drama opens. The party reach Florence one day sooner than they were expected. Hence they occasion great confusion in the house of the Count, whose son is not even yet released from durance. He is, however, liberated, on condition that he marries Silvia, to which he gives a feigned consent, in order to obtain sight of Elisa and his children. The Count employs Luca, a servant, to discover the nature of Claudio's engagement with her; and on being made acquainted with the real state of the case, he bribes Luca to force away the children, and deliver them over to a leader of banditti. Elisa, stung to madness at their abduction, rushes out in search of them, and encountering the Marquis, accuses him of the cruel act, and attacks him with the fury of grief and insanity. The Marquis flies, and she pursues him into the presence of the Count; all the dramatis personæ are assembled, heaven knows how or why, Elisa is turned out by the Count's domestics, and the act closes with a finale which very justly expresses the state of the case:

1

Dentro un vortice profondo
Son ravvolti i miei pensieri;
Cosi io tema, o cosa speri,
No, non posso indovinar,

It is now necessary to relate that Celso, the lover of Silvia, has engaged himself as a servant to the Marquis her father, and has accompanied them in that capacity to Florence. In Claudio he recognizes an old friend, and they agree to elope with their two mistresses. The Marquis has begun to suspect the perfidy of the Count, from the mystery that pervades every thing, and is meditating a retreat from his engagements, when he endeavours to come to an explanation, which gives rise to a scene of absurd equivoque, but which is of course made the vehicle of comic music. The Count sends for Elisa in the hope of buying her off, but her virtue resists his gold, and they part, in fury on his side, and in anguish on hers. In the meanwhile Celso has engaged Luca to discover the place to which he has conveyed the children, on condition that he is to share six thousand crowns, and Celso is to carry off Elisa. At night the parties prepare for their

The

escape, when, as before, most of the characters are drawn together by some unseen influence, and poor Elisa is thrown into a dungeon. But at the dawn, Celso returns to the cottage of Charlotte, a friend with whom Elisa has resided, and brings the children, and the intelligence that he has delivered Luca over to the police, and, that the Marquis is made acquainted with all the circumstances. last scene is laid in the dungeon, where Elisa is visited by Claudio, her children, Charlotte and Silvia, Celso and the Marquis; and, lastly, comes the Count. The latter is obdurate, and the Marquis urges upon him "philosophy" and forgiveness. Just at this moment, Celso discovers himself, and sues for permission to espouse Silvia. The Marquis is enraged in his turn, and the Count retaliates "filosofia." At length all are made happy by forgiveness.

Such is the story which is delineated, with the quant. suff. of Oh Ciel! figli, consorte, che crudelta! &c. which make up a lyric dramatic poem, as the courtesy of nations entitles these melodramas. The music is by Mercadante, a name new to this country, and is mediocrity itself, with the addition of being a direct imitation of Rossini, in which the copyist has caught the prominent defects of his prototype. It was but coldly received.

The Benefit Concerts have commenced this year rather earlier than usual; that of Mr. Hawes took place on the 18th, and was well attended, and Mr. Greatorex's is fixed for the 25th. It is really curious to observe how little novelty is brought forward. Is it that singers are desirous to avoid the trouble of acquiring new songs, or that the compositions which will display great powers are really so few? Whatever be the cause, the consequence is fatal both to the liv ing composer and to music. The world is excessively tired of standard excellence, the " Benedictus of the Requiem,' "Gratias agimus," and "A Compir," superior as they are.

The Royal Academy of Music has announced a grand concert for the benefit of the institution, at the Operahouse. There ought to be no fear of an audience, for the King, and the Duke of York, and Prince Leopold, and half the fashionable world, are patrons,

presidents, vice-presidents, directors, trustees, and committee men; and all the musicians in London are to perform. The public will hardly fail to patronize with all its powers an institution, which, with its ponderous and mighty apparatus of directors, committee, and sub-com mittee (to say nothing of others enu merated above) boards, principal, master and matrons, professors and secretary, already actually supports and instructs TEN little boys, and as many little girls, in music; the professors, Messrs. Beale, Bochsa, Cramer, Hülmandel, &c. giving them lessons of a quarter of an hour each at a time. It is, however, no joke; for there never was perhaps so expensive a farce got up "by particular desire of several persons of distinction."

The Concert is in three acts, the first of which is a selection from Dr. Crotch's Palestine; the second and third are miscellaneous. The whole embraces the very finest modern compositions, and some of greater age and more established excellence. Each act has its leader; Messrs. F. Cramer, Spagnoletti, and Mori. Dr. Crotch, the "principal," conducts. The professors, whose benefit nights are rapidly following, will feel the effects of this grand absorbent, should

it attract the patronage which as a Concert it deserves, but of which as an Institution, upon its present plan, it seems very little worthy.

The publications of the month are comparatively few.

Cramer, for the pianoforte, he describes in A Fourteenth Divertimento, by Mr. the title page as "piu tosto nello stile Ita liano." The introduction and cantabile movement have much of the smoothness of Italian manner; but the Siciliano has more of Irish character about it. The lesson combines variety and contrast with grace and expression.

