mental pond, which were as frequent as other duties would permit, I had often observed, that while the little fish remained stationary in any particular part of the pond, they were always found to be of a colour corresponding to the colour of the bottom, and when they removed to any other part of a different colour, that, after resting on it for a few minutes, they gradually assumed a corresponding hue. Wishing, therefore, to prove the fact of this assimilation by actual experiment, I procured two large earthenware basins, one nearly white inside, the other nearly black. I then placed a living fish in each, while at the same time I kept up a constant supply of fresh water in them. The fishes were of their natural colour when first placed in the basins; but they had not remained there more than four minutes till each had gradually assumed a colour nearly approaching to that of the respective basins in which they were placed. I next took the fish out of the white basin and placed it in the black one, and the fish which was in the black basin I placed in the white, and the results were uniformly the same-the fishes changing according to the colour of the surface over which they were placed. I next placed both fishes in one basin, when the contrast for a short time was exceedingly striking. With the view of ascertaining what effect the light had in producing this extraordinary change, I next allowed the fish to remain in the white basin so long as effectually to acquire the light tint, when 1 excluded the light from them altogether by covering the basin with a thick mat, and on removing it a few minutes afterwards, I found the fish were again changed to a dark colour, which gradually disappeared on exposure to the light. The change of colour is produced alike under a bright or cloudy sky. This singular phenomenon, with which I have only now become acquainted, adds another to the many beautiful provisions nature has made for the safety and protection of her creatures. The cause, however, is a problem I make no pretensions to solve."

At twelve months old, Mr Shaw found the parr of his pond family to be about three inches and three quarters in length, and exhibiting the ordinary summer aspect of the parr of the rivers. In January 1839, when they were twenty months old, he found them six inches in length, and still displaying all the appearances of ordinary parr. But such as were allowed to survive till the 24th of May, when they were two years old, although they had then gained only half an inch in length, "cast off the livery of the parr, and assumed that of the salmon-this change consisting chiefly in the following particulars :-the black opercular spots disappeared, the almost colourless pectoral fins became suffused with an inky hue at their extremities, the broad perpendicular bars or blotches on the sides were effaced, and the prevailing hues of dusky brown and yellowish white were converted into deep, bluish black above, and into silvery white below." The family had now, indeed, reached the salmon state, and were ready to migrate like their contemporaries

in the river.

and erroneously supposed to be a different species. From these facts most important consequences arise. "The belief that the salmon migrates the same year it is hatched, has created an indiscriminate slaughter of that fish, at an age when it especially requires the protection of the legislature. There is no fish in our rivers that takes the fly more readily; and every little tyro who can cast his angle on the stream, can reckon pretty confidently on killing eight or ten dozen per day. Where a salmon river, therefore, runs through a populous country, the destruction of the fry from this cause alone is incalculably great. It is true the legislature has made provision for protecting the young salmon for one month, namely, during the brief period it remains in the river after assuming the migratory dress, but for the two first years of its existence it is at present entirely unprotected."

The experiments made by Mr Shaw were overlooked at various times by some of our most distinguished naturalists, who have heartily given him the credit of conducting them in a philosophical and correct manner. His observations have been presented, on three different occasions, to the Edinburgh Royal Society, the last time in December 1839. They were accompanied by preserved specimens of the various fishes, adult and young, so that the conviction produced by them might be said to be complete. It was a pleasing sight to see a body of learned and cautious investigators, all of them of elevated station in life, according the praise of successful scientific experiment to a rural and untrained philosopher like Mr Shaw. The Royal Society has more recently done themselves credit by presenting to him, as a mark of their approbation, the Keith Medal of this year.

SOUTH-AUSTRALIAN EMIGRATION. OUR readers will recollect the extracts which we some time ago* presented from the letter of Mr B—, a South Australian emigrant settled in Adelaide, and our promise to add extracts from any subsequent communication from him that might appear interesting to intending emigrants to that colony. By the kindness of a friend, we are now able to offer the following, which we gather from a letter written about a month later than the preceding. In this, as in the former communication, and also as in a private communication to ourselves (dated in September last), Mr Bwrites in no flattering terms of South Australia and its prospects, and even expresses a doubt whether he shall remain permanently in the colony, to which, it is quite evident, he regrets having proceeded. But we let the extracts speak for themselves :—

FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS FROM EMIGRANTS.

