Roman Catholic procession advancing, but since every one that I saw was running, I thought it best now to run myself, which I did, towards the village of Evionaz, keeping the high road.

I was just entering this village, when a burst of people came out from it in my direction, as if they were pursued by a charge of cavalry. Among the foremost of these were two French ladies, in extreme alarm. One of them caught me by the fingers, pulling me along with all her might, and telling me to run for my life, for that an avalanche was just coming down from the mountain upon the village. We soon reached a charabauc, which I had observed as I passed by, standing in the road. The French ladies got in, and I took my seat between them, doing my best to pacify the elder lady, whose fear by this time had quite got the better of her. The postillion drove off at full gallop in the direction of Martigny. Expecting every moment that a huge heap of water would come rolling along the valley, I now began to reflect that the road we were taking could not be very secure, and that even the mountain from which the avalanche was descending, would be a safer spot for refuge. Accordingly I quitted the ladies, whom I could not persuade to go with me, leaving them in charge of the postillion and a French gentleman, their friend, who had overtaken us.

There was a small dell between the road and the mountain. I paused a moment to reflect whether the water might not overtake me as I was passing across this dell, but, upon observing many peasants take the same route, I struck across boldly, running faster than I can ever remember to have run before. After scrambling through two or three thickets, and climbing up cliffs upon which, at other times, I would not have ventured, I stopped to look about me, when I was about six hundred feet high. Below me lay the village, in apparently as much security as ever; beyond it, at the opposite side of the valley, flowed the Rhone, without any visible increase. The only unusual object that presented itself, was a number of people, the inhabitants of the village, collected on various knolls up the side of the mountain, both above and below me. Most of these groups, which seemed to be made up of family parties, had baskets with them, which I found to contain bread and wine. Some had small cradles, with chairs and household utensils, collected, as it seemed, in great haste. There was an anxious look on the face of each who was old enough to reflect, but the little children were at play by their mothers. I sate myself down on the grass beside a woman, who seemed to be the mother of a family. She pointed to me her house, which every moment she expected to be overwhelmed by the avalanche, since it stood foremost in the village. Every now and then in the middle of what she was saying, she would pause for a moment, and hold up her finger, bidding me listen to a distant sort of rumbling overhead. At the same time the bells of the village were clanged together by such as remained in it, as a sign to quit it with all speed; and upon looking more curiously into the orchards between the village aud the mountain, I could see various persons running across towards us with chairs and tables on their backs, determined to save what they could at the risk of their lives. But as yet the danger was indefinite, nor could I conceive what was to come. However, upon considering what happened at Martigny some years before, I was led upon the whole to expect that a huge wall of water would first descend the mountain, and then rush along the valley.

Under these apprehensions I soon got tired of staying in one place, and quitting the groups about me, struck up into the mountain by myself, directing my course sideways, that I might come upon the edge of the ravine, down which, as I sup. posed, the avalanche must soon come. As I walked along in this direction, I soon lost sight of the village from the thickness of the clouds, and began to hear more distinctly the rumbling noticed by the Swiss woman; indeed, at one time I reasoned within myself, whether or not the avalanche might be coming down just over my head. With these thoughts I contrived to keep close to the largest trees, as I climbed along the cliffs, which at this height were become exceeding abrupt, with pine trees hanging over. It was up here, that after seeing no one for some time, I met at last with an Italian gentleman, who was wandering about in search of three friends whom he had lost, but whether they had been buried under the avalanche or not he could not say. We agreed to journey on together, and at last, after much climbing, reached a deep ravine running down from the mountains into the valley. The bottom of this ravine was filled with a stream of mud of great depth and width, moving along sluggishly into the plain. It seems, the grand burst was just over as we reached the spot, in proof of which the sides of the ravine for a considerable height were covered with mud and shattered pines. There was a strong sulphurous stench

arising from the mud, similar to what is experienced when a dirty pond is cleaned out. We were so occupied with this tremendous spectacle, that we neglected to look into the valley for some minutes, but upon turning our eyes in that direction, (for the clouds had cleared away,) we perceived the valley for a terrific extent to be covered with the mud which had just descended down the ravine on the edge of which we stood. The beautiful orchards and plantations which had filled me with admiration but a short time before, were not only laid perfectly level, but rather quite buried, insomuch that nothing was to be seen of them. But in their place the only thing visible was a broad river of mud, branching off in three directions from the main source, just as I have since been assured is the appearance of a new fall of lava. There was also another point in which a strong similitude was to be found between the mud and lava: I mean its consistency, for upon going a few steps down the ravine, and feeling the mud with my feet, found it to be so hard that I might nearly stand upon it, although that particular part had just rested from a state of motion. However, I was warned not to be too curious in these inquiries, for of a sudden I heard a faint rumbling over head, which increased gradually to a sort of harsh thunder. This was the prelude to a new discharge of the avalanche, which came down shortly after, heaving along huge rocks with vast noise in an astonishing manner. This discharge, like the other, consisted of nothing but mud, swelling along in broad undulations, till it reached the plain. As it went past, the earth shook under our feet for several yards back from the ravine. Having satisfied my curiosity sufficiently with this spectacle, I now returned with my companion down the mountain, and left him at the village of Evionaz, to which the inhabitants were fast descending, since the avalanche had fortunately taken its way a little to one side of it, owing to a small hill at the mouth of the ravine. Since I never saw my Italian friend again, I cannot tell whether he found his friends or not.

