whose habits differ widely from those of the Roe-the one son. of light and shade in the picture. But, as aforesaid, the main subject is an awful failure: his seat, and position of his arms, are those of a lay-figure strapped on the horse. The portrait of Dr Gordon is a failure; so is that of the Lady and Child, (No. 51). This last is what we never expected to see in one of Mr Grant's works -decidedly vulgar. He has no excuse either, for the subject is a good one. The best part of the portrait (No. 213) is the attitude; and that is not Mr Grant's own. Dr Greville being then called to the chair, Professor There is something very pleasing in the portrait of a Jameson read an interesting notice, drawu up by Mr Child, (No. 93,) by John Syme. The sky, in parti-Nicoll, in regard to the structure of the fossil trees of Van cular, is good; the spaniel beautiful, and the whole Diemen's Land, of which some splendid specimens had No. 144, by the same artist, is a been transmitted to the Professor. The specimens were arrangement good. faithful likeness, but, somehow or other, it always looks exhibited, as well as another series of both recent and fossil to us like one who has had a struggle (in the discharge woods, most beautifully prepared by Mr Nicoll, so as to Most of of his official duty) with the Great Enemy, and come off illustrate the structure in the clearest manner. the specimens from Van Diemen's Land were referable to with the worst. the class Coniferæ. Of the Watsons, we think that least said is soonest mended. Among our artists not generally regarded as portraitpainters, two have this year distinguished themselves in this line. We allude to Simson's Cabinet portrait of Dr Monro, (152,) and Lauder's of John Thomson, Esq. (273.) The latter, in particular, is one of the sweetest pieces of painting we have seen. We have reserved Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait of We have the Lord Chancellor, as a tit-bit, to the last. heard it objected to this portrait, that it gives you no correct idea of the man. We can only say, that the expression of the countenance and the action of the figure, are exact counterparts of what we have observed in the original upon two occasions of great emergency. That there is something effeminate and out of character in the elaborate finish of some of the details, we are ready to admit. But admitting this slight drawback, what a gem is the picture, whether we consider the elegance of all its parts, or the great effect produced by the most modest, subdued, and natural colouring? We could look at it for ever; and recommend our artists to study it carefully. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF WERNERIAN SOCIETY. Saturday, March 5, 1831. PROFESSOR JAMESON in the Chair. Present,-Drs Ritchie, Greville, Scot, Gillies; Messrs Falconar, Witham, Stevenson, Arnott, Nicoll, &c. A PAPER on Indian hail-storms, communicated by Dr Turnbull Christie, was read to the Society. The occurrence of hail-storms had been supposed to be confined to the more elevated parts of the Indian continent; but Dr Christie found that even the peninsula of India was occasionally visited by them, and that the hailstones were sometimes of a large size. Popular traditions were also alluded to of the fall of immense solitary masses of hail or ice, one of which was said to be as large as an elephant; greatallowance must here be made to Oriental exaggeration. In the conversation which followed, several remarkable hail-storms were mentioned. Dr Greville gave an account of one of which he was an eye-witness; some of the hailstones he had measured, and found them from four to five inches in circumference. Dr Gillies described a storm at Mendoza, in South America, in which the hailstones were not larger than musket-bullets; but they descended with such force, as to leave marks on the houses, similar to those made by the balls of fire-arms. A third memorable storm was mentioned by Mr Neill, as having occurred in the Shetland Isles, an account of which is given by Mr Neill himself, we believe, in the Transactions of the Royal Society. The hailstones in this case were seven and eight inches in circumference, flattened, and compared by some witnesses to small oyster-shells. Much damage was done; geese and other fowls had their wings broken, and even cattle were injured. All these storms happened in summer. The Rev. Dr Scot then read a communication on the Zebi of the Scriptures-the Roe of the English translation. The Rev. Doctor showed, very satisfactorily, that the present translation is an erroneous one, and that the word Zebi ought to be rendered Mountain Gazelle, an animal ROYAL SOCIETY. Monday, March 7. PROFESSOR HOPE, Vice-President, in the Chair. Present,-Earl of Leven; Sirs J. M. Brisbane, F. Walker Drummond, Archibald Campbell, David Mylne, C. H. Jardine; Professors Hope, Christison, Russell, Wallace, ` Graham; Drs