from the province and driven back to Munster, where he was received with kindness by the chief of that district called the Decies, who enabled him to found a new Abbey at Lismore besides a College, afterwards in great repute, and an hospital for lepers. of scarcely sixty years, were joint reigns, and that neither rivalry MAY. We turn a second time to our friend MARTIN DOYLE for some instructions on the management of our gardens in this month. Let us begin our extracts with the following playful enforcement of his directions for weeding : Daniel was succeeded in the monarchy in the year 642, by his nephews Conall Claon and Kellach or Kelly, sons of his PRACTICAL GARDENING FOR THE MONTH OF predecessor Malcova. These princes left little in their achievements to rescue them from obscurity. It was in the third year of their reign that the celebrated battle of Carn Conuill in Munster was fought between Diarinuid, who afterwards ascended the throne, and some of the Munster princes, of whom three were killed. It was on the occasion of this victory that Diarmuid endowed the Abbey of Cloumacnoise with the lands of Liathmantain, and granted it great privileges besides. A singular transaction is related to have occurred in the government of Connaught at this time. The king of that province was Ragallach, who had usurped the throne to the exclusion of his nephew, whom he afterwards treacherously assassinated. It does not appear that he was a Christian, at least in the early part of his reign, for it is said he was so much influenced by the prediction of a Druid, that, to avert the punishment due for his crime, he consented to sacrifice the life of his infant daughter by whose means it was foretold destruction would fall on him. He accordingly directed that the child should be privately destroyed, but his agent more merciful than himself, resolved to spare the innocent being whose fate was thus placed in his hands, and he contrived to deposit it unknown in the care of a religious recluse of its own sex, who educated it in total ignorance of its origin. The child grew up and became so beautiful as to excite the admiration of all who saw her. Ragallach in the fearless enjoyment of his ill-gained power, had meantime abandoned himself to the utmost licentiousness; he heard of the wonderful beauty of this girl, and had her dragged from her virtuous retirement to the polluted distinction of his palace. The revolting guilt which followed cannot be detailed. It is enough that Marron, his queen, and an amiable woman, besought him to restrain his evil passions in vain, and irritated by his refusal, though still unconscious of all that should have maddened her with horror, procured the interference of some eminent divines, who also remonstrated with him, and menaced him with the vengeance of Heaven. He was regardless alike of their entreaties and threats, but he soon met the fate he had incurred, for he was shortly after killed in a silly quarrel about a stag, by some peasants into whose hands he fell while hunting and separated from his attendants who could have protected him; his slayers must have been ignorant of his rank. It would be unjust to pronounce this story entirely a fabrication, nor is it because the circumstances possess poetic interest that we should disbelieve them, still we should regard details so susceptible of exaggeration with considerable doubt, and, therefore I notice the matter rather as a subject of romance than of reality, without asserting that it is absolutely false. Conall and Kellach reigned jointly during twelve years, and the latter having lost his life by an accident in a bog or lake in the neighbourhood of Trim, Conall continued to reign alone for four years longer, at the end of which time he was killed by one of his successors, Diarmuid, before alluded to. Blathmac and Diarmuid, like the last sovereigns, were also brothers. They were the sons of Hugh II., and, as he died in 605, they must have been at least sixty years of age when they ascended the throne. Though I have prefixed the names of these princes to this section of our history, there is nothing remarkable in their reigns or characters to call for much observation. Our historians mention that a great battle was fought near Pancty in England at this period between the Irish and English forces, and that a king of England (one of the Heptarchy) with thirty of his chief nobility were slain. In the seventh year of their reign, in May 665, an eclipse of the sun occurred, and was followed by a very fatal disease called Buive-chonaill, or the Yellow-plague, which carried off great numbers of the people, and, among the rest these two princes. Diarmuid was interred at Clonmacnoise, of which he was, as I have stated, a very munificent patron. We have here a succession of seven reigns at a period when learning and piety undoubtedly flourished in Ireland above