room, with a pause at every third stroke. He rose, and went to see if he could discover the cause, but could perceive nothing; still he thought it might be some person out of doors, and relied upon a stout mastiff to rid them of this nuisance. But the dog, which upon the first disturbance had barked violently, was ever afterwards cow. ed by it, and seemed more terrified than any of the children, came whining himself to his master and mistress, as if to seek protection in a human presence. And when the man-servant, Robin Brown, took the mastiff at night into his room, to be at once a guard and a companion, as soon as the latch began to jar as usual, the dog crept into bed, and barked and howled so as to alarm the house. "The fears of the family for Mr Wesley's life being removed as soon as he had heard the mysterious noises, they began to apprehend that one of the sons had met with a violent death, and more particularly Samuel, the eldest. The father, therefore, one night after several deep groans had been heard, adjured it to speak, if it had power, and tell him why it troubled the house; and upon this three distinct knockings were made. He then questioned it if it were Samuel his son, bidding it, if it were, and could not speak, to knock again: but, to their great comfort, there was no farther knocking that night; and, when they heard that Samuel and the two boys were safe and well, the visitations of the goblin became rather a matter of curiosity and amusement than of alarm. Emilia gave it the name of Old Jeffery, and by this name he was now known as a harmless, though by no means an agreeable, inmate of the parsonage. Jeffery was not a malicious goblin, but he was easily offended. Before Mrs Wesley was satisfied that there was something supernatural in the noises, she recollected that one of her neighbours had frightened the rats from his dwelling by blowing a horn there: the horn, therefore, was borrowed, and blown stoutly about the house for half a day, greatly against the judgment of one of the sisters, who maintained, that, if it was any thing supernatural, it would certainly be very angry and more troublesome. Her opinion was verified by the event: Jeffery had never till then begun his operations during the day: from that time he came by day as well as by night, and was louder than before. And he never entered Mr Wesley's study till the owner one day rebuked him sharply, called him a deaf and dumb devil, and bade him cease to disturb the innocent children, and come to him in his study, if he had any thing to say. This was a sort of defiance, and Jeffery, therefore, took him at his word. No other person in the family ever felt the goblin, but Mr Wesley was thrice pushed by it with considerable force. "So he himself relates, and his evidence is clear and distinct. He says also, that once or twice when he spoke to it, he heard two or three feeble squeaks, a little louder than the chirping of a bird, but not like the noise of rats. What is said of an actual appearance is not so well confirmed. Mrs Wesley thought she saw something run from under the bed, and thought it most like a badger, but she could not well say of what shape; and the man saw something like a white rabbit, which came from behind the oven, with its ears flat upon the neck, and its little scut standing straight up. A shadow may possibly explain the first of these appearances; the other may be imputed to that proneness which ignorant persons so commonly evince to exaggerate in all uncommon cases.These circumstances, therefore, though apparently silly in themselves, in no degree invalidate the other parts of the story, which rest upon the concurrent testimony of many intelligent witnesses. The door was once violently pushed against Emilia, when there was no person on the outside; the latches were frequently lifted up; the windows clattered always before Jeffery entered a room, and whatever iron or brass was there rung and jarred exceedingly. It was observed also that the wind commonly rose after any of his noises, and increased with it, and whistled loudly around the house. Mr Wesley's trencher (for it was before our potteries had pushed their ware into every village throughout the kingdom) danced one day upon the table, to his no small amazement; and the handle of Robin's hand-mill, at another time, was turned round with great swiftness: unluckily Robin had just done grinding: nothing vexed him, he said, but that the mill was empty; if there had been corn in it, Jeffery might have ground his heart out before he would have disturbed him. It was plainly a Jacobite goblin, and seldom suffered Mr Wesley to pray for the King and the Prince of Wales without disturbing the family prayers. Mr Wesley was sore upon this subject, and became angry, and therefore repeated the prayer. But when Samuel was informed of this, his remark was, As to the devils being an enemy to King George, were I the King myself, I should rather Old Nick should be my enemy than my friend.' The children were the