The long-lov'd children of his earliest care So prompt her tongue and eyes' dishonest But, is the mind untouch'd, the judgment Then follows he his offspring's funeral train; TH INTELLIGENCE: From the London Monthly Magazines, November, 1818. HE Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, from a variety of interesting documents, and original communications, by Thomas Moore, esq. author of Lalla Rookh, 4to. is nearly ready for publication: as are also the following works.- Mrs. Peck will soon publish, in 3 vols. the Bard of the West, an historic romance, founded on certain public events of the 7th century. Nearly ready for publication, the Selected Beauties of British Poetry, with Lives of the Poets, and Critical dissertations. To which is prefixed, an Essay on English Poetry, by Thomas Campbell, esq. author of the Pleasures of Hope, in 6 vols, post octavo. The Tragedy of Guilt, by Adolph Mulner, which has made so much noise in Germany, is about to make its appearance in an Eng lish Translation. Mr. Warden will publish in the course of the ensuing season, a Statistical, Political, and Historical Account of the United States of America, in 3 vols. 8vo. A satirical novel, entitled, The Englishman in Paris, with sketches of remarkable characters, is nearly ready for publication. The Rev. Dr. Chalmers, of Glasgow, will shortly publish a volume of Sermons preached by him at the Tron Church. Walter Scott, esq. is preparing for publication, "The Provincial Antiquities, and Picturesque Scenery of Scotland." To be embellished with plates by Turner, Calicott, Thompson, Nasmyth, Blore, Williams, and other artists of eminence. Poems and Tales in Verse. By Lamont. Revenge Defeated and Self-punished, a dramatic Poem. 8vo. A few Leaves from my Folio Book, by William Woolcot, containing poems on the lamented death of the Princess Charlotte, on the Eolian Harp, and on the Robin, with notes, &c. &c. 8vo. Lord Byron still continued at Venice late in September last, pursuing his poetical labours with indefatigable ardour. He devotes his mornings entirely to study, and his evenings chiefly at the Theatre, receiving the visits of his friends in his private box. THE SOUND OF FLAME IN TUBES. Mr. Faraday, the very ingenious Chemical Assistant in the Royal Institution, has, at the request of Mr. J. Stodart, made a number of curious and interesting experiments on the sounds produced by Flame. This property of flame, as evinced by hydrogen gas in conibustion, was first discovered by Dr. Higgins 1777; and subseouent chemists attributed it to the alternate expansion and contraction of aqueous vapour. Mr. F. proves that this is not the case, by heating the tube into which the flame is passed above 212, and still more decidedly, by producing the sounds froin a flame of carbonic oxide. Neither do the sounds proceed from vibrations of the tube, since a cracked one answers for the experiment; nor from the rapid current of air through the tube, for with one closed at the end, or a bell glass, it succeeds. The production of these sounds is not confined to burning hydrogen, but possessed by all flame: and Mr. Faraday, with, as we presume, the able sanction of Mr. Stodart, concludes that the sounds are simply "the report of a continued explosion.” We shall not detail the experiments, which are to be found in No. X. of the Journal of Science and the Arts, but referring to that publication, merely express our coincidence with the opinion therein maintained. Even without an apparatus, the constant and successive exploMargaret Melville, and the Soldier's sions of gaseous mixtures may be observed in Daughter, or Juvenile Memoirs; interspers- the flame of a common gas-light, and there ed with remarks on the propriety of encouraging British Manufactures. By A. C. Mr. M. E. Elliott, jun. has in the press, Night, a descriptive poem, being an attempt to paint the scenery of night as connected with great and interesting events. Mr. Accum has in the press, Elements of Chemistry, for Self-instruction, after the sys tem of Sir H. Davy, illustrated by experiments, in an 8vo. volume, with plates. NOVELS, TALES, &c. JUST PUBLISHED. Recluse of Albyn Hall. By Zara Went worth. 3 vols. 12mo. Mant. 12mo. The Veiled Protectress, or the Mysterious can be no doubt but that these explosions produce sounds, from the roar of a furnace to the modulated musical tones of a glass tube. -A musical instrument of flame (like the Eolian Harp) might now be constructed. 