all other Western nations, which is amply testified by the great recourse of foreigners to the country, and the vast numbers of religious and collegiate establishments founded in the neighbouring islands and on the continent by Irishmen,--and yet how little seems to have been done to improve the civil government and political condition of the people! It is, however, a curious and creditable fact that three of these seven reigns, in a period, too, "If April showers bring forth May flowers" they also bring forth an immediate and abundant growth of cotemporary weedslet but a soft shower fall, a gleam of genial sun appear, and behold the surface of your beds brightening with a pernicious verdure. Let the hoe ply about in all directions amongst the rising plants and between the rows of peas, beans, cabbages and cauliflowers-to the seed beds of every description you must apply a better implement, the human hoe, commonly known by the title of "the finger and thumb;" without this, all your beauteous sowings will be choked, but with this efficacious tool, you will have similar success with the Mock Doctor in the Farce. "How do you cure the tooth ache Doctor?" "Takes and plucks it out by the root—this we call a radical cure. and your plants free, and that if you neglect it while the “ill Rely on it no other operation will make your minds easy, weeds grow apace" the malady will be growing worse and worse. I must give you a word here about the American shallot, and the Potato Onion, both of which I would strongly recommend. The former grows, with proper culture, as large as an egg, and is peculiarly mild and well flavoured; the latter is sin.ilarly circumstanced with respect to flavour, being less pungent than the common onion, and has all the additional merit of being easily cultivated by bulbs on the surface of the ground, and of producing large and shapely onions, at the time that those from the sown crop are merely fit for sallads-some of the best gardeners are in Devonshire, and this bulb, so rare in, the gardens of this country, has been cultivated there upwards of 20 years. In May Peas should be sown, (where a daily supply is to be kept up,) three or four times a month, also the large sorts of Beans. Lettuce seeds to be sown twice, the Egyptian_green, and the white Coss. French Beans also a full also; still the round leaved. crop.-Spinach Sow Turnips for July, and Carrots also and above all, the Swedish Turnip to stand for the winter. The Aberdeen also, a valuable kind, and milder in its flavour than the Swedish-may be sown at the end of the month. Sow Cauliflowers for October-Brocoli also, for a second succession in two sowings-the first and third weeks; they will flower from December to April-Borecole for winter and spring use, and hardy Savoys to continue from November to March. Transplant Cos Lettuces, Cabbages, Cauliflowers and Savoys. Plant Mint and cuttings of Aromatic herbs.-Prick out Celery plants-Sow Jette Chour for a succession. You may also attend to Basil and various Sallad Herbs. Endive too; but the next month and the following one are the most certain and best seasons.-Radishes frequently, if required.-Chicory, Purslane. Scorzonera and Salsify for a winter crop.-Skerrets may be sown now, and will be less liable to start than at an earlier seasonthey are considered the best of this species of Roots. As Asparagus will now be fit for cutting-my first observation shall relate to the most approved method of performing this, which is not so simple as may be generally supposed. If you have ever examined the crown of the plant in the budding season, you will have remarked that, besides the fine shoot you are about to cut off, there are many others in various stages of their growth under the surface-and if in cutting the one, you main any of the rest, you destroy those shoots, and may materially injure the crown itself. Now, on the Continent, where they are very careful gardeners, they make use of an Implement for this special purpose, not unlike a Locksaw, but narrower, longer and finer; the blade being about eight inches in length, one inch wide at the haft, and terminating in half an inch at the point, which is rounded, and the blade, instead of being sharp, has fine serrated edge. The rounded point, when sunk gently, will not injure the starting buds, and the serrated edge will not slip, but merely cut the stem to which it is applied. I have another hint or two for you also, unless where you are like me, very impatient, and mean, according to my former suggestion, to sacrifice a few beds for an early cutting:-I would wish you to observe this rule; don't be tempted to cut the largest shoots-in the third season from making a successful plantation; from each crown, four shoots may probably appear at the same time, two of them perhaps large, and two small; be content with one large and one small one, leaving the