No. 4.1

[13* Cts.

Cambridge, April 24, 1844.

Dear Sir, — I have read the prospectus of your proposed periodical, "The Living At;e," with «reat pleasure ; and entirely approve the plan. If it can only obtain the public patronage long enough, and large enough, and securely enough, to attain its true ends, it will contribute in an eminent degree to give a healthy tone, not only to our literature, but to public opinion. It will enable us to possess, in a moderate compass, a select library of the best productions of the age. It will do more : it will redeem our periodical literature from the reproach of being devoted to light and superficial reading, to transitory speculations, to sickly and ephemeral sentimentalities, and false and extravagant sketches of life and character.

I wish it every success ; and my only fear is, that it may not meet as full success with the public as it deserves. I shall be glad to be a subscriber.

I am, very truly and respectfully, yours,

JOSEPH STORY. T. H. Carter, Esq.

Cambridge, April 30, 1844. I fully concur with Mr. Justice Story in his estimate of the utility and importance of the proposed publication ; and, if well executed, I cannot doubt that it will furnish a valuable contribution to our literature, not merely of temporary interest, but of permanent value. JARED SPARKS.

New York, 7th May, 1844. Dear Sir, — I approve very much of the plan of your work, to be published weekly, under the title of the "Living Age;" and if it be conducted with the intelligence, spirit and taste that the prospectus indicates, (of which I have no reason to doubt,) it will be one of the most instructive and popular periodicals of the day. I wish it abundant success, and that my name be added to the list of subscribers.

Yours, very respectfully, Mr. E. Littell. JAMES KENT.

Subscriptions, by the year, are Six Dollars.

Postmasters, who send us lists of Subscribers, and money for them, pay Five Dollars a year.

We shall be obliged, by receiving the names of persons who are sufficiently interested in the success of this large enterprise, to order the work for a year. We desire to have this old-fashioned security, in addition to the sales of single numbers. We have been accustomed to it for so many years, that we rely more upon such a list than upon booksellers' orders.

Any payments to our Museum collectors will be acknowledged as paid to us. Their names are Henry M. Lewis, in Alabama, Tennessee, and part of Missouri: Israel E. James, assisted by James K. Whipple, William H. Weld, O. H. P. Stem, and Henry Piatt, in the South and South-West : C. W. James, assisted by Moses Meeker, James R. Smith, John T. Dent, J. B. Humphreys, G. H. Comstock and E. Y. Jennings, in the Western States ; and Thomas Severn in New York.

E"^ Payments, on account of debts due to the Museum, to the end of 1842, should be made to the above Collectors, or to Messrs. Clause & Canning, Philadelphia, or to E. Littell & Co., Boston, (by Mail, or otherwise,) and to no other persons.

HP"" This work contains only two sheets.

CLAUSE & GANNINO,

PHILADELPHIA,

LONDON WORLD OF FASHION,

Received regularly on the arrival of the Steamers from England, with all the ENGIISK NEWSPAPERS.

m

AMIE1CAH FLORAL 1LLWSTB ATIOIS,

To be complete in 12 numbers, each containing 4 plates of handsomely grouped flowers, drawn and colored from nature,

by Mrs. Ann Hill. Price 75 Cents a number.

Fine Editions of Charles O'Malley— Ten Thousand a Year— Barnaby Eudge —

Old Curiosity Shop.

Subscriptions received for the Christian Family Annual, Parlor Annual, Christian World, Graham's, Godey's, and Columbian Magazine, &c. All the New Publications received as soon as published, and for Sale by

CLAUSE & CANNING, Chestnut and Tenth Streets, Philadelphia.

THE LIVING AGE.

