of the neighbourhood believed them to be the bones of a giant, others of a mammoth ; while amateurs of historical memorials consider them as the remains of one of the elephants of Hannibal's army; but the learned writer who gave, in the Gazette de Lyon, the details of this discovery, traces the origin of this skeleton to the revolutions of the globe, anterior to all the documents of antiquity. The excavations are still carried on. Amongst the elephant bones have also been found some bones of the ox.

RUBENS.

Rubens, as is well known, first saw the light in Cologne; and in Starstreet (says a correspondent who has lately visited that city,) a name happily auguring the advent of that luminary, destined to shine with so eminent a lustre in the hemisphere of art. The house is a spacious mansion, and at present converted into what is here called a "Wine House ;" where the Colonians, after the business of the day, congregate to sip a glass of rhenish, or wash down with a flask of beer the fumes of the eternal pipe, which to a German seems as necessarily the appendage of his mouth, as his coat is of his back. On each side of the street door, and fixed in the wall, is a black marble tablet, bearing gilt lettered inscriptions in the German language, from the pen of Professor Walrof. One records the birth, parentage, and other particulars relating to the illustrious artist; the other informs us that in this house Mary of Medicis, the queen of Henry IV. found a refuge from the persecutions of her enemies, after the tragical death of the king, and was conducted thither by Rubens himself. On the wall of the entrance passage are painted in large characters these latin verses, which are also by the venerable and accomplished Professor :

"Spectator vario Domus hæc distinguitur Astro
Nascitur heic Rubens huc Medicæa fugit
Sed qui Reiginæ Patrium Donaret Apellem
Ingemuit Profugæ fata Suprema Locus."

MURIATIC ACID IN THE STOMACH.

The Annals of Philosophy contain a valuable notice from Mr. Children on the chemical nature of the acid found in the human stomach. The distressing disorder of the digestive

66

function, termed dyspepsia, has been commonly ascribed to the prevalence of acetous acid in the stomach; but for the purpose of determining the point, and consequently for administering such antidotes as the improved state of medical science might suggest, Dr. Prout last year made some experiments on the acid ejected from the stomach, and found it to be the muriatic acid, and not the acetous. Mr. Children says ;--" An acquaintance of mine, who occasionally suffers severely from dyspepsia, and was somewhat sceptical as to Dr. Prout's conclusions, lately requested me to examine the fluid ejected from his stomach during a violent dyspeptic paroxysm the day before, with the view of ascertaining the nature of the free acid it contained. The fluid which had been thrown from the stomach in the morning fasting, when filtered, was perfectly transparent and nearly colourless: it gave a decided red tint to litmus paper. I distilled about six ounces of it almost to dryness, at a gentle heat, receiving the product in three separate equal portions. One-half of each portion was treated with nitrate of silver. The first had no effect on litmus paper, and scarcely gave the slightest cloud with the test. The second became slightly clouded by the test, but was equally without any action on the blue paper. The third portion reddened the paper strongly, and produced an abundant dense cloud, when I dropped into it the nitrate of silver, and a pretty copious precipitate collected at the bottom of the tube. The remaining half of the third portion was evaporated by a gentle heat to about half a fluid drachm. The precipitate which a drop of it placed on a slip of glass, occasioned with a drop of nitrate of silver, was insoluble in nitric acid, and perfectly soluble in ammonia; another drop, similarly treated with muriate of barytes, gave no precipitate nor cloud. The remainder was neutralized with pure ammonia, farther evaporated, and poured on a slip of glass, when it afforded a multitude of well-defined crystals of muriate of ammonia. The presence of free muriatic acid in the

quent and liberál speech. He dilated on the advantages of a good education, and touched upon the leading features of the institution. Sir Walter particularly noticed the intention of making the Greek language a principal study there; and alluded to the present struggle between the Greeks and the Barbarians in terms which were greeted with high applause. The instifution commences under the most flattering prospects.

Impromptu, on seeing an Accident on a new Macadamized Pavement.

"Your roads are not level," said a fellow one day, As crossing o'er Bridge-street he happened to fall;

"Oh, leave it to Time," said M'Adam, "I pray:" "Ah, indeed," said the man, "Time will level us all."

A new clock is in progress for St. Paul's Church, London. The vestrymen of the church have it in contemplation to introduce gas, and an illuminated face, so as to give to the neighbourhood the full advantage of this desirable object by night, as well as by day.

ANTI-ANIMAL-EATING SECT.

