lot in life with a man of such marked mental or morala wizened ould maid ?-or does she wait till his Ixlency infirmity, Florence could not ward off the cold oppressive send down a coach-and-six to carry her up to Dublin city, sense of an isolated heart; nor yet that yearning, unappeasable feeling the poet has described:

"Though many may love, yet I feel
I'm not enough beloved."

to mak her mi Lady Lieutenant ?" " While Judy hastily arrayed herself in her long blue cloak and hood, and harangued thus, Florence prepared her brief epistle. "My first impulse," she wrote, "was to consign the enclosed paper to the flames. But, as that could not be done in Although she strove to think that there would have been presence of the individual most interested in obliterating more propriety in the young man tacitly withdrawing his every trace of the folly it records, I leave the duty to you. attentions, Florence could not help sympathizing with, and No circumstances shall ever bend me to the degradation of almost admiring, the unexpected display of spirit and man-marrying a man to whom I cannot give my unreserved liness in her bashful lover; or owning that John Joyce, esteem; nor to esteem one who so often acts as if he had with his many bad habits, possessed a natural or intui- ceased to respect himself."

tive refinement of feeling often wanting in persons of more Judy Gallagher contrived to deliver this imagined love polished exterior. Agitated by contradictory emotions and letter, in a way that would have done credit to the genius reflections, Florence, in spite of her pride, shed a few tears, or instinct of a fashionable waiting-maid; though sympathy which were placed to account of nervousness, and seeing, with the anticipated happiness of the lover, about to be for probably the last time, one who had been so dear to raised to the third heavens by the grace of her repentant her father; and then she addressed herself afresh to the mistress, might have betrayed her mission to a curious obduty of examining the Surgeon's papers. server. Having waited in the dark for above two hours, Among other letters, many boyish epistles from young Judy intercepted the young Squire going with a lantern to Joyce to her father fell under her inspection, every one of pay his latest visit in the stables, a favourite place of rewhich contained some allusion to herself; while, of a great sort. The blushing, boyish eagerness with which, giving number, she formed the sole topic. Puerile and rude as Judy the lantern, he tore open her despatches, was more most of these confidential effusions were, relating to Jack's than reward to the zealous, smiling nurse for her protracted feats in boating and hunting, or triumphs at the convivial watch; but what was her horror to behold the changed board, to which he had been so early introduced, there were expression of his countenance, as he crushed the papers in mingled traits of generous feeling, and indications of a agony, and turned hastily and silently away! higher kind of intelligence than was generally imagined It was almost midnight before Judith reached Dame's to distinguish the young Squire. A series of the letters Court, in very bad humour. "It's myself has the right to referred to a violent family quarrel, in which Jack had be ill-plaised; and troth, then, I am,” said she, unloosening sought counsel; and in which he had, at all hazards to him- her cloak. "I wish to pace, Miss Florence O'Brien, self, taken part with his mother, against the tyrannical ma'am, you would find another messenger for them sort husband and domineering priest, who had leagued when of errands; that poor boy's face, and the murdering change the surrender of the lady's dowry became necessary to in it, won't so on lave my eyes. Pardon me, Miss Flory— their schemes of finance. The eyes of Florence glistened I am but a poor nurse to be sure; but I know one thing, in sympathy with the affectionate courage of the ill-taught—many is the young lady has sat in her own light, and but right-hearted boy. lived to repent it." And between anger, grief, and vexa

Another paper fell under her eye, which made her brow tion, Judy lifted up her voice and wept outright. flush and burn. This was a document meant to be very "I would need patience with you, nurse," said Florence. formally and solemnly executed, in which John Joyce," You do, indeed, on this subject, take strange liberties. younger of Castle Joyce, bound himself to marry Florence Be assured, however, that this is the first and last errand O'Brien, spinster, so soon as he, the said John Joyce, of this nature in which you, or any one, shall ever be emshould obtain his father's consent, or become his own mas-ployed by me." ter. It was enclosed in a letter, in which the young man, "Upon my blessing, now, jewel, make no vows about hoped that now his friend, Dr. O'Brien, would surely per- it," cried the alarmed nurse, drying her tears. "No young mit him the entrance at Dame's Court. Florence would lady or girl knows what's afore her in this world. We'll not allow herself to believe that her father had either volun- get him, is ordained for us. And it be God's will that you tarily received or held this paper; and she was on the point should marry Squire Jack, who will put him past you, or of indignantly throwing it into the flames, when she took put you— the resolution of restoring it to the party most interested. Hush, now, I beg," interrupted Florence, sternly; and For this there was still time, as Squire Jack and Father Judy durst not push her high-nurse privilege of speech Mike were not to leave Castle Joyce until next morning. farther at this time. She had other pressing duties. The "Could you undertake to deliver a letter from me into effects of her late master were to be disposed of by public Mr. Joyce's own hand, and to-night ?" inquired Florence auction, and it became her to assist her mistress, who was of her nurse; and the broad face of Judy dilated into broader grins while she responded.

