by the surgeon-general. Accordingly, a number of men Surgeon Hargrave gave you a very interesting insight a Professor Kane showed pos of the marveLNEAR into an extensive subject, the prehensile organs of ani- drugs, drawn from the animal kingdom. The medical. I have a the sucker of a cuttlefish, the jaws of a dragon fly, and thousand other less familiar subjects, in form most various, but in end the same, may be brought before you, minute inquiry into any one of which would unfold much physiological knowledge. Amongst these, the elephant's proboscis strikes us with the greatest astonishment, from its varied purposes; at one time only a nose, at another a drinking vessel, a water-engine, and a bellows; and then a hand, guided by many thousands of muscles, possessing unequalled mobility and enormous strength, it can pluck a blade of grass, or tear from its roots a palm -can catch a fly, or fell a tiger. Yet the human hand excels this and all other instruments of prehension; for whereby he can not only excel individual animals, but might of all other instruments of prehension in nature. SOUTHGATE'S TRAVELS IN THE EAST.* the mere sake of We have long been accustomed Persia very erroneous notiona A myon.. nificence. Tehran, the capital. taining about 60,000 inhabitante, a "streets peculiarly bad, for the moon. holes. The houses are extraordinary though in its naked state its owner cannot effect many Persia, and Mesopotamia, by the Reverend Horatio pavements, narrow, irregular, and his step is things that are easily accomplished by other animals, yet guided by mind, he can fashion with it instruments ber of those works by which the Christian missionaries unsightly ruins, covering in some meta attain ends which could not be come at by the combined of the United States of North America have of late areas, frequently meet the eye." The terr years gained for themselves so much honourable dis- dwellings, except in the instances of a few tinetion. By reprinting the productions of the Reve the great, corresponds with the softar form an rend Howard Malcom, we ourselves gave a practical for the aspect and condition of the first city in expression of our approval of this peculiar class of Persian empire. The following quotation will of t works, which combine information upon points of the the common state of the rural dwellings of the late highest interest to man, with such a measure of lively « On opening a door, we came suddenly into the family and entertaining description as serves to arrest the at- apartment, where were two or three women and siz tention even of those more exclusively partial to what is children in the full enjoyment of domestic comfort. called light reading. Mr Southgate is a fit and worthy In order to understand what domestic comfort mean colleague of the writer just mentioned, and we know in Persia, a little explanation is necessary. The most not that greater or more appropriate commendation common fire-place in a Persian apartment is a circular hole in the ground, two or three feet deep, called a could be bestowed on him. tandour. A fire is lighted at the bottom, and when this has burned out, a fine glow of heat remains. low wooden frame, somewhat resembling a table with its legs reduced to the length of a foot, is placed over the tandour, and upon this is spread a large coverlet, which extends several feet beyond the table on every side. The family then lie down in a circle, their bodies forming the radii from the tandour, which is the centre. Thus disposed, they draw the coverlet up to their chins, and the beholder sees nothing but a circle of heads emerging from beneath it. Our sudden entrance produced some confusion among the inmates, and the master appearing at that moment, ordered the family to retire to another apartment, and invited us to take their places under the coverlet. We had had so many lessons, however, upon the imprudence of occupying family quarters in a Persian village, that we were content to spread our carpets in the farthest corners of the room, and repose upon them." In truth as, but for early prepossessions, we should at once perceive-no country can be the scene of any thing like general magnificence, where the people are plunged in ignorance, and do not enjoy the constant advantages of active commerce and rational liberty. Professor Harrison gave you a popular view of molits. cons animals. Some few years ago, conchologists and collectors of shells were held in little esteem, and the malacologists, or persons interested in their animal rent bitants, were here unknown. The case is now different: conchology is justly valued for the aid it affords to the important science of geology, for fossil shells are not in these days considered freaks of the plastic power of nature, but (as they have been elegantly termed) the medals of creation, from which we may obtain data to judge of the relative ages of the earth's strata. The necessary knowledge of them can be best obtained by In an introduction of considerable length, Mr Southstudying recent shells, and the study and the collection of these objects are now admitted to be worthy recre- gate gives a very able and candid view of the doctrines ations, vieing with floriculture in interest, and contending of Mahommedanism, with observations upon its prewith it in utility-the one serving in the hands of the sent condition and prospects in various countries of geologist most important purposes, while the other renders the East. The tour of the reverend missionary comup its service to the horticulturist and botanist. In refe- menced with a visit to Constantinople, from which rence to shells, it has been well remarked, that if the city he passed up the Black Sea to the port of Trebimansion in which an animal dwells is worthy of exami-zond, and then crossed, through the provinces of Armenation, the architect and inhabitant must be so. The nia and Kurdistan, into Persia. His remarks upon works of Poli and others show the interesting results this route, relating to the wandering Kurds and Armewhich flow from such examination to the physiologist and nians, and descriptive of the large cities of Erzroum, comparative anatomist, for it is by tracing the progression Betlis, Tebriz, and others, fill the first volume with of faculties from the lower to the higher animals that we are to look for the revelation of many of the mysteries of very interesting matter. We prefer, however, to take nature. The eloquent professor gave you very interesting up the traveller after his entry into central Persia. accounts of the nautilus and argonaut creatures, which, He formed a very low opinion of the people of that from the earliest periods, have attracted the attention country, as regarded many important points of social of poets and men of science, both equally inaccurate in morality. The Persian dervishes are described by him description. It is strange how many instances have oc- as intolerable pests. "These religious mendicants curred in natural history, in which absolute fables have resemble more the santons and fakirs of India than been handed down uncontradicted for ages: thus, in this the dervishes of Turkey. They are not, like the latter, case, the story of the argonaut spreading her sails to catch gathered into communities, but roam over the country, the wind as she floats on the surface of the water, has living upon charity, and practising villanies of every been believed by all, and doubtless seen in the mind's sort. They carry with them a horn, which they blow eye at least by many; while the most celebrated natuon approaching a town, and a little wooden vessel in ralists of the present day have waged the fiercest scientific war on the question of the right of the animal found which they receive their alms. They are not respected in the shell of the paper nautilus to be considered as the by the people, and are exceedingly insolent. They are fabricator of it. An immense quantity has been written clamorous in demanding charity, and sometimes sit on this subject, and it is but a few months since that the down before a house with the determination not to matter has been set at rest by the only court of appeal quit it until money is given. There they remain, day that can decide on disputed points of natural history---I after day, and week after week, execrating the inmates, mean, observation. Madame Power and M. Sandar Rang until their demand is granted, or they are beaten away. instituted such courts, and by patient investigation have One sat in this manner more than three months before