No. 4.-8 JUNE, 1844.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

1. Life of Beau Brummell — by Captain Jesse, . . . Examiner, 195

2. Discovery of African Guano, BelVs Messenger, 197

3. The Bridge of Sighs, Hood's Magazine, 198

4. Submarine Researches, Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 199

5. France. — Railways — St. Domingo, 202

6. Turkey. — Suppression of a Revolution, 202

7. The Military Annual, BelVs Messenger, 204

8. The Polka, New Monthly Magazine, . . . 205

9. Thorwaldsen, Britannia, 205

10. Flames in Volcanoes, Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 209

11. Nemesis War Steamer in China, Examiner, 212

12. Researches on Light, Examiner, 213

13. The Partie Fine, New Monthly Magazine, . . . 214

14. Power of Friendship, Hood's Magazine, 219

15. Brougham Vindicated, Examiner, 22]

16. Penny Postage, Examiner, 221

17. Deceased People whom we meet daily, New Monthly Magazine, . . . 222

18. Admiral St. Vincent, Edinburgh Review, 225

19. Christopher Marlow — Joshua Sylvester — Richard

Barnfield, Chambers' Cyclopedia, .... 240

20. King of Prussia, Punch, 248

21. Law of Parent and Child, Punch, 248

22. Shopping in London, Bentley's Miscellany, .... 250

23. Mr. Lover Travelling, Hood's Magazine, 255

Poetry. — Why do the Flowers Bloom, 208 — Birth-Day Prophecy, 211 — The Gladness of May, 217— The Workhouse Clock— The Disgusted Wife— The First Warbler, 218— Wakley's Last, 220— The Husband to his Latch Key, 256.

Scraps. — Glaciarium, 201 — Rev. Sydney Smith and Mr. Everett, 204 — Society for Promoting the Restoration of the Jews — Holy Thursday in Vienna — Society for Teaching the Blind — Exhumation in Africa — Guano in Gardens — Steam Ascent of the Cataract of the Nile — Pennsylvania Law, 207 — Col. Stoddart and Capt. Conolly — A Baby Wanted — Death of a Character, 208 — Ojibbeway Indians— Exhibition at Paris — Paper-Making, 217 — King of the French, 221 — Portugal — Hun- gary— Church Convocation, 224 — King of Hanover, 249 — The Country in Danger, 254.

BOSTON : E. LITTELL & CO., 118* WASHINGTON STREET.

Boston. — Redding & Co. — Jordan & Co. — Hotchkiss & Co.

New York. — Mowatt & Co. — Sun Office. — Burgess & Stringer.

Philadelphia. — Clause & Canning — Berford & Co. — Zieber & Co.

Baltimore. — N. Hickman — W. Taylor.

Albany. — W. C. Little — George Jones. Portland. — George Colman.

Cincinnati. — Robinson & Jones.

New Orleans. — Bravo & Morgan.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Perhaps some of our younger readers may not have known of Beau Brummell. He was some- times called King of the Dandies, and had almost supreme sway over the ton in. England.

As an instance of his impudence, it is related that dining one day with the Prince of Wales, he said to his Royal host — "George, will you touch the bell?" The Prince rang, and when the ser- vant entered, said, "Mr. Brummell's carriage!" This produced a rupture, and Brummell afterwards declared that he had a great mind to bring the old king into fashion, out of revenge.

Riding with a friend, the Prince met them, and without speaking to Brummell, stopped to talk with his companion. Brummell looked at him through his eye-glass, and, as he rode away, asked his companion, so as to be heard by the Prince, "Who is our fat friend?"

The next article is on a more useful subject — the discovery of an immense mine of a new ma- nure, which is attracting much attention in Eng- land.

Our young readers will be much interested in " Submarine Researches," — from which they will learn that the different depths of the sea, like the various heights of mountains, have their appro- priate growth of vegetable, and even of animal life.

In France, much attention is turned to Rail- ways ; we shall show in our next number, the probable success of the Atmospheric Railway, which will extend the benefits of these roads to countries otherwise inaccessible to them, and greatly diminish the cost and increase the advan- tages in all countries. The rumor of the intention of England and France to divide St. Domingo be- tween them, wre copy from a letter of the Paris correspondent of the National Intelligencer, (Mr. Walsh.) It is not improbable.

The Polka Dance is as much the rage in Eng- land, as the Waltz was on its introduction there.

Flames in Volcanoes, is so attractive a title, that we need not recommend it to our young friends. It is appropriately followed by the Nemesis in China.

Brougham Vindicated, is a favorable specimen of the tart spite, and epigrammatic style, of the Examiner. His lordship had a quarrel with the Examiner, and threatened to have the editor sent to prison for a contempt.

On Meeting Deceased People, is a melancholy article ; and the truth of it will be acknowledged

by many, as regards others relates to themselves.

and by some, as it

The long article on Earl St. Vincent, need hardly be recommended to our young friends. The Sea and an Admiral are subjects which always attract them.

We shall often turn back to the old writers, of whom we give several specimens in this number.