straining every faculty to meet the demands of the time. In looking minutely into her father's sadly-deranged affairs, "With all the veins of mi heart, darlin'. And sure Florence, with reviving hopes, found that if everything was can't I do it in fifty ways, and never a thief of them, from turned to the best account, she might be able, not only to the ould Squire to the gorsoon, guess mi errand? Och discharge his debts, but to reimburse Squire Joyce for the let me alone, to put the chate upon them, then! And lavish expenditure of the funeral, which it galled her spirit glory to His name! that you are come to sinse at last, that he should defray.

jewel-which I always swore you would, and tould Mrs. The day of the sale at Dame's Court exhibited the genuRooney and Larry Ryan. 'What's your young lady after?" ine Irish character in a very amiable light. The objects says Larry-that's Squire Jack's own boy, who would go of the sale were well understood; and, from the poorest through fire and water for him. What's she after turn-cottier and small farmer, whose family had ever benefitted ing the cowld cheek to our Squire Jack? Does she by the kindness or skill of Dr. O'Brien, to his friends mane,' says he, "to roost up in Dame's Court till she grow among the strong farmers of the wide surrounding country.

and the whole of the resident gentry, every man strove Doctor, and allow us to hould up our heads with the best who should, according to his means, best promote the in Portmullina, and be both hospitable and gentale; and to business of the day, and testify the universal regard enter- keep an extra handy girl, barring Judy Gallagher, and a tained for the deceased, by good will to his daughter. At gorsoon, with a bit of a pony, and a car;-and never, an early hour, horses, carts, cars, and jingles, brought never my sweet Flory to quit this, till I am either carried crowds, while from all quarters the peasantry flocked in out at that dure feet foremost, or her darling self is borne on foot, as if to a patron. And every one rejoiced in con- a bride to Castle Joyce, or wherever it shall plase himself. tributing his mite, and obtaining in exchange some small Oh, Doctor, but it's myself am a happy woman this night!" relic of their late popular and beloved neighbour, at triple We are sorry that Mrs. Rooney, being a gentlewoman its real value, where there existed computable value at all. and well connected, should have had so broad a brogue and No purchaser was more free than Squire Joyce, who, for so Irish an idiom; but such being the fact, it would be himself, and by his emissaries, offered for everything, and idle to disguise it.