others, and especially the strong one, which is the best calculated to supply the returning sap, in abundance, to the increasing root. garden soil, induce you to sow or plant any other crop on your One word more-let no avarice or economy, or limitation of beds, or in your alleys. by a lazy gardener, or his lazier labourer, crossing the beds day I have seen a square of Asparagus beds trampled into a flag, after day, to cut a crop of cauliflowers from the intermediate alleys. Carrots, Parsnips and Onions, you must now look to, and this above, if you attend to it well; and mind, that you stake clear perfectly from weeds. I gave you a smart lecture upon your Peas neatly, and earth up your growing crops, which are in rows, and if the weather be dry, don't forget the watering pot; and persecute the slugs and snails. Designed by Samuel Lover, Esq. R. H. A. for the Irish Penny Magazine. FAIRY SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NORTH OF IRELAND. "OUR noontide sleep is on leaf and flower, Our revels are held in a moonlit hour; What is there sweet-what is there fair, And we are not a dweller there? Dance we round, for the morning light L. E. L. DURING an excursion round the eastern shore of Lough Neagh, in July, 1825, accompanied by a friend, I accidentally encountered a singular instance of belief in the existence of Fairies. I shall not now stop to argue the folly of a belief in the existence of such beings; we have all heard tales concerning them from our childhood; and perhaps, the powerful effects which early impressions produce on the imagination constitute the charm by which they retain their influence so long. Be that as it may, all the northern nations of Europe have, at one period or other, believed in the existence of aerial beings, and have ascribed to them peculiar powers and passions. In each country they are distinguished by some characteristic traits; in our own, they have been both feared and reverenced. To myself these relics of the "olden time" possess an indescribable charm. They speak of days gone by-of happy infancy-of thoughtless boyhood. They are associated with many of the most fanciful descriptions our Belles Lettres have produced; they have supplied the choicest materials for the poet's pen, and thereL fore I half regret that reason teaches us to ridicule a supersti tion so fascinating. On the occasion to which I allude, my companion and I had visited the Castle Stewart demesne, and arrived on the shore of Lough Neagh, when the day suddenly became extremely wet. We had to traverse a long and uninteresting part of the Montuagh bog, before reaching the ferry at the mouth of the Black Water, and were very glad to obtain seats beside the large turf fire in the ferry-house. The chimney, built in the old style, projected a considerable way from the wall, and was large enough to allow eight or ten people to enjoy the fire which was piled on the hearth beneath. We sat at one side of the fire-three men sat opposite, and some amphibious creatures in the form of lightermen, "that looked not like the inhabitants o' the earth, and yet were on it," filled up the back ground of the picture.Cowper notices the pleasure of hearing "the loud hissing urn," in a winter evening; the sounds emitted from a frying-pan containing some fresh pollens were to our ears equally attractive.From the fish of Lough Neagh the conversation naturally turned to its other productions, and some remarks of mine concerning the town under the waters of the lake brought forward some of its other legends and superstitions. The landlady told us that one of the men now opposite to us knew the fairies better than any man in the country. He was a tall thin figure, and might be about sixty years of age. Flattered by the praise of our hostess, and encouraged by some enquiries from us, he narrated the following events, which I have written as nearly as possible in his own words. "About twenty years ago, when I was stilling on Cunny Island, I was lying awake one night, with Denis Conolly beside me. All at once I hears the sound of flutes and bagpipes, and other wind instruments. I listened for a minute, and it grew louder. Then I gives Denis a punch with my elbow-Denis,' says I, do ye hear, you?' Whisht,' says Denis to me, I near it as well as yourself." Then we lay saying nothing till the music come nearer and nearer, passed by us, and went into a thorn bush and stopped. That night we seen nothing; but since then I have seen them both by day-light and moon-light, not once, but many and many a time. They were wee craturs, about that height, (holding his hand about a foot or eighteen inches from the ground.) The men were dressed in green, with red caps, and the women dressed like other women, only little like the men. They came so great with me at last, they never disturbed me, and when the mistress here (pointing to the landlady) sent