100 I SIR, [BY THE AUTHor of legends OF LAMPIDOSA.] · To the Editor of the European Magazine. you for the attention be- with stony fragments and trunks of stowed on my Portfolio, and am trees. The aspect of the bleached coast happy to administer food to the reign- where I and my two companions landed, ing curiosity of the public, by com- was such as superstitious mariners municating some intelligence from ascribe to the dead-man's Isle of DesoSpitzbergen, which the fortunate ren- lation; but we had wallets well-filled, contre of an American vessel with one strong spears, fire-arms, and good fur of our ships on the northern voyage cloaks. The shore presented a range of of discovery enabled me to receive. columns with a sort of pediment hangMy friend, who has the honour of be- ing over them, resembling in a gigantic longing to one of those philosophical proportion those of Staffa. While one crews, writes thus: of my companions endeavoured to take "Knowing that your profession gives notes of their bulk and height, the you taste for the civil institutions rather youngest and most active spied an openthan the natural history of other king- ing of such extent and depth as to doms, I shall trouble you with very few justify a Scotch speculation that there seamen-like references to our soundings are habitable regions in the centre of and surveys before we touched this the earth. And if we had doubted frightful. coast. Between 22 deg. 40 that this interior recess was inhabited, min. E. longitude, and 77 deg. 51 sec. we should have been convinced by the N. latitude, we saw an enormous ice- sight of an eagle carrying a dead child to berg, or floating field of ice, approach- its eyrie. We took courage, or I might ing, which induced our ship to take say hope, to find some hospitable crearefuge in a cove so spaciously and se- tures of our own species; and provided curely sheltered with broad rocks as to with a few torches of bituminous matpromise us a kind of rest. Two or three ter, entered this natural archway. It of us were permitted to go on shore; led us, according to our best calculaand if the intense chill and the thick tion, nearly two hundred yards; and white fog which usually precede an ice- both our courage and curiosity would island had not deadened our feelings have failed, had not a creature like and our sight, we might have observed the squirrel-ape of Asia suddenly apwith philosophical precision the pro- peared, and frisked before us. We were gress of this monstrous mass, bristled surprised to see an animal, whose deli 2N ATHENEUM. Vol. 4. 290 Extracts from an Arctie Navigator's Journal. [VOL. 4 cate form and elegant colours have been translation of the sacred Book. This pronounced by naturalists peculiar to and various testimonies of their hostorrid climates, in a region so gloomy pitality induced us to send back one of and desolate. But while we were deli- our party to the cove where the ship berating on the prudence of returning, remained, there to notify our adventure. its familiar pranks seemed to promise Our deputy returned with information the vicinity of man, and the scarlet that our stay must not exceed fortystreaks on its silvery back guided us eight hours, as the circular recess we Onward when our torches began to fail. had thus discovered in the bosom of the A few flickerings of the Aurora Borealis, ice, promised no farther inlet into this seen beautifully at the end of this very desolate country, and our voyage could long and dark avenue, encouraged us not be longer delayed. Believe me, still more to go onwards, as our retreat my dear friend, for you know my seemed straight and secure. We reached physiological zeal, I employed these the outlet at last, and saw, with such hours most assiduously; and as cirdelight as you may well conceive, a cumstances must be reserved till I write plain about a mile in diameter, fenced in a warmer climate, you must content on all sides by a kind of natural wall, yourself with such extracts from my formed by perpendicular steeps, whose journal as relate to important facts. summits, white and shining with indis- The amusements of this singular peosoluble snow, served to reflect and mul- ple bear a very remarkable affinity to tiply the glorious lights of the north ours: an affinity which proves, notpole. Their bases were green, with withstanding the opinions of Messrs. shrubs and fruit-trees, which grew in Buffon, De Luc, and Cuvier, that lanthis warm recess, sheltered from the guage is by no means a necessary conkeenness of arctic winds, and beauti- veyance and accompaniment of social fied by a throng of the silver butter- feeling. For during our short stay there, flies peculiar to these regions. In the we witnessed what was considered a fescentre we found a hamlet, or cluster tive meeting, to which all the members of houses, built of the whale's ribs, of this colony (called by our learned with sufficient strength and symmetry; friend the Neonousites) were summoned and our arrival was welcomed by a by our conductor, the ape beforegroupe of persons, whose fair com- mentioned, who seemed instructed to plexions and English features were most act the part of master of the cereinteresting to our national feelings. We monies. And here it is proper to obmight have expected blue eyes and serve, for the information of naturalists, silken hair in this polar circle; but that his surface or skin, which had unless we had remembered