SELECTED POETRY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 217, 6 January 1874, Page 7

SELECTED POETRY.

THE C \STAWAY. A couple of years since the body of a man was found on the destitute shores of the West Coast of this Province. It was that of some shipwrecked sailor who had escaped the sea to linger to death on land. The remains of a roughly-built hut stood near where the body had been found, and other evidences showed that the castaway must have lived some months upon tins lonely shore. In the hut was picked up a pocket-book containing a photograph and a few memoranda, useless for identification, and on a couple of leaves the following : I see not the ocean spreading, But 1 hear its gentle sighing, For the pathway of death Pin treading ; I arn weary and weak and dying. Yet in mine ears are whispers, Yet in mv thoughts I see Pictures of light the brightest Faded and dead for me. Soft lips are sweetly singing. Ah, love, can 1 love you more ? And—’tis but the plashing wavelet The wind on the low, lone shore. I see not the skies above me, Deepening in heavenward blue ; And mine eyes for ever are darkening— The moments of life are few. Yet in my mind are fancies ; Fancies of by-gone years, A mother over me bending, My brow is wet with tears ; Words in mine ears'grow fainter, < Lost in the sea breeze roar, And—’tis but the plashing wavelet, The wind on the low, lone shore. • How swift to mine eyes are rising, Bising through death’s dark veil, Weird phantoms of former fancies, Shadrnyy, misty, pale. Each as it comes is’finding, Lost in the dense dim gloom, That over the eyelids mantling, Curtains the dreary tomb. Hearing and sight bo hj fading. Vanish with hfe that is o’er ; ■ . Gone is the plashing wavelet, ■the wind on the low, lone shore. A. Nkutcuuji.

Ono of tbe great advantages derived by residents at Port Darwin is tiic small price an entire suit of clothing can be obtained for. Linen trousers and light flannels, with a white bat and umbrella, form the usual outfit ; but cotton jumpers and Turkish panjambs arc sometimes worn.