"I think that the colony cannot by any means be said to be well watered. There have been few streams or rivers discovered which afford sufficient These experiments, conducted under circumstances inducement to take special surveys on their banks giving strong assurance against fallacy, were in them- marking the acknowledged deficiency of water in selves very satisfactory; but Mr Shaw conducted another of a still more decisive nature. Having ob- general. Sheep-runs for the most part are watered served the male parr in the river attending on the by a string of pools collected from the winter rains. female salmon when she was engaged in spawning, he To save speaking so much as to water in general, took some roe from a fish of the latter kind, and mix- which affords at best unsatisfactory information, I ing with it some milt from a parr, placed the spawn shall give you a few particulars which you will better in one of his ponds. The hatching and subsequent growth of the young fish thus produced resembled in understand. At the Port there is no water fit for all respects that of the other family; and the fish use, and till within a week or two it was all carried themselves were evidently the same. Naturalists, from a well at Hindmarsh Town, upwards of three who have been accustomed to regard the parr as a dis- miles distant. It is now supplied, I believe, from tinct fish, might suspect this to be a mixed or hybrid a well about one and a half or two miles distant. progeny; but the supposition has been shown to be untenable. The males of the family reared in pond While the Germans were at the Port, I have passed No. 1 were found, in November 1838, when eighteen a boy and girl with their small barrel of water, carrymonths old, to be possessed of milt, while the females ing it along in the broiling sun. S passed a week as yet exhibited no trace of roe, the one sex evidently or two at the Port, on first landing, and had to carry attaining maturity in this respect before the other. his water himself; an exertion which he almost sank This was so far a proof of the identity of the pond- under. At Adelaide it costs two shillings a porter bred young salmon with the parr of the rivers; but impregnation of roe from adult river salmon by the burn Torrens; and those who have wells, have been it was more clearly tested still, by the result of an hogshead for water, from the stagnant pools in the so-called parr of the pond, when it was found that the obliged to go down sixty and eighty feet for water. hatching and growth and appearances of the progeny On the Holdfast Bay, or Glenelg Road, there is a halfwere exactly the same as above described. Mr Shaw way house, at which a well has been sunk, and good also kept in one of his ponds the male parrs he had water found at twenty-five feet down. At Glenelg, taken from the river for his experiment, and found itself, there is a pool upon the surface which supplies a small quantity of water. This will give you some that, at the proper age, they assumed the migratory dress, and had become young salmon. A curious cha- idea of the difficulty of obtaining water, where you racteristic of the salmon family has thus been ascerwill see the greatest possible need exists for it. We tained, namely, that the males are mature in one pay the above-mentioned sum for water from the important respect while as yet very young and very Torrens, and have to boil every drop of it, ere it be fit small, and take a part in spawning before they leave for drinking—a great privation to such water-drinkers the river of their birth. The disproportion of the as both of us are. In a few years, I doubt not that all number of males to that of females engaged in spawn-laide, by the art of man, may be as well watered as this discomfort will have passed away, and that Adeing, must be enormous; and the circumstance may be regarded as analogous to some similar eccentricities Edinburgh.+ But I am speaking as to what Nature has in the insect tribes; for example, the one female and done, and am bound to say, that she has almost forinfinite number of males in the bee-hive. No doubt, gotten the water, however well she may have supplied the arrangement is one rendered necessary by the the land and climate. Settlers in the country will circumstances in which the spawning takes place, and not experience so much difficulty in this respect, as

which has been looked forward to and provided for

accordingly.

their location will mainly depend upon the supply of

* No. 406.

It may now, therefore, be considered as settled, that the young of the salmon, instead of migrating soon after birth, as heretofore supposed, remains to years in the rivers, and is the fish hitherto called parr, quality.]

[There seems no reason to infer that this ever can be the case. B must well know that Edinburgh is perhaps the best supplied town with water in the world; and water, too, of the finest

water; but in Adelaide, the want of a sufficient supply of good water is a grievous want indeed, and probably is the cause of much of the disease that prevails; dysentery being traced to this source as well as to cold, as already mentioned. As for showers, the colony has not been in existence long enough to enable any one to say what rain may be expected in the course of a season; it is stated that there is almost no rain during summer, and that it comes in torrents (during the night chiefly) for a month or two in winter. We arrived towards the end of summer, and have seen alo a few weeks of what is called winter; but so mild is it, that it will pass very well for summer at home. We have been in all above four months in the colony, and I think it has rained only twice or thrice heavy enough to leave any trace of it the next day-in short, what you would call a very heavy rain; and there have been, probably, other five or six light showers. My limited experience, therefore, inclines me to think that there is a decided want of occasional refreshing showers. That there may fall, in a few weeks, during winter, rain sufficient to send forth a luxuriant vegetation, I have every reason to believe, both from the accounts of persons, as well as from the appearance of the native grass; but I very much doubt that getting showers during any other part of the year will have much effect upon cultivation. Irrigation, I am afraid, is what we must look to for sup plying such a requisite."

As to servants: "Contracts made in Britain with servants, I understand, are strictly enforced here, and that by a pretty rigorous law-fining a person L.50 who knowingly employs a servant under contract with another. Although such be the law, I think that a person would stand very much in his own light (not to mention the want of honesty) to engage any servant much under the current rate of wages given in the colony. The servant in such a case would not fail to think himself taken the advantage of, and would, of course, not perform his duty faithfully and willingly, without which it were better surely not to have him. Instead of attempting to screw him down to the lowest scale of remuneration, I think it would be for the interest of every master first to find out servants properly qualified for his purpose, and firmly to take hold of them, by giving them a stated interest

in the success of their labours. This is the surest and best law that could have been devised for keeping servants to their engagements.

