This dust continued to be blown from the mountain many days after the eruption had ceased. It once made a pretty figure of me! I was riding up the Posilippo road when it came on to rain; the rain brought down and gave consistency to the dust, which adhered to my black coat and pantaloons, until I looked as if I had been rolled in plaster of Paris.

But it travelled farther than Posilippo, for a friend of mine, an officer in the navy, assured me it had fallen with rain on the deck of his ship, when between three and four hundred miles from Naples and Mount Vesuvius. There is an old story, that during one of the great eruptions of this mountain, or Etna, cinders were thrown as far as Constantinople: by substituting the fine powder I have alluded to, for cinders, the story becomes not improbable. C. M.

them standing in the midst of inclosed fields, gardens, and orchards, have been built in all directions. A single agricultural association, called the Van Diemen's Land Company, possess a continuous tract of above three hundred thousand acres, in the north-west part of the island. About four hundred and fifty persons reside on this property. There are two government settlements for persons convicted of crimes in the colony, Macquarie Harbour on the west coast, and Maria Island on the east.

The face of the country, though extremely diversified, is mountainous on the whole; and especially as seen from the south presents a prospect of singular sublimity; hills covered to the ridge with trees, occasionally intermingled with a bare rocky eminence, appearing to rise behind each other in endless succession. Some of the mountains on the south coast are five thousand feet in height, and during a great part of the year are covered VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. with snow. Mount Wellington, or the Table Mountain, [Concluded from our last.] a few miles to the west of Hobart Town, rises to the THE island of Van Diemen's Land lies immediately to height of four thousand feet above the level of the sea. the South of the vast continent of New Holland, from The interior, however, contains many extensive plains which it is separated by the narrow channel called Bass's quite unincumbered with wood. Even the western Strait. If New Holland be regarded as a great full bag coast, where the scenery in general is bold and desolate, or sack, Bass's Strait will represent the neck where it is presents many protected and fertile spots. The bays drawn together and tied close, and Van Diemen's Land and harbours around the coast are numerous and excelthe small bunch or gathering made beyond the string lent. In this respect Hobart Town especially is most by the mere lip of the sack. While New Holland is favourably situated. The principal rivers are the Derwent, rather more than half as large as all Europe, the extent the Huon, and the Tamar, all navigable. The Derwent, of Van Diemen's Land is only about twenty-three thou- even at New Norfolk, above forty miles from the sea, is as sand square miles, which is not much more than two-wide as the Thames at Battersea. The scenery on both thirds of the size of Ireland, or a fourth part of that of the island of Great Britain. The one, in fact, is about eighty times as large as the other.

One of the papers in the Van Diemen's Land Almanack presents us with a very full geographical description of the island. It was divided soon after its settlement into two great counties, Buckinghamshire, embracing the southern, and Cornwall, the northern portion of it. But the division which is now chiefly recognized, is that made in 1827 into eight Police districts, each under the charge of a paid magistrate. In the first of these, occupying the south-west corner of the island, stands Hobart Town, the capital, on the river Derwent, and about twenty miles from its mouth. The river, however, is, even at this distance from the sea, of considerable width, and the water is quite salt. The town stands upon a gently rising ground, and covers rather more than a square mile. Its streets are wide, and intersect each other at right angles. It contains several government buildings, a parish church, and other places of worship; a government school for the poor, and several Sunday schools; two public banks; and several libraries. Among its manufactories Hobart Town possesses a distillery, several breweries and tanneries, two timber mills, several flour mills worked by steam and water, and two or three soap and candle works. The population of the town and suburbs, including the convicts and the military, is above seven thousand. This, we believe, is about half the amount of the whole population of the island.

The other towns already founded in Van Diemen's Land, are Launceston, on the river Tamar, about a hundred and twenty miles north from the capital, containing about a thousand inhabitants; New Norfolk, or Elizabeth Town, a place of considerable traffic, and also the centre of a rich agricultural district, standing on the Derwent, about twenty-two miles higher up than Hobart Town; Richmond, fourteen miles from the capital; Sorell Town, or Pitt Water, and Brighton, two other townships in the same vicinity; Bothwell, Oatlands, Campbell Town, Ross, Perth, and George Town, all considerably advanced settlements. Many other stations, however, have been marked out for towns, although scarcely yet begun to be built upon. Numerous farmhouses, also, and other detached residences, many of

sides of this noble stream is described as being of the richest beauty. The second-rate and inferior rivers are numerous, fertilizing every part of the country, and falling into the sea along the whole extent of the coast. In the heart of the island are several lakes, from which many of the rivers take their rise.