proved that the once-called sails are arms, by which the the British residency in Bagdat. shell is not only held in its place but fabricated; thus proving most satisfactorily, by observation, what closet naturalists, theorising from analogy, had so long doubted. This story will put you in mind of the very useful moral conveyed in the joke put upon the Royal Society by the king, who asked that learned body why a tub containing water did not become heavier by adding to it a living fish. Very many sapient reasons were offered in explanation, until one sceptical gentleman experimented to prove its truth. If his majesty's intent were to show the value of observation, compared with the vain reasoning and theorising of the day, it was a lesson of much utility. Professor Harrison concluded with observations on the injuries done to wood-work exposed to sea by the teredo, and he proved to you the enormous expense this little creature entails on man, in protecting by copper, and other means, his ships from its destructive ravages. Though this animal has obtained from the great Linnæus the title of calamitas navium, yet observation shows, paradoxical as it may seem, that, did it cease to exist, the earth would be a bog, the sea scarcely navigable; for the mouths of rivers would soon be blocked up by trees, washed down by floods, while the ocean would be dangerously covered with floating logs of timber; but now these trees and logs are eaten up in a very few months by the teredo, which is thus shown to be the best friend of the navigator, though unthinkingly called by him his worst foe. Who --who that has reason---would dare, if he could, blot out the race of any animal from the face of creation? Man has many times suffered from his attempts at extermi-in acting upon the supposition that every man was nation, and in no way, perhaps, would he suffer more, than by utterly destroying the mischievous teredo, and its active little ally, the xylophagous limneria, Though the Persians show a total disregard for the precepts of the Koran in many important practical points, as in the case of wine-drinking for example, which is universal, they are so far staunch Mussulmauns as to show a bigoted contempt for all forms of religious faith but their own. On visiting a very interesting spot, near Hamadan, a town on the southwest of Tehran, Mr Southgate saw this fanaticism cruelly exemplified, to the cost of himself and a few poor Jews. The spot alluded to was the tomb of Mordecai and Esther, whose story forms so pleasing an episode in the troubled annals of the race of Abraham. "Externally, the tomb is a very plain structure of brick, consisting of a small cylindrical tower and a dome (the whole perhaps twenty feet high), with small projections or wings on three sides. On the summit of the dome a stork had built her nest. The outer door was a single stone. While we were waiting for the key, a throng of young Mussulmauns gathered round and began to abuse us. As soon as the door was opened, and we were about to enter, followed by several Jews, the crowd raised a shout and rushed upon us with sticks and stones. I turned to remonstrate, A story was told me at Tehran of another, who placed himself in a niche of the wall in front of the ambassador's palace. His incessant importunities becoming troublesome, and it not being thought safe to oust him by force, a curious expedient was devised. The ambassador gave orders that the niche should be bricked up. The dervish was warned of the intention, but persisted in maintaining his position until the wall had advanced as high as his chin, when he thought it prudent to ask a release. In another instance, at Shiraz, a dervish had taken his station at the foot of the flag-staff, where his clamour soon became annoying. The agent quietly gave orders that the staff should be washed every morning, and a man was sent up for the purpose, who poured down pailfuls of water, until the intruder beneath was glad to decamp." Lying is still more characteristic of the Persian than begging. "There does not, I am ready to believe, exist a country where society approaches more nearly to that (which moralists have sometimes imagined) of a community where truth is unknown, than Persia; and the only reason why there does not exist a corresponding want of confidence, is, in good part, that inherent vanity of the Persians which makes them willing to be deceived. I learned for myself, long before leaving the country, that my only security was *Titt and Bogue. London: 1840. but the rabbi checked me, saying, "It is not meant for you, but for us. It is nothing strange. We hurried into the tomb, and shut the door. The first apartment was a small porch formed by one of the wings. The entrance from this into the interior was so low that we were compelled to get upon our knees. Here was the place of the dead. The apartment was perfectly plain, simply plastered, and paved with glazed tiles. The structures over the spots where the dead are said to repose, are wooden frames, with inscriptions in Hebrew and flowers carved upon them. I wished to read the inscriptions, but the gloom of the place rendering it impossible, the rabbi directed one of the Jews to bring a candle. On attempting to go out, he was driven back by the crowd, who had raised an in cessant uproar, from the moment that we entered This accident happened in the evening; but there was still sufficient light to enable the whole transaction to be seen perfectly by persons at a considerable distance, whose attention was arrested in the first instance by the agonising shrieks of the females, and the lower-toned but not less appalling eries of the men, thus cast upon the mercy of the waters. To afford help to them, however, was a thing barely possible. The river bore one and all of them down with such rapidity, as to set at nought the exertions of those among them who could swim; and this would probably have been the case even if their condition had been more favourable for that mode of escape. One man only of the number was able to reach the bank. He had nearly grasped a bush, and safety lay seemingly within his reach, when suddenly he felt himself seized and pulled back by one of his companions, a young woman, the bridesmaid of the party. For the love of Heaven!" he exclaimed, "let go your hold, or we must both perish !" "No!" answered the poor girl, clinging to him with a degree of force conceiv able only in such a moment of mortal agony-" no! come death, come life, I shall hold by you!" The man, nevertheless, got his foot to the ground, made a powerful exertion, and reached the land, carrying with him the girl who had fixed herself upon him. For a few minutes, the pair thus rescued were unable to utter a word, and could only express their gratitude to Heaven in the silent language of the eyes and heart. As soon as the young woman regained the power of ordinary speech, however, she addressed her companion in these words:"I am the betrothed bride of another man; but I have said the word at this awful moment, from which I shall never draw back. In death or life I am yours! If you will take my hand, we shall part no more in this world." The young woman who thus spoke was noted for her comeliness, as well as for the excellence of her character and her amiableness of disposition. The young man who had saved her was well aware of this, and heard her affecting offer with as much pleasure as any thing could excite at such a time. In these extraordinary circumstances was a match made between the pair. They joined hands, and from that moment held them selves united for life. Meanwhile, the waters of the Tweed had swept down, and brought destruction to every other member of this ill-fated party, excepting only one man. This individual had caught and attached himself to a portion of the broken boat, of sufficient size to bear him up above the surface; and along with this splinter he was carried rapidly down the river, while his companions were perishing. It is said that he himself was hopeless of ultimate preservation; but, after being borne down in an inconceivably short space of time, for a distance of two miles and upwards, succour came to him in an unexpected form. A boatman, who kept a ferry at the point alluded to, chanced to be looking out at that moment on the foaming river. He saw approaching him the person attached to the piece of wood, and even heard the unfortunate man's voicenot calling for human help-but calmly chanting a psalm, in praise of Him from whom alone, in that extremity, the worshipper had