Some of our readers may look in vain for the continuation of Our Family. It will be two or three weeks before wTe can receive any more of it.

The necessity of putting the Living Age early to press, in order that it may reach distant sub- scribers about the day of its date — and in order that it may be well printed, and dried, and pressed — will always make our news a little later than if we hurried it smoking from the press. While we are finishing this number, we hear that the Steamer which left England on 19th May, has been tele- graphed. We shall have her news in our next.

Chinese Smokers. — 358 and 359, are speci- mens of pipes for tobacco and opium, the smoking of which produces a frightful prostration of the intellect, and may be compared to the pernicious custom in this country of reading Parliamentary Debates — a habit that has diminished greatly with the advance of education. Captain Davis gives a graphic description of an opium-smoker, which would apply equally well to the case of a reader of the reports of the speeches sometimes spoken in the House of Commons. "He lies languid, with an idiotic smile on his countenance, too much under the influence of the drug, (such as his wife's handing him a cup of tea at his breakfast,) to care much for passing events." — Punch's Guide to the Chinese Exhibition,

Indian Oxen. — Five of these extraordinary beasts, bred by Lord Combermere, have just ar- rived in London by the Birmingham Railway. It is stated by competent judges that they are the finest both in quality and form that have as yet been seen in this country. They have been consigned to her Majesty's purveyor, Mr. Giblett, of Bond-street.

Agricultural College. — Measures are to be taken for the immediate establishment of the agri- cultural college in Wiltshire, for which purpose a public meeting of the friends and supporters of the proposed plan has been called for Monday next. Earl Bathurst has consented to preside on the occasion. — Standard.

THE LIFE OF GEORGE BRUMMELL, ESQ.

195

From the Examiner. The Life of George Brummell, Esq. , commonly call- ed Beau Brummell. By Captain Jesse. Two vols. Saunders and Otley.

Cui bono 1 Why on earth was such a subject selected for two large octavo volumes 1 We sus- pect that Captain Jesse has greatly overrated the attraction of his hero.

We never could find that Brummell's usefulness went beyond the invention of the starched neck- cloth ; or that his genius amounted to more than an appalling impudence. It is clear that these two things made him the rage. The impudence was a thing sui generis, and inimitable : a man who took down one of his sayings, to the very letter, would miss the whole effect in repeating it, for want of his slow, deliberate, exquisite way. The starched neckcloth was in some cases achievable ; and we believe, though the unsuccessful efforts of one aspirant certainly ended in suicide, that a great many people were thought to have succeeded in it. It was clear from the first that the Prince of Wales never could : his neck forbade the supposi- tion : but unattainable neckcloths may have added in this quarter to Brummell's influence. He dress- ed admirably in other respects : not at all like a beau. The ars celare artem was brought to perfec- tion in the color and make of his clothes. It was his maxim that a man should never be remarked for what he wore, and he was an instance of that exquisite propriety.

With this knowledge of Brummell, we opened Capt. Jesse's ponderous volumes. We felt how flat these things must look upon paper, and were doomed to no disappointment. Capt. Jesse hardly seems aware of it. He fights up gallantly against all his disadvantages, but it was not in the nature of things that he should master one of them. The life of Brummell should have been written in some fifty pages, by one of his companions, and issued for the use of what is called the fashionable world, and no other : there is no earthly meaning or moral in it for any other class. Rational people do not need to be told, that if a man lives for mere sensual pleasures, he had better die when the means of gratification are over ; that if he gam- bles, he incurs the chance of losing ; that if he can- not pay, he must run ; that to a fashionable man in this condition, a fashionable friend is a rotten reed ; and that the farce must tragically end in beggary, misery, and starvation. We see no point for sym- pathy, in any part of Brummell's career. There is but a revolting selfishness from beginning to end. We see nothing that could have raised him into a reputable memory, but the fact of having lived three centuries since, and pandered to Henry the Eighth instead of George the Fourth. He would have served as good a master, and instead of the Court disgrace which left him to die in a madhouse, his days might have closed respectably on a scaffold.

His father's career is accurately traced by Capt. Jesse. He was a protege of the first Lord Liver- pool and for fifteen years Lord North's private secretary. Eaton, Oxford, a cornetcy in the tenth huzzars, and twenty-five thousand pounds, were his youngest son's introduction to the world. At eighteen George Brummell was a captain, and at twenty had left the army. His London career, as chief of the dandies, lasted eighteen years. He was but thirty-eight when he fled to Calais in 1816.