I do not think that it would pay to send grain or grass seeds here at present; ploughs are in abundance, having been brought by every farmer who comes here; and as none of them have been employed yet, you can get them, as you may suppose, at or even under the British prices. Mills for grinding and cleaning corn we have more than plenty of, until we have corn to grind, which as yet there is no appearance of having soon." The

Next, with regard to wages, prices, &c.: wages at present given in the following branches of industry I have obtained from a source on which I think I can rely; but these rates must, you will easily see, be liable to much fluctuation, as such numbers of labourers in almost every department are constantly pouring in, and as yet few outlets for their labour in the country are to be found. I should expect for one thing, that the rate of wages in the different trades will bear a pretty close approximation, on account of the facility in the present state of the colony afforded for turning from one profession to another. For example, printers' wages are 15s. a-day just now; but suppose twenty additional hands to arrive to-morrow, it might be expected that the former rate of wages could not be maintained, as the new comers would offer to work for less wages. But they would not. They would turn bricklayers or shepherds, or almost any thing in fact, and would obtain their 15s. a-day also. According to the best information which I can obtain, there is only a demand at present for additional hands as sawyers and blacksmiths; but this of itself need not discourage any who otherwise wish to come, as the wages cannot soon be much reduced at the is 3s. 6d. ; butcher meat, 1s. per pound; butter (salt), worst. At present, the expense of living is very great indeed there is almost a famine. The four-pound loaf 2s. 6d. ; fresh, 38. to 3s. 6d. per pound; eggs, 6d. to 8d. each; oatmeal, 6d. per pound; potatoes, 6d. per pound, and other things in the same Malthusian proportion. But this state of things cannot last, I hope, above a month or two; indeed, a vessel or two have been sent to America for flour, and when the Americans find their way to us, we shall not want for food. A Hamburg vessel is at present in with a considerable part of her cargo stores, which will be sold by auction, and the result of the sale will no doubt bring us many brickmakers, 15s. per day; bricklayers, 10s. to 13s.; more ships from the same place. Wages are-for blacksmiths, 10s. ; chair-makers, 13s.; house-carpenters, 10s. to 13s.; coopers, 10s.; compositors, 15s.; cabinet-makers, 15s. ; dairy-women, L.25 to L.30 a-year and rations; fencers and field-labourers, 5s. a-day; glaziers, 8s. to 10s.; harness-makers, 12s.; joiners, 13s. to 15s.; house-painters, 8s. to 10s.; plasterers, 12s.; ploughmen, L.40 per annum and rations; printers' pressmen, 10s. to 15s.; saddlers, 12s.; shoe

makers, 8s. to 10s. ; sawyers, 20s. ; stone-masons, 15s.; quarrymen, 10s.; tailors, Ss. to 9s.; wheel-wrights, Ils. The above are all stated as so much per day, of course, unless otherwise mentioned.

Your next inquiry as to the general character of

Our friend Mr Shortridge kindly offered us the use of his house, which we accepted; it is one of the best in the town, and is a good specimen of an English Funchal merchant's residence. The under part contains cellars, offices, and counting-house-above that are parlours looking towards the street, the windows shaded by cool verandahs; over these are drawing-rooms, opening upon platforms that command a view of the lovely sides of the mountain; these, if one may so speak, are green-houses in the open air; the hoya carnosa clothes the walls; the passiflora quadrangularis hangs its glowing blossoms from the trellised roof; the coba scandens and other creepers twist round every cornice, and the heliotrope and olea fragrans perfume the adjoining rooms. Above are the dormitories, and the whole is crowned by a high turret, which commands the sea-view. The house of every merchant has a turret, with a good telescope, to sweep the sea, and catch the first view of any vessel bound for their port, or in which they may have an interest. It is, generally, the coolest and one of the best rooms in the house: for, being raised above the neighbouring buildings, it catches whatever sea-breeze may blow. Below are extensive yards, surrounded by offices, where the wine is stored, and the different processes of fermentation are conducted. Besides these, the merchants have, generally, country houses situated in the hills, at higher or lower elevations, so that the climate can be had of any temperature in those delightful retreats.

The town of Funchal is clean and well paved, with an air of bustle and business, and has a fine cathedral, and handsome public walks. Never was a spot more formed to cheer the sufferings of an invalid, to heal the wounded spirit, or reanimate the sinking frame. The dry and balmy air which produces this neverending spring, makes the step buoyant, and raises the hopes of the sufferer, who a few days before left the choking fogs, the rains and chilly damps, of the Thames or the Medway. Here all is sunshine; the green bananas, with their beautiful feathery tops, tell him he has bid farewell to Europe; the orange-trees hold out to him their branches laden with golden

fruit

'Green all the year, and fruits and blossoms blush
In social sweetness on the selfsame bough.'

