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it for a twelvemonth before it sunk back in the ocean, and disappeared for ever. Soon after this eruption in the sea, from the 1st to the 8th of June, violent earthquakes were experienced in the vicinity of Skaptar Jokull, and clouds of smoke obscured the sun for some days. It was often so dark in the middle of the day that a sheet of white paper could not be seen when held up before the eyes. An immense shower of ashes, sand, and sulphur filled the air, and completely covered the land. It poisoned the vegetation, destroying every green thing where it fell. Fortunately the wind carried it to the south, and it soon reached the ocean. Incredible as it may seem, this shower of ashes and sulphur was borne over the Northern Sea to the Faroe Islands, Shetland, and Orkney, entirely over Great Britain, across to Holland, and far on to the continent of Europe, nearly 2,000 miles from the place where it started. Around the mountain, for many miles, darting flames and lightning filled the air, and the sulphur burned and flashed far up into the heavens. The next effect produced was the heat of the volcano melting the ice that had shrouded it for centuries; and this caused such a deluge that the rivers, particularly the Skaptá, overflowed their banks, and submerged, washed up, and even carried away farms. On the 10th June, ten days after the first symptoms of an eruption appeared, the torrent of lava burst forth, and poured down the sides of the mountain. This followed so quickly after the flood of water, that in less than twentyfour hours the river was entirely dried up, and people walked across its bed, where for years it had only been passable in boats. While the river was contending with the lava, a terrible and deafening sound was heard, and immense quantities of steam filled the air. The fiery torrent poured down the bed of the river, often from 400 to 600 feet deep, and above 200 in breadth. Lightning flashed across the heavens; thunder and concussions of the earth were constantly heard and felt; and the volcano kept up a continued and terrible roaring. In its course down the bed of the river the lava came to an immense chasm or pit, into which for many hours it poured with a deafening noise. The stream of lava flowed first south, then east, destroying farms, houses, and churches, and burning up the thickets of wood near Kirkuboer. Often great chasms in the earth would get filled with the melted lava; and then, as it cooled on the top, the heat below would cause it to explode, and blow large masses of it high in the air. For three months the lava continued to flow; but it was not until the next February that the mountain ceased throwing out ashes, sand, flames, and hot stones. The effects of this eruption were more terrible than anything that ever happened in Iceland. The showers of ashes, sand, and sulphur completely destroyed every green thing for a long distance. Another most singular effect of this eruption extended to the ocean. The fish that had always frequented the coast were entirely driven away, and never returned. A terrible famine ensued. Within two years, over 190,000 sheep, 28,000 horses, and 11,000 cattle died of starvation. About 10,000 inhabitants, one-fifth of the entire population of the island, perished from want and exposure. The amount of lava ejected from this volcano was probably greater than any eruption of the same duration ever recorded. It covered a tract of country 500 square miles in extent; and had it lain of equal thickness over the entire surface, would have been over 300

feet deep. The lava would have filled the channels of fifty rivers as large as the Hudson from Albany to New York."-Pp. 107-9.

Mr. Miles mentions very curious fact in connection with some of the effects of volcanic eruptions in this country. On nearly every English or American map on which Iceland is represented, there is put down a large lake called the "Fiske Vatn," or Fish Lake, although there is no such lake in existence, neither has there been for many years. There was such a lake about one hundred years ago, but a volcano rose up from the bottom, filled its entire bed, and literally drank it up at a draught! A useful lesson this to all geographers intending to give a description of Iceland! The most elaborate and perfect map of the island is that of a native Icelander, Herre Biarni Gunnlaugson, who spent twelve whole years in travelling over every part of Iceland.

Besides giving a description of the sulphur mountains, our author devotes two chapters to the ornithology of Iceland, and two to the mythology of the Northmen. He has likewise a very interesting dissertation on the early literature of the Icelanders, including an account of their Eddas and Sagas, as well as on the literature of the present day, and he gives specimens of modern Icelandic translations of portions of the writings of Milton, Pope, Burns, Franklin, and others; we have not however space for further extracts from his work. Mr. Miles also glances en passant at that very curious group-the Faroe Islands, but we have not time to accompany him thither.