was, in general, good-humouredly opposed by the Catholic Florence, who had long proved the sterling worth and clergyman of Portmullina, Dr. Fitzmaurice. He was a affectionate simplicity of character of this tried, old-fashionmysterious purchaser. No one could make out for whomed friend, and not then and there, vulgar person, and who he acted; and, however generous, he was far too poor to had already deeply revolved the subject, was content that, throw away money for himself. The general opinion be for a time, this arrangement should be adopted. With her came that he was commissioned by the affluent brothers youth, her acquirements, her active habits, and energetic of the deceased, one of whom was a general in the service mind, even with so small a provision, she would not be of Russia, and who had spent his early years in that of absolutely dependent; and, although, save a few "old faAustria. miliar faces," she had little to regret in leaving the scenes Tattered medical works, and old plays; thumbed trea- of her childhood, Portmullina and its vicinity were, nevertises on farriery and agriculture; mutilated surgical in-theless, more to her heart than all the world besides. Hapstruments or broken vials and gallipots-nothing came piness was, at this time, for her nowhere: but here, “among amiss to his Reverence's inarket. It did not transpire, for her own people," there was comparative content. many years, that Dr. Fitzmaurice was, at this time, the Though many months passed away, before Florence confidential emissary of the literally poor Squire Jack, as surmounted the secret and horrible shock she had encounwell as the self-appointed and faithful guardian of Florence. tered, and recovered the original high and buoyant tone A good-humoured strife in bidding went on between him of her spirits, she was neither of the age nor temperament and Squire Pearce Joyce, until the landed interest became which a morbid sorrow can fasten upon. One dreadful seriously piqued and jealous of the ecclesiastical; and the calamity had fallen upon her youth; but her high courage Doctor, laughing in his sleeve at his pious fraud, began to had averted some of its most painful consequences; and, give way to rank and dignity, and spared the son at the loved and admired by every one-the ornament and deexpense of the father. After all, he concluded, it was but light of the obscure but friendly community which she taking out of one pocket to put into another; as it made graced-laying the lowliest with the highest duties upon little odds whether the father or the son paid out what was herself-and blest with those best blessings, a cheerful, if in a few days to return to the family coffers, in the shape somewhat quick temper, a sincere and lofty character, an affectionate heart, and an intelligent mind-at the end of He was, however, most agreeably disappointed, at the six months, Florence sometimes chided her own gaiety, and end of the day, to find that a reversion of three hundred wondered whither all her misery was fled; and then, for a pounds would be left for Florence, and every debt paid few hours, she would luxuriously woo it back, in what was Three hundred pounds! in Portmullina, at that period-it but a new and more refined mode of enjoyment. was a fortune! and the announcement made at the feast, The good folks of Portmullina were, at that period, a with which the sale concluded as it had opened, contributed much more social people than since they have become not a little to the hilarity of the genteel company in the more knowing, polished, and wealthy. Their perpetual parlour, and the extravagant joy of the merry gathering visitings, in those days, were made on the cheapest, freest, which filled to overflow the kitchen, the barn, and all the and easiest terms; and thence they were perpetual. This out-houses; gaily helping, in the evening, to diminish the was some years before the Union; and claret, and other prosperity they had assisted to create in the earlier part of French wines and liquors, were to be seen in plenty in the day. every decent house. The rural produce of the country, It was late in the night before Judy left the dismantled compared with the modern prices, in a place still cheap, dwelling, and lighted Dr. Fitzmaurice to Portmullina, with was to be obtained for an old song. In those days, her legacy of Squire Jack's stable lantern, that he might Florence O'Brien, seated at her wheel in the parlour, with communicate the good news to her mistress. gold chains woven through her hair, was often edified by

of arrears of rent.

Florence, forced from her parental home, had found Mrs. Rooney and Judith higgling in the kitchen, if a “tinshelter for the day, and welcome for as many days as she penny bit" was demanded for a fine turbot or a young chose, or for life, under the hospitable, if low roof of her turkey, and bolting altogether, if the monstrous price of own and her father's friend, Mrs. Rooney, an independent three halfpence was demanded for a dozen of eggs. widow lady, distantly related to the Joyces of Castle Joyce, Though there was not a single club in existence at that and to half the genteel families in town and country be-time in all Portmullina, it must be confessed that there sides. Then and there, Mrs. Rooney was—

"Surpassing rich with eighty pounds a year," which she held by annuity on the Joyce estate.

were often very convivial dinners, at which few or no ladies were present. Yet what care ladies for dinners! From October till Easter, card, and dancing, and singing parties took place almost every night, in one house or other; and at "And Florence will have three hundred!" she exclaimed every one of these the presence of Mrs. Roney and her beauin ecstacy; "said you three hundred, Dr. Fitzmaurice? tiful inmate was held indispensable. There might be seaMy blessings on the kind and generous hearts that made sons when Florence would have preferred the company of it so!-That will make us equal to one hundred a-year, her few books, or her own thoughts by her solitary fire-side

rise to the height of about 220* feet above its bed; and the bottom of the pillars the cables are made fast to blocks travellers coming from Berne to Fribourg were formerly of very hard stone which are cubes of 63 feet. The caobliged to descend the hill, in order to reach a small wooden bles, therefore, cannot slide without lifting the whole of bridge which crosses the river, and immediately after by a these enormous buildings, strengthened as they are by their steep ascent of about 200 feet to reach the top of the oppo-connexion with the solid rock. site bank before coming to the centre of the town. The M. Challey began this work in the spring of 1832. He passage through Fribourg thus occupied nearly an hour; brought out of France with him only a foreman who had but the case is changed since the erection of the new sus-assisted him on former occasions, and engaging in this ar pension bridge. duous enterprise with the inexperienced workman of the