me a cup of tay, or when I took a sup of whiskey I always left a dhrop for them, the kindly craturs!" I enquired was the dhrop always gone when he came back, and remarked that if he was continually giving presents it was but right he should have some advantage in return. He replied that the tay or whiskey was always gone, and that the fairies were still kindly to him. Och he had great luck! for there was never a guager between that and Belfast, would have touched his still, or seized any thing he had, while they purtected him. He had a right to be good to them, and spake well of them, "the gentle folks." It is singular to observe how very general the habit has been of giving such epithets to these capricious creatures. Thus in Rob Roy- "they ca' them," said Mr. Jarvie, in a whisper, "Daoine Schie, whilk signifies, as I understand, men of peace, meaning thereby to make their gude will. And we may e'en as well ca' them that too Mr. Osbaldistone for there's nae gude o' speaking ill of the Lord within his ain bounds." In the Midsummer Nights' Dream, the fairy addressing Robin Goodfellow, says, "Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, Puck. "Thou speakest aright, I am that merry wanderer of the night." When we find these customs which Shakespeare and the author of Waverly have pourtrayed, existing unchanged among our own countrymen, we no longer view them as the marks of degrading superstition, but regard them as the proper aliment for poetic fiction. We dined in a little apartment about six feet square, from which we had a view of a flourishing cabbage-garden! The aperture through which this was visible, might be described by Gray's line: -"Windows that exclude the light." At our request our friend Ben came up stairs, his mouth armed with a short black tobacco-pipe, and his better hand bearing a pint of beer. He had, he told us, taught the "Lancasterian" school in Stewartstown for some years, but we soon led the conversation back to the pert fairies, and the dapper elves.' The solemn manner in which he told his stories, the whiffs of smoke by which his face was occasionally obscured, the dim light of the apartment, and pattering of the rain against the window, formed a singular combination of accompaniments.— The first spectacle he described was one of which he himself had been an eye-witness. "In the year 94 or 95, in the time of the Wrackers, there were three brothers, Tom McNally, Hughey M'Nally, and Jack M'Nally, Captains of Lighters, who used to go to Belfast, and Newry, and even to Scotland. The last was setting out from home, and asked me to stay with his mother, for when the Wrackers knew I was there, they would not come near the house. I went and took tay with the ould woman, and afther a while we hears the sound of horses' feet. She runs to the door-och, Master Ben come here.' So I run, and as soon as I sees them, I shuts the door easily to, and goes to look at them through a window like this. There they were, a whole troop of horsemen, all mounted, and with all their ukkutriments. I seen them well, for it was bright moonlight, and just all at once" Here he made a pause, and took the pipe from his mouth,-"by the pipe in my fist, they vanished from my eyes!" The next tale proceeded thus."You have heard tell of Dr. Leslie, the great man-midwife of Stewartstown?" We assented as well as our half-smothered laughter would permit. "Well, before he went to Ammerikey, he met me one day in the market, where I was selling yarn, and says to me, Ben,' says he, (for the doctor was a second cousin of my wife's,) 'I want to spake to you in my house.'-Soon I went, and after we had got something to drink, 'I want to tell you,' says the doctor, 'a passage that happened to me last night. I had just got into bed, and was thinking about my going to Ammerikey, when I heard a carriage stop at the door, so I pulled on my breeches and ran down stairs. There was a gentleman in the carriage'Oh! Doctor,' says he, there's a lady that's very bad, and she'll have nobody but you, so make haste and come along with me.' So the Doctor got his instruments, and put on some more clothes, got into the carriage, and off they went. When they came to the Maghery ferry, the Doctor expected they would call for the ferryman, but no such thing, the were on the t'other side of the water in a minute. The same way at the Banfoot ferry; so the Doctor began to suspect what kind of company he was in. On they went till they came to the Shane-hill, (I knowed it rightly, for many a day I taached school on it,) and there they stopped at a large black house. The Doctor was led through a long passage-dark and drarysome looking it was-till he come to a room where a lady was lying in bed. A hundred welcomes Doctor,' says she, 'I'm very glad to see you.' Thank you Ma'am,' says the Doctor. After a while, the lady was delivered of a male child. The Doctor looked round the room, and as there was no nurse, he washed the child, wrapped it in swaddling clothes, and laid it on the bed beside the mother. When she began to recover, 'Doctor,' says she, 'they'll want to keep you here to deliver their women, but mind what I'm going to tell you-don't express surprise at any thing you may see, be sure neither to eat nor drink, and above all, on peril of your life, don't take more for a fee than five guineas. You'll be offered fifty or a hundred, or may be two hundred, but take my advice and do as I tell you.' 