Before we follow him there, some anecdotes of

his impudence will amuse the reader. With a few of them he may already be familiar.

"Dining at a gentleman's house in Hampshire, where the champagne was very far from being good, he waited for a pause in the conversation, and then condemned it by raising his glass, and saying loud enough to be heard by every one at the table, 'John, give me some more oi* that cider.' "

" His valet was coming down stairs one day with a quantity of tumbled neckcloths under his arm, and being interrogated on the subject, solemnly replied, ' Oh, they are our failures.' "

" i Brummell, you were not here yesterday,' said one of his club friends; 'where did you dine?' —

' Dine ! why with a person of the name of R s. I

believe he wishes me to notice him, hence the din- ner ; but, to give him his due, he desired that I would make up the party myself, so I asked Alvanley, Mills, Pierrepoint, and a few others, and I assure you, the affair turned out quite unique ; there was every delicacy in, or out of season ; the Sillery was perfect, and not a wish remained ungratified; but, my dear fellow, conceive my astonishment when I

tell you, that Mr. R s had the assurance to sit

down, and dine with us.' "

"An acquaintance having, in a morning call, bored him dreadfully about some tour he made in the North of England, inquired with great pertinacity of his impatient listener which of the lakes he preferred ? when Brummell, quite tired of the man's tedious raptures, turned his head imploringly towards his valet, who was arranging something in the room, and said, -'Robinson.'— 'Sir.'— 'Which of the lakes do I admire ? ' — ' Windermere, sir,' replied that dis- tinguished individual. 'Ah, yes, — Windermere,' re- peated Brummell, 'so it is, — Windermere.' A lady at dinner, observing that he did not take any vege- tables, asked him whether such was his general habit, and if he never ate any ? He replied, ' Yes, madam, I once eat a pea.' "

" One day a friend, meeting him limping in Bond street, asked him what was the matter ? He replied, he had hurt his leg, and the worst of it was, 'it was his favorite leg.' Having been asked by a sympa- thising friend how he happened to get such a severe cold ? His reply was, ' Why, do you know, I left my carriage yesterday evening, on my way to town from the Pavilion, and the infidel of a landlord put me into a room with a damp stranger.' "

" On being asked by one of his acquaintance, dur- ing a very unseasonable summer, if he had ever seen such a one ? He replied, ' Yes, last winter.' Having fancied himself invited to some one's country seat, and being given to understand, after one night's lodging, that he was in error, he told an unconscious friend in town, who asked him what sort of a place it was? 'That it was an exceedingly good house for stopping one night in.' "

" On the night that he left London, the Beau was seen as usual at the Opera, but he left early, and, without returning to his lodgings, stepped into a chaise which had been procured for him by a noble friend, and met his own carriage a short distance from town. Travelling all night as fast as four post- horses and liberal donations could enable him, the morning of the 17th dawned on him at Dover, and immediately on his arrival there, he hired a small vessel, put his carriage on board, and was landed in a few hours on the other side. By this time, the West End had awoke and missed him, particularly his tradesmen."

This last little trick was copied from Bolingbroke — a much greater fop. Our last specimen of this kind of anecdote is the most exquisite of all. Its date

196

THE LIFE OF GEORGE BRUMMELL, ESQ.

is nearly fourteen years after his banishment, which adds to the humor of the thing :

" It was while promenading one day on the pier, and not long before he left Calais, that an old asso- ciate of his, who had just arrived by the packet from England, met him unexpectedly in the street, and cordially shaking hands with him, said, 'My dear Brummell, I am so glad to see you, for we had heard in England that you were dead ; the report, I assure you, was in very general circulation when I left.' — ; Mere stock-jobbing, my good fellow, mere stock- jobbing,' was the Beau's reply."

Even in his ashes lived his wonted impudence. Nothing could quench it. His mode of life was pretty much the same for twelve or fourteen years at Calais, as it had been in London, (difference of place excepted!) though how he managed it, living on charity as he must have done, is difficult to divine. He denied himself no comfort, but was always whining and complaining : the last, indeed, was an addition to his luxuries. After a good din- ner from Dessin's, a bottle of Dorchester ale, a liqueur glass of brandy, and a bottle of Bordeaux, he would write to Lord Sefton that he was lying on straw, and grinning through the bars of a gaol ; eating bran bread, my good fellow, eating bran bread." If he could have known how soon he would in sober sadness grin through real bars, and lie on veritable straw, it might have made even him serious.