These difficulties and delays were long considered the country who had never seen a suspension bridge, he com unavoidable consequence of the local situation of the town, pleted the work in spite of all these difficulties; and on until some bold spirits conceived the idea of uniting, by the 15th October 1834, fifteen pieces of artillery drawn by means of a suspension bridge, the steep banks of the forty-two horses, and surrounded by 300 persons, crossed Sarine. It was necessary that the bridge should pass over the bridge, though they united in one body as well on the a great part of the town itself, and the scheme was con- middle as at the ends of the roadway. Nor was the least apsidered complelely Utopian; yet certain of the authorities pearance of derangement of the structure discovered on and some active citizens determined to submit the measure the closest examination. Some days after the whole into the consideration of engineers of different districts. habitants of Fribourg and its suburbs passed over in proVarious designs were accordingly offered, and the Govern- cession, so that there were no fewer than 1800 persons on ment of the Canton gave the preference to that of M. Chal- the bridge at the same time; and all classes of travellers, ley of Lyons, whose plan has since been executed under mercantile and curious, have since united with the natives his immdiate superintendence. of the Swiss Cantons in testifying their entire satisfaction

The gateways at either end of the bridge are of Doric with the bridge. Although the severe proof to which the architecture, and are about 65 feet in height. The tops constructor of this work subjected it, by loading the road-way of their arches are about 42 feet above the road-way, and with about 20 lb. on each square foot, did not take place the arches have a span of 20 feet. The masonry of the till the month of October 1835, yet it may safely be said gate is 46 feet in width, and its thickness is about 20 feet; that the colossal bridge at Friboug was completely finished and, although the largest blocks of the hard limestone of in two years and a half. The whole expense was only Jura were employed in this work, iron cramps were used about £. 24,000.

to complete the union of the stones, and above 24 tons of The only bridge which can be compared for its dimesiron wire were used for this purpose. sions with that of M. Challey is the Menia or Bangor bridge, The width of the valley of the Sarine at the point where the which joins the Isle of Anglesea to the mainland of Ebridge is built, or, in other words, the distance between the gland. The largest vessels sail below it with full canvass inner face-work of the two gateways on either bank of the set. It was constructed by the celebrated engineer Tel river, and consequently the span of the suspended road-ford; but the Menia bridge is only 550 feet in length, way, is 871 feet. It may be easily conceived that a good while the bridge of Fribourg is 871 feet. The roadway deal of doubt was entertained as to the propriety of trusting of Mr. Telford's bridge is about 106 feet above the leve to a span of so great an extent, and the idea of suspending of high water, and M. Challey's 167 feet above the level the bridge at the middle at first occurred to M. Challey as of the River Sarine.

the best mode of forming the communication. On weigh- Comparisons with certain points in the city of Paris ing the difficulty, however, of obtaining a solid foundation give a more lively idea than any numbers of the magn for a pier 220 feet in height in the bottom of an alluvial tude of the work. Only conceive a bridge of one arch valley, he soon relinquished this idea; and the bridge has as long as the railing of the Carrousel, or the distance be therefore been constructed with a single span of 871 feet. tween the wickets leading to the galleries, and a roadway The roadway is suspended in the manner now universally as high as the Towers of Notre Dame, or the column in known, by four cables of iron wire.† passing over the upper the Place Vendôme, and you may have some idea of the part of the gateways. Each cable consists of 1200 wires, bridge of Fribourg. each about one-tenth of an inch in diameter, and 1140 feet in length. To avoid the difficulty of moving these heavy cables, each wire was brought separately to its place, and they were united on the spot by the workmen, who were susCLIMATE OF FORT VANCOUVER. pended during the work. We are happy to add, that no accident of any kind occurred during this operation. It is The winter 1833-4) has been one of some severity calculated that the four united cables are capable of sustain-compared with what is usual in Britain, although not to be ing a weight equal to 2946 tons. compared with those on the other side of the Rocky Moun

From the Same.