'I will Ma'am,' says the Doctor, and I'm much obleeged to you.' With that the gentleman come into the room-Sir,' says the Doctor, 'there's a fine boy for you.' He took it from the Doctor, looked at it, and laid it on the bed. There was a large fire in the room; the gentleman took the fire-shovel, and drew all the coals to the front of the fire, then he lifted the child again, laid it at the back of the fire, and drew the coals over it. The Doctor was looking on all the time, but he minded the lady's advice, and said nothing. Then all at once come a table finely set out with maats, and sweet things, and fruits, and liquors, and wines, and drinks of all sorts. 'Doctor,' says the gentleman, sit down and help yourself.' 'Sir,' says the Doctor, I have made a vow not to eat or drink.' Well then,' replies he 'I'll not press you, but then you must be paid for your visit.' Then he draws out a bag of gold, and empties a part of it on the table. The Doctor counted out five pieces, and drew them towards him. You must take more, Doctor,' says the gentleman, "fee yourself handsomely.'— No Sir,' says he 'I'll take no more, and should be glad you would order the carriage to take me homie.' Then the gentleman turns round to the lady in the bed, and gives a girn, as much as to say, she had put the Doctor up to it. But, the carriage came-passed the ferries as before, and brought the Doctor sate home, before day-break!" The conversation then turned on the manner of redeeming, on a Hallowe'en night, persons who had been taken away by Fairies. Luckily, I recollected the story of Young Tamlane, published, in "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." Ben's mode of proceeding was precisely similar to what is there described. I could only relate to him the events of the tale. I could not repeat the vcrses in which they were told. Some idea of the style of the original may perhaps be conveyed by the following extracts. "This night is Hallowe'en, Janet, And gin you dare your true love win, "The night it is good Hallowe'en, "My right hand will be gloved, Janet, "The heavens were black, the night was dark, "Between the hours of twelve and one A north wind tore the bent; And straight she heard strange elritch sounds About the dead hour of the night "Their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrill, "They sing, inspired with love and joy, Of solid sense, or thought that's grave, "But Janet stood with mind unmoved, And louder, louder waxed the sound "Will o' the Wisp before them went- All riding in her sight. "And first gaes by the black, black steed, But fast she gript the milk-white steed, "She pu'd him frae the milk-white steed, And up there raise an elritch cry'He's won amang us a'!'”— When I began the story Ben's attention was at once fixed--his interest encreased as I described the transformation of the lover in the arms of fair Janet, and his confidence was completely gained before the tale was concluded. He then informed me that when a cow was bewitched or elf-shot, or a man had got a paralattic stroke, (which was in reality nothing more than the blast of fairies,) there were particular words by which the evil might be removed. These he repeated, and at my request wrote a part in my pocket-book, and dictated the remainder while I took it down. The charm was this;-three rows of salt were first to be placed upon the table parallel to each otherthree grains in each row. The person who is performing the spell, must enclose them with his arm, and leaning with his head over them, repeat the Lord's prayer to each grain of salt, that is nine times in all, and then the Apostle's creed once.The charm is completed by an adjuration, which "Though the holiest names are there, Has more of blasphemy than prayer." This Ben told us was the White Art, as it was done by the power of God. The Black Art was done by the power of the Devil. Had our time permitted us to stop another hour, I dare say we might also have been initiated into the latter. I have no doubt that Ben really believed the tales, and relied on the power of the charms he repeated :—a surprising and singular instance of the power of imagination. P. MODERN VOLCANOES AND THEIR EFFECTS. SINCE the erection of Pompeii no stream of lava ever reached that city, its detruction having been effected by showers of lighter alluvial