any hopes of aid. The psalm, it may be interesting to the reader to know, was the 103d, a peculiar favourite in past days with the rural population of Scotland, and one which almost every child could say by heart, to use their own phrase on such occasions. The sentiments contained in it are such as to justify this preference. The Lord our God is merciful, Such pity as a father hath For he remembers we are dust, For over it the wind doth pass, And of the place where once it was Such was the appropriate hymn which the individual referred to was engaged in chanting, when borne along the waters, to a premature grave, as he himself believed. The ferryman who saw him, however, was a man of stout heart, and formed an instant resolution to attempt his rescue. Running hastily to his boat, he loosened the fastenings, and was in a few moments in the middle of the current. He could not prevent himself from being carried rapidly downwards, but he was successful in taking up the floating man. They were both landed in safety, at a point a considerable way down the river. The man thus rescued lived to a very advanced age, and never, during the remainder of his life, did he forget for one day the fearful peril from which he had been saved. He got the splinter of wood into the ferryman's boat, and carried it afterwards to his own home. There, at a future period, he made it be introduced into the structure of the coffin destined to receive his remains, and kept this article beside him till the hour of his death. Then, in accordance with his wishes, he was laid in earth with the wood wrapped around him, which he had ever looked upon as the immediate instrument of his preservation. This melancholy accident, by which twelve persons were consigned to a premature grave, made a great sensation, it may well be believed, in the district where it occurred; and to this hour it is remembered by all who dwell near the Ferry of Boldside. VIEW OF SOME RECENT LECTURES IN which is as unlike real beauty as the churn-shapedness which results from it in old age is unlike grace. One example, however, is better than much precept; and as I cannot with propriety instance any lady, I will take a gentleman, who, when about seventeen years of age, had attained a much more than ordinary height, and with it the disadvantages of what is called over growth, particularly a sensation of weariness from sitting or standing for any continuance. At that time, the numerous but now extinct race of monkey-men called Dandies were at their zenith, and stays were much in use. He procured one, with all its accompaniments of straps, buckles, and bones; and, braced therein, found at the moment comfort and relief; but he soon discovered that it was becoming every day more needful. A book on physical education then fell in his way, and opened his eyes to the real state of ported, or their work done for them, they become weaker, the case. He saw that, when muscles are weak, if sup On Wednesday, the 8th April last, a series of lectures Dr Houston's lectures on the internal structure of the ear were next spoken of; and Mr Balls then alluded to those of Dr Kennedy on the physical agencies which influence the organisation and developement of animals and man. He wisely and philosophically urged attention to physical education on all who value soundness of body and mind, and showed examples of the advantages resulting from such attention, and the injurious effects from its neglect. He instanced several cases of self-produced deformity or mutilation, and in a playful but justly satirical manner assumed that the females of no nation could be so irrational as, with engines composed of steel, whalebone, and strong cord, to reduce by force the space well may we hope to improve the correct going of a essential for the proper movements of vital organs; as chronometer by bulging its cases. The ideal beauty sought to be obtained, does not result from the operation -the operators, not knowing where to stop, give another and another tug, until that wasp-waistedness is acquired, Charles Hamilton, Esq., commenced on our third night few general views on life and organised matter, dwelt of meeting, with a paper on deer (cervida), and after a for some time on the singular phenomena presented by most species in their annual change and growth of hornsas they are improperly called, for they are not analogous to horn, but are in reality processes of bone from the skull-which, in the stag for instance, bud out, as it were, in a soft and sensitive form, in single spikes the first year, and gradually assume a bony hardness. After remaining on the animal's head some months, they drop off, and are succeeded by larger forked horns, and so on at regular intervals, until the full head of antlers is acquired. The variation of the size of arteries, the progress of the antler through its vascular and highly sensitive form into a bony and insensible substance, to be cast away when it appears most useful, with the changes of temper, habits, &c., of deer, during the course of this change, are subjects of great interest, and not the less so because they are common. Mr Hamilton gave you many interesting particulars about several species, amongst others the reindeer, a most important animal, when we consider that without it the people inhabiting the Arctic regions would be destitute. No animal exists in any other part of the world that ministers to so many of the wants of man as the rein-deer. An hour would be well spent in speaking of this one alone. The family are all more or less interesting, and it is to be regretted that much difficulty exists in propagating exotic species in these countries. What this difficulty is, I do not think very clear, but that it exists has been proved by repeated experiments. Possibly impatience under restraint has been the cause; and perhaps if we could defend from man--the common enemy of the race, before whom our own stag is fast disappearing-a few rein-deer, wapati, roe-bucks, &c., and turn them out to stray on our mountains, they would live and do well where now not even a goat finds sustenance. The accomplishment of such naturalisation is one of the particular objects of our society, and it is one of much higher rank than the yielding to love of novelty a mischievous passion, which grows by indulgence, and is never satisfied. It would be a source of much comfort, did those only complain of want of rarities who well understood a single animal in the creation. I may conclude my very imperfect notice of Mr Hamilton's interesting paper, by recounting an anecdote of a wapati in our own gardens. This deer became affected by a disease of the wind-pipe, and a consultation of physicians being had, it was decided that the operation of laryngotomy should be performed by the surgeon-general. Accordingly, a number of men with boards, ropes, &c., contrived, at considerable personal risk, to secure the patient in a corner. With much difficulty the operation was commenced; but the moment the wind-pipe was opened, she felt relief, and at once submitted to the tender hand of the operator. When it was necessary several times afterwards to introduce a probang, she bore the operation not only without resistance, but with evident desire to facilitate it, though the pain must have been very great, as was shown by her agonised shuddering, while the expression of submissive suffering and confidence in the face, would have been sufficient to call up a blush in those who would shrink from momentary pain, which may save them from lingering suffering, or even death. Professor Kane showed you a number of interesting products of the animals which minister to our wants or luxuries. The subject is one of very great extent; a mere catalogue would quite astonish those who have never thought on the subject. As a familiar example, take a lady and gentleman in full dress; it is not unlikely that the following animals have suffered death to furnish their outfit:-elephant, oyster, bullock, bleake, stag, silkworm, horse, cochineal, lac insect, musk-deer, bee, ermine, calf, civet, pig, tortoise, kid, ostrich, kangaroo, bird of paradise, swan, beaver, sable, sheep, whale, goat, walrus, rabbit, mussel, bear, and probably a great many others that I cannot recollect. If the lady get cold, blistering beetles or leeches may afford her important aid, and in the days now past, ere chemistry was all-important in materia medica, she would be dosed with numerous nauseous drugs, drawn from the animal kingdom. The medical books of former times are half filled