The Whigs gave him the consulate of Caen in Normandy in 1830. It was worth 400/. a-year, bat he had to assign an annuity of 320/. to his Calais creditors before he could have that place, and to content himself with the fiction of support- ing his consulate on 80/. a-year. Of course he was soon enormously in debt : cheating and starv- ing his washerwoman first, as he had done at Calais, for starch continued to be his prime ne- cessity. If anything could add to the repulsive picture of the man at this time, it would be the doleful Delia Cruscan letters he writes to young ladies, here printed by Capt. Jesse as worthy of preservation. He soon loses his consulate and is carried off to prison ; and it will depend altogether on temperament whether the reader laughs or cries over his piercing shrieks from between his prison bars, that the pigeon they give him for din- ner is a skeleton, that the mutton-chops which support it are not larger than half-a-crown, that the biscuits are like a bad halfpenny, that he has but six potatoes, and that the cherries sent him for dessert are positively unripe.

So the man continues to the last. In paralysis, imprisonment, and the apparent neighborhood of death, his chief anxiety is to get back to his five sous' whist, and his greatest horror to seal a note with a wafer. Charitable supplies from England set him at liberty again, and on certain conditions there is reasonable prospects of charitable support for the rest of his days : but his spirit of self-sacri- fice is quite exhausted when he has brought him- self down to one complete change of linen daily. He cannot find it in his heart to renounce his prim- rose gloves, his Eau de Cologne, oil for his wigs, patent blacking for his boots, or an occasional cast of gambling in a lottery. For these luxuries he again runs into debt.

But we have now to note the end. In the win- ter of 1836 Brummell suddenly appeared in a black cravat. Starch and cambric had made him, and their absence denoted his ruin. His wits had begun to fail. In 1837 he was an idiot. His

cleanliness, and fastidious appetite, were replaced by — what Capt. Jesse should hardly have told. The blubber of the Esquimaux, the style of one of Swift's Houhynhyms, may stand for these revolt- ing details of the voracity and filth of Brummell. He died in the madhouse of Bon Sauveur in 1840.

brummell's last parties.

"On certain nights some strange fancy would seize him, that it was necessary he should give a party, and he accordingly invited many of the dis- tinguished persons with whom he had been intimate in former days, though some of them were already numbered with the dead.

" On these gala evenings, he desired his attendant to arrange his apartment, set out a whist-table, and light the bougies, (he burnt only tallow at the time,) and at eight o'clock this man, to whom he had alrea- dy given his instructions, opened wide the door of his sitting-room, and announced the ' Duchess of Devon- shire.' At the sound of her Grace's well-remember- ed name, the Beau, instantly rising from his chair, would advance towards the door, and greet the cold air from the staircase, as if it had been the beautiful Georgiana herself. If the dust of that fair creature could have stood reanimate in all her loveliness be- fore him, she would not have thought his bow less graceful than it had been thirty -five years before ; for, despite poor Brummell's mean habiliments and uncleanly person, the supposed visitor was received with all his former courtly ease of manner, and the earnestness that the pleasure of such an honor might be supposed to excite. < Ah ! my dear Duchess,' faltered the Beau, 'how rejoiced I am to see you ; so very amiable of you at this short notice ! Pray bury yourself in this arm-chair ; do you know it was a gift to me from the Duchess of York, who was a very kind friend of mine ; but, poor thing, you know, she is now no more.' Here the eyes of the old man would fill with the tears of idiotcy, and, sinking into the fauteuil himself, he would sit for some time look- ing vacantly at the fire, until Lord Alvanley, "Wor- cester, or any other old friend he chose to name, was announced, when he again rose to receive them, and went through a similar pantomime. At ten his attendant announced the carriages, — and this farce was at an end."

erummell's last public appearance.