matter. Herculaneum was discovered, very differently situated, in digging a well, in the year 1713, when they came down at once upon the theatre in which the statues of Hercules and Cleopatra were found, both cities having originated with Grecian colonists, and long contined the most flourishing of Campania. Pompeii was found to measure three miles in circumference, but that of Herculaneum is uncertain; and this city appears to have been the only one destroyed by melted lava. The highest point of Etna, near the sea, is 11,000 feet. Its principal structure is volcanic matter, the base of the cone mea suring eighty-seven miles in circumference'; and the fields of lava extend to twice this distance, cultivated and populov Numerous minor cones are seen at different points; and the chief cone has fallen in frequently. From the earliest traditionary eras, Etna has been active. An eruption of great magnitude has recently occurred, threatening the destruction of Bronti. The appearance of a fiery column, extending to a great height, and forming a beautiful arch, and to which was added a blue pillar (arising from sulphureous matter,) is described in letters from the island. But it appears to be generally adınitted, that the arched column itelf is the effect of reflection from the impending clouds above, since no hydrogen has been recognised as emitted from the crater, and since, if the phenomenon arose from the combustion of such an inflammable gas in the atmosphere, no small shower of rain would be simultaneously precipitated. The inhabitants of Bronti, about fifteen miles from the base of the mountain, were kept some time in the utmost terror and suspense, from a river of burning lava, which gradually approached their city. Many fled in despair, and those who remained were in hourly expectation of the fate of Herculaneum. A canal was hastily dug and walled in; and the last accounts stated, that Bronti was secured from the threatened inundation of the fiery liquid when it approached within about a quarter of a mile of the town, the course of the devouring fluid having been successfully diverted. The next important volcanic region is Iceland. Hecla has been subject to unceasing eruptions six years consecutively. New islands have been cast up, and hills thrown down; floods of lava have inundated the country; and numerous hot springs have burst forth in various directions. From the discovery of the new world till June 1759, Jorrullo was in repose. It stands upon a plateau, two or three thousand feet above the level of the sea, six hundred feet high, bounded by hills of basalt, trachyte, and volcanic tuffa, with six volcanic cones of scoriæ, and fragments of lava round it. Among the Canary isles are evidences of the renewal of the fires of a central crater, and the almost entire cessation of a series of irregular eruptions from lesser independent cones, the great habitual vent being nearly filled up, eruptions still going on, and new cones and craters forming every day; shewing that the forces thus in operation converge in some volcanic archipelago when the central cone is inactive. Modern lavas are nearly one-half composed of felspar, and when in great excess the mass is trachytic; and when augite predominates, basaltic. In the granitic and other ancient rocks there is an abundance of quartz, usually referred to igneous action; whereas quartz is merely silex crystallised, and is rarely found in modern lavas. Horneblende is also equally rare in modern, though commonly found in ancient lavas. Within the last century the great five European volcanoes of Vesuvius, Etna, Volcano, Sauterin, and Iceland, appear to have experienced fifty recorded eruptions, independently of many which have escaped notice, from occurring in the Grecian Sea, and the neighbourhood of Iceland, as submarine couvulsions. So many indeed have thus passed off, that it is calculated at most, that the active volcanoes constitute one fortieth only of those which have taken place upon the entire globe. The general calculation of the numbers of eruptions is two thousand every century, or twenty per annum. Earthquakes exhibit premonitory signs in the atmosphere, which are well known to observers in volcanic regions. The seasons are usually irregular previous to such phenomena, and are accompanied with sudden gusts of wind and dead calms, unusual and violent rains, the sun's disk putting on a fiery redness, haziness of the air, bodies of inflammable gas from electrical matter, sulphureous or mephitic vapours, subterranean noises like the rolling of carriages, thunder, or artillery; animals every where appear alarmed instinctively, and utter cries; and people feel dizzy, and as if sea-sick. During the last hundred and fifty years, earthquakes have produced great changes upon the globe, and the devastations made by them have been attended with great loss of human life