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1818.]

Mr. Mitford on Sea Serpents.

1811, at Gibraltar; Lord Cochrane, Commissary-General Macdowel, and Captain Hardinge of the engineers, were passengers.* I mention them thus particularly as they are living, and can contradict me if I state any thing which is

not correct.

After relieving with a supply of provisions the Portuguese fortress of Melillo on the coast of Barbary, and anchoring for one day before the celebrated ruins of Oran, we entered the bay of Algiers, and moored the vessel about three miles to the eastward of the city, where vessels in common do not ride.-Our motive for chusing this position was in order to sound the bay as secretly as possible. The depth of water might be nine fathoms. One of the cables was cut under water on the second day of our anchorage, I apprehend by the coral rocks, near which place the ship was. A seaman remarked to me from the poop, where he was fishing, that he believed the devil in the shape of a serpent had cut our cable, and was now along-side as long as the ship. I immediately looked over the gangway and perceived four of these reptiles sporting in the water: they appeared to me about thirty feet in length, of a dark brown colour, with a slight silvery tinge on the belly, and on each side of the head: the head was small, and in thickness of body the size of a stout man's thigh, tapering towards the tail. I observed them frequently roll over, stretched at full length, and when preparing to advance, the head was raised and the tail rolled upwards like a coach wheel in size nearly to the middle of the animal's back; lowering its head, which seemed to have been raised as a necessary action to preserve its balance in folding up the tail, it darted forward with considerable velocity, unfurling itself as it advanced. The sailors vainly endeavoured to catch one of them, letting down shark-hooks with different baits. My opinion was, that the mouth of the animal, which generally appeared open when the head was reared, would not admit a bait larger than an orange,

Captain Hardinge, a man of consider able talent, took views of the city mole and batteries whilst the master of the brig sounded the bay minutely, under pretence of grappling for the lost anchor. I should believe Lord Exmouth acted upon Capt. Hardinge's plan, as that gentleman remarked to me in case of a bombardment the very situation occupied by the Queen Charlotte on that memorable event afterwards taking place.

15

being quite out of our ideas of proportion with respect to its body. They never came nearer to the surface than six feet, so we found it useless to attempt them with a harpoon. The men bathed amongst them unmolested, nor did they abandon the vicinity of the vessel on the occasion, which confirmed me in my opinion that, from the size of the mouth, they were incapable of being dangerous to men. We saw them every day during our stay, until our removal into the Mole, when they left us, or rather we left them. An old Greek renegado told me they were common in the bay, but he had never known any of them being caught. Achmet, the admiral's pilot, then on board the fifty gun ship, destroyed shortly after by Lord Exmouth, said they were regarded by the fishermen with a superstitious reverence, who believed if they left the bay the fish would also leave it.

They had not, to me, that " carved": appearance noticed by the Americans, I might have discovered that and several other peculiarities of form in them by a more narrow scrutiny, but I imagined they were only curiosities to myself, and scarce worth recording in my journal. I did however record them from a practice never to omit noticing whatever passed under my own observation. I pointed them out to Lord Cochrane and the other passengers, and if I recollect aright, his Lordship said they were not uncommon, or words bearing that construction. After this statement, "the American serpent," losing its claim to novelty, is divested of much of its interest; as it is no more wonderful that the serpent of the Mediterranean should be seen on that coast, than the whale of Greenland on the coast of Cornwall. I am, &c. Fitzroy Place.

J. M. MITFORD.

P.S. The master of an American vessel arrived at Penobscot asserts his having encountered at sea a serpent full one hundred feet long, and in thickness greater than a water cask. This formidable animal reared itself several feet out of the water, took a look at the ship, and quietly glided away. An affidavit is said to be preparing for the master and crew to establish this extraordinary fact. This account is given in Lloyd's list, which alone renders it worthy of notice. The dimensions of a water cask are various, barrels. butts, and puncheons, and those called gang-casks on board of merchant ships commonly contain two hundred or more gallons, and are

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at least three feet in diameter; if the
latter is meant, 66 astonishing" indeed
must be the size of this animal; if by
"water cask" is meant the barrel in
common use, about one foot in diameter,
more astonishing still must it be in the
former case, as the master's fears must
have magnified his powers of vision, and
in the latter it may be accounted for by
suffering him to have passed a cable
washed off some ship's deck in a gale of
wind, which I think not improbable.
About twelve years ago an American
captain trading for furs, saw on the shores
of New Zealand an animal of the serpent
kind which rose out of the water and
looked into his main-top; of this fact
"an affidavit was also prepared but
never administered;" perhaps this may
be the same animal, and the discoverer
the same person. I have heard more
extraordinary things asserted by Ame-
can captains, whose accounts cannot be
too cautiously received, but to this I give
no credit.
Jonathan" had heard of
the serpent, and determined to have a
share in the glory of fixing it as a native
of" the Columbian Ocean." National
vanity is deemed preferable to truth by
most American seamen, and the above
may be set down as a fit companion to
the Scotch Mermaids which were exhi-
bited in the western isles, and were ac-
tually sworn to by several Scotch persons
and second-sighted old women. I see
no reason to alter my opinion, that the
serpent of America and the Mediterra-
nean are of the same species, and not
uncommon, though rarely noticed. The
difference in size will soon be reconciled,
and as America is the land of the mar-
vellous they are entitled to forty or fifty
feet extra upon such an occasion. I ex-
pect some other captain, on the strength
of this great discovery, will import us a
parody to its honour on the famous na-
tional song, such as-