For my own part, I was so much astonished at this grand exertion of nature in ruining her own works, that I could think of nothing else all my way back to Martigny, whither I was obliged to retrace my steps, for it was impossible to proceed to Villeneuve. The next day fresh discharges came down, so that the road along the valley was covered for half a mile with mud to the depth of fifteen feet, besides enormous stones weighing, as I was told, between ten and twenty tons. These stones, as I suppose, must have been helped on their way not a little by the specific gravity of the mud, which was so great that the stones could almost float in it. I now learnt that I had mistaken the words, Dent du Midi, for St. Bartholemi; Dent du Midi being the mountain from whence the avalanche had descended. It seems that there were a number of glaciers running up this mountain, (which is about 11,000 feet high.) one above another to the top of it. These glaciers, in the increase of hot weather, which we have had for many years past, had much melted; but their lower barriers of ice not giving way, the water had been preserved in lakes up on the heights, till the top glacier broke of a sudden, and precipitated the others in succession into the valley. All this happened in so short a space of time, that when the accumulated avalanche descended at ten in the morning, no one had the least suspicion of it, with the exception of some peasants, who, as am assured, had been used to go up to these lakes for fishes. It is hard to conjecture by what means the water in its descent gained such a consistency, but I suppose there was a good portion of mud in the lakes themselves, not to speak of the mud collected by ground sinking in as the torrent passed by. However, with all this there is a difficulty upon this point, which I am very willing to let the reader settle as he shall think fit, being content, for my own part, to have been one of the few Englishmen who witnessed a spectacle so grand that all Switzerland has had nothing to compare with it for many years. I spent five days at Martigny, at the Hotel de la Tour, which I here take the liberty of recommending to such as do not regard a bad outside. During this time, I visited the avalanche every day, and once ascended the Dent du Midi nearly 4000 feet, with the view of tracing it to its source; but this I found to be impossible. At the end of five days a communication, by government orders, had been formed along the valley, by laying fir-trees across the mud and covering them with earth but the old road was completely buried in such a way as never to be restored again. I was glad enough to take this opportunity of proceeding with the rest of my tour, but so much had I been excited by my proximity to the peril, that for some days I felt a sort of distrust in nature, hard to be understood by such as have not been in a similar situation. I have learnt since that the same event occurred at the same place five hundred years before, but I do not know the name of the book in which the history of it is to be found.

Although the village was not destroyed, as had been expected, many detached

houses were buried under the mud up to their roofs, but when I came away, I heard of no lives having been lost. One very providential escape was told me by the two French ladies whom I have before noticed. They had started from Martigny just in time to be overwhelmed by the avalanche; but the youngest of the two, when she reached the falls of Pissevache, found that she had dropped some letters. It was in searching for these that so much time was spent, as to allow them only to reach the village before the avalanche fell. But although there was no loss of life, there was much ruin to the poor property of the peasants. Several millers lost their trade entirely by a change in the course of the river, and the Rhone, for a time, was nearly choked up.

Since I have mentioned the Hotel de la Tour, I take this opportunity of paying my thanks to a family party of English travellers who were confined at the same place by the impracticability of conveying their carriage over the mud. It was by their presence that my stay at Martigny, which might otherwise have been tedious, was rendered the most delightful time that I spent abroad.

I have nothing more to add, but that I would wish the term avalanche to be better understood by others than it was by myself before I visited Switzerland. This word is used by the Swiss to signify any mass that falls from a mountain into a valley, whether it be water, mud, earth, ice, or snow, and is not confined to this last, as is generally supposed.

Brazennose College, Oxford.