Mr. Moscheles' Fantasia on three fåvourite Scotch Airs is full of genius and

power.

Mr. Kalkbrenner has published Twelfth Fantasia, in which is introduced Auld lang syne. This air has been al ready often and variously arranged: its present adaptation is a sufficient test of the originality of Mr. Kalkbrenner's conceptions.

Mr. Neale's Rondo on Spazza Commin, a Venetian Ariette, is a production of much

taste.

The arrangements (which indeed are the most numerous publications) are three books of select airs from Rossini's Pietro l'Eremitá, by Mr. Latour; Graun's Te Deum, arranged by Mr. Burrowes for harp and pianoforte, and as a duet for the latter; and the Third Number of Bruguier's dramatic divertimentos.

ICE CAVES OF THE JURA AND ALPS.

Professor Pictet, of Geneva, has published an account of these caves, of which there are two in the chain of the Jura; one called La Baume, five leagues from Besançon; the other St. George, in the slope of the Jura, 5000 toises to the north-west of Rolle. Two others, which likewise contain ice all summer, are found in the mountains of Faucigny; the one on that called Brezon to the south of Bonneville, the other on the southwest declivity of Mount Vergy. M. de Cosigny visited the cavern La Baume, in August, 1743, and in October, 1745. According to his account, it is sixty-four toises in length, and twenty-two in breadth, at the widest part; the bottom inclines downwards very rapidly from the entrance; the height varies from ten to fifteen

toises. De Cosigny found in his first visit, in August, that Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 33° in the cave, while in the open air it was at 77°. In October it was at 39o in the interior, and at 50° with'out. At both times, the bottom of the cavern presented a surface of ice, with a little water in its cavities. Professor Prevost, who visited this cavern in 1769, states, that it appeared divided into three compartments: on entering it, in the middle of August, he felt a chilling cold, and was struck with the appearance of a mass of ice fed by the water, which constantly fell drop by drop from the roof. The cavern was entirely covered, from the entrance to where the bottom begins to rise, with a cake of ice, in which there was a number of holes filled with water; by sounding

The cavern St. George's is situated in a wood of pines, thinly scattered. There are two entrances to it, at about the distance of twelve feet from each other. The length of its icy surface is seventy-five feet, and the mean width forty feet. In ordinary years it furnishes ice only to a small number of families, but when the winter is such as not to afford enough for the ice-houses of Geneva, recourse is had to it. The working of the ice is the same as that of a quarry. It is cut with appropriate tools into long wedges, and divided by transverse sections, about a foot from each other, and sufficiently deep to enable the workmen to detach blocks of the size of a cubic foot. The extent of the workable surface is 3000 square feet, from which there is carried off every second day, during the summer, about twenty-five quintals, or, in all, about 195,000 lb. At the extremity of this cave, at a certain height against its partitions, there are icy stalactites resembling those of carbonate of lime, formed by the filtration of a small stream of water, which is constantly freezing. The thermometer, at the entrance, stood at 60o Fahrenheit, and, in the middle, at two feet above the floor, at 3410. The cold is so great, that when two blocks of ice are left close to each other on the bottom of the cave, they are, in the course of a few hours, frozen together. The cavern of Mont Brezon is not so large as those already described, being only about thirty-five feet in length, twenty-five in breadth, and ten or twelve in height. The temperature of the interior was 41°. It is impossible to estimate the quantity of ice in it, it is so irregular; part of it seemed to be a remnant of the snow of the preceding year, the remainder was produced by the congelation of the water.

The cave of Mount Vergy is of

Another of these remarkable caves has lately been described by M. Du→ four, Lieutenant-Colonel of engineers. It exists in the side of a rugged mountain called Rothorn, near Thun, the ascent of which is very steep. The rock is calcareous, and of a deep gray colour, mixed with beds of clay,, of from 8 to 12 inches in thickness. The strata are cut by fissures perpendicular to them, and to the general plane of the slope, so that they present externally the appearance of a wall of rouble work. The peaks of the mountains are crowned by a sandstone containing a great many particles of quartz. The ice-house of Rothorn is about 5840 feet above the level of the sea. It is covered by a mass of rocks of 1000 or 1500 feet in thickness, through the numerous fissures of which water passes and falls, drop by drop, into the cave, by which, owing chiefly to its evaporation, it is so much cooled, that it congeals when it reaches the floor, and thus a constant supply of ice is kept up. The height of the cave is at the entrance 25 feet, but it immediately increases to about 50; its width is about 100, and its general form is that of a Z. The first mass of ice is met with where the external light penetrates only in small quantity; consequently it cannot be formed by the winter's snow, which might be driven in by the wind. A little further in the ice covers the floor of the cave, and is so transparent, that the rocks can be easily seen through it. Beyond this, there is an inclined plane of ice, which leads to a magnificent hall, from the sides of which are suspended large masses or stalagmites of ice, the surface of which seems to be constantly undergoing evaporation. Though the heat of the external air was considerable, a thermometer at different places in the grotto never rose above 38°. The

extremity of this cavern is called Shafflock or Sheeps-hole, from its affording an asylum to those animals, from the burning heat of the sun, and when surprised by a storm.