Much of the native timber of Van Diemen's Land is excellent for all building purposes; and others of the woods are esteemed for ornamental cabinet-work. All the trees are evergreens. The shrubs are of great variety and beauty; but present as yet an almost unexamined field to the botanist. As to fruits, none of any value have been found native to this island; but, on the other hand, every sort of fruit, herb, or vegetable, that grows in England, grows still better here.

In respect of climate, Van Diemen's Land enjoys the happiest medium between the extremes of heat and cold, the thermometer rarely falling below 40 degrees in winter, or rising above 70 degrees in summer. During the winter months of June, July, and August, the frosts are sometimes severe, and occasionally a good deal of snow falls; but it is seldom that snow lies on the ground a whole day.

Coal has been found in various places; iron-stone is believed to be abundant; lime-stone also exists in great plenty; and it is highly probable that the earth is enriched with various other mineral treasures. Of the native animals, the most formidable is the hyena, by which many of the sheep are destroyed. Wild dogs and cats of different species are also found in the woods. The kangaroo is now fast disappearing, having, although a perfectly harmless animal, been much hunted by the settlers for sport, or for the sake of its flesh and skin. There are numerous species of birds, inany of them of beautiful plumage. Various descriptions of fish also abound in the bays and creeks; but, except eels, the lakes and rivers supply very few that are valuable as food. Of the reptiles found in the island, the principal are snakes, some of which are extremely venomous.

Such is an abstract of what is most important in the paper before us, which is followed by a more minute description of the parts of the island that have been brought into cultivation, in the form of an itinerary. We will now add a very few facts, selected from another paper, on the agriculture and horticulture of the colony.

66

The first cattle were brought to Van Diemen's Land sides the Government Gazette, there are three other in 1807. They were a coarse buffalo sort of animal;" weekly newspapers published in Hobart Town, and a but, about nine or ten years ago, superior breeds began fourth at Launceston. The Almanack closes with a to be imported from England, and the colony now pos- | Directory for Hobart Town; in which, besides mersesses pure Devons, Herefords, Durhams, Holdernesses, | chants, general dealers, official, clerical, and other pro Fifeshires, &c. Horses were at first brought from New fessional characters, we find the names of civil engineers, Holland; but, " in the same manner as with neat cattle," | livery-stable keepers, watchmakers, midwives, shoesays this account, "they have since had the benefit of makers, bricklayers, milliners, portrait painters and envery superior crosses of English importations, and the | gravers, chemists and druggists, pastry-cooks, confeccolony can now boast as fine horses as even England tioners, glaziers, plumbers, house and sign painters, itself. It has every sort, perhaps, that is known in the hatters, upholsterers, cabinet-makers and undertakers, mother-country, from the heavy dray-horse to the di- | coopers, boat-builders, auctioneers, goldsmiths and workminutive pony, and including, what should by no means | ing-jewellers, music teachers, tailors, butchers, brewers, be passed in silence, blood and bone upon which thou- hosiers and glovers, ironmongers, brass and iron foundsands have been depending at Newmarket and other ers, tinmen and blacksmiths, printers, sadlers, bakers, English race-courses." Sheep, for which both the cli-hair-dressers. It would be curious to compare this list mate and natural herbage of the country are well with the population of an English town of seven thousand adapted, are now numerous, and rapidly improving in people three centuries ago! quality. Pigs and poultry, of every description, thrive admirably. Most sorts of grain, that are common in England, grow at least as well here. The wheat is of excellent quality, seldom weighing less than from sixty-two to sixty-four pounds per bushel. Barley and oats produce well upon good land; but will not answer on inferior soils. The average return yielded by the potato is not equal to what it yields in England; but the cultivation of this root is yet in its infancy. Turnips and mangelwurzel are both found to do extremely well. The same may be said of English grasses and pulses of all sorts. The export trade from this colony has, as yet, been confined to the more useful articles. Corn is sent to

LOST CAMEL.

