with the priests and professors, in another part of the town from that in which we lived." In 1813 Sir James published a learned and elaborate "Essay on the Origin, Principles, and History of Gothic Architecture;" and was author of several justly-admired papers in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh," of which he was president. He tried experiments on the fusion of stony substances, and thereby established the fact of the identity of the composition of whinstone and lava. He also ascertained that carbonate of lime (as common marble) might be fused without decomposition, if subjected to a degree of pressure equal to that which would be caused by the sea at the depth of about a mile and a half from its surface. The result of these inquiries tended to establish the truth of the Plutonian or Igneous theory of the origin of minerals, and to vindicate the authority of Hutton against that of Werner and his followers. Such was the father of Captain Basil Hall, whom, in some important points of intellectual character, the son closely resembled; his mother was a daughter of the fourth Earl of Douglas. Basil was born at Edinburgh, in 1788. His education, which was chiefly conducted at the High School of his native city, appears to have given little promise of future literary distinction; its monotony he felt to be a very weariness; and, instead of seeking a high place among his fellows, he preferred the middle of the class, because it was nearest to the comfortable fire. Still, however, his character was marked by considerable originality and independence; a startling proof of which he once gave to the master, by desiring to have the hours for study and recreation left to his own disposal, instead of his being tied down to the regulations of the school. As might be expected, this disregard of the laws of the Medes and Persians fared as it deserved, and he continued to doze by the fireside. Happily, however, his aim of life had been early chosen, so that he could think of something else than Latin conjugations. He had resolved to be a sailor, and every holiday that released him from the class-room was spent by the sea-shore, and in frequent cruises with the fishermen of the coast on which his father's estate was situated.
This early predilection of Basil Hall was soon gratified; for in 1802, when he had only reached his fourteenth year, he was entered into the royal navy. On leaving home, "Now," said his father, putting a blank book into one hand of the stripling, and a pen into the other, "you are fairly afloat in the world; you must begin to write a journal." Little did Sir James know how zealously this judicious advice would be followed out, and what fruits would germinate from such a small beginning. The education that was fitted for such a mind as his had now fairly commenced. As his biographer has justly observed, "The opportunities which the naval profession affords, both for scientific pursuits and the study of men and manners in various climes, happened, in Captain Hall's case, to lead him into scenes of more than usual interest; or perhaps it would be more correct to state, that his eager and indefatigable pursuit of knowledge induced him to seek every means of extending the sphere of his observations." After having been six years at sea, during which long period he had been only twelve days at home, he received a lieutenant's commission in 1808; and being desirous of active service, he procured his transference from a ship of the line to the frigate Endymion, employed at that time in transporting troops for Sir John Moore's army in Spain. There Lieutenant Hall witnessed many heart-stirring events, not the least of which was that of the heroic Moore borne dying from the battle of Corunna. Of the whole of this conflict, in which he was a
