums distributed all over the country. Her cargo was then put aboard, and she now only waits for a crew; for I'm blowed if I go in her anyway you can fix it." "Nor I, nor I," echoed all the rest. And as no one was going, I backed out also.

"The runner was naturally a little cut up to find we had disappointed him. But he was nobody. Sailors were scarce at that time, and it stood him in hand to be precious civil, or he might have got licked.

"There were no other chances offering that day, and we passed the time sozzling about the house until about ten o'clock in the evening, and had just begun to think about turning in, when in rushed the shipping agent again under a full press of canvas.

"Hurrah, lads!' he shouted. "Look alive now, and get your traps together. There's a ship lying in Nantasket Roads, bound for Canton. They've just worked her round from Bath with lumpers and riggers, and want a crew straight, so's to get to sea to-night. Show yourselves spry now, for there's a pilot boat waiting at Long Wharf to take you aboard free gratis.'

"What's her name?' chorussed all hands. "The Arethusa-bran new ship-eighteen dollars a month-soft tack twenty-one times a weekthe captain's an angel and the mate a saint; ask him to give you a chaw of tobacco, and he'll knock you down with a pound. Look alive, boys, look alive!' "We required no urging-getting to sea being the thing of all others we most desired. A string of drays having drawn up in front of the door, our chests, bags and hammocks were piled upon them, and off they started, followed by our tribe in 'open

and three, dropping in at the numerous chain-lockers along the route, to take a parting smile with their shore acquaintances, from which places of 'entertainment for man and beast'-especially beastthey were quickly dislodged by the runner and boarding master, who followed close astern, as whippers in. Arrived at the wharf, we were joined by another gang, which completed the crew. Tumbling ourselves and our traps aboard the boat, the sails were hoisted, and with a stiff breeze we rattled down the harbor in fine style. Passing Boston light, there sure enough was the ship, just outside of Point Alderton. We couldn't see much of her, however, for the night was as dark as it ever was in the middle of the dark ages.

"Man the windlass-heave up!' was the order, as we swarmed up the gangway, fore and main chains. The breaks were shipped, and as the ship was no great distance from the bottom, the anchor was soon fished and catted, the topsails and to'gallant sails dropped, sheeted home and hoisted up, the fore and main tacks boarded, and with a stiff, leading breeze we laid our course east and by south for the Atlantic Ocean. Our crew, for a wonder, chanced to be all sailors, and took to their work with such a will that by two bells in the mid-watch all sail was made, everything lashed, and the decks cleared up, so that the watches were chosen at once, and the starboard watch, to which I belonged, sent below. When we were called at four o'clock, to take our trick on deck, Jack Rollock bounced into the forecastle, looking as wild as a petrel.

"Well, I'm jolly blasted, lads, if they haven't tucked it to us snug, you may just take and shoot me, that's all.'

"Why, what's the matter, Jack!' asked Tom Pipes, leisurely swinging himself out of his bunk. "Matter?-matter enough! What ship do you suppose you are aboard of?'

"What ship? Why, the Arethusa, of course.'

"The Arethusa be hanged! You just ain't aboard of no Arethusa-no ma'am, not by no manner of means, you ain't. You are aboard of the Gil Blas! twenty miles off the pitch of Cape Cod, with all sail set, and going through the drink at the rate of ten knots-that's where you are. I thought rather queer about those quarter galleries last night, but didn't take much notice of 'em till just in the gray of the morning, when happening to poke my skillet over the head-rails, what should I see on the head-boards but the words 'Gil Blas' with a homely-looking, no sailor spanyard for a figure-head? The chaps on deck are mighty wicked about it, and I shouldn't wonder if we had a jolly row ere long.'

"We slipped into our duds in a hurry, and going on deck, found the other watch clustered about the fore hatch, holding an animated confabulation upon the propriety of knocking off work and compelling the captain to take the ship back to port. We joined the council,which was getting to be somewhat uproarous, when we heard the voice of the mate from the poop, ordering the watch aft to pump ship. No one paid the slightest attention to the command. Presently it was repeated, with a like result. The mate becoming enraged, seized a belaying pin from the rail and sprang forward.

"I'll teach you to disobey orders,' he roared, making for Jack Rollock. Lay aft here, you lazy, lousy, skulking scalawag! and he raised the heavy pin to strike him.'

"Say, just look a-here, my slight acquaintance,' said Jack, fetching him a tremendous clip on top of the nose, which spread him out on the deck as flat as a wet swab. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, my fine fellow, till we decide whether the ship is going on her voyage, or back to Nantasket.'