(In a letter from the Vice- Consul Armstrong to an

English Friend.)

u I have deferred writing for some time, hoping to be able to inform you that I had succeeded in getting Mr. Brummell into one of the public institutions, but I am sorry to say that I have failed ; I have also tried to get him into a private house ; but no one will un- dertake the charge of him in his present state : in fact, it would be totally impossible for me to describe the dreadful situation he is in. For the last two months I have been obliged to pay a person to be with him night and day, and still we cannot keep him clean ; he now lies upon a straw mattress, which is changed every day. They will not keep him at the hotel, and what to do I know not : I should think that some of his old friends in England would be able to get him into some hospital, where he could be taken care of for the rest of his days. I beg and en- treat of you to get something done for him, for it is quite out of the question that he can remain where he is. The clergyman and physician here can bear testimony to the melancholy state of idiotcy he is in."

It would be unjust not to add that Capt. Jesse's book has much amusing detail incidentally con- nected with the subject. Sketches of the beaus who preceded Brummell, and of the general socie- ty in which he flourished, are here and there hap- pily done. There is much merit of this kind in the book

DISCOVERY OF AFRICAN GUANO.

197

DISCOVERY OF AFRICAN GUANO.

We are indebted to the Glasgow Herald for the following interesting account of the discovery of this valuable manure on the coast of Africa. The narrative presents a striking illustration of the enterprise of the British merchant, and which, in this, as in numberless other instances, will doubt- less result in a great national benefit : —

According to the observations of Capt. Farr, of the Ann, of Bristol, who had the honor of bring- ing last year the first cargo of African guano to Great Britain, the island of Ichaboe — in which the quality is of a superior kind — is situated in 26° 19' of south latitude, and 14° 50' of east longitude, four days' sail north of the Cape of Good Hope, and 14*degrees south of the Portuguese settlement of Benguela. It is a small rocky islet, about two and a half miles from the mainland of Africa, on which, at a distance of half a dozen miles, is a native settlement, and from the inhabitants giving the name of Ichaboe to the island it has been re- tained by the same title in our own language. The manner in which the guano treasures on this coast were opened up to the enterprise of British merchants is both curious and interesting, and the following recital of it is, we believe, the correct one. An American trader having observed the interest which the importation of Peruvian guano was creating in Britain, was reminded of the cir- cumstance that he had seen large deposits of a similar substance on the coast of Africa, and he published a short narrative of his observations in an American journal. This account fell under the notice of an English captain, who transmitted it to his relatives in Liverpool, and by them an expe- dition of, we believe, five ships was fitted out in the close of 1842 for the purpose of being loaded with the African guano for the British market. The instructions, however, which were given to the masters must have been of an imperfect kind, for four of them returned without having suc- ceeded in the object of their search, and the fifth, viz., the Ann, was nearly in the same position, when accident revealed the El Dorado which was destined to exert such a potent influence in ferti- lizing our soil. Captain Farr happened to be at Cape Town, and one morning stepped into a coffee- room for breakfast, and while partaking of his repast, entered into conversation with the master of an American whaler, to whom he explained the regret he felt at being likely to return to England without being able to fulfil the object of his mission. The American stated that he had been on shore on some islands of the exact description which the other was in quest of; and gave Cap- tain Farr such information as enabled him to find out the island of Ichaboe, and take the first cargo from a deposit which may have been in the course of accumulation from the earliest ages in the world's history. With this cargo he sailed for England, and having put in at a port on the coast of Ireland, in July, 1843, he there found instruc- tions awaiting him, which directed him to proceed to Dumfries and unload ; and he accordingly pro- ceeded to Carsethorn on the Solway, where the Ann was discharged, and the guano carried to Liverpool in lighters. Notwithstanding the se- crecy with which these proceedings were man- aged, some hints respecting them reached the ears of the firm of Alexander and John Downie, of this city, who dispatched their manager, Mr. Mon- crieif, with the view of obtaining such information