Plantations of coffee-trees fill the spaces between the houses; the splendid coral-tree hangs over his head; and the snowy bells of the tulip-tree mingle with the scarlet hibiscus. If he wishes for exercise, he has the most inviting walks, and the most tempting shades to shelter him; wide-spreading planc-trees, and willows of gigantic growth, bend their slender arms over the streams that murmur from the hills. If he leave the town, and begin to ascend, the beauty increases, and the sea-view opens to his sight. The roads though steep are well paved, and the horses trained to an easy pace. On one side of the road, and sometimes both, is a little channel a foot broad; the Levada, by which the water is conducted to the different plantations from the hills, murmuring gently as it ripples by his side. He rides through a perfect vineyard, where in many places the vines are carried on trellises over the road, and the large bunches of grapes hang within his reach. Hedges of geraniums, fuschias, and heliotropes, border those narrow paths, and shade him from the sun; myriads of insects with golden wings sip the nectar from these delicate flowers, and add the music of their tiny wings to the melody of the surrounding woodlands. The ficus indicus clothes the cottages, which are shaded by the most magnificent chestnuts and venaticos; the salvia fulgens and the Guernsey lily sprinkle the vineyards; the beautiful capillus veneris creeps through the walls, and the camellia Japonica, now in full blow, adorns every quinta.

As he rises, the scene becomes still more varied, and expands beneath his eye. The valleys are covered with the luxuriant light green foliage of the yam (the arum peregrinum of Persoon.) The aloe and the agave border the enclosures of sweet potato; and the phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax, grows to a great size; rows of enormous hydranges flourish at this height, but, instead of their natural pink colour, are blue, owing to the ferruginous soil, or to their elevation. Small dragon-trees and cedars appear among the quintas; and heaths and pines rise to the highest elevations. Huge prickly pears (cactus opuntia) grow along the cliffs and lower parts of the island; and so inherent is the vitality in this singular plant, that it is only necessary to lay a single leaf, with a few stones over it, on a wall, and it will commence growing. The fruit is much eaten by the inhabitants. The large zebra spider, peculiar to this plant, weaves its immense thick ropes from thorn to thorn; its cocoon is hung in the centre of this suspension-bridge; it is somewhat in the shape of a kettle-drum, and the insect incubates at night, sitting on the flat side of it; the cord of which its web is composed is so thick as to procure for it the name of epiera fasciata.

The fruit-market is magnificent, and is beautifully situated in a grove of noble plane-trees. Here, besides the usual fruits of Europe, the orange, lemon, grape, green figs, and pomegranates, we have bunches of the most delicious bananas, piles of guavas, custard apples, and alligator pears. This latter is the fruit of the laurus persea; it grows to a great size, and, when eaten with pepper and salt, is most delicious. The water and Valencia melons, with gourds and pumpkins of enormous growth, and the numerous tribes of circur

bite, which costs hardly any trouble in cultivation, give the market a singularly rich appearance." Setting out on an excursion, he meets parties of peasantry in a different mood from that in which we behold persons of that class in Britain. "The morning was delightful, and the groups of peasantry, coming into the market, which we met along the roads, made it quite enchanting. Companies of eight or ten, in some places, sat under the umbrageous shadow of a pine, eating their morning's meal, or completing their toilette, before entering the town; others has tened along, loaded with the various produce of their gardens, consisting of bunches of yellow bananas, strings of crimson pomegranates, &c.; others carrying fowl, firewood, or fish, to Funchal. Each little party was preceded by its guitar player. The instrument is small, with wire strings, and much in use among the natives. At times the performer accompanied it with his voice, and the whole group joined in the chorus. The men were well dressed, somewhat in the costume of English sailors, with a little cap, not unlike a funnel, on the top of their heads; this is worn more for ornament than use, as it could not be the least protection against the weather. It crowns the head-dress of the women also, being placed over the white muslin handkerchief which covers the head, and hangs down over the shoulders; their gay chintz gowns, and scarlet pelerine, gave them an air of lightness, and added much to the picturesque appearance of the groups. The Madeiranese, both men and women, are a very fine race, much more so than those of the mother country.”