We shall now take our leave of Mr. Miles and of his work. He is plainly a man of great shrewdness and common sense, who travels with his eyes about him, and who is a good hand at describing what he sees; and his "Rambles in Iceland" are, in many respects, precisely what a book of travels should be. He evidently takes great interest in the prosperity of the country he describes, and speaks most highly of the many qualities and virtues of its inhabitants; and we think very deservedly so. Not, of course, that we agree in every sentiment and opinion propounded by our author, or that we consider his work as perfect; but we have been very much pleased with it nevertheless. Mr. Miles is an American, and a republican to boot, and he has in one or two places seemed to take pleasure (very unnecessarily) in reminding his readers of that circumstance; but we will not quarrel with him for that-it was almost to be expected beforehand that he should do so. Some persons may perhaps be inclined to think that Mr. Miles sees and describes strange things occasionally; but then they must also recollect that Iceland is a very strange place, and we consider that his "Rambles" contain, on the whole, a faithful and reliable account of the country and people they are intended to describe. Mr. Miles set out by informing us that his object was to "present a readable and truthful narrative, to create some interest in the

people, the literature, and the productions of the lonely isle of the north." We are of opinion that he has achieved his task very successfully. All things considered, we take the "Rambles in Iceland" to be a faithful, as it certainly is a most entertaining and instructive, and, withal, excessively cheap, account of the very interesting country of a very interesting people: and to such as would wish to know more of Iceland and its inhabitants than is contained in the present paper, we cannot do better than recommend the perusal of Mr. Miles' volume for themselves.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

The Catechiser's Manual; or the Church Catechism illustrated and explained. By the Rev. ARTHUR RAMSAY, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. Cambridge: Macmillan and Co.

HERE we have a second Manual by a second Mr. Ramsay; and, if we mistake not, of the same College and University as the Dean, whose Exposition we reviewed last month. Nor does the coincidence end here. We have referred to the several points on which we ventured to criticize the Dean's theology; and on all but one (of which we will speak presently) Mr. Ramsay junior corrects Mr. Ramsay senior, in the way that we pointed out. We mention this circumstance, because we have received a letter (written in excellent temper) from the Dean, complaining of our Review. First, he considers that we are unmindful of his long service to the Church in Scotland. We certainly were not so in our own minds, for we have heard for many years of his labours, and the very advocacy of catechizing twenty-five years ago was in itself (we always felt) a good work. But it is because his little work is a quarter of a century old that it needs remodelling. Mr. Ramsay we should judge to be just about such a theologian as the Dean; but he has profited by recent controversies, and so has been enabled to correct several of the errors of his namesake.

We must now point out some particulars in which the present Manual is unsatisfactory. 1. The explanation of the Fourth Commandment should be entirely rewritten. The Catechism itself makes no mention of a Christian Sabbath, but speaks of "serving GOD truly all the days of our life." 2. In the Creed the Remission of Sins should be shown to embrace the Holy Eucharist and Absolution as well as Baptism. 3. It is not right to say that the Inward Grace of the Holy Eucharist is "the strengthening and refreshing, &c." "The inward thing signified" is the Body and Blood of CHRIST."

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Upon the question to whom the "Remembrance of the Sacrifice of the death of CHRIST" is made, Mr. Ramsay appears to give no information; but in order to show that our view is not CC extreme," (as the Dean suggests,) we will refer him to Three Short Sermons on the Holy Communion as a Sacrifice, Sacrament, and Eucharist, by the Bishop of S. Andrew's, in which, at page 7, he will be told that the "chief design"

of its institution was not "to remind us of the love of CHRIST," but to be " a witness and exhibition of His precious death to the world, to the holy angels, and above all, to GOD."

The First Five Years of the House of Mercy, Clewer. By the Rev. T. T. CARTER. London: Masters.

Sisters of Charity, and Some Visits with them; being Letters to a Friend in England. London: Masters.

THESE two little books fall naturally under one notice. The first is a simple, unpretending account of the early difficulties experienced in a work which promises to be of great benefit to this Church and Kingdom. The second is a lively, gossiping narrative (evidently from a female pen) about Sisters of Charity in France. The writer has decided theories of her own; in some of which, perhaps, we should not agree with her. Her main point seems to be, that inasmuch as French Sisters of Charity are cheerful and secular, that therefore all members of English Sisterhoods should be also. Doubtless there has been some extravagance among us in the opposite direction, but after all the English mind differs essentially from the French; and secondly, under the general title of Sisters in England are included persons who, under a more developed system, would probably separate into various Orders.