as would open up the African guano stores more generally to British industry. A negotiation was accordingly begun at Dumfries, and terminated at Bristol, the result of which was that Captain Fan- agreed to proceed again to Ichaboe, and at the same time point out the way to a fleet which was dispatched by Messrs. Downie, with sealed in- structions, in the autumn of last year. Already several of these ships have arrived in Scotland, while one of them has discharged a cargo in the West Indies, and the matter being no longer a secret, a number of vessels were, at the date of the last advices, loading at Ichaboe for various ports in Great Britain. Guano is also obtained atAngra Pequena, 40 miles south of Ichaboe, but it is not by any means held in such high favor as the pro- duct of the latter. At the time of Captain Farr's first visit the island was covered with penguins, gannets, &c, but principally the former, in num- bers which altogether defied calculation. They seemed to have no acquaintance with, nor fear of, man, and, in fact, offered a resistance to his en- croachment on a domain which had been peculiarly their own for thousands of years. Since the crews of so many ships, however, were located at the island, the birds have almost entirely deserted their former territory, and retired to fulfil the purposes of their nature to more remote and inaccessible shores. The specimens of the penguin from Icha- boe which we have seen are about two feet in height, and as a great portion of their time is spent in the sea they are furnished with small flaps or paddles, instead of wings, which enable them to progress through the water with great velocity, though they are unable to fly. The female lays and sits upon one egg at a time, and a hole scratched in the deposit subserves all the purposes of a nest. In this way a succession of incubations go on for several months in the year, the young bird making its way to the sea as soon as it is able. It is the opinion of the seamen, that vast numbers of them never reach their destined home in the waters, but are crushed to death in their progress to it, by the dense battalions of birds which have j almost to maintain a struggle for bare standing room ; and in this way the guano heaps are in- creased as well by the bodies of the birds as by their droppings. The bodies of seals are also found on the surface of the guano deposits, which leads to the belief that they may have occasionally taken shelter there from a storm or hurricane, and having been overpowered by the potency of the ammoniacal vapor, have been unable to ret'ira to the water, and died where they lay. The guano which is brought to this country is found under a loose covering of decayed birds, recent dang, &c, and is so firmly imbedded that it requires to be dug out by the laborious operations of the pickaxe. When thus disengaged it is put into bags, and transferred by a sort of rope-ladder from the island to a boat, which lies at the outer edge of the surf, and from thence it is daily emptied into the hold of the vessel, which is anchored at a short dis- tance. Ten men will lift about fifteen tons per day, but the operation is a very laborious one, and the sun is so powerful that few of the crews escape without having their faces and hands blistered so that the outer skin is peeled off. When Captain Farr left Ichaboe he estimated the guano deposit on that island alone to extend to one thousand feet in length, by five hundred in breadth, with an. average depth of thirty-five feet, containing, per- haps, from seven hundred thousand to eight hun-

198

THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS.

dred thousand tons. It is evident, therefore, that this supply will soon be exhausted in fertilizing the soil of Great Britain and her dependencies, but it is to be hoped that vast stores of it yet exist which have hitherto never been disturbed by man. On this subject, we quote the following statement from the South African Commercial Advertiser, published at Cape Town in January last : —

" On the rocky headlands, or on the rocky and unmolested islands on the west coast, both within and beyond the boundary of this colony, where the sea fowl from a vast expanse of open ocean come to breed, enormous masses of this manure have recently been discovered ; and it seems probable that all the way up the coast into the Gulf of Guinea, and beyond it, similar treasures await the agriculture of the world, by which means the sea will render back to the land much more matter fitted to form organized, that is, vegetable and animal substances, than the rivers carry down into their depths, or the fleets of the nations deposit in their course over its surface." — BeWs Messenger.

From Hood's Magazine. THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS. { Drowned ! drowned !" — Hamlet.

One more Unfortunate, Weary of breath, Rashly importunate, Gone to her death !

Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care ; Fashion'd so slenderly, Young, and so fair !

Look at her garments Clinging like cerements ; Whilst the wave constantly Drips from her clothing ; Take her up instantly, Loving, not loathing. —

Touch her not scornfully ; Think of her mournfully, G-ently and humanly ; Not of the stains of her, All that remains of her Now is pure womanly.

Make no deep scrutiny Into her mutiny Rash and undutiful j Past all dishonor, Death has left on her Only the beautiful.

Still, for all slips of hers, One of Eve's family — Wipe those poor lips of hers Oozing so clammily.

Loop up her tresses Escaped from the comb, Her fair auburn tresses ; Whilst wonderment guesses Where was her home ?

Who was her father ? Who was her mother ? Had she a sister ?

Had she a brother ? Or was there a dearer one Still, and a nearer one Yet, than all other ?

Alas ! for the rarity Of Christian charity Under the sun ! Oh ! it was pitiful ! Near a whole city full, Home she had none.

Sisterly, brotherly, Fatherly, motherly Feelings had changed : Love, by harsh evidence, Thrown from its eminence ; Even God's providence Seeming estranged.