Carson, Greville, Maclagan, Keith; Borthwick, Gregory, and Knox; Rev. G. Coventry Messrs James Wilson, Jardine, Witham, Hunter of Thurston, Wishart, James Gibson-Craig, jun.; Captain Boswell, R. N.; Messrs Robison and Gregory, Secretaries. Being The first paper read was by Dr Christison, containing an account of his analysis of the suety matter obtained by boiling the seeds of the Laurus cinnamonum, or CinnamonTree. This he found to consist of a great proportion of the vegetable principle of cerine, got by Professor Jahn of Berlin from the seeds of the Myrica cordifolia, but which that chemist had not succeeded in freeing from impurities. Dr Christison having, by repeated ablutions with alcohol, removed all foreign matters, was enabled to describe the properties of pure cerine. The most interesting of these is its capability of saponification with alkalies. led, by the knowledge of the fact that the same chemical principles exist in the various species of one genus, to extend his observations to other species of the genus Laurus, the professor succeeded in obtaining from the berries of the Laurus nobilis, or common bay, a principle exactly the same with that described above. In order to be able to distinguish vegetable cerine from the principle of animal wax, with which Jahn conceived it to be identical-a view not supported by Dr Christison's observations-the professor proposes to place before the word cerine the generic name of the plant yielding it. Thus, lauro-cerine, &c. Dr Knox read an account of a case of supposed congenital opening in the front of the human trachea, or windpipe; but being altogether professional, its details are unsuited to our pages. Mr Thomas Allan read an extract of a letter from his son, giving an account of the changes going on in Vesuvius, particularly in a crater about 800 feet deep-about the size of Arthur Seat inverted-which was nearly filled up by the matters projected from a partial eruption about the end of December and beginning of January last. The details were minute, but very interesting. ORIGINAL POETRY. THE BOGLE. A SONG. By the Ettrick Shepherd. I MET a bogle late yestreen, And wow but I was eiry: Its nose was o' the whunstane; That puff'd out fire an' brimstane. My voice gaed in, instead o' out, An' darkness cam' afore me. The Brownie kind an' just, too; An' ane can whiles get by him. The mermaid's song is sweet to hear, A bogle is the warst to meet, When fo'ks gang to the courting. THREE WEEKS AFTER MARRIAGE. I DON'T care three-and-sixpence now My days of fun are over now, I'm married to a wife, my boys, And that, by Jove, 's no joke! I'm sick of sending marriage cake, With newly-wed beginners; I care not now for white champagne, Blue coats are all blue bores to me, And Limerick gloves or kid. And as for posting up and down, At every paltry country town I wish you saw the bills; They know me for a married man, Their smirking says they do, And charge me as the Scots Greys charged I've grown, too, quite an idle rogue, Reading with me is not in vogue, To wish 'twere dinner-time, I wonder if this state be what For too much honey is to me O! when I was a bachelor But now I lie on Ottomans, O! when I was a bachelor I always had some plan I walk'd as if a pair of wings Of getting o'er life's jolting road, I might have been a bachelor Until my dying day, Which would have been to err at least As far the other way. STANZAS. By David Vedder, Author of the Covenanter's Communion. FROM the forest and the steppe, And from castle, tower, and town, From city, village, hamlet, and shed; Like the hurricane they haste- From the mountain's flaming crest- Or like an avalanche downward hurl'd; Stern Justice wildly mourns But, like giants roused from sleep, On the Asiatic plains. In the forests in the fens of the Swede, Then Freedom's bark shall sail By fiends and demons nursed- Into air! We have, on a former occasion, expressed our high opinion of Colonel Napier's work. It is at once an interesting history, and a complete practical treatise on the art of war. It is fair, manly, and energetic. The author's authorities are expressly cited on every occasion, and are of the very highest order. Any satisfactory account of the military details and criticisms, with which the work abounds, would be here out of place. We prefer, therefore, laying before our readers some of the Colonel's strictures, which possess a more general interest. His view of the political conduct and national character of the Spaniards, comes very apropos as a supplement to, or an "improvement" of, the graphic and lively sketches of the "Young American," which we last week submitted to their notice. Colonel Napier's portrait of the first Cortes assembled fter the invasion of the French, is powerful and true. To its errors may be traced many of the subsequent misfortunes of Spain. Price 6d. and customs, wounded powerful