with modes of preparing animals for use in medicine; even man himself was dried, powdered, boiled, distilled, and otherwise manipulated, to furnish remedies." Mr Balls stated that the ladies had taken much interest in Dr Kane's lectures, and had indeed contributed much to the success of the whole series. He then hastily reviewed a lecture by R. Mallet, Esq., on the principles of contrivance in machines and animals; after which he noticed that of the Rev. Cæsar Otway on the habits and intellectuality of animals, from which we lately gave a few extracts in the present work. Surgeon Hargrave gave you a very interesting insight into an extensive subject, the prehensile organs of animals, in which he showed the astonishing fertility of invention in nature. The claw of a crab, the tail of a monkey, the talons of an eagle, the trunk of an elephant, the sucker of a cuttlefish, the jaws of a dragon fly, and a thousand other less familiar subjects, in form most various, but in end the same, may be brought before you, minute inquiry into any one of which would unfold much physiological knowledge. Amongst these, the elephant's proboscis strikes us with the greatest astonishment, from its varied purposes; at one time only a nose, at another a drinking vessel, a water-engine, and a bellows; and then a hand, guided by many thousands of muscles, possessing unequalled mobility and enormous strength, it can pluck a blade of grass, or tear from its roots a palm -can catch a fly, or fell a tiger. Yet the human hand exSOUTHGATE'S TRAVELS IN THE EAST.* cels this and all other instruments of prehension; for A Narrative of Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan, though in its naked state its owner cannot effect many Persia, and Mesopotamia, by the Reverend Horatio things that are easily accomplished by other animals, Southgate," forms an interesting addition to the numyet guided by mind, he can fashion with it instruments whereby he can not only excel individual animals, but ber of those works by which the Christian missionaries attain ends which could not be come at by the combined of the United States of North America have of late might of all other instruments of prehension in nature. years gained for themselves so much honourable disProfessor Harrison gave you a popular view of mollus- tinction. By reprinting the productions of the Revecous animals. Some few years ago, conchologists and rend Howard Malcom, we ourselves gave a practical collectors of shells were held in little esteem, and the expression of our approval of this peculiar class of malacologists, or persons interested in their animal inha-works, which combine information upon points of the bitants, were here unknown. The case is now different; highest interest to man, with such a measure of lively conchology is justly valued for the aid it affords to the and entertaining description as serves to arrest the atimportant science of geology, for fossil shells are not in tention even of those more exclusively partial to what is these days considered freaks of the plastic power of called light reading. Mr Southgate is a fit and worthy nature, but (as they have been elegantly termed) the colleague of the writer just mentioned, and we know medals of creation, from which we may obtain data to judge of the relative ages of the earth's strata. The not that greater or more appropriate commendation necessary knowledge of them can be best obtained by could be bestowed on him. In an introduction of considerable length, Mr Southstudying recent shells, and the study and the collection of these objects are now admitted to be worthy recre- gate gives a very able and candid view of the doctrines ations, vieing with floriculture in interest, and contending of Mahommedanism, with observations upon its prewith it in utility-the one serving in the hands of the sent condition and prospects in various countries of geologist most important purposes, while the other renders the East. The tour of the reverend missionary comup its service to the horticulturist and botanist. In refe- menced with a visit to Constantinople, from which rence to shells, it has been well remarked, that if the city he passed up the Black Sea to the port of Trebimansion in which an animal dwells is worthy of exami-zond, and then crossed, through the provinces of Armenation, the architect and inhabitant must be so. The nia and Kurdistan, into Persia. His remarks upon works of Poli and others show the interesting results this route, relating to the wandering Kurds and Armewhich flow from such examination to the physiologist and nians, and descriptive of the large cities of Erzroum, comparative anatomist, for it is by tracing the progression Betlis, Tebriz, and others, fill the first volume with of faculties from the lower to the higher animals that we are to look for the revelation of many of the mysteries of very interesting matter. We prefer, however, to take nature. The eloquent professor gave you very interesting up the traveller after his entry into central Persia. accounts of the nautilus and argonaut creatures, which, He formed a very low opinion of the people of that from the earliest periods, have attracted the attention country, as regarded many important points of social of poets and men of science, both equally inaccurate in morality. The Persian dervishes are described by him description. It is strange how many instances have oc- as intolerable pests. "These religious mendicants curred in natural history, in which absolute fables have resemble more the santons and fakirs of India than been handed down uncontradicted for ages: thus, in this the dervishes of Turkey. They are not, like the latter, case, the story of the argonaut spreading her sails to catch gathered into communities, but roam over the country, the wind as she floats on the surface of the water, has living upon charity, and practising villanies of every been believed by all, and doubtless seen in the mind's sort. They carry with them a horn, which they blow eye at least by many; while the most celebrated natuon approaching a town, and a little wooden vessel in ralists of the present day have waged the fiercest scientific war on the question of the right of the animal found which they receive their alms. They are not respected in the shell of the paper nautilus to be considered as the by the people, and are exceedingly insolent. They are fabricator of it. An immense quantity has been written clamorous in demanding charity, and sometimes sit on this subject, and it is but a few months since that the down before a house with the determination not to matter has been set at rest by the only court of appeal quit it until money is given. There they remain, day that can decide on disputed points of natural history--I after day, and week after week, execrating the inmates, mean, observation. Madame Power and M. Sandar Rang until their demand is granted, or they are beaten away. instituted such courts, and by patient investigation have One sat in this manner more than three months before proved that the once-called sails are arms, by which the the British residency in Bagdat. shell is not only held in its place but fabricated; thus proving most satisfactorily, by observation, what closet naturalists, theorising from analogy, had so long doubted. This story will put you in mind of the very useful moral conveyed in the joke put upon the Royal Society by the king, who asked that learned body why a tub containing water did not become heavier by adding to it a living fish. Very many sapient reasons were offered in explanation, until one sceptical gentleman experimented to prove its truth. If his majesty's intent were to show the value of observation, compared with the vain reasoning and theorising of the day, it was a lesson of much utility. Professor Harrison concluded with observations on the injuries done to wood-work exposed to sea by the teredo, and he proved to you the enormous expense this little creature entails on man, in protecting by copper, and other means, his ships from its destructive ravages. Though this animal has obtained from the great Linnæus the title of calamitas navium, yet observation shows, paradoxical as it may seem, that, did it cease to exist, the earth would be a bog, the sea scarcely navigable; for the mouths of rivers would soon be blocked up by trees, washed down by floods, while the ocean would be dangerously covered with floating logs of timber; but now these trees and logs are eaten up in a very few months by the teredo, which is thus shown