many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I

am well warranted to say that some of it grows to the length of sixty fathoms and upwards." I do not suppose the stem of any other plant attains so great a length as three hundred and sixty feet, as stated by Captain Cook. Captain Fitzroy, moreover, found it growing up from the greater depth of forty-five fathoms. The beds of this seaweed, even when of not great breadth, make excellent natural floating breakwaters. It is quite curious to see, in an exposed harbour, how soon the waves from the open sea, as they travel through the straggling stems, sink in height, and pass into smooth water.

The number of living creatures of all orders, whose existence intimately depends on the kelp, is wonderful. A great volume might be written, describing the inhabitants of one of these beds of sea-woed. Almost all the leaves, excepting those that float on the surface, are so thickly encrusted with corallines as to be of a white color. We find exquisitely delicate structures, some inhabited by simple hydra-like polypi, others by more organized kinds, and beautiful compound Ascidia. On the leaves, also, various patelliform shells, Trochi, uncovered molluscs, and some bivalves are attached. Innumerable crustacea frequent every part of the plant. On shaking the great entangled roots, a pile of small fish, shells, cuttle-fish, crabs of all orders, sea-eggs, star-fish, beautiful Holuthuris, Planaria, and crawling nereidous animals of a multitude of forms, all fall out together. Often as I recurred to a branch of the kelp, I never failed to discover animals of new and curious structures. In Chiloe, where the kelp does not thrive very well, the numerous shells, corallines, and crustacea are absent; but there yet remain a few of the Flustraces, and some compound Ascidia; the latter, however, are of different species from those in Tierra del Fuego: we here see the fucus possessing a wider range than the animals which use it as an abode. I can only compare these great aquatic forests of the southern hemisphere with the terrestrial ones in the intertropical regions.

A curious contrast is here presented to us between marine and terrestrial organic life. Whereas on the land the most luxuriant vegetation avoids the line of contact of the two elements, air and water- and flourishes best where the sea is shut out, far inland; on the water it is at the line of junction that the aquatic tribes attain to their maximum of vigour; and a fringe of rich vegetation, thickly peopled by

living beings, passes along the sealine throughout the world, and stores, as it were, the beauty and wealth of the deep at the feet of man, who could not seek for it in a more inaccessible locality; another instance of design in the arrangement of Providence, whereby for ages before

man could avail himself of this state of things, or even learn its existence, his wants were foreseen and provided for.

We must pass to other subjects. The great advance made in the examination of the earth's crust in those countries peopled by the restless and indefatigable European race, has called for new geological maps of Europe and of Anglo-America. The first of these in this work has been executed by Sir Roderick Murchison and Mr. Nicol ;* the latter by Professor Rogers; and both are worthy of the individuals who have constructed them, of the position of geological science at the present day, and of the editor. The same thing may be said of the plate representing the various phenomena of terrestrial magnetism, accompanied and explained as it is by an elaborate treatise from the pen of Colonel Sabine, contributed expressly for this volume.

A map of the Arctic basin, on a smaller scale than the rest, is also among the novelties of the edition. It follows the charts already published of the principal oceans of the globe, and completes the delineation of what is known on this subject; for as yet we are not prepared to map the physical features of the southern circumpolar region with sufficient certainty. In this chart the track of the Gulf-stream is marked more clearly to the eye, where it loses itself after passing our coasts, than in any other that we have seen. From a glance at it, we can easily comprehend the circuit it makes before it descends from high latitudes once more, and flows, as a polar current, past the shores of Greenland, and along the coast of the United States. The course of this current is of especial interest to us in these islands. By it, passing as it does out of the Gulf of Mexico and across the entire breadth of the At

lantic Ocean without mingling with it, we are continually flooded with warm water, which sensibly modifies our climate, and carries the isothermal lines considerably north of our parallels of latitude; or, in plainer language, gives us a climate considerably milder than our actual position in latitude would indicate. Were that stream of warm water to be by any means diverted from its present prescribed course by any physical alteration in the conformation of its bed, or were it the retreating polar current that passed us by, instead of the advancing equatorial one, we should be, in the first case, immersed in the fogs and frosts of the Hebrides,—in the latter, condemned to a length and severity of winter almost Norwegian.