Hail Columbia! favour'd strand!
Fill'd with snakes by sea and land.

ON THE CLERICAL DRESS.
MR. EDITOR,

THE tippet, a part of the clerical dress, enjoined by the 74th canon, and about which your judicious correspondent ECCLESIE AMICUS inquires (vol. ix. p. 491), was commonly made of silk or satin, but sometimes of dark fur, worn about the neck and reaching to the bosom. This was one of the ecclesiastical habits which the Puritans vilified with the opprobrious epithets of the trappings of Antichrist and the rags of

[Aug. 1,

the whore of Babylon. In the injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, published in the year 1564, when the disputes ran high about vestments and ceremonies, the tippet is expressly mentioned as a part of the ordinary dress of the clergy to distinguish them from laymen and recusants. Bishop Guest, of Rochester, who at that time undertook to answer the objections of the Puritans on the subject of the habits, defended the use of tippets and gowns from the charge of being popish, by observing that the lawyers wore similar ones without giving any offence to their squeamish brethren.

It is not a little remarkable that the descendants of the old nonconformists, while they take great pains, both in preaching and printing, to set forth the merits of their ancestors as confessors in the cause of religious truth, should themselves adopt the very usages which those fiery zealots condemned with as much bitterness as if they were matters that concerned faith or morals.

The Dissenters at the period alluded to carried the spirit of opposition to such a pitch as to refuse to enter the churches where the habits were worn, or organs were used; and when they met the regular clergy in the streets they reviled them with the coarsest epithets, set the refractory mob upon them, and even spit in their faces. At present things have undergone a wonderful change; but whether for the better or the worse I shall not stop to enquire; while in the church irregularity prevails, and every man seems to think himself freed from canonical obedience to the rubrics and his ordinary: the Dissenting teachers adopt organs, the clerical ornaments, and in some instances the liturgy and surplice. A friend of mine lately happened to be at a considerable town in Buckinghamshire, where seeing a number of respectable looking gentlemen in black, he thought very naturally that it was the episcopal or archidiaconal visitation; and he was confirmed in this opinion on going into the parlour of the inn where he put up, and meeting with a dignitary as he took him to be, attended by a well-dressed footman, who was brushing a handsome silk gown and cassock, which he very carefully folded up and replaced in a purple bag. My friend being a sound churchman afterwards asked the landlord when the service would begin, and why the bell did not ring: to which enquiry he was answered, that the gentleman in the parlour was

1818.] Tour of the Austrian Archdukes in Great Britain in 1815-16. 17

the renowned orator, Dr. C. of London,
or near it, who was come to preach be-
fore the Association of Dissenting Mi-
nisters at the Meeting-house.
July 4, 1818.

MR. EDITOR,

N. S.

THE high price of sheep and wool can hardly fail to induce speculators to occupy more pasturage with the fleecy sources of emolument; therefore the friends of agriculture ought to extend tillage to wastes unfit for flocks; and as many of these tracts are supposed to be peculiarly liable to frost, allow me, through the channel of your useful miscellany, to make known a species of grain which never is injured by the most rigorous seasons. The wild oat springs up in certain situations, when the sown seeds want sufficient vigour to outgrow and starve the spontaneous produce. This grain is distinguishable by a number of fine hairs round the husk where it joins the stalk, and it ripens a month earlier than the earliest cultivated oat; drops into the earth; resists the most intense cold while exposed all winter, and its blade hails the first breath of spring, arriving at maturity when all other crops are quite green. In Siberia the oat is a periodical gift of nature. Probably, like our wild oat, the seeds lodge in the soil till genial warmth excites the vegetative principle. I have been disappointed by birds picking up the seeds sown in rich soils, and therefore have had recourse to flower-pots for these and for a few seeds of the double-eared barley, the rest having met various disasters from domestic fowls, birds, and children. Those remaining promise a vast return, and I shall hereafter accurately detail the particulars. I ought to add that the wild oat yields some meal, though of a coarser quality than cultivated grain; and in the year 1782, when frost destroyed the crop in all the Highland districts, many families owed their chief sustenance to the wild oat.