The four cables are fixed in chain-pits or shafts cut out tains. The frost set in on the 26th December, and coof the solid rock on either side of the river. In each of tinued till the end of January: the lowest temperature these pits four cables pass through a vertical cylindric chim- was, +6° Fahr. The Columbia, which is here 1660 yarch ney or pillar, which bears three heavy domes resting upon wide, and 5 to 7 fathoms deep, closed when the tempera it, and at the same time abutting against grooves cut with ture fell to 14°, and continued frozen for three weeks, per much care in the rock to receive the springing stones. At mitting of free traffic across it. This winter has, howe er, been remarked as one of the severest since the occup *All the measurements have been reduced from tion of the Columbian territory by the Whites; there were French to English, agreeably to the ratios given in the from 3 to 4 feet snow at Wollawalla, a place about on Annuaire de Bureau des Longitudes. hundred miles above this, where the sight of snow is a rare It is not perhaps generally known that in all the occurrence. It may be imagined the poor natives suffered suspension bridges in France, ropes formed of wires are much in some districts from famine. It was not unce employed, instead of the solid links used in England. mon to see them burning fires to thaw the frozen sodo

the purpose of scraping up a few kumas roots. I have had been but a few days confined, escaped during the heard of one instance where a man sold his son to procure night, and was found next morning on the ice alongside ten fried salmon. Fort Vancouver is by no means so the ship. On putting down its cage, which it recognized lonely a winter residence as some of the posts in the inte- in the servant's hand, it immediately went into it. It lived rior, being the metropolis, so to speak, of the Columbia; for several months in the cabin; but finding that, unlike from time to time there are arrivals and departures; for what occurred to our tame hares under similar circumthe same reason, too, a greater number of gentlemen are stances, it retained its summer fur, I was induced to try stationed here than anywhere else. Our complement for the effect of exposing it for a short time to the winter the winter has been, at table, besides the governor, two temperature. It was accordingly placed on deck in chief traders, two clerks, and myself.—Letter from Dr. M. cage on the 1st of February; and next morning, after Gairdner, 19th March, 1834, Fort Vancouver.

GEOLOGY.

From the Same.

having been exposed to a temperature of 30° below zero, the fur on the cheeks and a patch on each shoulder had become perfectly white. On the following day the patches on each shoulder had extended considerably, and on the posterior part of the body and flanks had turned to a dirty white. During the next four days the change continued but slowly, and at the end of a week it was entirely white, The late traveller Douglas, who perished so miserably, with the exception of a dark band across the shoulders, informed me, that, by some angles taken on shore, he made prolonged posteriorly down to the middle of the back, the height of Mowna Roa Rock 15,773 feet. We have forming a kind of saddle, where the colour of the fur had recently had an eruption of Mount St. Helens, one of the not changed in the smallest degree. The thermometer snowy peaks of the Marine Chain on the north-west coast, continued between 30° and 40° below zero until the 18th, about 40 miles to the north of this place (Fort Vancouver). without producing any further change, when the There was no earthquake or preliminary noise here: the sufferer perished from the severity of the cold. On exfirst thing which excited my notice was a dense haze for amining the skin, it appeared that all the white parts of two or three days, accompanied with a fall of minute floc- the fur were longer than the unchanged portion, and that culi of ashes, which, on clearing off, disclosed the moun- the ends of the fur only were white, so far as they exceed. tain destitute of its cover of everlasting snow, and furrow-ed in length the dark-coloured fur; and by removing these ed deeply by what through the glass appeared to be lava white tips with a pair of scissors, it again appeared in its streams. There was no unusual fall of the barometer at dark summer dress, but slightly changed in colour, and this place. I believe this is the first well ascertained proof precisely the same length as before the experiment.— of the existence of a volcano on the west coast of Ameri- Ross' Voyage.