A new Society of Christians has been formed at Manchester, who profess, as one of their leading tenets, so abstain wholly from animal food, and to live entirely on vegetables. They have for some time rigidly followed this practice, and though it is expressly founded on their literal interpretation of the command thou shalt not kill, yet the medical effects have confirmed one fact long disputed in the physiologyviz. that man can be sustained in robust health better on vegetable and farinaceous diet than on flesh. The whole of that numerous Society now exist on vegetables, and enjoy the most perfect health and strength.

LITERARY NOVELTIES.

L. E. L. the fair authoress of the Improvisatrice, has in the press the Troubadour, the Spanish Maiden, and other Poems.

The Remains and Memoir of the late Rev. Charles Wolfe, A.B. Curate of Donoughmore, author of the Poem on the "Burial of Sir John More," will, we are informed, be printed from the author's own manuscripts, under the care of the Rev. J. A. Rupell, M.A. Chaplain to the Lord Lieu tenant of Ireland. They will contain the author's poetical pieces, &c. and a selection from his Sermons, and be comprised in 2 vols. 12mo.

Two volumes of the poetical works of Mr. Henry Neele are said to be in the press, and a third volume preparing.

post-roads and statistical divisions, as well as their most interesting physical features, will be carefully delineated. Size of the plates 12 inches by 9.

Our neighbours the French, if they are a century behind us in the magnitude of commercial enterprizes, have often of late taken the lead of us in immense literary enterprizes. Collections of one hundred volumes are subscribed for as readily as works of only two or three volumes. Five or six editions of Voltaire and Rousseau issue from the press every year. M Lefevre is publishing at the same time a splendid edition of the French Classics, in 100 volumes royal 8vo. and a miniature edition of 50 volumes in 32mo. Mr. Panckoucke subscribed 5000 of his Dictionary of Medicine, in 60 volumes; and he is now printing a collection which will reach several hundred volumes, under the title of Transla tions of all the Greek, Latin, Italian, English, Spanish, &c. Classics.

Two peasants of Macerata-Fetta, near Fort Leo, in digging a pit, at the beginning of May, discovered something concealed below the surface. They informed their master, who immediately came to the spot, with three friends and a smith. With great difficulty they raised from the ground a brass chest bound with iron. The smith opened it, and they found in it the following valuable articles ;-many rods and vessels of gold; a crown ornamented with diamonds; a great quantity of female ornaments; cloths of amianthus, with borders embroidered in gold; gold candlesticks, with ancient inscriptions, &c. The chest is five feet long, two broad, and two and a half deep. Some persons conjecture that these jewels may have belonged to Berengar, Duke of Ivea, and King of Italy, who, in his war with the Emperor Otho I. fortifi ed himself with his Queen Gilda, on the celebrated rock of St. Leo, where he was besieged, and, together with his consort, fell into the hands of Otho, who sent them both to Germany.

NEW WORKS.

Journal Anecdotique de Madame Campan, 8vo. 12s.--Scott's Winter Tales, royal 18mo. 9s.-The Writer's Clerk, 3 vols. 12mo. 21s.--The Hermit in Italy, 3 vols. 12mo. 18s.--Dibdin's Comic Tales, f.cap Svo. 78.-Watt's Remarkable Events, 8vo. 10s. 6d. Smith's Art of Drawing, 8vo. 12s. -Maxwell's Beauties of Ancient History, 8vo. 8s.-The Edinburgh Review, No. 81, 6s.-Colo's Bibliographical Tour from Scarborough to the Library of a Philobiblist, 8vo. 8s.; large paper, 12s-Halkett's Notes on the North American Indians, Svo. 10s. 6d. Noble on the Plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures, 8vo. 13s.-Pitman's Course of Sermons, 2 vols. 8vo. 18s. -More's Spirit of Prayer, f.cap 8vo. 6s.— Holderness' Manual of Devotion, 12mo. 4s.

This poem, about which so much has been said, first appeared in a Derry Newspaper.

Forsyth's Medical Dieteticon, 12mo. 6s. 6d. --Brown on Cholera in British India, 8vo.

As the haunts of the fallow-deer or AS venays are generally far from the abodes of men, and as they live in continual alarm from the depredations of the host of enemies, beasts and birds of prey, and even reptiles, that beset them, but for the extraordinary instinct or sagacity Nature has endowed them with, for their preservation, the race must long since have been extinct. The impenetrable mountains of the Cordilleras are inhabited by immense herds of these animals; a species of the stag-kind also sometimes herds amongst them, though, as there seems a great aversion to this commixture, it must be considered as dictated by some necessary or instinctive policy. In those haunts are also to be met the cabia montes, or mountain-goat, so much admired for its symmetry of form and delicious flavour. The intricate and steep pathways leading to their couching haunts are mostly in clefts of rocky precipices, inaccessible to beasts of prey; and even a nimble dog can scarcely skip from rock to rock, to the outposts where their videttes are placed. Should any of them venture, they soon have occasion to repent their temerity.