The present crop of cultivated grain is very promising, and we may hope recent distress will urge all ranks to use the invaluable blessing with economy. May the writer presume to reiterate the fervent wish that the surplus be preserved to compensate for future deficiencies!

I cannot conclude this letter without communicating an expedient by which some sagacious poor people saved a part of their potatoes last year. They NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 55.

gathered the roots from alternate ridges after a severe frost, and having used these unripened potatoes for immediate consumption, they spread about the depth of an inch or more of the earth, from which they had taken the potatoes, over the other ridges which had not been disturbed. This top dressing had both excluded frost and supplied fresh nutriment for the produce. The potatoes first gathered were soft and did not keep well; but the last ripened thoroughly and grew to a large size. B. G.

Auchterblair, June 2.

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made by machinery, which we saw in The manufactory in which casks are Glasgow, is very remarkable. The possessor of it gets the birch wood from the Scotch mountains, and the oak from North America. All the wood is cut by circular saws, which are put in motion by a steam engine. By the first cut the wood receives the proper length for the pipe staves. We saw wood eight inches thick cut in a moment. The workman lays the piece across two iron bars, and presses it against a second saw, which cuts the block lengthwise into as many staves as its thickness allows. In the space of one minute, from twelve to fourteen staves were cut in our presence, from two and a half to five feet in length; the sides of the staves are also fashioned by saws. Thus prepared, they put them into the machine by which they are to be bent. Every size of casks has a machine of its own. A table bears a double bar of iron circularly bent, according to the curve which the stave is to receive; on this table is a contrivance, like the cutting-blade of the saw mills, upon which the stave is laid; it is brought to the saw by a handle: a second presses it together: the saw is narrow, and the stave, pressed in the direction of the arc of a circle, receives the necessary curvature. This stave also receives from the saw such a bending, that by means of the connection between the two iron bars and the cutting blade, it takes the second form.

The staves of birch wood are then made up into bundles for sale. Those of

VOL. X.

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18 Tour of the Austrian Archdukes in Great Britain in 1815 – 16. [Aug. 1,

oak wood they make into casks in the manufactory itself. For this purpose the pieces of wood which are to form the head are first put together, and the whole put into the cutting machine, by which it is seized and quickly turned round in a circle, in the middle of which is the machine. By means of a cutting iron the rim is cut circularly; two other slanting pieces of iron smooth the rim. The workman can at pleasure draw these irons farther away or nearer to him, and the bottom of the cask is thus finished in a few moments. They bore holes in these bottoms, that they may be fastened together with wooden nails. As these casks are designed for rum, the aroma is extracted by a particular process. When the staves are placed in order, they put the cask into an iron cylinder of the same form and size. The cask rests on a moveable cross over an axis, the cylinder stands perpendicular, the staves project a little over its edge, and an instrument consisting of three cutting knives is now put on this rim; one of the irons makes a cut in which the head is to be fastened, the second cuts off the top rim, and the third planes it. When this is done, the iron hoops are put round, and the cask is finished. These casks form a principal export article to the American islands. The circular saws and the hoops are made in the same manufactory; the former, of steel bands, from Sheffield, which they cut and file; the hoops are of wood, and are bent without the aid of fire. The saw-dust and the chips are distilled in a great retort, from which they obtain vinegar as well as tar.

We also viewed the great Clyde Canal, the navigation of which is of the utmost importance to the trade of Glasgow, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Londonderry; and also Leeds, Newcastle, and Hull. It may be said that all the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, in their trade with Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and all the north part of Germany, derive essential benefit from it, as it shortens the distance from about eight hundred to one thousand miies. This canal is particularly of great importance in winter, during the season when ships cannot sail round Scotland. In that season three ships are employed in the canal in breaking up the ice.

The construction of this great work was begun in the year 1768, and finished in the year 1790; it reaches the river Clyde near Bowlingbay, and both seas thus have a communication. The Com

pany who undertook the construction of it by consent of Parliament, is called the Society for the Navigation of the Forth and Clyde. The expenses amounted in the year 1799 to 421,525. sterling; which sum was by an act of Parliament recognised as the Company's capital. The number of share-holders is at present one hundred and twenty-eight; and the income it was said amounted in the year 1815 to 50,000/. sterling. The canal of Monkland, which belongs to another Company, is united with the Clyde canal.

The city of Glasgow becomes more extensive and beautiful every day; almost in every street old houses are seen to vanish to make room for beautiful buildings; only last year about four hundred new houses were built. The many manufactories, the navigation on the Clyde and in the canal, the neighbourhood of the sea,-all these greatly contribute to enliven the city and its environs. But the poverty of the people seems, however, to be greater than in other British cities.

The defection of the American Colonies was a severe blow to the trade of Glasgow, from which it has, however, perfectly recovered, through the new sources which have been opened to it in the West Indian markets, and the European continent; and these have been greatly facilitated by the navigation of the canal and the Clyde.