only persons who were distressed by these visitations: the manner in which they were affected is remarkable: when the noises began they appeared to be frighten ed in their sleep, a sweat came over them, and they panted and trembled till the disturbance was so loud as to waken them. Before it ceased, the family had become quite accustomed to it, and were tired with hearing or speaking of it. Send me some news,' said one of the sisters to her brother Samuel, for we are secluded from the sight or hearing of any versal thing, except Jeffery."" pp. 22-26. VIEW OF MR SCORESBY'S ACCOUNT To all our magnificent schemes for exploring the Arctic Seas-for defining the Northern limits of the earth, and reaching even its Polar boundary -the name of SCORESBY is inseparably attached. His plan for reaching the North Pole by crossing the vast plain of ice, with which he conceives it begirt, first, we believe, rekindled in this country the dormant flame of Northern discovery. This and other papers communicated by him to the Wernerian Transactions, clearly indicated an observer of an higher order than those who had been accustomed to visit these icy boundaries of Nature. As a man of science, a discoverer, and a whale-fisher, Mr Scoresby showed himself fully qualified to give every information which could be desired by the three classes to whom these objects are respectively applicable. It diffused, therefore, a very general satisfaction when Captain Scoresby undertook to combine in these volumes the mass of information which he has collected during seventeen successive voyages into the Greenland Seas. This expectation, we think, will not be disappointed. It cannot be expected that one who has spent his life in contending with the storms and monsters of the Northern deep should thoroughly understand the art of writing a book. The materials are not arranged in the most interesting or methodical manner; and the author's own observations, are mixed up with compilations from others which are by no means equally interesting. In general, the descriptions are not tinctured with those romantic and poetical ideas which, at this distance, are excited in us by the strange aspect of Nature, and the terrible phenomena presented by her in these regions. Mr Scoresby has had too many hard dealings with them, in the way of real business, to make them fit subjects for the play of his fancy. He who has to force his way through regions of thick-ribbed ice, and to An Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History and Description of the Northern Whale-Fishery. By W. Scoresby, Jun. F. R. S. E. Illustrated by Twenty-four Engravings. In Two Volumes. Edinburgh, Constable and Co. 1820. VOL. VI. contend without ceasing against ele ments hostile to life, is not likely to view these objects through the most flattering medium. The mountains of floating ice which sail along these mighty seas cannot excite any raptur ous emotions in the breast of the ma riner, whose frail bark they threaten every instant to dash into atoms. Our author describes Arctic Nature as a man of business and plain observation, rather than a poet. At the same time, we must observe, that, with regard to some of the more striking phenomena, he has shown very respectpowers of description, and a very lively sense of the grandeur and beauty which Nature displays here, even able amid her terrors. Mr Scoresby begins with discussing the much agitated question respecting the communication by the north between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. His impression is evidently in favour added many facts to those collected of its existence, though he has not by the Quarterly Review. He observed near the island of Jan Mayen a mass of drift-wood, eaten by worms, which do not exist in any of the Arctic regions. He found repeated in stances of stone lances and bone harpoons sticking in the backs of whales, and, as these rude instruments are not now used by any of the known Esquimaux tribes, he infers, that they have come from some yet unexplored part of the American shore. Here, however, we incline to start the question, Whether they might not have come from those upper parts of Davis' Straits where Captain Ross found people who never had seen a ship or a European? Admitting, however, that the passage could be performed, the question would be, Whether by the northeast or the north-west? In regard to the north-east passage, our author has nothing from his own observations to add to the narrations of Muller and Coxe. The probability is, that there may be sea along the whole north of Asia; but Mr Scoresby declares his conviction, that the voyage could not be performed in less than eight or ten years, which disposes at once of every idea of a passage to the East Indies by such a route. The north-west route along the coast of America is that which now excites the chief interest and hope. Mr Scoresby seems inclined to believe 3 F in the existence of this also, but rather in a different quarter from that which we are now