As

it is, circumfused with the waters of the Gulf-stream not yet cooled down from its Mexican entanglements, these happy islands enjoy a perpetual immunity not strictly their own, and bask in the midst of seas which bear with them the temperature and foster the products of climes nearer the sun.

But by far the most generally interesting and instructive of the present contributions to this work are those which Mr. Keith Johnston himself has supplied, in the department of statistics, by the two maps with which the series closes. The idea of tabulating moral and statistical information is a modern one.

To re

cognize through the eye, at a single glance, the condition of wide-spread communities as to religion, crime, or disease, familiar as it has now become, was a thing unknown to our fathers. The merit of the invention does not, we believe, belong to our own countrymen -its adaptation to many branches of human research is, however, indisputably ours. Those who have examined Mr. Redgrave's elaborate and beautiful tables illustrative of the criminal statistics of England, will understand to what demonstrative accuracy such delineations may be brought. But some study is needed to comprehend the power which information of this kind puts in our hands for the purposes of legislation, education, and moral and religious government. Mr. Keith Johnston has, in his illustrations of the two maps we allude to-those, namely, exhibiting the condition of the world as to religious belief and as to health and disease-gone more into

detail than he has done anywhere else in the volume, and shown, we conceive, where his prevailing taste liesthat is, in the domain of accurate and minute classification of facts.

It is surprising how the subjection of facts to a tabulation of this kind, which gives an instantaneous insight into results, has the power of affecting the feelings. In this respect it may not over-fancifully be compared to the setting of music to an air ;-in which a new meaning is given-or rather, in which meanings of which the words were always susceptible, are drawn out and forced upon the imagination in a moment. What do we see, blackening the region of British North America, South Africa, and Southern India? The Protestant mission stations. There they are, sown so thickly over those districts of the earth as to catch the kindling eye at the first glance. The result of a gradually-acquired knowledge of the facts thus presented simultaneously to the view, would never be thus affecting. Here, the suddenness and completeness of the conviction admit a rush of consequences after it, which takes the heart by storm before it is prepared for it. The diagram of the progress of education throughout the world is of an equally striking character; though, alas! it represents a state of things not calculated to flatter our national pride. The proportion of the educated to the uneducated class throughout the British empire is not by any means as great as it is in many other countries both of the New and Old World. Saxony, the United States of America, Holland, Prussia, Switzerland, the Scandinavian Peninsula, Belgium, Austria and France, all rank before us; and we have none behind but Spain, Portugal, the States of the Pope, Sicily, and Russia. Here is the naked fact, embodied as it were before our eyes. We are too ignorant, or too fond of blinking the truth, to relish the sight. There is a feeling excited by the diagram— one of mortification. But the feeling is wholesome. What is contemplated with surprise and indignation will cease to offend the eye before long, because it will no longer truly represent the existing state of things. We will not bear to see ourselves reduced to a diagram of inferiority. What ministers of religion and philanthropist 3

may preach in vain, a tabular view will say at a glance, and say effectively. Mr. Keith Johnston is to be thanked for an eye-sermon of this kind, which those who run may read, and those who sit still cannot avoid understanding.

The foregoing observations apply, though in a less degree, to the concluding essay of the volume, which is

devoted to the statistics of health and disease throughout the globe. In no department of research are the results of accumulated facts made more generally and usefully available than in this. So uniform is the pathology of nature, so constant and regular the reproduction of the same morbid appearances in a thousand places at once, wherever the same causes of insalubrity are met with, that, in spite of the great diversity of climate and soil upon the surface of the earth, the philosophic observer may not only rely upon the knowledge obtained by means of carefully observed and accurately recorded facts within the narrow limits over which statistical enquiries have been extended, but speculate with considerable accuracy, through comparisons with wellknown phenomena in long-settled countries, concerning regions of which little or nothing is known. Thus the settler or emigrant may predicate beforehand against what unhealthy agencies he will have to contend in the land towards which he bends his steps; and may thence ascertain how far his own constitution or that of others is likely to be benefited or prejudiced by the change. Thus the projector of new settlements may avoid the fatal errors into which statesmen, ignorant of these branches of knowledge, have fallen not so long ago, in pitching upon spots for colonization or military occupation which have proved the grave of successive importations from the mother country. Thus the government which projects vast military schemes may preserve its armaments from those disasters which climate and topical influences are calculated to induce, or be held responsible for a disregard of the natural laws now so clearly understood and plainly illustrated.