Where the lamps quiver

So far in the river,

With many a light

From window and casement,

From garret to basement,

She stood, with amazement,

Houseless by night.

The bleak wind of March Made her tremble and shiver ; But not the dark arch, Or the black flowing river : Mad from life's history, Glad to death's mystery, Swift to be hurl'd — Any where, any where Out of the world !

In she plunged boldly, No matter how coldly The rough river ran, — Over the brink of it, Picture it — think of it, Dissolute Man ! Lave in it, drink of it, Then, if you can !

Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care ; Fashion'd so slenderly, Young, and so fair !

Ere her limbs frigidly Stiffen too rigidly, Decently. — kindly, — Smooth, and compose them ; And her eyes, close them, Staring so blindly !

Dreadfully staring Through muddy impurity, As when with the daring Last look of despairing Fixed on futurity.

Perishing gloomily, Spurred by contumely, Cold inhumanity, Burning insanity, Into her rest. — Cross her hands humbly, As if praying dumbly, Over her breast !

Owning her weakness, Her evil behavior, And leaving, with meekness, Her sins to her Saviour !

SUBMARINE RESEARCHES.

199

On the Light thrown on Geology by Subma- rine Researches ; being the substance of a Communication made to the Royal Institu- tion of Great Britain, Friday Evening, the 23d February, 1844. By Edward Forbes, F.L.S., M.W.S., &c. Prof. Bot. King's College, London.

About the middle of the last century, certain Italian naturalists * sought to explain the arrange- ment and disposition of organic remains in the strata of their country, by an examination of the distribu- tion of living beings on the bed of the Adriatic Sea. They sought in the bed of the present sea for an explanation of the phenomena presented by the upheaved beds of former seas. The instrument, by means of which they conducted their researches, was the common oyster-dredge. The results they obtained bore importantly on Geology ; but since their time, little has been done in the same line of research, — the geologist has been fully occupied above water, and the naturalist has pursued his studies with far too little reference to their bearing on geological questions, and on the history of ani- mals and plants in time. The dredge, when used, has been almost entirely restricted to the search after rare animals, by the more adventurous among zoologists.

Convinced that inquiries of the kind referred to, if conducted with equal reference to all the natural history sciences, and to their mutual connection, must lead to results still more important than those which have been obtained, I have, for several years, conducted submarine researches by means of the dredge. In the present communication, I shall give a brief account of some of the more remarka- ble facts and conclusions to which they have led, and as briefly point out their bearings on the sci- ence of geology.

I. Living beings are not distributed indifferently on the bed of the sea, but certain species live in cer- tain parts, according to the depth, so that the sea-bed presents a series of zones or regions, each peopled by its peculiar inhabitants. — Every person who has walked between high and low water-marks on the British coasts, when the tide was out, must have observed, that the animals and plants which inhabit that space, do not live on all parts of it alike, but that particular kinds reach only to certain distances from its extremities. Thus the species of Auricula are met with only at the very margin of high water mark, along with Littorina ccerulescens and saoca- tilis, Velutina otis, Kellia rubra, Balani, &c. ; and among the plants, the yellow Chondrus crispus (Carrigeen, or Iceland moss of the shops), and Corallina officinalis. These are succeeded by other forms of animals and plants, such as Littorina lit- torea, Purpura lapillus, Trochi, Actinece, Porphyra laciniata, (Laver, Sloke,) and Ulvce. Towards the margin of low water, Lottia tesludinaria, Solen siliqua, and the Dulse, Rhodomenia palmata, with numerous Zoophytes, and Ascidian molluscs, indi- cate a third belt of life, connected, however, with the two others, by certain species common to all three, such as Patella vulgata, and Mytilus edulis. These sub-divisions of the sea-bed, exposed at ebb- tide, have long attracted attention on the coasts of our own country, and on those of France, where they have been observed by Audouin and Milne Edwards, and of Norway, where that admirable observer Sars has defined them with great accuracy.

* Marsili and Donati, and after them SoLIarii.

Now this subdivision of the tract between tide- marks into zones of animal life, is a representation in miniature of the entire bed of the sea. The re- sult of my observations, first in the British seas,* and more lately in the .ZEgean, has been to define a series of zones or regions in depth, and to ascer- tain specifically the animal and vegetable