interests, created active enemies, and shocked those very prejudices which had produced resistance to Napoleon. "In the administration of the armies, in the conduct of the war, and the treatment of the colonies, there was as much of vanity, of intrigue, of procrastination, negligence, folly, and violence, as before. Hence the people were soon discontented; and when the power of the religious orders was openly attacked by a proposition to abolish the Inquisition, the clergy became the active enemies of the Cortes. The great cause of feudal privileges being once given up, the natural tendency of the latter was towards the enemy. A broad line of distinction was thus drawn between the secution of the war; and, ere the contest was finished, objects of the Spanish and English governments in the prothere was a schism between the British cabinet and the Spanish government, which would have inevitably thrown the latter into Napoleon's hands, if fortune had not at the moment betrayed him in Russia." Equally just are his remarks on the guerilla system. of warfare. "Here it may be observed, how weak and inefficient the guerilla system was to deliver the country, and that, even, as an auxiliary, its advantages were nearly balanced by the evils. It was in the provinces lying between France and the Ebro that it commenced. It was in these provinces and it was precisely in these provinces that it was conthat it could effect the greatest injury to the French cause; ducted with the greatest energy, although less assisted by "After two years of intrigues and delay, the National the English than in any other part of Spain-a fact leading Cortes was assembled, and the long suppressed voice of the to the conclusion, that ready and copious succours may be people was at length to be heard. Nevertheless, the mem- hurtful to a people situated as the Spaniards were. When hers of the Cortes could not be duly and legally chosen in so assisted, men are apt to rely more upon their allies than the provinces possessed by the enemy; and as some mem- upon their own exertions. But however this may be, it is bers were captured by the French on their journey to Cadiz, certain that the Partidas of Biscay, Navarre, Aragon, and many persons, unknown even by name to their supposed Catalonia, although they amounted at one time to above constituents, were chosen; a new principle of election, thirty thousand men, accustomed to arms, and often comunknown to former Cortes, was also adopted; for all per-manded by men of undaunted enterprise and courage, never sons twenty-five years old, not holding office or pension occupied half their own number of French at one time,under the government, nor incapacitated by crime, nor by never absolutely defeated a single division,-never prevented debts to the state, nor by bodily infirmity, were eligible to any considerable enterprise,-never, with the exception of sit if chosen. A supplement of sixty-eight members was the surprise of Figueras, performed any exploit seriously likewise provided to supply accidental vacancies; and it affecting the operations of a single corps d'armée.' was agreed that twenty-six persons then in Spain, natives of the colonies, should represent those dependencies. Towards the latter end of September, this great Assembly met, and immediately took the title of Majesty; it afterwards declared the press free in respect of political, but not of religious matters, and abolished some of the provincial juntas, re-appointed captains-general, and proceeded to form a constitution worded in the spirit of republican freedom. These things, aided by a vehement eloquence, drew much attention to the proceedings of the Cortes, and a fresh impulse seemed given to the war; but men brought up under despotism do not readily attain the fashion of freedom. The Provincial Junta, the Central Junta, the Junta of Cadiz, the Regency, had all been, in succession, violent and tyrannical in act, while claiming only to be popular leaders; and this spirit did not desert the Cortes. Abstract principles of liberty were freely promulgated, yet tyrannical and partial proceedings were of common occurrence; and the reformations, by outstripping the feelings and understandings of the nation, weakened the main-springs of its resistance to the French. It was notberty, but for national pride, and from religious pride, that the people struck. Freedom had no attractions for the nobles, nor for the monastics, nor even for the merchants; and the Cortes, in suppressing old establishments, and yiolating old forms "It is true, that if a whole nation will but persevere in such a system, it must in time destroy the most numerous armies. But no people will thus persevere; the aged, the siek, the timid, the helpless, are all hinderers of the bold and robust. There will also be a difficulty to procure arms, for it is not on every occasion that so rich and