In connexion with this subject the reader will naturally recur to calamities which have recently darkened our homes and wrung our

hearts. It will be for him to judge whether, with the lights of science burning brightly as they do, such funereal shadows should have crossed our path at all. He will here find abundant materials to guide him in arriving at a sound conclusion on the subject; for a large portion of the concluding essay is devoted to the sanitary statistics of armies and navies, especially those of our own country, probably with a view to this very inquiry, though it is not directly brought before the reader's notice.

It would far exceed our limits to do full justice to these concluding dissertations. Suffice it to say that they constitute a popular epitome of all that is known upon subjects of much importance to the moral and physical well-being of the community at large, and serve to substantiate the results which the maps present to the eye at a glance. Indeed, we have little space for any further remarks; but fortunately the Physical Atlas needs no commendation of ours; though we have deemed it a duty to remind our readers of this vast store-house of physical knowledge, so accessible, and so admirably adapted to satisfy the requirements as well as the curiosity of mankind. The thanks of all enlightened men are due, not alone to the indefatigable editor of the work, butalso to the eminent firm through whose enterprise it has been ushered into the world. And, in speaking of this great master effort, it is but right that we should add a word in commendation of those more strictly educational publications which have emanated from the same house, and have been compiled by the same accomplished author. It was felt by both editor and publisher, that something was still wanting to render the facts and phenomena of geographical and astronomical science a more attractive as well as reliable study in the hands of youth. The great facilities within the reach of both for supplying this want, suggested the construction and publication of a school-series of maps, which should compress the accuracy and beauty of the great publication we have noticed within a smaller compass, and offer the result of the reformatory process already set on foot in a more convenient form and at a more reasonable price. The result

is this school-series of maps. Among them we may point to the Atlas of Astronomical Phenomena as a fair sample of the rest. It may safely be affirmed, that no other collection of celestial pictures-for so they may be called-displays equal clearness, brilliancy, and accuracy. The very tint given to the sky presents a strong and pleasing contrast to the dead black hitherto made to represent the concave dome of the heavens; and the delineation of the surface of the moon and of other celestial objects is not only truthful, but if we may so express it artistic. Added to which, the descriptive letter-press contains, in

a condensed and popularized form, the results of the theoretical and practical researches of astronomers all over the world to the present day, and brings the student up to the extreme limit of human knowledge in this sublime and magnificent field of scientific contemplation.

Mr. Keith Johnston has done much to benefit mankind by these comprehensive and varied labours of his ; and we can well understand that Scotland, already rich in celebrities, gladly reckons among her distinguished sons one who is so eminent a benefactor to science and the interests of humanity.

THAT happy valley of the Val d'Arno, in which fair Florence stands, possesses, amidst all its virtues, none more conspicuous than the blessed forgetfulness of the past, so eminently the gift of those who dwell there. Faults and follies of a few years back have so faded by time as to be already historical; and as in certain climates rocks and stones become shrined by lichens and moss-covered in a year or two, so here, in equally brief space, by-gones are shrouded and shadowed in a way that nothing short of cruelty and violence could once more expose to view.

The palace where Lady Glencore once displayed all her attractions of beauty and toilette, and dispensed a hospitality of princely splendour, had remained for a course of time closebarred and shut up. The massive gate was locked, the windows shuttered, and curious tourists were told that there were objects of interest within, but it was impossible to obtain sight of them. The crowds who once flocked there at nightfall, and whose equipages filled the court, now drove on to other haunts, scarcely glancing, as they passed, at the darkened casements of the grim old edifice; when at length the rumour ran that 66 'some one" had arrived there;

lights were seen in the porter's lodge, the iron "grille" was observed to open and shut, and tradespeople came and went within the building; and finally the assurance gained ground that its former owner had returned.