and property. Casualties on a great scale have been common; lakes have appeared where dry ground previously existed, and rivers have risen and overwhelmed every thing for miles around. Villages and cities have been swallowed up, "and towers toppled on their warders heads." Mountains have been laid low, and hills raised, and islands have appeared and disappeared suddenly. Houses have been known to be affected with a vertical movement, and transported to distant spots. In 1829, the city of Murcia, in the south of Spain, suffered dreadfully from a shock, on the 21st of March. So did Bogota, on the 16th of November, 1827; and Chili, on the 19th of November, 1822; and the shock extended twelve hundred miles from north to south, injuring many towns, and filling up rivers. In 1822, Aleppo was destroyed. From the 15th of February to the 16th of March, in 1820, the Ionian Islands were convulsed. In April 1815, the Island of Sumbawa experienced a shock, which was felt seventy miles in a direct line, accompanied by whirlwinds and other atmospheric phenomena, and the explosion was heard in Sumatra, nine hundred miles distant. In 1811, South Carolina experienced great changes of level. Lakes and Islands were created in the valley of the Mississippi. The Aleutian Islands were disturbed in 1806 and 1814, and new rocks appeared above the waters. The whole coast of Chili has been permanently raised. Shallow channels have been rendered navigable; and the town of Tomboro, with twelve thousand persons, was submerged. | the level of the ocean which have been formerly below its bottom. Many rocks now appear jetting out of the sea, which once lay several miles deep beneath. The sources of all volcanic fire must be always very deep; and before this fact was known igneous phenomena were referred to atmospheric operations. We are indeed taught to consider the occasional obstructions to the draining of a country, the creation of lakes and pools from subsidences or landslips, and the conversion of shallow waters into rain by evaporation, whirlwinds, and other atmospheric phenomena, to proceed from the same sources as those from which volcanic phenomena arise. In most instances of volcanoes, they are either close to the sea, or have some direct communication with it. Hence it is more than probable that the igneous changes are connected with hydrostatic pressure. The perco lation of water through the earth affords sufficient steam for the most violent earthquakes, and in all cases of explosions steam is necessarily produced. During an eruption, an exhalation of aqueous vapour, muriatic acid, sulphur, with hydrogen or oxygen, carbonic acid and nitrogen, occurs from the decomposition of salt and water. And thus we perceive the co-operation of fire and water in raising lava to the surface, below which there are always enormous masses of matter in a constant state of fusion, as we see for ages steam has been emitted from inactive volcanoes at a temperature above the boiling point. These are a few only of the numerous catastrophes on record, but which alone are sufficient to convince any reasonable being that our planet has not as yet settled down into a state of permanent repose and inactivity. Who has not heard or read of the Caraccas, Sicily, Java, Chili, Calabria, &c., associated with earthquakes in our own times? And if we go back a little farther, we find these and other volcanic countries periodically disturbed. Who can forget the affecting narrative of that most tremendous explosion which shook Lisbon to the ground, in 1755, upon the 1st of November, when sixty thousand persons were destroyed in the short space of six minutes; and the sea, after retiring, and laying the bar of the mouth of the Tagus dry, rolled suddenly and impetuously back, rising to the height of fifty feet. The scene must have been grand and appalling, and such as is so forcibly described in the Scriptures to have immediately followed the crucifixion. Surrounding mountains were rent asunder, and flames of fire and thick clouds of smoke burst forth on all sides from the heaving earth. The splendid new marble quay was sunk, and a great number of boats were overwhelmed. The most sensible movements were felt in Spain, Portugal, and Northern Africa; but nearly all Europe recognised some shock, which was extended even to the West Indies. A sea-port town called St. Eubal's, twenty miles south of Lisbon was engulfed. A village near Morocco was swallowed up. A wave sixty feet high, at Cadiz, found an entrance there, and swept the coast of Spain. At Tangiers the waters alter-standing it was held forward by the hair, the first head was cut nately rose and fell eighteen times. At Funchal the sea rose fifteen feet above high-water mark. At Kinsale, in Ireland, the sea entered a port, and rolled with irresistible force round the market-place. The lake of Lochlomond, in Scotland, also