With respect to Madeira as a place of resort for invalids, Mr Wilde observes "Far be it from me to say that the climate of Madeira can cure consumption; but this I will say, that, independent of its acknowledged efficacy in chronic affections, it is one that will do more to ward off threatened diseases of the chest, or even to arrest them in their incipient stages, than any I am acquainted with. A dry, warm climate, with a healthy and equable state of the atmosphere, are no doubt the most powerful remedial agents we are acquainted with, more especially for parts where only such agents can be brought in contact. It is a remedy for which, in many cases, we have no adequate substitute, and the discredit into which its sanative efficacy has been brought, 'is to be sought for, not in the remedy, but in the manner in which it has been prescribed."*

After the most accurate investigation for several years, the annual mean temperature is found to be 65 degrees, and the daily temperature is now (November) from 70 degrees to 72 degrees, and seldom falls more than 3 degrees or 4 degrees during the night; and so slight are the dews falling in the town, that clothes are frequently hung out to dry during the night; the lowest degree to which the glass was ever known to fall, even just before sunrise, was to 50 degrees. With so little rain or dew, it may naturally be asked how vegetation appears so luxuriant? Outside the town, and in other parts more elevated on the island, very heavy dews fall, and, in addition, vegetation is amply provided for by the quantity of water coming from the hills, which irrigates even the lowest parts of the island. Its insular position possesses many advantages over that of a continent, and this is here increased by the height of the mountains that rise in the centre. As the equability and comparative mildness of temperature experienced at sea, are greater than that on land, so is an island such as this, in these respects superior to a continent. I said before, that the temperature can be varied by ascending the hills, but this will seldom be required during the winter months, and few invalids remain in the summer when the siroc prevails for a few days.

It moreover holds out a hope, that no other country can fulfil to the same extent, of LIFE to those remaining members of families, many of whom have been carried off one after another by hereditary phthisis. Cases of severe and protracted rheumatism may find the West Indies a preferable climate ; and speaking from personal experience, I should say that asthmatic sufferers will not be totally free from attacks; but I must at the same time state, that mine were generally brought on by fatigues encountered among the hills, often at a very great elevation. No doubt many have been deceived by the promises held out of Madeira, and now rest beneath the cypress and orange grove. But who were they? Patients whose cases were so utterly hopeless that not a chance remained for them; and, besides the domestic inconveniences, the effects of their removal have been such that some have died upon the voyage, and others immediately after landing, I am happy to say, professional men do not now yield to the importunities of patients whose cases they look upon as irremediable, by sanctioning their removal to Madeira-an advice as cruel as it was useless.

That Madeira can prolong life, even under the most unfavourable circumstances, the case of the late lamented Dr Heineken is a proof. This gentleman came to the island when his case was pronounced, by some of the most acute physicians in Britain, as rapidly approaching to a fatal termination-yet, under those circumstances, he lived nine years in Madeira, certainly with the greatest watchfulness, until going one day to collect some fossils on the neighbouring island of Porto Santo, a storm overtook him, and he suffered all its hardships in an open boat; he returned next

*Clark.

day to Madeira, and died that night. He requested a professional friend to examine his lungs after death, and Dr Renton, who performed the autopsy, informed me that his astonishment was, how he could have sustained life with so small a portion of respiratory ap paratus; hardly a vestige of one of his lungs remaining, and the other in a condition such as could not exist in this climate. The death of this gentleman is the more to be regretted, as he had done much to investigate the climate of the island. His life was spent in the furtherance of science-he died in her cause, and bequeathed to her the most interesting legacy he or any mortal can bestow, the tenement of his immortal spirit, that his fellow men might be enlightened and benefited by a knowledge of that fatal malady which had hastened him to an early death, as it has but too many of his countrymen.

Of the salubrity of this volcanic island, Sir James Clark has well said, 'When we take into consideration the high temperature of the winter, and the mildness of the summer, together with the remarkable equality of the temperature during the day and night, as well as throughout the year, we may safely conclude that the climate of Madeira is the finest in the northern hemisphere.'"

For a further account of Madeira and its capital, we must refer to the work itself, and proceed to the author's account of his journey to the top of the Peak of Teneriffe, which is in one of the Canary Islands, a day or two's sail from Madeira.

EXCURSION TO TILE PEAK OF TENERIFFE.

Leaving Oratava, a small sea-port in the neighbourhood of the Peak, he proceeded with his friend Mr Meiklam on horseback, with two sumpter-horses to carry provisions, and a body of guides. The departure was at 10 o'clock in the evening. After some trouble, and encountering a great depression of temperature, the cavalcade reached the "pumice-stone plain," which lies at the foot of the actual Peak. And here it was that the novelty and sublimity of the scene made an impression on the party. There was a peculiar wildness in the hour and the scene; the night was truly propitious-not a cloud to be seen throughout the intense azure of the starry vault above us; not a breath of air stirred around us; the full moon shone forth with a splendour the most dazzling, as she sailed majestically through the broad expanse of blue, barely allowing the stars to appear as they twinkled in her path, whilst an occasional plant would now and then start up as if to challenge her borrowed radiance. Before us lay the clear and boldly defined outline of the Peak, frowning in all the grandeur of monarchy, and the great rarity of the atmosphere showed every break and unevenness that bounded our horizon; all was wrapped in the most solemn stillness; the deep silence seemed to impress each of us, not a little increased by our momentarily decreasing temperature, which had now completely silenced our melodious muleteers. The tread of the horses made not the slightest noise, as we wound our way across that weary plain, where for the first time I felt sleep come heavily upon me; indeed, I did doze for a few moments, and it was on awaking that I so forcibly perceived our loneliness.