Only think who has come back to us," said one of the idlers of the Cascini, as he lounged on the steps of a fashionable carriage, "La Nina!" And at once the story went far and near, repeated at every corner and discussed in every circle; so that had a stranger to the place but caught the passing sounds, he would have heard that one name uttered in every group he encountered. La Nina! and why not the Countess of Glencore, or, at least, the Countess de la Torre? As when exiled Royalities assume titles in accordance with fallen fortunes, so in Italy, injured fame seeks sympathy in the familiarity of the christian name, and "society" at once accept the designation as that of those who throw themselves upon the affectionate kindness of the world, rather than insist upon its reverence and respect.

Many of her former friends were still there; but there was also a numerous class, principally foreigners, who only knew of her by repute. The traditions of her beautyher

gracefulness-the charms of her demeanor, and the brilliancy of her diamonds, abounded. Her admirers were of all ages, from those who worshipped her loveliness, to that not less enthusiastic section who swore by her cook; and it was indeed " great tidings" to hear that she had returned.

Some statistician has asserted that no less than a hundred thousand people awake every day in London, not one of whom knows where he will pass the night. Now Florence is but a small city; and the lacquered-bootclass bear but a slight proportion to the shoeless herd of humanity. Yet there is a very tolerable sprinkling of well dressed, well got-up individuals, who daily arise without the very vaguest conception of who is to house them, fire them, light them, and cigar them for the evening. They are an interesting class, and have this strong appeal to human sympathy, that not one of them, by any possible effort, can contribute to his own support.

They toil not-neither do they spin. They have the very fewest of social qualities; they possess no conversational gifts; they are not even moderately good reporters of the passing events of the day. And yet, strange to say, the world they live in seems to have some need of them. Are they the last relics of a once gifted class-worn out, effete and exhausted-degenerated like modern Greeks from those who once shook the Parthenon? or are they what anatomists call "rudimentary" structures--the first abortive attempts of nature to fashion something profitable and good? Who knows?

Amidst this class the Nina's arrival was announced as the happiest of all tidings; and speculation immediately set to work to imagine who would be the favourites of the house, what would be its habits and hours would she again enter the great world of society; or would she, as her quiet unannounced arrival portended, seek a less conspicuous position? Nor was this the mere talk of the cafes and the Cascini. The salons were eagerly discussing the very same theme.

In certain social conditions a degree of astuteness is acquired as to who may and who may not be visited, that, in its tortuous intricacy of

reasons, would puzzle the craftiest head that ever wagged in Equity. Not that the code is a severe one; it is exactly in its lenity lies its difficulty-so much may be done, but so little may be fatal! The Countess in the present case enjoyed what in England is reckoned a great privilege -she was tried by her peers-or "something more.' They were, however, all nice discriminators as to the class of case before them, and they knew well what danger there was in admitting to their "guild," any with a little more disgrace than their neighbours. It was curious enough that she, in whose behalf all this solicitude was excited, should have been less than indifferent as to the result; and when, on the third day of the trial, a verdict was delivered in her favour, and a shower of visiting cards at the porter's lodge declared that the act of her recognition had passed, her orders were that the cards should be sent back to their owners, as the Countess had not the honour of their acquaintance.

"Les grands coups se font respectés toujours," was the maxim of a great tactician in war and politics; and the adage is no less true in questions of social life. We are so apt to compute the strength of resources by the amount of pretension, that we often yield the victory to the mere declaration of force. We are not, however, about to dwell on this themeour business being less with those who discussed her, than with the Countess of Glencore herself.

In a large salon, hung with costly tapestries, and furnished in the most expensive style, sat two ladies at opposite sides of the fire. They were both richly dressed, and one of them (it was Lady Glencore), as she held a screen before her face, displayed a number of valuable rings on her fingers, and a massive bracelet of enamel with a large emerald pendant. The other, not less magnificently attired, wore an imperial portrait suspended by a chain around her neck, and a small knot of white and green ribbon on her shoulder, to denote her quality of a lady-in-waiting at court. There was something almost queenly in the haughty dignity of her manner, and an air of command in the tone with which she addressed her companion. It was our acquain