the Welsh first attracted us by its dazzling cotradition of Prince Madoc's emigration to North America, we could not have hoped to meet kindred countenances. We expressed our pacific intentions by those gestures which are understood in all nations, and these people graciously answered us by tying down the topmost branches of a fir-tree towards the ground; but you will hardly conceive my surprise and regret when we found them dumb; however, they shewed us tablets of stone, bequeathed to them, as far as we could understand their pantomime shew, by the first founder of their colony. Dr. Caconous, my learned companion, assured me that the characters resembled the most ancient Greek, and were a part of our own Septuagint lours, was embellished by paint, as indeed were the faces of all our new acquaintance. The male inhabitants, for we saw no difference in attire or manner in any, wore broad and rigid belts made of the whale's integuments, and cassocks of bear's-skin; but we, being aware of the intended festivity, obtained from our ship a supply of bonnets with abundant feathers for the gentlemen, and sundry long skirts richly brocaded for the ladies; I grieve for the honour of our sex to add, the former chose the largest half. The assembly met in three apartments constructed round one of the hot-wells, or boiling springs as naturalists call them; and we learned from these people's written in VOL. 4.] Extracts from an Arctic Navigator's Journal. 291 Their The stitutes, that the whole pleasure and there is one particular which manifests, business of the assembly consisted in some discretion and decorum. striving how to increase and endure the most beautiful females always sit withintolerable heat. It is true there were in a door guarded by a tough thick web, several erections of green sod, and I which, when taken out, resembles a could not avoid admiring with what leathern purse. And they have also a ingenuity these colonists have taught door with hinges like the valves of an certain black foxes, and an equal num- oyster or muscle, which opens and shuts ber of elegantly shaped creatures called if the metal which touches it is magnetamicas, or fair marmosetts as we name ic. I request you to communicate this them in Asia, to throw pieces of spotted fact to the members of our college, and shells at each other for the amusement urge them to consider its resemblance of the spectators. And dances very to what we know of the great South much resembling our European waltzes American spider, so celebrated for the and quadrilles were performed by the strength of its nets. Their marriages black beavers and young moose-deer, are whimsically metaphorical. whose slow gait and fantastical bounds bride stands on a pyramid of snow, and were often pleasantly contrasted; and the bridegroom on one of smoking well exemplified the thought of that ashes. If the melting of the snow wise ambassador, who asked, when he quenches the heat, or if the embers saw our dances, if we had no servants cease to burn before the snow dissolves, or tame animals to perform such labours the omen is considered unprosperous, for us. But the most remarkable par- But if they decrease in the same proticular, and the most strikingly similar portion, it is an augury of happiness to English society, was, that all the and as both parties are dumb, I suprational animals being dumb, the above- pose there are no provisions for alimony mentioned foxes and marmosetts were or separate maintenance. Courtships instructed to make an agreeable and for the same reason are managed with constant murmur, which marvellously becoming brevity, and not much deresembled the indistinct congregation ception; but I specially admired the of sounds heard at a metropolitan fête. I must not omit to add, that this murmur or buz was most marked when two or three birds placed there on purpose began to sing or scream. They seemed to be birds of the gull species. allotment of time for weeping at a funeral. It lasts precisely as long as the mourner can count a hundred pieces of copper coin into his purse. Being dumb, you will easily suppose no lawyers are requisite; but the proBut another circumstance claimed pe- fession flourishes notwithstanding this culiar notice from us, as philosophers obstacle. If any person considers himno less intent on moral than physical self robbed or aggrieved, he applies to discoveries. This colony of Neonou- one or two persons called the civilians sites has schools for the instruction of of this colony; and as eloquence is unfemales, but you will start to hear that known here, a blind fox is brought into young children are employed to give their court of justice, and that advocate lessons to the old. In this remote re- is deemed most skilful who can make gion, probably because the aged are him drink through the longest straw. supposed to lose their faculties in these Another and apter way of deciding a stupifying and incessant frosts, the suit