A dervise was journeying alone in the desert, when two merchants suddenly met him: "You have lost a camel," said he to the merchants; "Indeed we have," they replied. said the dervise; "He was," replied the merchants; "Had "Was he not blind in his right eye, and lame in his left leg?" he lost a front tooth?" said the dervise; "He had," rejoined the merchants; "And was he not loaded with honey on one side, and wheat on the other?" "Most certainly he was," they replied; "and as you have seen him so lately, and marked him so particularly, you can, in all probability, conduct us unto him." "My friends, said the dervise, "I have never seen your camel, nor ever heard of him, but from you." New South Wales, and to Swan River. Wool is already the jewels, which formed a part of his cargo?" "I have "A pretty story, truly !" said the merchants, "but where are exported in considerable quantities, and is likely to be- neither seen your camel, nor your jewels," repeated the dercome every year more and more the staple production of vise. On this, they seized his person, and forthwith hurried the island. Whale-fishing and the manufacture of oil are him before the Cadi, where, on the strictest search, nothing rapidly becoming trades of considerable importance. A could be found upon him, nor could any evidence whatever good deal of mimosa bark, for tanning, is also sent to Eng-be adduced to convict him, either of falsehood or of theft. land; and salt meats, hides, and dairy produce will pro- They were then about to proceed against him as a sorcerer, bably soon be added to the list of exported commodities. when the dervise, with great calmness, thus addressed the The regulations at present in force for the disposal of Court: "I have been much amused with your surprise, and land, by grant or sale, were issued in 1828. The main but I have lived long, and alone; and I can find ample scope own that there has been some ground for your suspicions; principle upon which they are grounded is, that "settlers for observation, even in a desert. I knew that I had crossed should not receive a greater extent of land than they are the track of a camel that had strayed from its owner, because capable of improving, and that grants should not be I saw no mark of any human footstep on the same route; made to persons who are desirous only of disposing of I knew that the animal was blind in one eye, because it had them." Lands are accordingly granted in square miles, cropped the herbage only on one side of its path; and I perin the proportion of one square mile, or 640 acres, for ceived that it was lame in one leg, from the faint impression every £500 sterling of capital which the applicant can concluded that the animal had lost one tooth, because wherwhich that particular foot had produced upon the sand; I immediately command. Of this capital, however, a por-ever it had grazed, a small tuft of herbage was left uninjured, tion may consist of live stock and instruments of hus-in the centre of its bite. As to that which formed the burden bandry. Upon the land thus granted a quit rent is of the beast, the busy ants informed me that it was corn on imposed at the rate of £5 per cent. on the estimated the one side, and the clustering flies that it was honey on value of the land, the payment to commence at the ex- the other." piration of seven years from the date of the grant, when SCIENCE PRECEDING ART.-When the principles of any the settler will also receive his title-deeds. The smallest science are become common to all the world, these prinquantity of land granted in this way to an individual isciples lead to inventions, nearly, if not altogether similar,

320 acres, and the largest, 2560 acres, or four square miles. Lands may also be obtained by purchase, being advertised for that purpose, and sold to the person making the highest tender.

We will, in conclusion, mention a few of the more interesting particulars, supplied by the various lists in the little volume before us; these are indicative of the rapid progress of civilization. In addition to the three banks in Hobart Town, we find a fourth, called the Cornwall bank, established at Launceston. There is at Hobart Town a Mechanics' Institute, of which the Governor is patron, and the Chief Justice, president. Among the religious and philanthropic institutions of this capital are, a Bible Society, of which the Governor is president; Presbyterian Missionary Society; a Wesleyan Missionary Society; a Benevolent and Strangers' Friend Society ; and a Sunday-School Union, having four schools in its connexion, containing in all about 250 children, Be

by different persons having no communication with each other. A remarkable instance of this is given by Judge Story, in his address to the Boston Mechanics' Institute :

"A beautiful improvement had been made in the doublespeeder of the cotton-spinning machine by one of our ingenious countrymen. The originality of the invention was established by the most satisfactory evidence. The defenbeen but a short time in the country, and who testified most dant, however, called an Englishman as a witness, who had explicitly to the existence of a like invention in the improved machinery in England. Against such positive proof there was much difficulty in proceeding. The testimony, though doubted, could not be discredited; and the trial was postponed to another term, for the purpose of procuring evidence to rebut it. An agent was despatched to England for this and other objects; and, upon his return, the plaintiff that the invention here was without any suspicion of its was content to become nonsuited. There was no doubt existence elsewhere; but the genius of each country, almost at the same moment, accomplished, independently, the same achievement."

BRITISH ANIMALS.

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THE DORMOUSE.

THE little dormouse has now awakened from his fitful
sleep. When the winds of March sweep away the linger-
ing fogs of winter,-when the tender buds are first seen
on the trees, and the primrose first shows its head in the
green banks-before the swallow comes to our shores, or
the rook has finished her nest-the dormouse rouses up
from the bed where he has slept for several months.
His sleep, however, is not constant through the cold
season, like that of some other animals; for he wakes, at
times, to eat of the store of nuts and beech-mast which he
has provided for his sustenance in the autumn. The
marmot, a quadruped inhabiting some mountainous parts
of Europe, makes no provision of this kind in his sub-
terranean galleries. He sleeps completely.