In the year 1768, a bridge was built over the river Clyde, which has seven piers, built in a curve against the stream, in order to break the force of the current.

From Glasgow you may visit the Highlands of Scotland; but the bad season, and constant fogs, hindered us from taking this journey. The country is fine; handsome villas surround the city, and on the north the mountains rise in an amphitheatre. Ben-lomond, one of the highest mountains of Scotland, as well as those which surround Lochlomond, are visible.

On the 2d of December, we left Glasgow, and took the road to Edinburgh, only turning a little aside to see the Carron Works. The road leads over the hills and the Monkland canal. So much as we could distinguish through the thick fog, the country lies high, and is well cultivated. Beginning at Kilsyth, fourteen miles from Glasgow, where horses are changed, you leave the valley, in which the canal flows, to your right; at which place a marsh has been formed,

1818.] Tour of the Austrian Archdukes in Great Britain in 1815-16. 1g

The digging of the canal was here the most difficult, on account of the thick slime, which in some places is fifty feet deep, at the bottom of which loain and sand are first met with. The canal was obliged to be dug in a turf-ground.

An iron rail-way goes from one coal mine to the canal, and crosses the road. The country between Edinburgh and Glasgow, as we were assured, is the richest in coals of any in the whole country. All the hills of the southern chain of the Pentland range, to the Northerly granite and basalt mountain, are supposed to be full of coals, and would, it is calculated on these data, be enough to supply the consumption of Great Britain for a thousand years to

come.

Where the marsh ends, the water declines to the East, and here the sluices begin. You then reach Falkirk, a little town, in which there is the great coal magazine for the Carron works. Two roads lead to it. The Carron works lie in a beautiful valley, two miles to the north of Falkirk, and the great number of the ever-smoking chimneys announces them already at a distance. Nobody is admitted without the permission of the owners. The building is immensely large, and regularly built along the Carron, which is navigable to the canal. The ore is purchased in the neighbouring mines, and two hundred tous are used every week. The coals are, according to the old custom, piled up in heaps of four feet high, from six to eight feet broad, and from twenty to thirty feet in length. There are in every heap six flues to promote the current of air; the carbonization is completed in fifty, sixty, or seventy hours. The coals do not lose much of their mass. The raw iron is melted in six reverberatory furnaces, and here they make cannon, and a great many other articles of the coarsest as well as of the finest quality. In the six furnaces twenty tons are melted at a time. We saw a great variety of manufactured goods, from the largest cannon and carronades for the royal navy, to the most elegant chimney or

naments.

There is also in this foundry a great machine to bore the cannon; the gun is placed in a horizontal position; the borer lies on a carriage, which is advanced towards the cannon; the latter turns round its axis without advancing. This mechanism is put in motion by a fall of water.

There are nearly six thousand five

hundred tons melted annually, and two thousand labourers are employed. The river Carron puts the machines in motion, and for the dry season a reservoir of thirty acres in extent is kept up. This undertaking belongs to a society. Besides this establishment, Scotland possesses many foundries and meltinghouses, which furnish every year thirtytwo thousand seven hundred and sixty. tons, the ton at 71. sterling, which amounts to 229.3271. sterling; and seven thousand six hundred and twenty persons gain their livelihood by this institution. Eleven foundries in Glasgow alone employ above a thousand persons, and the value of their produce is above 500,000l. sterling,

We returned from Carron to Falkirk. From this place the road leads along a well-cultivated chain of hills covered with country seats and parks, to Linlithgow, a sinall place consisting of illbuilt houses. Here we saw beggars for the first time. The country beyond it is high and well cultivated. Night overtook us eight miles from Edinburgh, and we were only apprized of our entrance into the city by the bright illu mination in the streets.

EDINBURGH.-On the 3d of Decem ber, being Sunday, we could see nothing in the town, and not quite to lose the day, we determined on a visit to the Castle. There was a thick fog in the forenoon, but it afterwards dispersed, and permitted us to enjoy the prospect. The King's Hotel, in which we lived, lies in the New Town, in Princesstreet, opposite the Old Town. The appearance of it is very singular, as is the situation of Edinburgh in general. In front of us was a broad street, and beyond it a ditch, which separates the New Town from the Old Town. This latter rises upon a hill towards the Castle, which lies to the right. earthen mound is made across the ditch, about the centre, to form a communication between the two towns; to the left is a bridge. The Catholic church in the New Town is large, and newly built in the gothic style. The New Town is handsome; its straight and regular streets, as well as many fine buildings, distinguish it advantageously; among the latter, the Register Office is built entirely in the Italian style, only it is rather disfigured by two little towers. The Lord Provost and General W. met us at half past twelve, and accom

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So do their Imperial Highnesses de nominate the bed of the Nor-loch!

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