searching. In his opinion, the strongest arguments used on the subject are those of Ellis, who conceived the passage to extend from the northern part of Hudson's Bay. The aspect of the country, the reports of the Indians, and, above all, the nature of the tides, appeared to him to indicate an opening at the north-west extremity of this Bay into the Arctic Ocean. In regard to the mode of exploration, Mr Scoresby is of opinion, that vessels of 150 tons, or even less, would be the best fitted for making discoveries in these seas. They would make their way more readily through the straits and narrow passages in which vessels are liable to be inclosed -they are even stronger, more compact, and better fitted to endure the shocks which they are liable to encounter. Supposing, however, that a passage exists, he does not conceive that it could be reckoned upon with certainty in any one year as being open more than eight or ten weeks, or even certainly as being open at all, so that the merchant could never think of preferring this to the established and accustomed East India route. Some bold speculators have conceived the design of a passage to the East Indies, by steering directly across the Pole. Upon every hope of such a voyage, Mr Scoresby pronounces a decided negative. He expresses extreme scepticism as to all the reports of the Dutch captains, so carefully collected by Colonel Beaufoy. These are chiefly on hearsay, referring to a distant period, and by persons by no means skilled in observation. In several instances, where carefully investigated, they have been found to originate completely in mistake. Our author is convinced that the highest latitude which any navigator ever did, or ever can reach, is that of 81° or 814°. In this latitude, for nine months in the year, ice is formed even on the surface of a rough sea; and the mean annual temperature is fifteen degrees below the freezing point. Even that in the month of July is only five degrees above it. It is true, the summer heat at the Pole ought to be about 1-45th more than in the latitude of Spitzbergen, but this circumstance cannot, it is conceived, counteract the much more intense cold of the preceding winter. Mr Scoresby, for these reasons, does not entertain the least idea or expectation of penetrating across or to the Pole by sea. He has not, however, relinquished his original plan of reaching that great boundary of the world, by travelling on sledges, or even on foot. This has been objected to, and even ridiculed, on the ground, that the snow and ice must be blown up and piled together in such irregular masses, and even mountains, as certainly to baffle, and probably render fatal, any attempt to traverse its irregular surface. This impression, he says, is derived from drift ice as it appears on many of the Arctic shores, particularly Spitzbergen. There, he admits, it forms as rough a surface as can well be imagined, and is justly described as monstrously large and lofty, and as running flake upon flake to a great height." These irregula rities, however, are produced by masses thrown in upon the shore, or detached from the icebergs above. A few miles out at sea occurs field ice of vast extent, and presenting generally a smooth and even surface. The probability of traversing it seems indeed fully established by the instances adduced of persons who have travelled many hundred miles over snow. This is habitually done by the Indians in the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay, and Muller, in his History of Russian Discoveries, mentions an instance of Markoff, a Cossack, who, in 1714, travelled for seven or eight hundred miles over the Arctic Ocean, in a sledge drawn by dogs. Mr Scoresby proceeds to give a summary of the progress of discovery in the North, and the successive voyages performed into the Arctic seas; but though we do not object to the incorporation of this into his book, it contains little which has not been already noticed in the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. We attached more value to the description from his own observation, of the Polar lands of Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen. The following general view of the aspect of the former appears very interesting. "Spitzbergen and its islands, with some other countries within the Arctic circle, exhibit a kind of scenery which is altoge 6 ther novel The principal objects which strike the eye are innumerable mountain ous peaks, ridges, precipices, or needles, rising immediately out of the sea, to an elevation of 3000 or 4000 feet, the colour of which, at a moderate distance, appears to be blackish shades of brown, green, grey, and purple; snow or ice in striæ or patches occupying the various clefts and hollows in the sides of the hills, capping some of the mountain summits, and filling with extended beds the most considerable valleys; and ice of the glacier form occurring at intervals all along the coast, in particular situations as already described, in prodigious accumulations. The