PINCKARD-PALLAS-STAVORINUS. without the appearance of any thing to support the combustion. "We observed fresh water slowly distilling into the pit, from the earth at its sides, and dropping to the bottom; and as this increased in quantity, it raised the flame higher and higher in the pit, supporting it upon its surface, and conveying the appearance of the water itself being on fire; although it was very clear and pure, and not spread with any oily or bituminous matter. When the water had risen to a certain height, the flame became feeble, then gradually declined, and presently was extinct. The water was now seen to boil and bubble as before, and soon overflowing the pit, resumed its course down the narrow channel of the gully, and all was restored to the state in which we had found it. "You will, before this, have discovered that the water was cold, and that the boiling and burning of this fiery deep was only the effect of inflammable gas, which, escaping from the bowels of the earth, and rising from the bottom of the pit, support ed the flame when it was empty, and, bubbling through it, when it was filled with water, gave it the appearance of a boiling spring. "During the combustion, the smell of the inflammable air was very powerful. 583 [Beautiful Appearance of Frozen Trees.] these regions before Christmas, and were "SEVERE hoar-frosts had commenced in followed by snow, mixed with rain or sleet, so that even the smallest branches of the trees were covered with ice an inch thick, by this all the flexible birch trees had been bent to the ground in semicircles. Their tops and branches were thus buried under the continual snow which lay upwards of a yard deep, and kept the trees in that recumbent state. The inflexible full grown birch and oak trees had been partly split and partly broken by the weight of the congelations on their tops, while their collateral branches were also bent to the ground. The thaw which began here towards the latter end of February, and the rays of the sun, had indeed melted the icy incrustations on the upper part of the trees, but it still remained undissolved on the branches which were fixed in the snow. The cylininto a solid mass, but on the lower part they ders of ice, on one side, all appeared melted were crystallized, some according to the usual configuration of frozen water, in hexagonal and partly in rhomboid figures, while others consisted only of hexagonal sections. These bodies were, like the well known hollow cubes of salt, apparently formed of broad on the surface, and narrow towards icicles of a pyramidal figure when inverted, the inner part, where they were fixed in the ice."-PALLAS. "In the stones and soil, in the very rocks and roads we traced the origin of this phoenomenon of nature. Asphaltic productions abounded on every quarter: and, upon inquiry, we found that we were in the very part of the country which produces the celebrated Barbadoes tar; the smell of which saluted us as we rode along; and we even saw it distilling from the hills of hardened [Origin of the Term Grass-Sea—from the clay, and likewise issuing from the rocks at the sides of the road. The argillaceous soil of this neighbourhood is everywhere strongly impregnated with bitumen, in which you will readily perceive the origin of the 'boiling or inflammable spring.' "-PINCKARD'S Notes, vol. 1, p. 298. Gulph Weed.] "IN the north latitude of 22° we saw for the first time the gulph weed. This sea weed consists of small green bunches, large fields of which are sometimes seen floating on the water; they are mostly disposed in long bands, separated from each other by narrow intervals, and lying longitudinally in the direction of the winds, it is not found 584 PIETRO DELLA VALLE. - POUQUEVILLE - THUNBERG. in such large quantities in any other part of the ocean, whence and from its verdant appearance, the sea hereabouts is called the grass sea by the seamen; it is mostly found between the lat. 21° and 34° N."-STAVO RINUS. [Spuma Maris, or, Excrement of the Sea.] "We now saw in the sea for the first time, a number of things which appeared to be serpents, or rather fish in the shape of serpents, like great eels, long and rounded in the same fashion, and which according to the agitation of the water, appeared to go serpentizing through the sea like snakes. I asked some intelligent persons concerning them, and they told me that what I had seen was not any living thing, but a certain kind of excrement of the sea, which had no other movement than what the waves gave it, though as our vessel was sailing swiftly, they appeared to be moving in a contrary direction; and they said the nearer we approached India the more we should see."PIETRO DELLA VALLE. [Wine of Tertzena.] "THE wine made at Tertzena in the Morea, is said to be some of the best in the province, because the inhabitants twist the branches as they hang upon the stock, and then leave the grapes to wither in the sun." —Pouqueville's Travels, p. 63. [Storks of Tripolitza.] "AT Tripolitza the storks build their nests peaceably among the planes and other large trees which shade the bazaar, though they who are sentenced to be hung are suspended from the branches."