M. Mangili, an Italian naturalist, made some curious experiments upon the dormouse and other animals which sleep during the cold weather. He kept the dormouse in a cupboard in his study. On the 24th December, when the thermometer was about 40°, that is, 8° above the freezing point, the dormouse curled himself up amongst a heap of papers and went to sleep. On the 27th December, when the thermometer was several degrees lower, M. Mangili ascertained that the animal breathed, and suspended his respiration at regular intervals; that is, that after four minutes of perfect repose, in which he appeared as if dead, he breathed about twenty-four times in the space of a minute and a half, and that then his breathing was again completely suspended, and again renewed. As the thermometer became higher, that is, as the weather became less cold, the intervals of repose were reduced to three minutes. On the contrary, when the thermometer fell nearly to the freezing point, the intervals were then six minutes. Within ten days from its beginning to sleep (the weather then being very cold), the dormouse woke and ate a little. He then went to sleep again; and continued to sleep for some days, and then to awaken, throughout the winter; but as the season advanced, the intervals of perfect repose, when no breathing could be perceived, were much longer, sometimes more than twenty minutes. The effects of confinement upon this individual animal caused him to sleep much longer than in a state of

nature.

When a dormouse is discovered asleep, in his natural retreat, he is cold to the touch, his eyes are shut, and his respiration is slow and interrupted, as just described. Torpid animals, in general, when thus found, may be shaken, or rolled, or even struck, without a possibility of arousing them. But as the fine weather advances, the heat of their bodies increases, as it decreases at the

approaches of winter; till at length they shake off their drowsiness, and are again the busy and happy inhabitants of the fields and gardens, active in the search of food to gratify their appetite, which is now as keen as it was dull in the cold months. These movements of course depend upon the states of the atmosphere, and are different in individuals of the same species.

THE SWALLOW.

The swallow, and other birds of passage-that is, birds who fly from one country to another, as the weather becomes unsuited to their natures-now begin to return to us. The swallow is a general favourite. He comes to us when nature is putting on her most smiling aspect, and he stays with us through the months of sunshine and gladness. "The swallow," says Sir II. Davy, "is one of my favourite birds, and a rival of the nightingale; for he glads my sense of seeing, as much as the other does my sense of hearing. He is the joyous prophet of the year, the harbinger of the best season; he lives a life of enjoyment amongst the loveliest forms of nature; winter is unknown to him, and he leaves the green meadows of England in autumn, for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of

Africa."

Mr. White, a clergyman of Hampshire, who delighted to observe all the works of the creation around him, has thus accurately described the window swallow's, or martin's mode of building :—

"About the middle of May, if the weather be fine, the martin begins to think in earnest of providing a mansion for its family. The crust or shell of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or loam as comes most readily to hand, and is tempered and wrought together with little bits of broken straws to render it tough and tenacious. As this bird often builds against a perpen dicular wall without any projecting ledge under, it requires its utmost efforts to get the first foundation firmly fixed, so that it may safely carry the superstructure. On this occasion, the bird not only clings with its claws, but partly supports itself by strongly inclining its tail against the wall, making that a fulcrum; and thus steadied, it works and plasters the materials into the face of the brick or stone. But then, that this work may not, while it is soft and green, pull itself down by its own weight, the provident architect has prudence and forbearance enough not to advance her work too fast; but by building only in the morning, and by dedicating the rest of the day to food and amusement, gives it sufficient time to dry and harden. About half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer for a day. Thus careful workmen, when they build mud-walls (informed at first perhaps by this little bird), raise but a moderate layer at a time and then desist, lest the work should become top-heavy, and so be ruined by its own weight. By this method, in about ten or twelve days, is formed a hemispheric nest with a small aperture towards the top, strong, compact, and warm, and perfectly fitted for all the purposes for which it was intended.

"The shell or crust of the nest is a sort of rusticwork, full of knobs and protuberances on the outside: nor is the inside of those that I have examined smoothed with any exactness at all; but is rendered soft and warm, and fit for incubation, by a lining of small straws, grasses and feathers, and sometimes by a bedding of moss interwoven with wool. They are often capricious in fixing on a nesting-place, beginning many edifices and leaving them unfinished; but when once a nest is completed in a sheltered place, after so much labour is bestowed in erecting a mansion, as nature seldom works in vain, the same nest serves for several seasons. Those which breed in a ready finished house, get the start in hatching of those that build new by ten days or a fortnight. These industrious artificers are at their labours in the long days before four in the morning; when they

THE WEEK.

time he continued till his death to take an active part in political transactions; but still found leisure to write a vast number of books, most of them distinguished for their learning and ability. The book by which he is now principally known is his famous treatise on the law of nations, entitled, On the Right of Peace and War.' It was first published at Paris in 1625. Another of his productions, which is still very popular, is his treatise On the Truth of the Christian Religion,' written like the former in Latin, but which has been translated into every language of Europe. Grotius wrote a great part of this work while confined by a rival political faction in the castle of Louvestein, from which, however, after nearly two years' detention, his wife contrived to get him conveyed away in a chest, which she pretended was full of books. Grotius died in his sixty-third year, on the 28th of August, 1645.