ca, to the north of California on the mainland. At the

poor little

same season in the year 1831, a much denser darkness Effect of Intense Cold on Caterpillars.-About thirty occurred here, which doubtless arose from the same cause, caterpillars were put into a box in the middle of Septemalthough at that time no one thought of examining the ber, and after being exposed to the severe winter temperaappearance of this mountain. Indian report says there is ture of the next three months, they were brought into a a burning crater on the southern declivity of Mount Hood, warm cabin, where in less than two hours evey one of another peak of the same chain to the south of the former. them returned to life, and continued for a whole day walkEarthquakes are not uncommon, at least in the vicinity of ing about; they were then exposed to the air at a tempethe coast. I have ascertained the occurrence of three rature of about 43° below zero, and became immediately within the last two years; none of them were felt here. hard frozen. In this state they remained a week, and on' Hot springs are common in the vicinity of the Marine being brought again into the cabin, only twenty-three came Chain to the south of the Columbia, as well as in the space to life; these were at the end of four hours put once more between it and the Rocky Mountains. I have procured the into the air, and again hard frozen. After another week localities of six not noticed by Lewis and Clark or in any they were brought in, when only eleven were restored to published account of the country. The low altitude of life. A fourth time they were exposed to the winter temthe snow line on the peaks of the Marine Chain is re-perature, and only two returned to life. On being again markable. By some angles with an eight inch sextant and brought into the cabin, these two survived the winter, and artificial horizon on a base line 3270 yards long, I make in May an imperfect larva was produced from one, and six the altitude of Mount Hood 7434 English feet above the flies from the other; both of them formed cocoons, but level of Vancouver, allowing the refraction to be one-four-that which produced the flies was not so perfect as the teenth of the angle, distance 38.7 geographical miles; now other.-Ross's Voyage. at least 600 or 800 feet of the summit is covered with perpetual snow. Can this be ascribed to the extensive pine forest covering the whole surrounding country diminishing the force of radiation?-Letter from Dr. M. Gairdner.

Polar Bear. During our stay at Fury Beach, many of these animals came about us, and several were killed. At that time, we were fortunately, in no want of provisions, but some of our party, tempted by the fine appearance of the meat, made a hasty meal of the first one that was shot. All that partook of it soon after complained of violent headach, which, with some, continued two or three days, EFFECT OF COLD ON THE FUR OF THE HUD. and was followed by the skin peeling off the face, hands,

From the Same.

SON'S BAY LEMMING.

and arms; and in some, who had probably partaken more largely, of the whole body. "On a former occasion, I witThe smallest of the quadrupeds of the Polar Regions nessed a somewhat similar occurrence, when, on Sir Edhas been found in the highest latitude that has yet been at-ward Parry's Polar Journey, having lived for several days tained; even on the ice of the Polar Occan, to the north- on two bears that were shot, the skin peeled off the feet ward of the 82 of latitude, the skeleton of one was found. legs, and arms of many of the party. It was then attri It is easily tamed, and fond of being caressed. One that buted rather to the quantity than the quality of the meat,

and to our having been for some time previous on very pond in the neighbourhood of Falain having been rendered short allowance of provisions."-Ross's Voyage. dry during many weeks in the height of summer, the mud The Black Whale.-The capture of the whale, which in drying was immediately and entirely covered to the exgives employment to several thousands of our seamen, and tent of many square yards by a minute compact green has annually produced, on an average of the last twenty turf, formed of an imperceptible moss, the Phaseum axillare, years, between cleven and twelve thousand tons of oil, and the stalks of which were so close to each other, that upon from five to six hundred tons of whalebone, has of late a square inch of this new soil, might be counted more than years greatly declined, owing to the increasing difficul- five thousand individuals of this minute plant, which had ties attending the fishery. Wearied by the incessant per- never previously been observed in the country. secutions of man, the whale has lately abandoned all the accessible parts of the Spitzbergen Sea, where it was by no means unusual to see sixty or seventy sail of British vessels engaged in its capture. On the east side of Baffin's Bay, as far as the 72° of latitude, abundance of whales, of large size, were to be found some few years ago; but, like the fishery in the Spitzbergen Sea, this also was deserted. The whales retired to the westward of the then considered impenetrable barrier of ice that occupies the middle of Baffin's Bay. "In 1818, that barrier was passed by the first expedition of discovery sent by the govern- was repeated in Dr. Johnson's hearing, he endeavoured to ment to those regions, where the haunts of the whale, and throw ridicule on the sentiment by a parodythe nursery for its young, were laid open to the fishermen,

whose daring enterprise and perseverance in following the

From the Quarterly Review.