is this. The judge drops two oysyoung employ themselves in tutoring ters on the head of the plaintiff and deand disciplining their parents. Those fendant, and he whose head is hard unhappy creatures who have offspring enough to crack the shell, is pronounclabour unremittingly in sawing fir and ed victorious. But if the case is not destriving to rear fruits or harvests, while cided in twelve months, the parties' attheir children spend fifteen or sixteen tornies are publicly whipped-a practice years in learning how to slide down a hill of ice with feathers on their heads and empty shells in their hands. Yet This seems a relic of a Jewish tradition, that a wife's proper Hebrew names signifies water, and her husband's fire. 292 Extracts from an Arctic Navigator's Journal. an ĮVOL. 4 which might be useful in Europe. The cies, to nurse and rear their children same chastisement is inflicted on phy- during the first six or seven years; sicians when their patients die. One of office which they are apt to execute the rarest and most pleasant peculiari- with all the capricious cruelty of their ties among these people is, that they nature; but the parents have an idea never absolutely die. The funeral cere- that as human creatures are sure to demonies are performed during a man's serve chastisement in some part of their last illness, that he may enjoy the pomp lives, it is wisest and most safe to give of these honours; but he is not inter- them an ample sufficiency at first. Notred, and his physicians, when the breath withstanding the ungracious habits and of life has forsaken him, perform certain unkindness of their nurses, these chiloperations similar to our galvanic bat- dren acquire all their subtle instincts, tery, and excite the muscular system so and especially a remarkable fondness for powerfully, that though the intellectual dress; as one of the whims of this colspirit is gone, he is fully capable of the ony is to equip its domestic animals in employments most usual here. I do the utmost finery; and we were highly not find that they take this trouble with amused when we were waited upon at their wives when defunct; but as the dinner by a white bear in a coat and petrifying power of this keen air acts hat which we had given his master; speedily on the lifeless frame, their de- and saw the pelican-cook strutting in a ceased beauties are soon converted into bonnet of the French shape, which constatues, which are splendidly attired in cealed its long beak and large pouch feathers and cockle-shells, and being admirably. duly painted, fill their former places in Their meals are regularly taken about public assemblies with great effect, and the same time as in England, and are can hardly be distinguished from the certainly more suitable to a climate living. where there is very little night, than to Their household arrangements de- ours, in which the fashionable season serve attention and imitation even in has hardly any day. There is, as I Europe. Knowing the fatigue of reg- have told you, no conversation at their ulating human domestics by precept or parties; but a number of bats are emexample, they have availed themselves ployed, who fly from house to house of that surprising instinct which may with the news of the day written on be called reason without will in animals. their broad leather wings, which answer Therefore they employ the large shag- the purpose of our morning and evening gy dog peculiar to northern lands as papers perfectly well. I took some their porter and errand-carrier; and his pains to discover whether they have fidelity far surpasses any biped's em- any poets or novellists, but could only ployed in that capacity. The beaver, find one fragment or sketch of a roso skilled in heaping up or carrying tim- mance, which is preserved with extraber, is their ordinary household drudge; ordinary care, as a relic left by the first and as fish is the principal article of founders of this colony. I judge from their diet, a number of tame pelicans its style, language, and other circumact as clerks of the kitchen. It is real- stances, that it cannot be of great antily admirable to observe with what quity; and when you have read my quietness and expedition these purvey- extract, which I annex as well as I ors perform their duty, and sometimes could decypher and comprehend such rob each other's pouches with an alacri- a perplexed MS. you will certainly ty altogether human. As the custom I concur in my opinion, that this colony am going to mention is not much unlike must have been transplanted from Euone which now prevails in civilized na- rope much more recently than the Nortions, you will not refuse to believe that wegians in 1406, or the great Briorn mothers in this colony abandon their who emigrated before (as Swedish hisoffspring in their infancy and childhood. torians say) the three stars shone in the They employ a set of sleek handsome West. animals, of the tiger-cat or hyæna spe |