to be the best friend of the navigator, though unthinkingly called by him his worst foe. Who --who that has reason---would dare, if he could, blot out the race of any animal from the face of creation? Man has many times suffered from his attempts at extermination, and in no way, perhaps, would he suffer more, than by utterly destroying the mischievous teredo, and its active little ally, the xylophagous limneria, A story was told me at Tehran of another, who placed himself in a niche of the wall in front of the ambassador's palace. His incessant importunities becoming troublesome, and it not being thought safe to oust him by force, a curious expedient was devised. The ambassador gave orders that the niche should be bricked up. The dervish was warned of the intention, but persisted in maintaining his position until the wall had advanced as high as his chin, when he thought it prudent to ask a release. In another instance, at Shiraz, a dervish had taken his station at the foot of the flag-staff, where his clamour soon became annoying. The agent quietly gave orders that the staff should be washed every morning, and a man was sent up for the purpose, who poured down pailfuls of water, until the intruder beneath was glad to decamp." Lying is still more characteristic of the Persian than begging. "There does not, I am ready to believe, exist a country where society approaches more nearly to that (which moralists have sometimes imagined) of a community where truth is unknown, than Persia; and the only reason why there does not exist a corresponding want of confidence, is, in good part, that inherent vanity of the Persians which makes them willing to be deceived. I learned for myself, long before leaving the country, that my only security was in acting upon the supposition that every man was *Tilt and Bogue. London: 1840. unworthy of trust. I have never,' said a pious and intelligent gentleman who had resided twelve successive years in the country, who had travelled over almost every part of it, and been conversant with all classes I have never,' he said to me one day, 'seen a Persian whom I found, on good acquaintance, that I could safely trust.' It is wonderful, indeed, with what facility most Persians utter a falsehood. It has often seemed to me like an instinct with them. They are fully conscious of the vice, and acknowledge that it prevails every where among them. They perpetrate it with the utmost indifference, and, on being betrayed, seem to have no shame, nor any sense of having done wrong. They practise it with the most astonishing hardihood. I have heard a Persian lie, and persist in it even against the immediate evidence of my senses." The source of this habit, so disgracefully universal, is to be sought for, our author thinks, in the native character of the of the marvellous. Their extreme affability of speech Persians, in their imaginativeness of mind, and love aids in producing the same effect; they often lie for the mere sake of pleasing. "But that which lies beneath all these, and which is the root of all, is their want of conscientiousness, and singular weakness of moral principle." We have long been accustomed to associate with Persia very erroneous notions of splendour and magnificence. Tehran, the capital of the country, containing about 60,000 inhabitants, is characterised by "streets peculiarly bad, for the most part destitute of pavements, narrow, irregular, and full of dangerous holes. The houses are extraordinarily mean, and unsightly ruins, covering in some instances extensive areas, frequently meet the eye." The interior of these dwellings, except in the instances of a few abodes of the great, corresponds with the exterior. So much for the aspect and condition of the first city of the Persian empire. The following quotation will exhibit the common state of the rural dwellings of the land. "On opening a door, we came suddenly into the family apartment, where were two or three women and six children in the full enjoyment of domestic comfort. In order to understand what domestic comfort means in Persia, a little explanation is necessary. The most common fire-place in a Persian apartment is a circular hole in the ground, two or three feet deep, called a tandour. A fire is lighted at the bottom, and when this has burned out, a fine glow of heat remains. A low wooden frame, somewhat resembling a table with its legs reduced to the length of a foot, is placed over the tandour, and upon this is spread a large coverlet, which extends several feet beyond the table on every side. The family then lie down in a circle, their bodies forming the radii from the tandour, which is the centre. Thus disposed, they draw the coverlet up to their chins, and the beholder sees nothing but a circle of heads emerging from beneath it. Our sudden entrance produced some confusion among the inmates, and the master appearing at that moment, ordered the family to retire to another apartment, and invited us to take their places under the coverlet. We had had so many lessons, however, upon the imprudence of occupying family quarters in a Persian village, that we were content to spread our carpets in the farthest corners of the room, and repose upon them." In truth as, but for early prepossessions, we should at once perceive-no country can be the scene of any thing like general magnificence, where the people are plunged in ignorance, and do not enjoy the constant advantages of active commerce and rational liberty. Though the Persians show a total disregard for the precepts of the Koran in many important practical points, as in the case of wine-drinking for example, which is universal, they are so far staunch Mussulmauns as to show a bigoted contempt for all forms of religious faith but their own. On visiting a very interesting spot, near Hamadan, a town on the southwest of Tehran, Mr Southgate saw this fanaticism cruelly exemplified, to the cost of himself and a few poor Jews. The spot alluded to was the tomb of Mordecai and Esther, whose story forms so pleasing an episode in the troubled annals of the race of Abraham. "Externally, the tomb is a very plain structure of brick, consisting of a small cylindrical tower and a dome (the whole perhaps twenty feet high), with small projections or wings on three sides. On the summit of the dome a stork had built her nest. The outer door was a single stone. While we were waiting for the key, a throng of young Mussulmauns gathered round and began to abuse us. As soon as the door was opened, and we were about to enter, followed by several Jews, the crowd raised a shout and rushed upon us with sticks and stones. I turned to remonstrate, but the rabbi checked me, saying, 'It is not meant for you, but for us. It is nothing strange. We hurried into the tomb, and shut the door. The first apartment was a small porch formed by one of the wings. The entrance from this into the interior was so low that we were compelled to get upon our knees. Here was the place of the dead. The apartment was perfectly plain, simply plastered, and paved with glazed tiles. The structures over the spots where the dead are said to repose, are wooden frames, with inscriptions in Hebrew and flowers carved upon them. I wished to read the inscriptions, but the gloom of the place rendering it impossible, the rabbi directed one of the Jews to bring a candle. On attempting to go out, he was driven back by the crowd, who had raised an in cessant uproar, from the moment that we entered The poor Jews were afraid to show themselves, and it was agreed that they should remain while we went out and endeavoured to disperse the mob. On issuing from the tomb, we found that their number had greatly increased. We spoke to them, and they answered with a volley of stones." Mr Southgate's servant was seriously hurt, and the Jews had to remain for a long time shut up. Our author conceives it to be probable that this tomb, which was erected in the year of the world 4474, really contains the dust of the fair Jewess, who won the affections of Ahasuerus, and of her persecuted kinsman, who " sat at the king's gate." We have had much pleasure in following the reverend missionary on his overland route from Tehran to Bagdat, and from Bagdat up the Tigris to the Black Sea, whence he returned by a steamer to Constantinople. On the present occasion, however, we can only yield space for another brief quotation or two from this very excellent work. The following is an account of an illusion of the desert, known under the title of the mirage, and which, if our memory serves us rightly, deceived a modern general and army on one occasion in Egypt to such an extent as to cause the escape of an important body of the enemy. "Soon after we started, I was surprised by the sight of what appeared to be a river before us; and, as we advanced, was still more surprised at the slowness with which we approached it. The deception continued more than half an hour, before I discovered that it was the mirage of the desert. The delusion was perfect. It seemed like a very large stream, about three miles distant, and every slight inequality in the level of the desert appeared like an island rising above its surface. While we were still, according to the estimate of our muleteer, about twenty miles distant from the city, the tops of its minarets and date-trees peered above the horizon, like the first sight of the upper spars of a ship at sea. As we drew near, the walls gradually rose to view. The mirage receded as we advanced, until, at length, while we were still some miles distant, minarets, and trees, and walls appeared to be floating in the illusive stream. Mahommed, to whom such sights must have been familiar, draws from them one of the finest similes in the Koran. 