Ten Weeks in Natal. By the Lord Bishop of the Diocese. Cambridge: Macmillan and Co.

THE whole of this work is characterised by the practical good sense which in the first instance induced the Bishop of Natal to make that preliminary visit to his Diocese, of which it is the record. The plan he adopted of going personally to inspect the sphere of his future labours, before he attempted to make arrangements in England for the organisation of his Mission, is one which might be advantageously followed by all colonial Bishops, wherever it is practicable. The wisdom of the system is very discernible in the judicious preparations which he was enabled to make for his work amongst the people with whom he thus made himself acquainted. He found much in Natal to humiliate, and much to inspirit him, in his missionary labours. It is a source of humiliation to find there, as elsewhere, that a colony of our own, which has a right to expect that England should be the first to plant the Church on her soil, has already been visited by one of her foreign branches, and that unauthorised labourers, in the shape of Wesleyans, American Independents, &c., have already sown the seed of much future difficulty and dissension. At the same time there is much to encourage; for the Bishop seems to have found that Natal presents a remarkable instance of the absolute impossibility of Christianizing any country, except by the legitimate operations of the Church. It is pleasant to see the vigour with which he purposes to commence the work. He intends to establish a Mission within an hour's ride of the principal town, where there is to be a Church, a theological college, a grammar-school, a boarding-school for girls, a hospital, a Bishop's resi

dence, and an orphan's home. Whilst we heartily wish him all success in these works, we cannot take our leave of him without mentioning one point on which we must beg leave to differ from him. He deprecates the idea of compelling Kaffir polygamists to restrict themselves to one wife on their conversion to Christianity, and that because of the distress it entails on them and their discarded companions. But surely the first principle which converts have to learn is that the Will of GOD must be done at any cost. They who accept the doctrine of the Cross must of necessity take that suffering with it which is so light a thing compared with the eternal weight of glory; and we see not why the barbarian Kaffir is to have that Cross without its bitterness any more than the educated Christian.

The Laying on of Hands: A Manual for Confirmation, with Helps preparatory to receiving that Holy Rite. Pp. 172. London: Masters. THIS little Treatise deserves very special acknowledgment at our hands. No portion of the Church system had been so entirely lost, a few years since, for any practical purpose, as Confirmation. It had ceased altogether to be regarded as a means of grace; the generality of our catechumens either looked to it as a decent ceremony, or as an opportunity for getting a holiday; and writers of the (so-called) High Church school, like Dean Ramsay, simply defended it as a rather superfluous renewal of what by their very appearance before the Bishop, it was plain that such as present themselves (whatever may be the case with those who stay away) have no desire to repudiate. With the single exception of the Bishop of Brechin's very brief Catechism there has not existed, we believe, up to the present time, any Manual among us that has put forward the true Catholic doctrine upon the subject. It is not, however, simply as standing alone that "the Laying on of Hands" deserves notice. It has supplied a want, and has supplied it in a most excellent way. The teaching is truly Catholic, and is so carefully made good at each step by scriptural illustration, that we do not see how any one professing to be a Bible-Christian can resist the argument for its necessity and importance. The whole treatise will be thought by some to be rather lengthy; but it is divided into parts, which may be used separately; and it need scarcely be said, that just in proportion as we realize the Sacramental character of the Rite, so must the preparation of our people be done more carefully. The heart has need to be cleansed by the discipline of repentance, as well as the understanding informed,—and this cannot be provided for in a Tract of eight or ten pages.

Lent Legends. By the Rev. J. M. NEALE. (Masters.) As usual we can only add our testimony of unqualified praise to that of the many readers of Mr. Neale's fascinating records of the past; we know of no author who has greater favour with the younger members of the Church. We can only hope that when he has exhausted his apparently boundless store he will not be tempted to have recourse to histories whose doubtful origin might lay them open to animadversions, which would spread to the more legitimate traditions.

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