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April 11.-The birthday of the late Right Honourable George Canning, who was born in London, in the year 1771. His father, an Irish gentleman of good family, died the same year in which his son was born. At the usual age young Canning was sent to Eton, where he soon distinguished himself by the brilliancy of his talents. While there he made the first public trial of his literary powers in The Microcosm,' a very clever periodical work, which he carried on in conjunction with some of his schoolfellows, and of which he was the projector and the editor. In 1787 he removed to Christ Church, Oxford, intending to adopt the profession of the law. But while yet at the University, his reputation for ability obtained for him the notice of Mr. Pitt, who brought him into Parliament in 1793. Mr. Canning's official career belongs to the history of his country, and especially that period of it during which he was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The system of foreign

APRIL 7.-The day of the birth, and also that of the death, of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, whom the universal voice of posterity has recognized as the Prince of modern Painters, and designated by the enthusiastic appellation of "the divine Raphael." No rival, at least, has ever been placed beside Raphael except Michael Angelo. Of the two illustrious contemporaries the former may perhaps be appropriately styled the Shakspeare, the latter the Milton of Painting. Dignity and imposing grandeur of design are the reigning cha-policy with which his name is associated has caused his racteristics of Michael Angelo; the highest dramatic memory to be held in honour; and although he opposed power which has ever been displayed by the pencil, and Parliamentary Reform, as well as other popular measures, yet his stedfast support of Catholic Emancipation the representation of passion with all the force of life, are for a long series of years, and the protection he afforded the qualities that chiefly give their wonderful fascination to the cause of freedom on the Continent, and in South to the works of Raphael. Raphael was born at Urbino America, are proofs of his attachment to his celebrated in 1483. By the time he had reached the age of twentytoast of " Civil and Religious Liberty all over the five he had so greatly distinguished himself that he was World!" In April 1827 he was appointed Prime Minisinvited by Pope Julius II. to paint in fresco the cham-ter by George the Fourth, and continued to hold the bers of the Vatican. From this time till his death, in offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of 1520, at the early age of thirty-seven, he was employed the Exchequer till his death, on the 8th of August in in the execution of a succession of great works, chiefly the same year, at the Duke of Devonshire's villa at for that pontiff and his successor, Leo X. His most famous performances are, his picture of the School of Athens in the Vatican, the Transfiguration, and his Cartoons on subjects taken from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, which were brought to this country by Charles I. and are now to be seen at Hampton Court, upon the payment of a shilling for each party. Like Michael Angelo, Raphael was an arcl itect as well as a painter, and, among other" THE characteristic of the English populace,-perbuildings, superintended the erection of part of the haps we ought to say people, for it extends to the cathedral of St. Peter's. But his untimely death in- middle classes,-is their propensity to mischief. The terrupted his prosecution of this and other great works people of most other countries may safely be admitted on which he was engaged; leaving him, however, into parks, gardens, public buildings, and galleries of although with a glory gathered in comparative youth, pictures and statues; but in England it is necessary with no living superior, and followed by no equal in to exclude them, as much as possible, from all such succeeding times. places."

April 10.-This is the birthday of the celebrated Dutch writer, Hugh de Groot, better known by his Latin name of Grotius, who was born at Delfft in 1583. Grotius was a prodigy of youthful talent and acquirement. When only fourteen he prepared an edition of a Latin author, Martianus Capella, in which he showed extensive classical and historical erudition. At the age of sixteen, having already made a journey to France, and been presented to Henry IV., who honoured him with the gift of his picture and a goid chain, he entered upon the profession of an advocate at Delfft. From this

Chiswick, after a short illness. His death at so early a period after his accession to power called forth a deep feeling of grief in his own country, and, perhaps, a still stronger and more general feeling on the Continent, where medals were struck in memory of the British Minister.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

This is a sentence from the last published number of the "Quarterly Review." Severe as it is, there is much truth in it. The fault is not entirely on the side of the people (we will not use the offensive term populace); but still they are in fault The writer adds, speaking of this love of mischief, which he calls "a disgraceful part of the English character," that "anything tends to correct it that contributes to give the people a taste for intellectual pleasures,-anything that contributes to their innocent enjoyment,-anything that excites them to wholesome and pleasurable activity of