At the end of the plain our horses were forced up a steep and rugged ascent, for about half an hour, when we arrived at the Estanza des Inglises, the resting-place of the English,' at half-past five o'clock, and although so closely muffled, our sufferings from cold were extreme, and our hands perfectly benumbed. This was the highest point where horses can possibly get up, and we only wondered they ascended so far. We expected to have found some sort of a restingplace here, but it was only a small enclosure, made by the fragments of some enormous rocks which nature has piled around it-and one of the most dreary spots that can be well conceived. The men set about kindling a fire with some bits of retama which they had carried up with them. The mercury in the thermometer was 36 degrees, and falling rapidly. We now had recourse to our blankets, in which we enveloped ourselves, and reclined against one of the sloping rocks on the outside of the cavern, our faces anxiously turned towards the east to watch the scene that momentarily opened upon us. In our then almost petrified condition, we looked as like as could be to a pair of Egyptian mummies laid against the rock.

Sunrise. As soon as we had taken our place, we perceived a thin vapoury rose-coloured tint to stretch along the eastern horizon; the moon was still full up, but she had thrown the shadow of the Peak over where we stood. As we continued to gaze steadfastly on this first blush of morning, it every second increased, especially towards the centre, extending likewise in length along the horizon. This hue soon deepened to a pink, and then followed such a glorious halo of colours, in which the flower and the metal lent their most dazzling lustre, as to baffle all attempt at description; and the hazy undefined light that ushers in the day, began to chase the moonlight shadows from the plain beneath. At six o'clock, the thermometer stood at 18 degrees, the light increasing, the cold intense, and the heavens presented a scene such as we read of in the arctic regions, being formed by the resplendant glories of the aurora, but with this difference, the most brilliant colours gathered here as it were into a focus. All the east presented a lustrous semicircle, which, if you took your eyes off for a moment, seemed to increase tenfold. Between the horizon and the spot on which

we stood, floated a confused sea, which we at first took for the ruffled bosom of the ocean, but it turned out to be nothing more than a thin white mist. At a quarter past six, the temperature fell as low as 15 degrees, and sunrise took place a minute after; he rose very suddenly, and his whole disc was almost immediately clear of the horizon. It was a glorious sight, and cheering, after all the cold and suffering of the preceding night, to see the great centre of light and heat come up to speed us on our way. I have often tried to form to myself a comparison of sunrise and sunset, and on this occasion have settled the question in favour of the former. Our guides reminded us it was time to recommence the ascent; and to fortify ourselves on the way, we breakfasted. Every thing we had carried up with us was frozen; the eggs were perfect balls of ice; we had also brought with us a bottle of coffee, which, having contrived to heat, proved the most grateful of all our refreshments.

We left the old man to guard the horses, and again set forward. Large masses of pumice, lava, and scoria, continue some way farther up to the small platform of Buona Vista, where there is a plant or two of stunted retama, and here the domain of vegetation ends. From this we climbed up a steep ascent, composed of detached masses of sharp rock basalt and obsidian, some loose, and others with a coating of scoria; it reminded me of a magnified rough cast. Our halts, as might be expected, were frequent. At half-past seven o'clock, during one of these stoppages, I found the glass had risen to 33 degrees. From the mom ent the sun rose, the heat began to increase, making us throw off our extra garments, and leaving them in the ascent. With a good deal of difficulty we at last reached the base of the cone, which crowns the summit; the effects of the last irruption.

It is much smaller and more perpendicular than Vesuvius; it stands upon a level platform, somewhat broader than its base, and rises like the great circular chimney of a glass-house to the height of sixty feet. Here our extreme difficulties commenced, for the fatigue we had already gone through left us but little strength commensurate with the ceaseless efforts which were to be put forth, and the exertion the task demanded. The external coating is composed of loose stones, lava, pumice, and ashes, in which we sank ankle-deep, and obliged us to rest every few minutes; we had each to strike a separate line in our ascent, as the composition is so loose, that if once set in motion, large quantities would come powdering on the heads of the persons who have the misfortune to be beneath. Here and there a few reddish volcanic rocks jut out, looking stones that seem equally inviting, but which are nevertheless far from being hospitably inclined, as a young friend of mine wofully experienced.

and afford a resting-place; but there are other whitish

We reached the summit at half-past eight o'clock, and my first impulse was to crawl to the highest pinnacle upon the wall of the crater, on the south-east point, whence it slopes on both sides towards the west. This solfatara (or half-extinguished volcano) was more active than usual this morning; large wreaths of smoke proceeding from numerous cavities and cracks in the bowl of the crater. This was smaller than we expected, not being more than a hundred feet in the widest part; shallow, and the edge very irregular, of an oval shape, having a margin of dense whitish lava.