rose. St. Domingo, Conception, and Peru, are associated with still more devastating circumstances; and the total loss of Lima, at earlier periods. Jamaica suffered dreadful havoc, as did Teneriffe, Java, Quito, Sicily, and the Moluccas, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, within a period of one hundred and forty years. But there can be no doubt of the recorded catastrophes not being all which have occurred. Many have probably not been known from their wrecks having eluded search. The relative levels of land and sea have frequently changed from the shocks of earthquakes in many places, as buildings, such as ancient temples, &c., on the coast, indicate, when their present is compared with their former traditional state-pillars being formerly hid which are now above water, and some immersed which were built on dry land, together with other traces of the advance or receding of the sea. These appearances have originated much controversy in attempting to draw geological inferences; but it is justly considered that, as the ocean maintains a permanent level, such indications shew the coast land to have been verging at different periods, or subsiding and becoming elevated alternately. The physical history of the globe is much illustrated by the various changes which have occurred on its surface from earthquakes, not merely during the last century, but anciently.Former states of the earth, not being usually considered as capable of explanation from causes now in operation, have been left more to conjecture than those solid proofs which we recognise by an appeal to modern phenomena. Nor are the successive changes from subterranean movements less in the interior than upon the crust of the earth; the former, indeed, indicate a much greater degree of commotion in the terrestrial abysses than above. The subterranean regions are evidently subject to peculiar chemical and mechanical changes. Long series of internal convulsións have thrown up deposits several miles above of an Execution at Rome, occurs in one of Byron's letters to EXECUTION AT ROME.-The following characteristic account bers guillotined. The ceremony-including the masqued Mr. Murray:-"The day before I left Rome, I saw three robpriests; the half-naked executioners; the bandaged criminals; the black Christ and his banner the scaffold; the soldiery, the slow procession, and the quick rattle and heavy fall of the axe; heads-is altogether more impressive than the vulgar and unthe splash of the blood, and the ghastliness of the exposed gentlemanly dirty new drop," and dog-like agony of infliction behaved calmly enough, but the first of the three died with great upon the sufferers of the English sentence. Two of these men terror and reluctance. What was very horrible, he would not lie down; then his neck was too large for the aperture, and the priest was obliged to drown his exclamations by still louder exhortations. The head was off before the eye could trace the blow; but from an attempt to draw back the head, notwith 6 off close to the ears, the other two were taken off more cleanly. It is better than the oriental way, and (I should think) than the axe of our ancestors. The pain seems little, and yet the effect to the spectator, and the preparation to the criminal is very striking and chilling. The first turned me quite hot and thirsty, (I was close, but was determined to see, as one should see every and made me shake so that I could hardly hold the opera-glass, thing, once, with attention;) the second and third (which shows how dreadfully soon things grow indifferent,) I am ashamed to say, had no effect on me as a horror, though I would have saved them if I could." RHETORIC and Eloquence are not unfrequently considered as synonymous; but the latter may, with propriety, be held as relating more particularly to fluency and elegance of language, joined with gracefulness of delivery; while the former for the most part applies to solid argument, clear method, an appearance of conviction in the orator, that he believes what he asserts, a discriminating but temperate appeal to the passions as well as the judgment, and a judicious use of those conciliating and interesting arts, which persuade as well as satisfy the hearers. ARTIFICE OF A GLUTTON.-The quadruped, which from its habit of gorging itself with food, has received the appellation of glutton, is reported by a writer in 'The Gazette Literaire, to use the following artifice. It carries with it two thick branches of a tree, a quantity of the moss (Cenomyce rangeferinus) upon which the deer of Kamstchatka feed, and after dropping portions of the moss as a bait, the glutton waits patiently till some incautious deer stops to feed upon it, when it darts down from its lurking-place upon its victim. It is said to master horses in a similar manner. DUBLIN :-Stereotyped, Printed and Published by T. & J. COLDWELL |