'As to the unbelievers, their works are like the vapour in the plain, which the thirsty traveller thinketh to be water, until, when he cometh thereto, he findeth it to be nothing."" | | confirmed sot, who swallows the strongest potations, is held in better repute than his more moderate neighbour who satisfies himself with wine. Another consequence is, that among the Turks, who are more scrupulous in observing their law than the Persians, there are far more who indulge in the use of ardent spirits than of the juice of the grape, and the effect of the law is to patronise drunkenness in the highest degree, while it condemns it in its mildest and least exceptionable form. A Turk, therefore, as he becomes | a more confirmed sot, becomes, in the same ratio, a better Mussulmaun; for when he has reached that stage in which wine is too weak for his palate, he has only to grow conscientious and reform upon brandy." free, Oh! the flowery month of June! my heart is bounding wild and That come to cheer and welcome in the flowery month of June! AN HOSPITAL SCENE IN PORTUGAL. "I WISH to give you," said a British officer, in a letter to a friend during the Peninsular war, "some idea of a scene I witnessed at Mirando do Cervo, on the ninth The bigotry of the followers of Mahommed has been day of our pursuit. Yet I fear that a sight so terrible alluded to, and it is remarkable, that, to gain a prose- cannot be shadowed out, except in the memory of lyte, they will forego almost any purpose, however him who beheld it. I entered the town about dusk. cherished. “ During the Saracenic conquests, Chris- It had been a black, grim, and gloomy sort of a day; tian captives often saved themselves from slavery or at one time fierce blasts of wind, and at another perdeath by apostacy; and instances of recent occurrence fect stillness, with far-off thunder. Altogether, there were sometimes related to me, during my travels, in was a wild adaptation of the weather and the day to which Christians, exposed to the fury of Mussulmaun the retreat of a great army. Huge masses of clouds revenge, rescued themselves, in the last extremity, by lay motionless on the sky, and then they would break crying aloud, 'There is no God but God, and Mahom-up suddenly as with a whirlwind, and roll off in the med is the prophet of God.' A European officer, in red and gloomy distance. I felt myself in a state of the service of the late Pasha of Bagdad, had rendered strange excitement. My imagination got the better himself obnoxious to the soldiery by certain infirmities of my other faculties, and I was like a man in a grand of character, which would have been patiently endured but terrific dream. Thus feeling, I passed the great in a Mussulmaun superior, but could not be borne in a cross in the principal street, and suddenly fell in with Frank. The ill will of the soldiers at length arose to an old haggard-looking wretcha woman, who seemed so great a height that it could not be restrained. One to have in her hollow eyes an unaccountable expression day, while he was drilling a party of them in the of cruelty-a glance like that of madness; but her parade-ground, some violent expressions which fell deportment was quiet and rational, and she was evifrom him threw the incensed soldiers into such a dently of the middle rank of society, though her dress frenzy, that they rushed upon him with one accord, was faded and squalid. She told me (without my crying out against his life. The officer, seeing no way asking her), in broken English, that I should find of escape, and expecting instant death, exclaimed comfortable accommodations in an old convent that aloud, La ilahi all' Allah,' &c. Instantly every arm stood at some distance among a grove of cork trees; was dropped, and the soldiers suddenly fell back, as if pointing to them at the same time with her long disappointed of their victim. shrivelled hand and arm, and giving a sort of hysterical laugh, 'You will find,' said she, 'nobody there to disturb you.' The same day the officer was conducted to the house of the mufti, to be instructed in the elements of his new faith. But ere he had made much progress, a friendly message was received from the pasha, representing the circumstances of the officer's conversion, and how improbable it was that he would ever become a sincere Mussulmaun, and ending with the intimation that it would be as well to dismiss him. The mufti yielded to the wishes, if not to the arguments, of the pasha, and the proselyte was secretly hurried out of the city, and conveyed into Persia. It hardly need be added, that his attachment to his new religion ceased as soon as he found himself again in a place of safety." The wine-drinking of the Mahommedans has also been referred to. Some of the most renowned supporters of the faith have openly indulged to excess in wine. The wine-magazine of Shah Abbas, one of the most able of the Persian sovereigns, "who reigned in the seventeenth century, was among the most costly edifices of Persia. It consisted of a spacious hall, of which the entire roof was one magnificent dome. From the floor to the height of eight feet from the ground, the walls were of jasper. Above this, on every side, and over the whole interior surface of the dome, were niches of a thousand shapes, filled with vases of every imaginable form and material, appearing to the eye like incrustations upon the walls. They were of crystal, cornelian, agate, onyx, jasper, amber, coral, porcelain, gold, silver, and enamel, and were filled with the choicest wines. The pictures of this monarch, which are preserved to the present day, generally represent him in the act of drinking." One of the most ridiculous consequences of the Mussulmaun laws on drinking, is the license allowed to those who prefer distilled liquors to wine. The former are not forbidden in the Koran, and the "consequence is, that the I followed her advice with a kind of superstitious acquiescence. There was no reason to anticipate any adventure or danger at the convent; yet the wild eyes, and the wilder voice of the poor creature, powerfully affected me; and I went on in a sort of reverie, till I had walked up a pretty long flight of steps, and was standing at the entrance to the cloisters of the convent. I then saw something that made me speedily forget the old woman, though what it was I did see, I could not, in the first moments of my amazement and horror, very distinctly comprehend. Above a hundred dead bodies lay and sat before my eyes, all of them apparently in the very attitude or posture in which they had died. I looked at them for at least a minute before I knew that they were all corpses. Something in the mortal silence of the place told me that I alone was alive in this dreadful company. A desperate courage enabled me to look steadfastly at the scene before me. The bodies were mostly clothed in mats and rugs, and tattered greatcoats; some of them merely wrapped about with girdles of straw, and two or three perfectly naked. Every face had a different expression, but all painful, horrid, agonised, bloodless; many glazed eyes were wide open, and, perhaps, this was the most shocking thing in the whole spectacle-so many eyes that saw not, all seemingly fixed upon different objects; some cast up to heaven, some looking straight forwards, and some with the white orbs turned round, and deep sunk in the