powerful a people as the English will be found in alliance with insurrection; and when the invaders follow up their victories by a prudent conduct, as was the case with Suchet and some others of the French generals, the result is certain. The desire of ease natural to mankind, prevails against the suggestions of honour; and although the opportunity of covering personal ambition with the garb of patriotism may cause many attempts to throw off the yoke, the bulk of the invaded people will gradually become submissive and tranquil. It is a fact, that, notwithstanding the violent mea- 1 sures resorted to by the Partida chiefs to fill their ranks, deserters from the French, and even from the British, formed one-third of their bands. "To raise a whole people against an invader may be easy, but to direct the energy thas aroused, is a gigantic task, and, if misdirected, the result will be more injurious than advantageous. That it was misdirected in Spain, was the opinion of many able men of all sides, and to represent it otherwise, is to make history give false lessons to posterity. Portugal was thrown completely into the hands of Lord Wellington; but that great man, instead of following the example of the Supreme Junta, and encouraging independent bands, enforced a military organization upon totally different principles. The people were, indeed, called upon and obliged to resist the enemy, but it was under a regular system, by which all classes were kept in just bounds, and the whole physical and moral power of the nation rendered subservient to the plan of the general-in-chief. To act differently, is to confess weakness; it is to say, that the government, being unequal to the direction of affairs, permits anarchy. "The Partida system in Spain, was the offspring of disorder, and disorder in war is weakness accompanied by ills, the least of which is sufficient to produce ruin. It is in such warfare that habits of unbridled license, of unprincipled violence, and of disrespect for the rights of property, are quickly contracted, and render men unfit for the duties of citizens; and yet it has, with singular inconsistency, been cited as the best and surest mode of resisting an enemy, by politicians, who hold regular armies in abhorrence, although a high sense of honour, devotion to the cause of the country, temperance, regularity, and decent manners, are the very essence of the latter's discipline. "Regular armies have seldom failed to produce great men, and one great man is sufficient to save a nation: but when every person is permitted to make war in the manner most agreeable to himself-for one that comes forward with patriotic intentions, there will be two to act from personal interest; in short, there will be more robbers than generals. One of the first exploits of Espoz y Mina was to slay the commander of a neighbouring band, because, under the mask of patriotism, he was plundering his own country. men nay, this the most fortunate of all the chiefs, would never suffer any other Partida than his own to be in his district; he also made a species of commercial treaty with the French, and strove earnestly and successfully to raise his band to the dignity of a regular force." But although our author is frequently obliged, in his capacity of military author and critic, to dwell upon the deficiencies of the Spaniards, he performs his disagreeable task in no ungenerous spirit. His description of the fine old veteran Herrasti, and his eloquent defence of him.. self, are sufficient to clear him of any such imputation. FIRST SIEGE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO. "On the 27th of April, 1810, the Prince of Essling arrived in the camp, and summoned the governor to surrender. Herrasti answered in the manner to be expected from so good a soldier; and the fire was resumed until the first of July, when Massena, sensible that the mode of attack was faulty, directed the engineers to raise counter batteries, to push their parallels to the lesser tison, work regularly forward, blow in the counterscarp, and pass the ditch in form. Meanwhile, to facilitate the progress of the new works, the convent of Santa Cruz, on the right flank, was carried after a fierce resistance; and on the left, the suburb was attacked, taken and retaken by a sally, in which great loss was inflicted on the French. Howbeit, the latter remained masters of every thing beyond the walls. "During the cessation of fire consequent upon the change in the French dispositions, Herrasti removed the ruins from the foot of the breach, and strengthened his flank defences; but, on the 9th of July, the besiegers' batteries being established on the lesser tison, re-opened with a terrible effect. In twenty-four hours, the fire of the Spanish guns was nearly silenced, part of the town was in flames, a reserve magazine exploded on the walls, the counterscarp was blown in by a