1720

6

islands. In the northern regions, near Spitzbergen, Phipps observed nothing remarkable in the variation of the needle, but Baffin found it at 5 points, or 56, a thing almost incredible, and almost matchless in all the world besides.' Duncan supposed the needle to be attracted by Charles's Island, as the variation amounted to 63° 51′, nearly 6 points; and on the same parallel, when the island was out of sight, only 45° 22′; and he states, that when near Merry and Jones's Islands, in a violent storm of thunder, lightning and heavy rain, the night being very dark and dismal, all the compasses in the ship were running round, and so unsteady, that they could not trust one moment to the course they were steering.

Many other meteorological phenomena peculiar to these regions afford curious matter for investigation; but our geographical knowledge of every part of Hudson's and Baffin's seas is most defective. We need only cast an eye over the different charts made by Arrowsmith, from 1793 to 1811, no two of which are alikelarge islands being inserted in some and omitted in others-the north-eastern side of the continent is, in one, cut into islands-in another, islands are joined to the continent-here a strait is filled up-there another opened-in short

'Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus
Esse fretum. Vidi factas ex æquore terras'—

These flourishes ad libitum (for not one iota of additional infor-
mation of the northern parts has been received for the last sixty
years) are not very commendable, in a geographical point of view;
and in the absence of all knowledge, we should deem it prefer-
able to leave blank (as Purdey has left Baffin's Sea in his General
Chart) those coasts and islands which fancy only has created.

ART. IX.-1. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III. Svo.
2. The Prisoner of Chillon, a Dream; and other Poems. By
Lord Byron. 8vo. John Murray: London.

WE

E have felt ourselves. very much affected by the perusal of these poems, nor can we suppose that we are singular in our feelings. Other poets have given us their literary productions as the subject of criticism, impersonally as it were, and generally speaking, abstracted from their ordinary habits and feelings; and all, or almost all, might apply to their poetical effusions, though in somewhat a different sense, the l'envoy of Ovid.

Sine me, Liber, ibis in urbem.

The work of the poet is indeed before the public, but the character, the habits of the author, the events of his life and the motives of his writing, are known but to the small circle of literary gossips, for whose curiosity no food is too insipid. From such, indeed,

HOUS

RHODES

OXFORD

LIBRARY