-Ibid. p. 36. [The Bupleurum Giganteum.] "A REPORT that was very general at Roode-zand, struck me with the greatest astonishment, and excited my curiosity in the highest degree. The inhabitants all assured me with one voice, that there was a bush to be found on the mountains, on which grew various wonderful products, such as caps, gloves, worsted stockings, &c. of a substance resembling a fine plush. I importuned almost every body in the neighbourhood, to procure me, if possible, some of these marvellous products, and I resolved not to leave the place till I should have unriddled this mystery. In the course of a few days, I had several of the leaves brought me down from the mountains, which were covered with a very thick shag or down (tomentum), and very much resembled white velvet. The girls, who were used to the management of these leaves, began immediately, with singular dexterity and nicety, to strip off this downy coat, whole and entire as it was, without rending it. After it had been taken off in this manner, it was turned inside outwards; when the green veins of the leaf appeared on one side. Accordingly as the leaf was more or less round or oval, divers of the above-mentioned articles were formed out of it, the shape being now and then assisted a little by the scissars. "The stalks of the leaves furnished stock ings, and ladies fingered gloves; the smaller leaves, caps. So that the matter was not quite so wonderful, as it was wonderfully related. But in the mean time, it remained still for me to find out to what plant these leaves belonged, and this forced me to climb up myself to the highest summits of the mountains, where they grew. The plant, indeed, was not scarce in those places, but it cost me a great deal of trouble before I could find one in flower, or in seed, and when I did, I was convinced that this plant belongs to the genus of Bupleurum (Bupleurum Giganteum). The downy coat, resembling fine wool, being dried, was also used for tinder, and answered the purpose extremely well."-Thunberg. [Ostriches.] "ON many parts of the great deserts ostriches were seen scouring the plains, and waving their black and white plumes in the wind, a signal to the Hottentots that their nests were not far distant, especially if they wheeled round the place from whence they started up when they have no nest they make off, immediately on being disturbed, with the wing-feathers close to the body. There is something in the economy of this animal different in general from that of the rest of the feathered race. It seems to be the link of union in the great chain of nature, that connects the winged with the four-footed tribe. Its strong-jointed legs and cloven hoofs are well adapted for speed and for defence. The wings and all its feathers are insufficient to raise it from the ground; its camel-shaped neck is covered with hair; its voice is a kind of hollow, mournful lowing, and it grazes on the plain with the quacha and the zebra. Among the very few polygamous birds that are found in a state of nature, the ostrich is one. The male, distinguished by its glossy black feathers from the dusky grey female, is generally seen with two or three, and frequently as many as five, of the latter. These females lay their eggs in one nest; to the number of ten or twelve each, which they hatch all together, the male taking his turn of sitting on them among the rest. Between sixty and seventy eggs have been found in one nest; and if incubation has begun, a few are most commonly lying round the sides of the hole, having been thrown out by the birds on finding the nest to contain more than they could conveniently cover. The time of incubation is six weeks. For want of knowing the ostrich to be polygamous, an error respecting this bird has slipt into the Systema Naturæ, where it is said that one female lays fifty eggs. 585 "The eggs of the ostrich are considered as a great delicacy. They are prepared in a variety of ways; but that made use of by the Hottentots is perhaps the best: it is simply to bury them in hot ashes, and through a small hole made in the upper end to stir the contents continually round till they acquire the consistence of an omlet: prepared in this manner we very often, in the course of our long journeys over the wilds of Africa, found them an excellent repast. In these eggs are frequently discovered a number of small oval-shaped pebbles, about the size of a marrowfat pea, of a pale yellow colour, and exceedingly hard. In one were nine, and in another twelve of such stones."-BArrow. [The Blowing Cave of Virginia.] "AT the Panther gap, Virginia, in the ridge which divides the waters of the Cow and Calf pasture, is what is called the Blowing Cave. It is in the side of a hill, is of about an hundred feet diameter, and emits constantly a current of air of such force, as to keep the weeds prostrate to the distance of twenty yards before it. This current is strongest in dry frosty weather, and weakest in long periods of rain. Regular inspirations and expirations of air, by caverns and fissures, have been probably enough accounted for, by supposing them combined with intermitting fountains, as they must of course inhale the air while the reservoirs are emptying themselves, and again emit it while they are filling. But a constant issue of air, only varying in its force as the weather is dryer or damper, will require a new hypothesis. There is another blowing cave in the Cumberland mountain, about a mile from where it crosses the Carolina line. All we know of this is, that it is not constant, and that a fountain of water issues from it." -WINTERBOTHAM. LANGSDORFF-FLINDERS. "THE little island in the midst of the lake is inhabited by Greeks, who have a village to the North, and a Monastery. But although most of the inhabitants were born and have constantly lived there, they have never been able to reconcile themselves to a phænomenon which occurs perpetually, and most commonly during the autumn. "At this time the island seems as if it stood upon a moveable base; more perhaps than thirty shocks are felt in the course of a day, accompanied with explosions like the firing of a cannon. The Greeks, terrified by these subterranean commotions, and the noise which accompanies them, run out trembling from their houses, and invoke heaven with cries and lamentations. It does not appear that the danger is as great as might be imagined, since no apparent effect has hitherto been produced; though it is not improbable that the island may be destined to be swallowed up some day in the waters of Acherusia, or that other islands may rise, like those of Santorin or the Cameni, and forcing the waters over their present banks, inundate the whole of the Elysian Fields."