mine on an extent of thirty-six feet, the ditch filled by the ruins, and a broad way made into the place. At this moment, three French soldiers of heroic courage, suddenly running out of the ranks, mounted the breach, looked into the town, and having thus, in broad daylight, proved the state of affairs, discharged their muskets, and retired unhurt to their comrades. "The columns of assault immediately assembled. The troops, animated by the presence of Ney, and excited by the example of the three men who had so gallantly proved the breach, were impatient for the signal. A few moments would have sent them raging into the midst of the city, when the white flag waved on the rampart, and the venerable governor was seen standing alone on the ruins, and signifying by his gestures that he desired to capitulate. He had stricken manfully while reason warranted hope, and it was no dishonour to his silver hairs, that he surrendered when resistance could only lead to massacre and devastation. "Six months had now elapsed, since the French, resuming the plan of conquest interrupted by the Austrian war, and by the operations of Sir Arthur Wellesley, had retaken the offensive. Battle after battle they had gained, fortress after fortress they had taken, and sent the Spanish forces, broken and scattered, to seek for refuge in the most obscure parts: solid resistance there was none, and the only hope for the Peninsula rested upon the British general. How he realized that hope shall be related in the next book. Meanwhile the reader should bear in mind, that the multifarious actions related in the foregoing chapters were contempora neous; and that he has been led, as it were, round the margin of a lake, where turbulent waters spread on every side. Tedious to read, and trifling as many of the circumstances must be, yet, as a whole, they form what has been called the Spanish military policy; and, without accurate notions on that head, it would be impossible to appreciate the capacity of the man, who, like Milton's phantom, paved a broad way through the chaotic warfare. "I have been charged with incompetence to understand, and, most unjustly, with a desire to underrate the Spanish resistance; but it is the province of history to record foolish as well as glorious deeds, that posterity may profit from all; and neither will I mislead those who read my work, nor sacrifice the reputation of my country's arms to shallow declamation upon the unconquerable spirit of independence. To expose the errors, is not to undervalue the fortitude of a noble people; for in their constancy, in the unexampled patience with which they bore the ills inflicted alike by a ruthless enemy, and by their own sordid governments, the Spaniards were truly noble: but shall I say that they were victorious in their battles, or faithful in their compacts; that they treated their prisoners with humanity; that their juntas were honest or wise; their generals skilful; their soldiers firm? I speak but the bare truth when I assert, that they were incapable of defending their own cause! Every action, every correspondence, every proceeding of the six years that the war lasted, rise up in support of this fact; and to assume that an insurrection so conducted, did, or could possibly, baffle the prodigious power of Napoleon, is an illusion. Spain baffle him! Portugal has far greater claims to that glory. Spain furnished the opportunity; but it was England, Austria, Russia, or rather fortune, that struck down that wonderful man. The English, more powerful, more rich, more profuse, perhaps more brave, than the anreal force never matched, with a general equal to any emercient Romans; the English, with a fleet for grandeur and gency, fought as if for their own existence. The Austrians conqueror's progress; the snows of Russia destroyed three brought four hundred thousand good troops to arrest the hundred thousand of his best soldiers; and, finally, when he had lost half a million of veterans, not one of whom died only tear the Peninsula from him by tearing France along on Spanish ground, Europe in one vast combination could with it. What weakness then, what incredible delusion, to point to Spain, with all her follies, and her never-ending defeats, as a proof that a people fighting for independence must be victorious. She was invaded, because she adhered to the great European aristocracy; she was delivered, because England enabled that aristocracy to triumph for a moment over the principles of the French Revolution." Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Behring's Strait, to co-operate with the Polar Expeditions, performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey, R.N., in the Years 1825, 26, 27, 28. 4to. Pp. 742. London. Colburn and Bentley. 