The view that awaited us on the summit amply repaid us for all the toils of the ascent. The morning was beautifully clear, and without a cloud; the finest

that had occurred since our arrival. The whole island of Teneriffe lay in the most vivid manner like a map at our feet, with its white towers, its vine-clad valleys, and pine-crowned hills.

Immediately around the Peak, the mountains form a number of concentric circles, each rising in successive heights, and having it as a centre. It is this appearance that has not inaptly gained for it the simile of a town with its fosses and bastions. These are evidently the walls of former craters, on the ruins of which the present has been reared. What a fire must have come from the first of these, which enclosed a space of so many leagues! Or, again, how grand the illumination that once burst forth from the place whereon we stood, a height of nearly 13,000 feet, and

which it is calculated would serve as a beacon at a distance of 200 miles at sea on every side. The crater or circle next below us appears to rise to the height of the Estanza des Inglises, 10,000 feet.

There are a number of smaller cones scattered irregularly over the island; their red blistered summits glance in the sun like so many mole-hills; the largest is towards the west; it rises to a great height, and is the most elevated point on the island next to the Peak itself. Towards Santa Cruz, the marks of recent volcanic action become less, the stratification more perfect. There is less appearance of lava or pumice, and the basalt assumes more of the columnar form. We could perfectly distinguish the few vessels that lay opposite the port of Oratava, a direct distance of thirteen miles, while the ascent is calculated at about thirty. So clear was the atmosphere, that our friends at the port could distinguish us distinctly with the glass. They had been anxiously looking out for us, and hoped, more than expected, our accomplishing the ascent. The Archipelago of the Canaries seemed as if stretched at our feet; Grand Canary was particularly plain, being immediately beneath the sun. Palma and Gomera seemed so near that you could

SKETCHES OF SUPERSTITIONS.

THE FAIRIES OF BRITISH SUPERSTITION.

AMONG the various supernatural beings to whom the ignorance and credulity of mankind have given an imaginary existence, the Fairies occupy a prominent place, and are especially worthy of notice. The characters of different classes of spirits have become so mingled and confounded together in the lapse of time,

that it is difficult to define individual species with correctness and precision; but there is one characteristic which appears to distinguish the fairy from every other being of a similar order. Most spirits could contract and diminish their bulk at will, but the fairy alone seems to have been regarded as essentially small in size. The majority of other spirits, also, such as dwarfs, brownies, and the like, are represented as deformed creatures, whereas the fairy has almost uniformly been described as a beautiful miniature of the human being, perfect in face and form. These points of distinction, with a dress of pure green, are the principal ones which mark the personal individuality of the fairies as a supernatural race.

This is the general account given of the fairy state, but few of the legends on the subject agree on all points. From a very early period, however, every fairy annalist concurred in giving to the king and queen of the fairies the names of Oberon and Titania. Oberon is the Elberich or Rich Elf of the Germans, and was endowed with his modern name, as well as with new attributes, by the old French romancers, who represented him as a tiny creature of surpassing loveliness, with a crown of jewels on his head, and a horn in his hand that set all who heard it to the dancing. Titania was his wife, and resembled him in general qualities. She figures, though not under this name, in the tale of Thomas the Rhymer, one of the very earliest traditions relative to the fairy people. As the details of this story have formed the basis for

may be worth while to give an abstract of True Tho-
almost all the subsequent fairy legends of Scotland, it
mas's adventure. It is scarcely necessary to tell
British readers that this personage was a distinguished
poet and prophet, who flourished in Scotland at the
latter end of the thirteenth century. He is by Sir
Walter Scott supposed to have been the author of
the romance of Tristrem, remarkable as the earliest
specimen of English verse known to exist. It is more
certain that he was proprietor of Erceldoune, in Lau-
derdale. His predictions long excited interest in his
native country. The following adventure, which we
shall give partly in prose and partly in the words of
an ancient ballad, befell this famous individual.
scene is the Eildon Hills in Roxburghshire.

True Thomas lay on Huntly bank;
A ferlie spied he with his ee;
For there he saw a ladye bright,
Come riding down by the Eildon tree.
Her shirt was o' the grass-green silk,
Her mantle o' the velvet fyne;
At ilka tett o' her horse's mane
Hung fifty siller bells and nine.

The

The saddle of this visionary beauty's steed was of ivory inlaid with gold, and she had a quiver of arrows at her back, while one hand held her bow, and the other led three beautiful hounds in a leash.