It is not uncommon to see the jaguar, the tiger, &c. who have the hardihood to attack their outposts, hurled by the butting sentinels, the horned patriarchs of the flock, down a precipice of five or six hundred feet: so that, unless impelled by extreme hunger, they never attack them, except in their more open pastures. As those ravenous creatures are dormant during the day, the deer are then partly

52 ATHENEUM VOL. 2. 2d series.

secure. At night a straggler from the community is sure of its fate; as the jaguars hunt in packs, and are very quick-scented. One trait of the South American deer is worthy of notice. In Europe, a hunted deer is driven from amongst the herd, and abandoned to its fate: here, the guardians of the flock succour even a stranger of their community. I apprehend, that during the fawning season the females and fawns suffer more than the males, as the young are obliged to be deposited in thickets, and the eagle and vulture are always watching over-head. The large brown snake is also a great destroyer of them, but the jaguar and wild-cat are their worst enemies. There are about four bucks to one doe in the herd, which shows what destruction there must be of the latter. The colours of the deer are various, and mostly beautifully dappled upon yellow, white, and dun. The stag is generally of a dusky brown. Hunting those animals is a source both of amusement and emolument to the Indian tribes in high latitudes, and they may be said to have brought it to high perfection. Having ascertained the haunts of the animals for about a week, the whole tribe assemble before daybreak: some ascend the highest trees, to mark their progress; others couch under leaves, so as to impound them when they betake themselves to their fastnesses; then the whole tribe, men, women, and boys, stretch over a vast tract of country, and, assisted by their curs and borns, make every kind of hideous noises obliging them to quit their grazing spots while the dew is on

the ground. As the deer assemble, they form in complete marching order, preceded by the elder or patriarchs, while the bucks of the second class bring up the rear, to protect the females and young, and repel any attacks. In this manner they arrive at their haunts; while the Indians advancing from all directions, prevent their retreat, by closing up all the embouchures or openings, and while the deer are forming in battle-array, prepare the instruments of destruction, viz. large lances, resinous torches, and nooses fixed to long poles. The women are also busy stuffing jaguar and tiger skins. The Indians having made proper crevices, dug into the grit and brown rock which form the paths, advance. The images of the wild beasts are now presented, to intimidate the deer from breaking, which the bucks no sooner perceive than they make a violent effort to strike them into the gulf, their animosity to those beasts being such, that they often pass or leap over a man to get at them. The Indians then strike, and hurl them into the abyss below, where the women are ready to hamstring or disable them, before they recover from their stupor.

When the hunters can no longer provoke them to rush on the stuffed tigers, &c. they make signals to those overhead to throw lighted flambeaux amongst them. This causes them to make a desperate effort to escape, and when the Indians have hurried a sufficient number down the precipices, they suffer the females and the fawns, and some of the bucks, to escape. Indeed, they seem very much averse to destroying a doe at all, and always liberate the doe fawns. In those excursions they take on an average from four to five hundred. In taking the Ciervo Grande, or Large Stag, they seldom get more than from thirty to fifty; but of the mountain-goat they catch an immense number; they enter the caverns in the rocks by night, and pursue them by torch-light; and frequently yoke a great many of them together alive, although the flesh loses its flavour from the effort to domesticate them, and they scarcely ever lose their native wildness. A full-grown fallowdeer could be bought at Valentia for seven pisettos, or about five shillings British. During the hunting season, the Creoles sometimes hunt, but the Indians are more expert.

AT length it appears, to the gratification of us Southrons, that all the hopes of this novel-reading age are not bound up within the Scottish Border. At one period it seemed as if the success of the author of Waverley, like the serpent rod of Aaron, would swallow up all lesser adventurers of the same species. His sweeping, masterly, and comprehensive outlines; the unrivalled ease and vivacity of his details; and the noble audacity with which he seized the most romantic portions of history and made them contribute to the grandeur and the vividness of his fictions, overcame all competition, and silenced the murmurs faintly raised against the want of proportion, arrangement, and connexion in his works. He seemed likely to

rule the domain of modern romance not only without an equal, but without a second, and to make a vast chasm between himself and the scribblers of the Minerva press, whose efforts were still required by gentle loungers at Margate and Brighton, and sentimental milliners all over the world. Miss Austen, whose novels are the most feminine, the most true, and the most intense of all the compositions of her time, was snatched away from the world in the dawning of her honest and genuine fame. Miss Edgeworth, whose brilliant wit, admirable sense, and pointed sarcasm, might have maintained a show of rivalry with the Great Unknown, ceased to write, or directed her rare faculties to the purposes of education and moral guidance.