sockets. | | they who, as the old woman said, would not 'trouble' me. I had begun to view this ghastly sight with some composure, when I saw, at the remotest part of the hospital, a gigantic figure, sitting covered with blood, and almost naked, upon a rude bedstead, with his back leaning against the wall, and his eyes fixed directly on mine. I thought he was alive, and shuddered, but he was stone dead. In the last agonies he had bitten his under lip almost off, and his long black beard was drenched in clotted gore, that likewise lay in large blots on his shaggy bosom. I recognised the corpse. He had been a sergeant in a grenadier regiment, and was, during the retreat, distinguished for acts of savage valour. One day he killed with his own hand Henry Warburton, the right-hand man of my own company, perhaps the finest made and most powerful man in the British army. My soldiers had nicknamed him with a very coarse appellation, and I really felt as if he and I were acquaintances. There he sat, as if frozen to death. I went up to the body, and, raising up the giant's muscular arm, it fell down again with a hollow sound against the bloody side of the corpse. My eyes unconsciously wandered along the walls. They were covered with grotesque figures, and caricatures of the English, absolutely drawn in blood. Horrid blasphemies, and the most shocking obscenities in the shape of songs, were in like manner written there; and you may guess what an effect they had upon me, when the wretches who had transcribed them lay dead corpses around me. I saw two books lying on the floor. I lifted them up; one seemed to be full of the most hideous obscenity; the other was the Bible! It is impossible to tell you the horror produced in me by this circumstance. The books fell from my hands; they fell upon the breast of one of the bodies-it was a woman's breast. A woman had lived and died in such a place as this! What had been in that heart, now still, perhaps only a few hours before, I knew not. It is possible, love strong as death-love, guilty, abandoned, depraved, and linked by vice unto misery, but still love, that perished but with the last throb, and yearned in the last convulsion towards some one of these grim dead bodies. I think some such idea as this came across me at the time; or has it now only arisen? Near this corpse lay that of a mere boy, certainly not more than seventeen years of age. There was a little copper figure of the Virgin Mary round his neck, suspended by a chain of hair. It was of little value, else it had not been suffered to remain there. In his hand was a letter; I saw enough to know that it was from his mother-Mon cher fils, &c. It was a terrible place to think of mother-of home-of any social human ties. Have these ghastly things parents, brothers, sisters, lovers? Were they all once happy in peaceful homes? Did these convulsed, and bloody, and mangled bodies, once lie in undisturbed beds? Did those clutched hands once press in infancy a mother's breast? Now, all was loathsome, terrible, ghostlike. Human nature seemed here to be debased and brutified. Will such creatures, I thought, ever live again-robbers, incendiaries, murderers, suicides (for a dragoon lay with a pistol in his hand, and his skull shattered to pieces), heroes? The only two powers that reigned here were agony and death. Whatever might have been their characters when alive, all faces were now alike. I could not, in those fixed contortions, tell what was pain from what was angermisery from wickedness. It was now growing dark, and the night was setting in stormier than the day. A strong flash of lightning suddenly illuminated this hold of death, and for a moment showed me more distinctly the terrible array. A loud squall of wind came round about the dwelling, and the old window casement gave way, and fell with a shivering crash in upon the floor. Something rose up with an angry growl from among the dead bodies. It was a huge dark-coloured wolf-dog, with a spiked collar round his neck; and, seeing me, he leaped forwards with gaunt and bony limbs. I am confident that his jaws were bloody. I had instinctively moved backwards towards the door. The surly savage returned growling to his lair, and, in a state of stupefaction, I found myself in the open air. A bugle was playing, and the light infantry company of my own regiment was entering the village with loud shouts and huzzas." Reader, this is a fearful picture of the miseries inseparable from war. We are told that there is something noble in that unhallowed art, which teaches man to imbue his hand in his brother's blood; that there is something generous in that fine chivalric spirit which thereby kindles in the hour of alarm, and rushes with delight among the thickest scenes of danger and of enterprise; that man is never more proudly arrayed than when, elevated by a contempt for death, he looks serene while the arrows of destruction are flying on every side; that, expunge war, and you expunge some of the brightest names in the catalogue of human virtues, and demolish that theatre on which have been displayed some of the sublimest energies of the human character. It is thus that war has been invested with a most pernicious splendour, and the common sense of mankind been abused. It was a sort of hospital. These wretched beings were mostly all either desperately or mortally wounded; LONDON: Published, with permission of the proprietors, by W.S and after having been stripped by their comrades, they had been left there dead and to die. Such were ORR, Paternoster Row; and sold by all booksellers and newsmen.-Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars. DINBURGH CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF "CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE," "CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c. NUMBER 448. A FEW WEEKS FROM HOME. My journey southwards, as I formerly mentioned, was extended, by means of the railway from London, to Southampton; from which place of rising importance I proceeded for a week's recreation, and for the purpose of making some local inquiries, to the Isle of Wight. Southampton stands on the flat shore of a bay stretching out from the direct channel of the Itchin, and from it steamers regularly ply several times a-day to Cowes and Ryde, the voyage usually occupying about two hours, and at a small charge for passage. Being more animated with the wish of seeing the country than of pushing quickly over the ground, we selected the longest way about, but certainly that which is most romantic and agreeablethrough the New Forest to Lymington. If the reader be inclined for the jaunt, let him then come along with us into the glades of one of England's most ancient woodlands. It was on a delightfully fresh summer morning, that our post-chaise rattled up the main street of Southampton in a northerly direction, and, wheeling to the left, carried us speedily within the verge of the forest. Old-fashioned yellow mud cottages with vines trained up the walls, bushy hedge-rows and copses, small enclosed fields and clumps of oak in the open lawns, were passed in endless variety; and here and there the noise of the carriage sent the little black Hampshire pigs, which browsed on the wayside, off at a scamper to the nearest hut; or, rousing a herd of deer, caused them to bound rapidly away into the recesses of the forest. The scene was in every respect English, and well worthy of loitering over for a few idle hours. SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1840. circular handle of a pot, and which is alleged to have belonged to William Rufus-a fact which it would be equally cruel and needless to dispute with its wellmeaning and devoutly believing exhibitor. But we must draw ourselves away from the lodge of the lord warden, or rather of his deputy's deputy, and be on our way westward by Brokenhurst. The chaise, with a pair of fresh horses, is again rolling along the trim pathway across the heathy patches, and amidst scattered groups of oak and birch plantations. Nowhere, it is to be observed, either in this part or farther eastward, do we see any actual forest. The New Forest, which includes nearly 100,000 acres of land, and originated in the reign of William I., about eight hundred years since, is in the present age only a woody piece of country, dotted over with enclosed farms, cottages, and gentlemen's residences, most of which private properties have in process of time been either given away by royal grants, or acquired on the principle that squatters take possession