1831. (Second Notice.) THERE is a very peculiar interest attaches itself to the group of islands, of which Otaheite is the centre. We there trace those workings of nature in active existence, of which geologists discover the dim traces in the rocks of our continent. There subaqueous mountains are daily heaved up by volcanic agency, and corals cluster and spread around them-forming the future basalts and limestones of a continent, destined some thousands of ages hence to be the busy seat of social existence, when ours is overflowed by the ocean. The first appearance of each island is that of a ring of other materials lying with them, renders it probable that land, with a deep lagoon in the centre: "In speaking of the coral islands hereafter, my observations will be applied to the thirty-two islands already stated to have fallen under our examination. The largest of them was thirty miles in diameter, and the smallest less than a mile; they were of various shapes; were all formed of living coral, except Henderson's Island, which was partly surrounded by it; and they all appeared to be increasing their dimensions by the active operations of the lithophytes, which appeared to be gradually extending and bringing the immersed parts of their structure to the surface. "Twenty-nine of the number had lagoons in their centres, which is a proportion sufficiently large, when coupled with information supplied from other parts of the globe where such formations abound, to render it almost certain that the remainder also had them in the early period of their formation, and that such is the peculiar structure of the coral islands. And, indeed, these exceptions can scarcely be considered objections, as two of them-Thrum Cap, which is only seventeen hundred yards long, by twelve hundred broad; Queen Charlotte's Island, which is not more than three quarters of a mile wide in its broadest part, and less than half a mile in other places-are so circumstanced, that, had their lagoons existed, they would have been filled in the course of time with the masses of coral and other substances which the sea heaps upon such formations as they rise above the surface; they have, besides, long been wooded and inhabited, though deserted at the present moment, both of which would tend to efface the remains of lagoons of such small dimensions. The sea, however, prevented our boats from landing upon either of these islands, to ascertain the fact of the early existence of lagoons. The other exception, Henderson's Island, though of coral formation, appears to have been raised to its present height above the sea by a subterraneous convulsion, and has its centre so encumbered and overgrown with bushes, that we could not determine whether it ever had a lagoon," The growth of the coral is extraordinarily rapid: "The depth of these lagoons is various; in those which we entered it was from twenty to thirty-eight fathoms, but in others, to which we had no access, by the light blue colour of the water it appeared to be very small. It is, however, tolerably certain, that the coral forms the basis of them; and consequently, unless depositions of sand, or other substances, obnoxious to the coral insects, take place, their depth must depend upon their age. "Very little offered itself to our notice, by which we could judge of the rapidity of the growth of the coral, as the islands which we examined had never been described with the accuracy necessary for this purpose; and there were, consequently, no means of comparing the state in which they were found by us, with that which was presented to our predecessors; but from the report of the natives, the coral bordering the volcanic islands does not increase very fast, as we never heard of any channels being filled up; but, on the contrary, that the passages through the reefs were apparently always in the same condition. The only direct evidence, however, which I could obtain of this fact, was that of the Dolphin Reef, off Point Venus, in Otaheite. This reef, when first examined by Captain Wallis, in 1769, had two fathoms water upon it.' Cook sounded upon it a few years afterwards, and gave its depth fifteen feet. In our visit to this place, we found, upon the shallowest part of it, thirteen feet and a half. These measurements, though at variance, from the irregularity of the surface of the reef, are sufficiently exact to warrant the conclusion, that it has undergone no very material alteration during an interval, it should be recollected, of fifty-six years. But the Dolphin, as well as the above-mentioned reefs and channels, are within the influence of rivers, which, in my opinion, materially retard their increase, and their growth must not be taken as a criterion of that of the islands of which I have been speaking. With regard to them, there is one fact worthy of consideration, and upon which every person must form his own judgment. I allude to the remains of the Matilda, a ship which, a few pages back, is stated to have been cast away upon one of these