glistening or vitreous appearance of the iceberg precipices; the purity, whiteness, and beauty of the sloping expanse, formed by their snowy surfaces; the gloomy shade presented by the adjoining or intermixed mountains and rocks, perpetually covered with a mourning veil of black lichens,' with the sudden transitions into a robe of purest white, where patches or beds of snow occur, present a variety and extent of contrast altogether peculiar, which, when enlightened by the occasional ethereal brilliancy of the Polar sky, and harmonized in its serenity with the calmness of the ocean, constitute a picture both novel and magnificent. There is, indeed, a kind of majesty, not to be conveyed in words, in these extraordinary accumulations of snow and ice in the valleys, and in the rocks above rocks, and peaks above peaks, in the mountain groups, seen rising above the ordinary elevation of the clouds, and terminating occasionally in crests of everlasting snow, especially when you approach the shore under shelter of the impenetrable density of a summer fog; in which case the fog sometimes disperses like the drawing of a curtain, when the strong contrast of light and shade, heightened by a cloudless atmosphere and powerful sun, bursts on the senses in a brilliant exhibition, resembling the production of magic." Vol. I. pp. 109, 110. One of the most striking phenomena here are the icebergs, particularly those called the "Seven Icebergs." "The Seven Icebergs are each, on an average, about a mile in length, and perhaps near 200 feet in height at the seaedge; but some of those to the southward are much greater. A little to the northward of Horn Sound is the largest iceberg I have seen; it occupies eleven miles in length of the sea-coast. The highest part of the precipitous front adjoining the sea is, by measurement, 402 feet, and it extends backward toward the summit of the mountain to about four times that elevation. of fifteen miles, the front-edge subtended an angle of ten minutes of a degree. Near the South Cape lies another iceberg, nearly as extensive as this. It occupies the space between two lateral ridges of hills, and reaches the very summit of the mountain, in the back ground, on which it rests. "It is not easy to form an adequate conception of these truly wonderful productions of Nature. Their magnitude, their beauty, and the contrast they form with the gloomy rocks around, produce sensations of lively interest. Their upper surfaces are generally concave; the higher parts are always covered with snow, and have a beautiful appearance; but the lower parts, in the latter end of every summer, present a bare surface of ice. The front of each, which varies in height from the level of the occan to 400 or 500 feet above it, lies parallel with the shore, and is generally washed by the sea. This part, resting on the strand, is undermined to such an extent by the sea, when in any way turbulent, that immense masses, loosened by the freezing of water lodged in the recesses in winter, or by the effect of streams of water running over its surface and through its chasms in summer, break asunder, and with a thundering noise fall into the sea; but, as the water is in most places shallow in front of these icebergs, the masses which are dislodged are commonly reduced into fragments before they can be floated away into the main sea. This fact seems to account for the rarity of icebergs in the Spitzbergen sea. Its surface forms a beautiful inclined plane of smooth snow; the edge is unen and perpendicular. At the distance "The front surface of icebergs is glistening and uneven. Wherever a part has recently broken off, the colour of the fresh fracture is a beautiful greenish-blue, approaching to emerald green; but such parts as have long been exposed to the air are of a greenish-grey colour, and at a distance sometimes exhibit the appearance of cliffs of whitish marble. In all cases, the effect of the iceberg is to form a pleasing variety in prospect, with the magnificence which, as they recede from the eye, scem of the encompassing snow-clad mountains, to rise crag above crag,' in endless perspective. "On an excursion to one of the Seven Icebergs, in July 1818, I was particularly fortunate in witnessing one of the grandest effects which these Polar glaciers ever present. A strong north-westerly swell having for some hours been beating on the shore, had loosened a number of fragments attached to the iceberg, and various heaps of broken ice denoted recent shoots of the seaward edge. As we rowed towards it, with a view of proceeding close to its base, I observed a few little pieces fall from the top, and, while my eye was fixed upon the place, an immense column, probably fifty feet square, and one hundred and fifty feet high, began to leave the parent ice at the top, and, leaning majestically forward, with an accelerated velocity fell with an awful crash into the sea. The water into which it plunged was converted into an appearance of vapour or smoke, like that from