The Original. By Thomas Walker, M. A., Cambridge
Barrister-at-Law, and one of the Police Magistrates of
the Metropolis. Vol. I. (Originally published in
Weekly Numbers.) 8vo. London. 1835.

When the well-known line

'Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free,'

'Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat;'

track of the discoverers, were amply rewarded for the first but, with all due deference to the Ursa Major of criticism, few years by the most abundant success; since the pro- we connot help thinking that a man's exposition or repre duce that in any one year has been brought to England sentation of a character may derive both truth and vividness from those newly discovered portions of the Arctic Seas, is from its resemblance to his own. Does any one, for exammore than sufficient to cover the whole expenses of all ple, believe that Mr. D. Quincey would have expatiated so the expeditions of discovery that have been sent during the eloquently on the glories of opium-eating, had he not been last twenty years to those regions; and yet people not himself a veritable Turk in such matters? or that Charles aware of this circumstance, are perpetually asking what Lamb could ever have indited his 'Confessions of a Drunkbenefit can result to this country from such undertakings. ard' had he lived all his life as soberly as Madame Pasta, The whale, however, still continues to retire from the per- or Sir Andrew Agnew?

secutions of man; and the numbers of its young, which From the first announcement of this publication, thereare usually destroyed without remorse by the avaricious fore, our decided opinion was, that it would fail unless The but imprudent fishermen, must soon exhaust the fishery, Original should prove himself the great sublime he drew; and search must then be made far to the Westward of and we were not a little rejoiced to find, as well from the Baffin's Bay, and to the eastward of Spitsbergen, for their inestimable scraps of autobiography scattered amongst the places of retreat."-Ross's Voyage.

essays as from other less palpable indications, that Mr. Walker is actually and honestly a member of the now Passenger Pigeon.-A young male bird flew on board most defunct corporation of humourists, who made the forthe Victory during a storm, whilst crossing Baffin's Bay tune of the dramatists of old-fellows of infinite sense, mirth in latitude 73° north, on the 31st of July 1829. It has surliness, kindliness, cordiality and egotism, with just o never before been seen beyond the sixty-second degree of dity enough to make them amusing without concealing the latitude; and the circumstance of our having met with it so far to the northward, is a singular and interesting fact.ders to judge whether we are right in classifying the pr sterling goodness of their characters. To enable our rea Ross's Voyage. sent writer amongst these, we shall begin by bringing to

Spontaneous Plants. Few things are more extraordina-gether a few of the reminiscences he has printed of hims ry than the unusual appearance and developement of cer- The following are prefixed, by way of introduction, to a s tain plants in certain circumstances. Thus, after the great ries of papers 'On the art of attaining high Health,' whic fire in London, 1666, the entire surface of the destroyed city commence with the third Number of the work:— was covered with such a vast profusion of a species of a cruciferous plant, the Sisymbrium irio of Linnæus, that it was favourite child from illness, owing, as she accused he 'Some months before I was born, my mother lost calculated that the whole of the rest of Europe could not self, to her own temporary absence; and that circoncontain so many plants of it. It is also known that if a stance preyed upon her spirits, and affected her heal spring of salt water makes its appearance in a spot even to such a degree, that I was brought into the world in a great distance from the sea, the neighbourhood is soon very weakly and wretched state. It was supposed ! covered with plants peculiar to a maritime locality, which could not survive long; and nothing, I believe, but t plants previous to this occurrence were entire strangers to greatest maternal tenderness and care preserved the country. Again, when a lake happens to dry up, the life. During childhood I was very frequently and surface is immediately usurped by a vegetation which is riously ill, often thought to be dying, and once pr entirely peculiar, and quite different from that which flou-nounced to be dead. I was ten years old before it was

rished on its former banks. When certain marshes of *The last time Madame Pasta was in England a liteZenland were drained, the Carex cyperoides was observed in rary lady of high distinction asked her whether she abundance, and it is known that it is not at all a Danish drank as much porter as usual:- No, mia cara, prene plant, but peculiar to the north of Germany. In a work Half-and-half adesso... Half-and-half is a light sur upon the useful Mosses by M. de Brebisson, which has mer beverage composed of porter and ale in equal pr been announced for some time, this botanist states that a portions.