coral islands. In my description of Matilda Island, it is stated, that one of the anchors of this ship, a ton in weight, a four-pounder gun, her boilers and iron-work, are lying upon the top of the reef, two hundred yards from the The present break of the sea, and are dry at low water. nature of these articles, and the quantity of iron bolts aud the sea. the vessel went to pieces in that spot, for, had the sea been heavy enough to wash the anchor from deeper water, the boiler must have been carried much beyond it; and the question is, whether the hull of a vessel of the Matilda's tonnage could be washed upon a reef dry at low water, and be deposited two hundred yards within the usual break of The circumstance of the hatches, staves of casks, and part of the vessel, being deposited in parts of the dry land not far distant, and scarcely more than four feet from the present level of the sea, offers a presumption that the sea did not rise more than that height above its ordinary level, or it would have washed the articles further, and left them in the lagoon, whence they would have been carried to sea by the current." The connexion of the corallines with a volcanic substratum seems clearly established: "The general opinion now is, that they have their foundations upon submarine mountains, or upon extinguished volcanoes, which are not more than four or five hundred feet immersed in the ocean; and that their shape depends upon the figure of the base whence they spring. It would be immaterial which of these theories were correct, were it not that in the latter instance the lagoon that is formed in all the islands of this description might be occasioned by the shape of the crater alone, whereas, in the former, it must result from the propensity of the coral animals; and this, if true, forms a remarkable and interesting feature in their natural history. Mr Forster thought this peculiarity might arise from the instinct of the animalcules forming the reefs, which, from a desire to shelter their habitation from the impetuosity of the winds, and the power and rage of the ocean, endeavoured to construct a ledge, within which was a lagoon entirely screened against the power of the elements, and where a calm and sheltered place was by these means afforded to the animals in the centre of the island. "Another reason why the consideration of the nature of their foundation is not immaterial, is, that if the form of the islands arose from the peculiar shape of the craters, and it be admitted that the lithophytes are enabled to exist at greater depths than those above mentioned, we shall have examples of craters of considerably larger dimensions, and more complete in their outline, than any that are known upon the land, which, if true, is a curious fact. Until the voyage of the Blossom, it was not generally known that the lagoons in these islands were of such depths, or that the wall of coral which encircles them was so narrow and perfect, as in almost every instance it has been found; nor that the islands were of such dimensions, as they were designated groups, or chains of islands, in consequence of the wall being broken by channels into the lagoon; but, on examination the chain is found to continue under water; and as, in all probability, it will in time reach the surface and become dry, the whole group may be considered as one island.” Those diversities which so frequently puzzle the investigator of fossil remains, already show themselves in these new formations: "In considering the subject of these coral formations, my attention was drawn to the singularity of the occurrence of openings in them, either opposite to, or in the direction of some stream of fresh water from the mountains; and on searching several charts, I find so many corroborations of the fact, that I have no doubt of the truth of it; as far as my own observations extended, it was always so. The aversion of "the lithophytes to fresh water is not singular, as, independent of its not being the natural element of those animals, it probably supplies no materials with which they can work. "It has been suggested, that these openings being oppo site to valleys, the continuation of them under water is the But when we consider the cause of the break in the reef. narrowness of these openings, compared with the width of the valleys, and that the latter are already filled up to the surface, and furnished with a smooth sandy beach, many obstacles will be found to the confirmation of such an opinion; and it appears to me more reasonable to attribute it to the nature of the element. The depth of these channels rarely exceeds twenty-five feet, the greatest limit probably to which the influence of fresh water would be felt." These brief extracts will satisfy the geologist what instructive hints may be derived from these nuclei of a new continent growing up amid the waste of waters-what aid |