E. CLL.

EXPEDITION IN AUSTRALIA.-The following account has been lately received from Sydney. Mr. C. Coxen, who arrived in this colony with instructions from the Zoological Society of London, has finished his first trip to the interior. He started on the 26th December last from the Hunter, and penetrated on the banks of the Nammoi, so far as one hundred miles beyond the last station (one of Sir John Jamieson's) situated on this river. The river at first flows west, and afterwards in a west-by-south direction. The whole country traversed is reported to be barren and inhospitable, especially in the latter part of the journey, and the land bad. In fact, Mr. Coxen says, that starting from the above station, a dead level spread itself before his eyes, and not a bill was visible. This plain land must very much resemble all the plains hitherto known of our continent; it is equally divested of trees, which grow only upon the banks of the Nammoi. The banks are very thickly inhabited, and the people much taller than our natives generally. Although Mr. Coxen had some blacks with him, he could not communicate with these people, whom he describes as very hostile. Our traveller attempted to traverse from Nammoi to the Gwyder, but the country proved very dry, affording scarcely any food for the bullocks. When Mr. Coxen left the Nammoi, its bed had been successively contracted into a much narrower channel. Mr. C. was disabled from extending his exploring further, having been promised by government four prisoners to accompany him, and receiving only two, one of whom was a perfect idiot; he was obliged to hire free men, who refused positively to proceed any further, and threatened to abandon him if attacked by the ferocious natives. So far as collecting is concerned, Mr. C. was very successful, having discovered as many as twenty-six very rare species of birds; amongst which twenty, at least, are entirely new to science. The greater part are of the parrot and pigeon tribe, the former of a very splendid plumage. Mr. C. believes that he found also a new sort of wallaby, having white marks on the shoulders, and the tail ending in a small bush. Mr. C. proposes shortly to make another and more extensive tour.

TRACES OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION AMONG THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.-Amongst the Caroline Islands, only six weeks sail from Sydney, is Ascencio, (about 11o Ñ. lat.) discovered very lately by his Majesty's sloop of war, Raven. Mr. Ong, now a resident of this colony, some years back remained there for several months, and we have our information from a friend, who conversed frequently with Mr. O. on this subject. On the above-named Island of Ascencio, the language of the inhabitants is more harmonious than in the other islands of the South Seas, a great many words ending with vowels. There are at the N. E. end of the island, at a place called Tamen, ruins of a town, now only accessible by boats, the waves reaching to the steps of the houses. The walls are overgrown with bread, cocoa-nut, and other ancient trees, and the ruins occupy a space of two miles and a half. The stones of these edifices are laid bed and quoin, exhibiting irrefutable traces of art, far beyond

the means of the present savage inhabitants. Some of these hewn stones are twenty feet in length by three to five each way, and no remains of cement appearing. The walls have door and window places. The ruins are built of stone, which is different from that occurring in the immediate neighbourhood. There is a mountain in the island, the rocks of which are covered with figures, and there are far greater ruins eight miles in the interior. The habits of these islanders exhibit traces of a different social system; the women do not work exclusively, as is the custom in the other islands. After the meals, water is carried about by servants for washing hands, &c. Asked about the origin of these buildings, the inhabitants say, that they were built by men which are now above (pointing to the heavens).

EXPLORING EXPEDITION.-NEW SOUTH WALES.-Major Mitchell's exploring party, splendidly equipped, halted at Bathurst, for the purpose of completing their supplies, and after resting three days, proceeded on their journey to a centrical spot in the Boree country, from whence they will pursue a south-westerly course to the Darling, Murrumbidgee, and Murray rivers. This, and a return to the depôt, will form the first division of the work, when it is understood that the whole body will move off in a north-westerly direction, with the view of transversely intersecting the country, and establishing the fact of the existence or non-existence of the great waters which are supposed to have their source amongst the interior mountains. The party are prepared for a year's absence, and for all the vicissitudes of weather and climate incidental to that protracted period. The men started in high spirits; most of them have been tried servants in the field service of the survey department, and accompanied the surveyor-general on his last tour. A capacious cedar boat, and whale boat of a smaller size, form part of the equipment, and are conveyed on a carriage nearly forty feet long, made for the purpose.

AEROLITE.-M. Stas has found a metallic mass in a garden in Belgium, which appears to him to be an aerolite. It was incrusted with the surrounding soil, and during the efforts made to extract it, broke into several pieces. The entire mass weighed about sixty-eight pounds, and was of an irregular, lenticular form. Its exterior is smooth, and of a dirty ferruginous colour; the interior is beautifully crystallized. The isolated crystals are cubic, and dull, but if rubbed with a hard substance, are restored to brilliancy. It is tenacious, and at the same time very ductile; it may, however, be separated with a knife or a file.

RUGEN. A traveller who has just visited the Pomeranian island of Rügen, describes the peninsula of Mönchgut in the following terms. "This district, nearly cut off from the main land, is interesting from its situation, and the manners of its inhabitants. For ages there has been no change in the social condition of the people, and man has scarcely advanced a single step. The people of Mönchgut speak their peculiar patois, wear their peculiar costume, weave the stuff for it themselves, and live in patriarchal independence and innocence. They have one remarkable custom, which certainly cannot be paralleled in Europe: here the females choose their husbands, the proposal of marriage proceeding from the woman, and not from the man, as with us.'

DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT CHURCH IN CORNWALL.-At Perranporth, Mr. Michell has recently removed the sand from a church in the parish, which appears to have been overwhelmed by it, according to tradition, faintly supported by records, five hundred or six hundred years ago. This church is probably one of the most ancient ever laid open, and wants nothing to render it complete as when first erected, except its roof and doors. The length of the church within its walls is twenty-five feet; without, thirty; the breadth within twelve feet and a half, and the height of the walls the same. At the eastern end is a neat altar of stone, covered with lime, four feet long by two and a half wide, and three feet high. Eight inches above the centre of the altar is a recess in the wall, in which probably stood a crucifix, and on the north side of the altar is a small doorway, through which the priest entered. The chancel was exactly six feet, leaving nineteen feet for the congregation, who were accommodated with stone seats, twelve inches wide, and fourteen inches high, attached to the west, north, and south walls of the nave. In the centre of the nave, in the south wall, is a neat Saxon arched doorway, highly ornamented, seven feet four inches high by two feet four inches wide. The key-stone of the arch projects eight inches, on which is rudely sculptured a tiger's head. The floor was composed of

sand and lime, under which bodies were unquestionably buried, the skeletons of two having been discovered. It is very remarkable that no vestige of a window has been found, unless a small aperture of inconsiderable dimensions, in the south wall of the chancel, and which is ten feet above the surface of the floor, should be considered one; it must therefore be presumed, that the services must have been performed by the light of tapers. Around this interesting building lie thousands of human bones exposed to desecration, the winds having removed the sand in which they were deposited.

PHOSPHORESCENCE.-Professor Pleischl, of Prague, having exposed a solution of bisulphate of potash in a porcelain vase, observed in the evening that the edge of the vase was covered with a brilliant phosphoric light, similar to that which is seen on the surface of the sea at night. The luminous rays sometimes seemed to cover the whole of the liquid, and when stirred with a glass tube, it became even more brilliant, and emitted sparks. By means of this tube, M. Pleischl took out some of the luminous crystals and examined them. The phosphorescence lasted for an hour, and the next day the crystals were found hanging on all sides of the vase.

FLORENCE.-Accounts from Florence state, that so great were the apprehensions entertained there of the cholera, that the picture of the Virgin in the church of Santissima Annunziata has been uncovered. This sacred piece of antiquity is the Palladium of Florence, and never exhibited but to persons of the highest distinction, and that only at the interposition of the supreme authority. It is not unveiled even on the festival of the Annunciation; and it is only on occasion of some extraordinary calamity or rejoicing (as, for instance, lately, on the birth of the crownprince) that it is exposed for a time to the eyes and kisses of the people. It is a fresco painting, representing the Annunciation, and many copies of it are dispersed over Italy. The legend relative to it is, that Bartolomeo, the painter, tired with work, left off one night when he had finished his picture, with the exception of the head of the Virgin. Next morning, when he went to complete his task, behold, the head had been meanwhile painted by invisible hands!

EARTHQUAKE. A slight shock of earthquake was recently felt around Dieppe. It lasted five or six seconds, was attended by a low rumbling sound, and caused some pieces of the Cliff of St. Valery to fall.

EXPEDITION TO THE NIGER.-A mercantile expedition to the Niger, of which intent we heard many months ago, is, we perceive from the Glasgow newspapers, about to proceed on its destination. A quondam slave-ship, carrying out a small iron steamer, leads the way.

NEWLY DISCOVERED COPPER MINES.-There has lately been discovered on the property of Lord Dinorben, in the parish of Llanwenllwofo, Anglesey, and in the immediate neighbourhood of the Parys and Mona mines, a very rich vein of copper. It is in many parts almost in a pure state, and much purer than even the copper coinage of 1799; consequently, a question will arise for the consideration of geologists and others who feel pleasure in investigating these matters, whether the secondary stratum in which it is found must not, at some remote period, have been acted upon by great and powerful heat, so as to dislodge the ore from the stone, and run it in a state of fusion into the form in which it is now found. This discovery is very seasonable, as the Parys and Mona mines, which have so long been a source of immense wealth to their proprietors, and of profitable employment to many hundreds of poor families, were become nearly exhausted, at least so far as they had been explored.

THE NEEDLE IN IRON-BOATS.-Captain Johnson, R.N., has been directed by the Lords of the Admiralty to proceed to Limerick, for the purpose of making certain experiments on the attraction of the needle on board the iron steam-boats in the Shannon. It appears that the compass has been found nearly useless in these vessels.

ACCIDENTS BY STEAM-ENGINES.-The Parliamentary trustees on the river Clyde have offered a premium of one hundred guineas for the best practical mode of pre