"The mate lay upon deck quite motionless for a few minutes, then picking himself up he walked aft, and entered the cabin, from which he shortly reappeared in company with the captain and second mate, each armed with a revolver and cutlass. They did not come forward, however, but walked the quarter-deck some minutes, evidently waiting for us to decide what course to pursue before they declared war, for although they possessed firearms, which we had not, still twenty-five or thirty stout men, each armed with a murderous-looking sheath-knife, was not an enemy to be sneezed at.

"The crew at first were almost unanimously in favor of returning to port at any risk, but a due consideration of the fact, that if we did return, we should have to pass several months in jail, besides going through the formality of a trial, if not worse; that our traps were now snug on board; that we had already done all the hard work incidental to getting under weigh, and that after all, there was nothing very much out of the way with the old tub, decided us that upon the whole, it would be about as well to make the passage in her, and desert at the first port. We had scarcely arrived at this conclusion, when the captain walked forward to the waist, and calmly addressed us:

"Well, my men,' he said, carelessly fingering the lock of his pistol, what's to be the order of the day? Mutiny and a fight, with half a dozen killed, and the rest in irons, or orders obeyed and a comfortable ship? Take your own choice-I'm ready for either.'

talk about right yourself, sir, and I don't mind if I promise to stick by you, like tar to a new coat, won't we boys?'

"Yes, of course we will,' responded the entire crew; for a sailor's heart is easily won, and manfashion talk from a superior upsets him at once.

"Very well, then,' replied the captain, evidently much satisfied at the result of his diplomacy. Let the watch below get their breakfast, and the rest of you lay aft and pump her out.'

"The order was obeyed with alacrity, and from that day we had no further trouble of that kind on board. Indeed, as far as making things pleasant and comfortable in a ship went, I think I never sailed with a better man than old Riprigger.

"We struck the trades in about a week after leaving port, and made a splendid run to the Cape of Good Hope, where we took a westerly gale, which took us to the parallel of St. Paul's and Amsterdam, when we hauled on a taut bow line for Java Head.

"We were already nine weeks out, and thus far all had gone on pleasantly and well. The mate turned out to be a good enough sort of fellow, when he found no one was afraid of him. The captain was a brick, and the superstitious fears that troubled the men at the first, had gradually died out for lack of nourishment.

"One bright moonlight night, when about a week's sail from the Straits of Sunda, we were all sitting upon the cover of the long boat, playing twenty deck poker for plugs of tobacco. One of the men having been'skun,' started for a fresh supply of material. He had scarcely been gone a minute, when back he came flying, his face as white as a plaster image, and his hands trembling as with a touch of the tremens, in which condition he stood staring at us, with his under jaw hanging down, and his eyes sticking out so that you might have hung your hat upon them.

"Why, what in the name of Jackson has come to the man!' said Jack Rollock, fetching him a dig in the ribs. You look as if you had seen your

you speak up, booby? You know what it says in the primer-hold up your head, speak loud and plain.' Now do it, and show that your edication has been some sarvice to you.'

"Very well,' said Captain Riprigger, 'all you have got to do is just to be prompt to your duty. When men do that, they always have easy times with me. But there must be no more disobedience after this. If there's any extra fight in ye that you want to get rid of, now's your time. Hereafter, the first man that creates a disturbance will either go in irons or be shot. Just behave yourselves like men, and I'll treat you as men. The mate, I believe, is a little fiery, but I'll speak to him, and see that he don't exceed his-'

"O, never mind the mate, sir,' interrupted Jack. 'I see he's subject to fits, but if he has another attack, we'll doctor him like a sick kitten. Never fear but we'll take good care of him. You seem to

"Thus admonished, the man pointed forward, and in a hoarse whisper, ejaculated, 'There's a strange man on the fo'castle!'

"Gas!' responded Jack, with an attemt at bravado, though evidently a little startled.

"No 'taint gas neither. He's there; the foresail hides him now, but go and look under the foot of the sail, and you'll see him plain enough.'

"Descending from our perch on the boat, we moved forward in a body, until we could see under the foot of the sail, and there, s re enough, was the figure of a man, with a face a ghastly white as the garments he wore, and wit' immensely long red hair and whiskers. His clothes were stained in spots with what appeared to be blood. He did not appear to take the slightest notice of us at first, but continued to pace the to'gallant forecastle athwart ships, from side to side, with a slow and noiseless step. Presently he paused, and gazed fixedly upon us for several minutes, while he pointed with hi