a furious cannonading. The noise was equal to that of thunder, which it nearly resembled. The column which fell was nearly square, and in magnitude resembled a church. It broke into thousands of pieces. This circumstance was a happy caution, for we might inadvertently have gone to the very base of the icy cliff, from whence masses of considerable magnitude were continually breaking. This iceberg was full of rents, as high as any of our people ascended upon it, extending in a direction perpendicularly downward, and dividing it into innumerable columns. The surface was very uneven, being furrowed and cracked all over. This roughness appear ed to be occasioned by the melting of the snow, some streams of water being seen running over the surface; and others, having worn away the superficial ice, could still be heard pursuing their course through subglacial channels to the front of the iceberg, where, in transparent streams, or in small cascades, they fell into the sea. In some places, chasms of several yards in width were seen, in others they were only a few inches or feet across. One of the sailors, who attempted to walk across the iceberg, imprudently stept into a narrow chasm filled up with snow to the general level. He instantly plunged up to his shoulders, and might, but for the sudden extension of his arms, have been buried in the gulf." Vol. I. pp. 102-106. A grand scene was also presented from the top of one of the loftiest summits of Spitzbergen, which Mr Scoresby ascended. "The prospect was most extensive and grand. A fine sheltered bay was seen on the east of us, an arm of the same on the north-east, and the sea, whose glassy surface was unruffled by a breeze, formed an immense expanse on the west; the icebergs, rearing their proud crests almost to the tops of the mountains, between which they were lodged, and, defying the power of the solar beams, were scattered in various directions about the sea-coast and in the adjoining bays. Beds of snow and ice filling extensive hollows, and giving an enamelled coat to adjoining valleys, one of which, commencing at the foot of the mountain where we stood, extended in a continued line towards the north, as far as the eye could reach; mountain rising above mountain, until by distance they dwindled into insignificancy; the whole contrasted by a cloudless canopy of deepest azure, and enlightened by the rays of a blazing sun, and the effect aided by a feel. ing of danger, seated as we were on the pinnacle of a rock, almost surrounded by tremendous precipices,-all united to con stitute a picture singularly sublime. Here we seemed elevated into the very heavens; and, though in an hazardous situation, I was sensible only of pleasing emotions, heightened by the persuasion, that, from experience in these kind of adventures, I was superior to the dangers with which I was surrounded. The effect of the elevation, and the brightness of the picture, were such, that the sea, which was at least a league from us, appeared within reach of a musket-shot; mountains a dozen miles off seemed scarcely a league from us; and our vessel, which we knew was at the distance of a league from the shore, appeared in danger of the rocks. After a short rest, in which we were much refreshed with a gentle breeze of wind that here prevailed, and after we had surveyed the surrounding scenery as long as it afforded any thing striking, we commenced the descent. This task, however, which, before the attempt, we had viewed with indifference, we found really a very hazardous and, in some instances, a painful undertaking. The way now seemed precipitous. Every movement was a work of deliberation. The stones were so sharp, that they cut our boots and pained our feet, and so loose, that they gave way almost at every step, and frequently threw us backward with force against the hill. We were careful to advance abreast of each other, for any individual being below us would have been in danger of being over whelmed with the stones, which we unintentionally dislodged in showers. Having, by much care, and with some anxiety, made good our descent to the top of the secondary hills, to save the fatigue of crawling along the sharp ridge that we had before traversed, we took down one of the steepest banks, the inclination of which was little less than fifty degrees. The stones here being very small and loose, we sat down on the side of the hill, and slid forward with great facility in a sitting pos ture. Towards the foot of the hill, an expanse of snow stretched across the line of descent. entered upon it without fear, and our proThis being loose and soft, we gress at first was by no means rapid; but, on reaching the middle of it, we came to a surface of solid ice, perhaps a hundred yards across, over which we launched with astonishing velocity, but happily escaped without injury. The men whom we left below viewed this latter movement with astonishment and fear." Vol. I. pp. 127-139. The description of the climate and seasons here may serve to exhibit them |