True Thomas he pulled off his cap,
And louted low down to his knee,
"All hail, thou mighty queen of heaven,
For thy peer on earth I ne'er did see!"
"O no, O no, Thomas," she said,
"That name does not belang to me:
I am but the queen of fair Elfland,

That am hither come to visit thee."

he became her slave. Thomas was not deterred, and

The origin of the fairy superstition is ascribed by most writers to the Celtic people, but the blending of the Gothic tribes with the Celts led to the admixture of many attributes of the northern spirits with those proper to the fairies. Thus, the latter race, which appears to have been intrinsically good and benevolent, has been gifted with attributes of the very opposite kind, borrowed from the Trolls and Elves of the north. In Scotland, and other countries where the Celtic traditions predominated, the fairies retained, in part, the original and better features of their character, and were usually called the Good Neighbours, or the Men of Peace; but even there, their character was deteriorated by a considerable leaven of elfin or dwarfish malignancy. This evil part of their nature caused much annoyance to mankind, and, more especially, their propensity to the kidnapping of human beings. Unchristened infants were chiefly liable to this calamity, but sometimes adult men and women were also carried off. The reason for these abductions is to be found, according to the authorities on this subject, in the necessity which the fairies lay under of paying "kane," as it was called, to the master-fiend, or, in other words, of yielding up one of their number sep-ing his stay in the castle, tennially into his hands by way of tribute. They greatly preferred on such occasions to make a scapegoat of some member of the human family. They also carried off young married women to be nurses to their infants; and in Ireland, at this day, when a young woman falls a victim to puerperal disease, the country people firmly assert that she has been removed for this purpose.*

The necessity for the latter kind of kidnapping shows the fairies to have been family people. They large societies, and under a monarchical form of goare always represented as living, like mankind, in

vernment. The Salique law seems to have had no countenance among them, for we more often hear of fairy queens than of fairy kings, though both are frequently spoken of. The Land of Faerie was situated somewhere under ground, and there the royal fairies held their court. In their palaces all was beauty and splendour. Their pageants and processions were far more magnificent than any that eastern sovereigns could get up, or poets devise. They rode upon milkwhite steeds. Their dresses, of brilliant green, were rich beyond conception; and when they mingled in the dance, or moved in procession among the shady groves, or over the verdant lawns of earth, they were entertained with delicious music, such as mortal lips or hands never could emit or produce. At the same time, most of the legendary tales on the subject represent these splendours as shadowy and unsubstantial. When the eye of a seer, or any one gifted with supernatural powers, was turned upon the fairy pageantries or banquets, the illusion vanished. Their sceming treasures of gold and silver became slate-stones, their stately halls became damp caverns, and they themselves, from being miniature models of human beauty, became personifications of fantastic ugliness. In short, the Fairy Eden was a dream—a thing of show without

True Thomas became bold on learning that his visitant had not the awful character of divinity, but she gave him a candid warning, that, if he kissed her lips, the consequence was, that though the lady was immediately changed into a hideous hag, he was necessitated to follow her. They entered a cavern, and after wading through pools of blood, and amid darkness and horrors, for three days, they reached a beautiful orchard, on breathing the air of which the lady became more lovely than before. She here showed him various sights, and finally took him to a gorgeous castle, the palace of herself and her husband. She at the same time commanded True Thomas to be silent dur

"For if you speak word in Elfin land,

Ye'll ne'er get back to your ain countrie."

In the castle Thomas found knights and ladies dancing unintermittingly, except when they sat down to feast on venison. The favoured mortal joined in the revelry, till, at the end of a period that seemed to him amazingly short, the queen took him aside, and told him that he had now been in the castle seven years, Know

and that it was time for him to return home." that our kane is paid to the fiend to-morrow," continued she; "so handsome a man as you would attract the scruples of Thomas, and the queen soon conveyed his eye, and I would not for all the world suffer you to be betrayed to such a fate." These words overcame him back to Huntly bank again. On parting, she gifted him with the tongue that could not lie." To this he would have objected, and upon judicious grounds

66

"My tongue is mine ain," True Thomas said,
"A gudely gift ye wad gie to me!
I neither dought to buy nor sell,
At fair or tryst where I may be.

I dought neither speak to prince or peer,
Nor ask of grace from fair ladye."
"Now hold thy peace," the lady said,
"For, as I say, so must it be."

The "tongue that never lied" gained Thomas, hence called True Thomas, great celebrity during his subsequent stay among men. According to the legend, he finally disappeared from earth, not in the way common to mortality, but in consequence of some While feasting the Earl of March in his tower of remaining tie between him and the fairy queen. Erceldoune, it was announced to Thomas that a hart and hind were seen moving slowly towards the tower, heedless of the people who looked upon them in wonderment. "This sign regardeth me," said the prophet; and, with the words, he arose from the board, joined the hart and hind, entered the woods with them, and

was seen on earth no more.

The ballad of Young Tamlane, of which a perfect copy is given in the Border Minstrelsy, shows the manner in which, according to the popular belief, it was possible to restore to earth any individual who had been carried away by the fairies. Tamlane tells the lady * See "Residence at an Irish Watering-Place," in No. 357 of who loved him, and to whom he appeared in the shape

substance.

this Journal.

imposed on him by his fairy-kidnappers, that, in order