of lands in the backwoods of America. No doubt, this has constituted a serious grievance; but John Bull has suffered so many other losses of much greater consequence, that intrusion on the bounds of the New Forest escaped his attention until a recent period, when a better order of things was instituted. Royal grants of lands are now abolished, and squatting is no longer permitted. Proceeding through Brokenhurst, a village of Saxon origin, mentioned in that venerable chronicle Doomsday Book, we attain some grand forest views, over a wide range of greenwood, and open groves or glades, varied in many different forms; and immediately afterwards enter a vista, or avenue of several miles in length, perfectly straight, and lined on each side with a row of tall trees. This formal pathway conducts us almost to Lymington, which is the termination of our journey on the mainland. Lymington is a dull country town of no note, situated on the face of an eminence which declines towards a muddy creek, containing sufficient water to float the two or three small trading craft and a steam-boat, that draw up alongside its quay. Looking southwards down the creek, we perceive the Isle of Wight at about two or three milcs' distance from its outer extremity. The steam is up. All things are ready, and we are off on our voyage through the winding water of the swamp, and thence across the narrow channel beyond. In forty minutes, we are landed at Yarmouth. Slowly did our vehicle pursue its way over the yellow-pebbled road, that we might have an opportunity of remarking the various points of interest, until we arrived at Lyndhurst, the capital of the forest, and situated near its centre. Although dignified with the appellation of capital, Lyndhurst is only a village consisting of a few brick houses of a humble but neat order, with an inn of loftier pretensions, containing a Solly large parlour with a jolly large fireplace, and lined with a delightfully antique green-coloured paper, covered all over with hunting-scenes, in which hundreds of jolly squires and yeomen are blowing bugles, leaping fences, and galloping merrily after hounds and stags through the openings of an endless forest. Many a carouse, I make no doubt, on the occasion of the steward's forest courts, has this said parlour with the old green paper-hangings witnessed. Adjacent to this respectable hostel of the olden times, and half shrouded among foliage, stands an aged brick edifice of still loftier distinction, denominated the Queen's House, and forming the lodge of the lord warden. As may be supposed, the lord warden is much too great a man to stay in this out-of-the-way unfashionable mansion, and he accordingly gives it up to his deputy the steward, and the steward resigns it to be shown by a female domestic, to whom a shilling is at all times a most acceptable offering. On being admitted to the interior by this discreet attendant, we were conducted to an old damp apartment on the ground-floor, called the hall, and which, as we were told, had been the court-room of the forest jurisdiction from time immemorial. A few lumbering benches, a bar and judgment-seat at one end, corroborate the statement. Allowing a minute or two to observe these decayed emblems of a state of things fortunately passing away, After a night's residence in the little old-fashioned we are next shown an object which is evidently town of Yarmouth, we proceeded in an open car to esteemed the great palladium of the establishment. explore the western extremity of the island, at the This is an old rusty stirrup-iron, resembling the semi- far-famed Alum Bay. A drive of five or six miles, The channel between the mainland of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, anciently called the Solvent, and now the Solent Sea, varies in breadth from two to five miles, and is understood to have been formed by the breaking of the ocean across a tract of land at the spot. The island thus separated must originally have been of much greater extent than at present, because it is daily diminishing by the action of the sea on its southern and western shores. It now measures twenty-two miles from east to west, and at the middle thirteen from north to south. By the Romans it was called Vecha or Vectis, which has been corrupted in modern times into Wight. On the side next the Solent, the land slopes gradually to the water's edge, and possesses no point of the least interest. The only parts of the island attractive by their picturesque appearance, are the western and southern coasts, for there the encroachments of the ocean have produced a series of chalky precipices, which frequently alter in extent and character, and form a valuable study to the geological tourist. PRICE THREE HALFPENCE. over a circuitous and gradually ascending road, prettily lined with hedge-rows, brought us to the top of a heathy hill, from which it was found necessary to clamber down to the sea-shore. This point is at length gained, and affords a striking marine view. Before us is the wide placid sea, with the Isle of Portland, on the coast of Dorsetshire, faintly visible in the distance. Near us, but within the line of the water, are several columnar masses of rock, called the Needles, which have been left by the encroachments of the waves on the solid land. The shore is wide, flat, and composed of exquisitely fine sand, of divers colours, stretching to the base of lofty cliffs behind us. These cliffs are generally composed of a softish chalk, enclosing lumps of flint; but in some places the material is varied with stripes of a red and blue colour. In many parts the incumbent mass rests on a stratum of gravel, or other friable sandy matter; and this inferior layer being daily operated upon with more or less violence by the sea, huge cliffs are undermined, and either slide down with a portion of hill behind, in the form of land-slips, or tumble in fragments upon the beach. The white sand of the shore is esteemed of value for the manufacture of glass and earthenware, and forms an important article of export. The more bright and various coloured sands are also removed in smaller quantities to form ornaments for chimney-pieces, by putting them in phials in a particularly tasteful style of art, so as to represent fanciful scenes beneath the surface of the glass. From Alum Bay we retraced our steps for a mile or two eastward, and then struck off towards the southern shore at Fresh-water Gate, a place consisting of only a boarding-house and two or three cottages. A similar scene of white chalky cliffs, worn in some places into yawning caverns, here awaited us; and having noted all that was worth inspection, we drove off to Newport, a distance of ten miles, and situated near the centre of the island, of which it is the metropolis. Newport, in my opinion, is the prettiest place in the island. It is a neat brick town, with several good streets laid out at right angles to each other, or radiating from the main thoroughfares into pleasant country roads around. The town occupies the flat bosom of a valley, on the banks of a small river called the Medina, which issues into the sea at Cowes, and on nearly all sides is surrounded by low rounded hills, the most attractive of which is one on the west, forming the site of the aged castle of Carisbrooke. It would be unpardonable for any one to be an hour in Newport, without proceeding to view this deeply interesting spot. In our case, the evening was one of the finest that could be selected for such an excursion, and we lost no time in making our way thither. An easy walk of half an hour, along a pleasant road, brings us to the bottom of the hill, and, ascending that green eminence by flights of steps and pathways, we are shortly on a flat esplanade, level with the exterior ramparts of the castle. A few minutes more, with the porter's permission, allow us to enter the huge machicolated gateway, to cross the inner courtyard, and to ascend to the summit of the ponderous Norman keep. What a scene meets our eye! We are from three to four hundred feet above the level of the sweet valley beneath, in which nestle the old village and church of Carisbrooke, with rich environing gardens, and a few gentlemen's villas. Looking a little to the east and northward, we see Newport stretching along the Medina, and retiring amongst lines of leafy trees and thorn hedge-rows in full blossom. Beyond to the northward, our vision is extended over a bushy upland, called the Forest of Parkhurst; and still farther off, in the samo direction, we have a glimpse of the |