-POUQUEVILLE, p. 371. [Butterflies at Catharina.] "I OBSERVED," says LANGSDORFF, speaking of the butterflies at S. Catharina, "that in their nature and habits these superb creatures differed in many respects as much from their brethren in Europe as in their exterior. They raise themselves with a light and rapid flight into the air, and hover about the blossoms of lofty trees; they are shy and restless, and settle so seldom upon the flowers, that they must in general be caught in their flight. I observed with the utmost astonishment a particular species, Februa Hoffmanseggi, which, when it flew away from a tree, or when flying with the female, made a very clear and distinct noise, like a rattle, probably with its wings. This species lives in thick orange groves, settling upon the stem, with its wings spread out, and from being very much the colour of the tree, it is difficult to be discerned; but when any one approaches it flies away with the rattling noise above described. The Archidamas is a butterfly which emits a soft and not oppressive smell of musk; it lives upon flowers, and flies very quick and high. Another phenomenon I observed was that a butterfly, which I took to be the Catilina Crameri, through a very remarkable opening in the breast-plate, emitted a great quantity of a sort of froth; this seemed employed as a means of defence against its enemy, and resembled in some sort what is done by the caterpillar of the Machaon. Several species of the yellow diurnal butterfly, which are here among the most common sorts, live in societies and are seen in hundreds, nay, thousands together. Their favourite abode is in low, sandy, and sometimes moist districts, near rivers or brooks, where they often settle in large flocks together upon the sand. The Philea, the Trite, the Alcmeone, the Senna, the Eubulus, and the Argante, may be particularized among them."-Vol. 1, p. 74. [The White Eagle and the Kangaroo.] "A WHITE eagle, with fierce aspect and outspread wing, was seen bounding towards us; but stopping short at twenty yards off, he flew up into a tree. Another bird of the same kind discovered himself by making a motion to pounce down upon us as we passed underneath; and it seemed evident that they took us for kangaroos, having probably never before seen an upright animal in the island of any other species. These birds sit watching in the trees, and should a kangaroo come out to feed in the day time, it is seized and torn to pieces by these voracious creatures. This accounted for why so few kangaroos were seen, when traces of them were met with at every step; and for their keeping so much under thick bushes that it was impossible to shoot them. JACKSON-DOBRIZHOFFER - LIONEL WAFER. Their size was superior to any of those found upon the more western islands, but much inferior to the forest kangaroo of the continent."-FLINDERS, Vol. 1, p. 133. [Red-throated Diver of the Feroe Islands.] THE Feroe Islanders say that the redthroated diver (colymbus septentrionalis) foretels the weather by its different cries at sea. If it mews like a cat, or cries varravi—varra-vi—it is a sign of rainy weather; but if its cry be gaa-gaa-gaa, or turkatræturkatræ, the weather will be fine.1 This vocabulary of the red-throated diver's language is more extensive than that of "cawation, chirp-ation, hoot-ation, whistleation, crow-ation, cackle-ation, shriek-ation, and hiss-ation." 12 [African Dragon engendered by the Great Eagle on the female Hyæna.] "Bezz el Horreh designates the largest species of eagle, with undescribably clear and beautiful eyes of an orange colour. This is the bird which is reported by the Africans to engender the dragon on the female hyena; a chimera originating undoubtedly in some Arabian fable or allegorical tradition, though generally credited by the inhabitants of Atlas, who affirm the dragon thus engendered to have the wings and beak of an eagle, a serpent's tail, and short feet like a hyena, the eye-lids never closed, and that it lives in caves like the hyena."JACKSON'S Morocco, p. 118. A Series of Experiments upon Odours and Insects might ascertain the only Preservatives against the greatest Plagues to which Men are subject. THE Guaranies carry garlick about them because they believe that snakes will not 1 LANDT's Desc. of the Feroe Islands, p. 132. 2 RANDOLPH'S Amyntas. 587 THE Burning Well is a little sorry hole in one of the grounds about 100 yards from the road between Wigan and Warrington, two miles from Wigan,-just by a hedge and bank; it is almost full of dirt and mud, but the water continually bubbles up as if it were a pot boiling. Nevertheless, I felt the water, and it was a cold spring. The man that shewed it me took out a good quantity of the water with a dish and threw it away and then with a piece of rush he lighted by a candle that he brought in a lanthorn, he set the water in the well on fire, and it burnt blueish, just like spirits, and continued a good while; but by reason of the great rains that fell the night before, the spring was weaker, and had not thrown off the rain water, otherwise it used to flame all over the well a good height.—Quære? |