In attempting to account for the formation of ice in these caves, Pictet states, that we must have recourse to some local cause, as it does not depend on the winter's snow, or the temperature of the earth; for in those latitudes the mean heat is far above the freezing point. It was remarked that there always issued a stream of cold air from the different openings connected with them, which, constantly exciting evaporation from the surface of the water, must produce a great degree of cold. This is supported by numerous facts. Thus there are many caves so formed, as to allow a continual flow of air through them, and which is many degrees colder at its exit than at its entrance. In one near Rome, the air as it entered was at 78°, but, as it issued, it was as low as 44°. The same is the case in many instances, there being a difference of from 15° to 20°, or even 30°, in the temperature of the air; and in all of them, the hotter the summer, the greater is the strength of the current. This is occasioned by the difference in the weight of the external and internal air, the heaviest rushing out, and having its place supplied by a current lighter and warmer, which, by accelerating evaporation, is itself cooled, and produces a great degree of cold in the cave-in those just described, perhaps sufficient to cause the water to freeze; for it is well known that water may be frozen by the cold excited merely by its evaporation.

HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE

PARROT.

The Greeks seem at first to have known only one species of parrot, imported from the East by one of the captains of Alexander's fleet. Aristotle speaks of it as a rare bird. Their beauty and faculty of speech soon made them objects of high request among the luxurious Romans, whom Cato reproached for this puerile attachment. In his time, they kept them in cages of silver and vory, and paid as much for them as for a slave. Till the time of Nero

they knew no other species, when' they were discovered by them in an island, far up the Nile, called Gaganda. The Portuguese, who first doubled the Cape of Good Hope, found the whole coast of Africa, and the islands of the Indian ocean, peopled with various tribes of them, and in such numbers, that they with difficulty preserved the rice and maize from them. They were, however, far inferior to those found in the new world, some of the islands of which are called Parrot Islands, from the immense quantity of parrots that frequented them. The green paroquet, with a red neck, is the first_of_this genus that was brought into Europe, and it is now known only by the description given of it by the ancients. The birds of this class have been arranged in two great divisionsthose of the old and those of the new world; to the former belong cockatoos, parrots, lories, and paroquets ; to the latter, acas, or maccaws, amazons, criks, popinjays, and paroquets.

The lories inhabit the Moluccas, New Guinea, and other Asiatic islands. Owing to their powerless flight, the inhabitants of one island are quite different from those of the adjacent one. The touis or short tailed parrakeets, are the smallest of all the American parrots. They are of the size of a sparrow, and are, in general, incapable of speech.

Buffon supposed that parrots were confined to within twenty-five degrees on each side of the Equator; but in this he is incorrect. A species called the Carolina parrot inhabits Guiana, and migrates into Virginia and Carolina. Another species, the Illinois parrot, goes from South America far northward, being common on the banks of the Ohio and the southern shores of lake Erie. A third species, the emerald parrot, exists in the neighbourhood of the Straits of Magellan, and various others occur in different quarters. Of this splendid genus there are no less than 239 species.

ACTION OF HEAT AND COMPRESSION ON FLUIDS.

It is well known that, by means of a Papin's digester, fluids may have their temperature raised far above their boiling point, but at the same time, they are subjected to a

very great pressure from the vapour generated, which it is supposed would prove a bar to their complete conversion into the aeriform state. In reflecting on this subject, it occurred to M. de la Tour, that the expansion of a volatile fluid had necessarily some limit, beyond which, notwithstanding the pressure, it would be converted into vapour. To ascertain whether this was the case, he put some alcohol into a small glass tube, so as to occupy nearly two-fifths of it, and sealed it hermetically by a blowpipe. The tube was then cautiously heated, and in proportion as the fluid expanded, its mobility became greater; and after attaining nearly double its volume, it suddenly disappeared, and the tube became filled with a transparent vapour, which, on cooling, formed a thick cloud, and the fluid assumed its original state. A second tube, nearly half full, gave the same result; but one, more than half full, broke on the application of heat. Similar experiments were made with oil of petroleum of specific gravity 807, and with ether, which presented similar results, excepting that the latter required less space than the former to be converted into vapour without breaking the tube, and the petroleum less than alcohol, seeming to indicate that the more a fluid is naturally di lated, the less volume it requires to attain its maximum of expansion. In the above-mentioned experiments, the tubes were exhausted of their air before they were sealed, but it was found that the same occurred though it was left in; the progressive expansion of the fluid was even more easily estimated, as there was no inconvenient ebullition. The last experiment was made with a tube one-third filled with water; the glass lost its transparency, but broke in a few seconds afterwards. By putting a little carbonate of soda along with the fluid, its action on the glass was in a great measure prevented, and the effects of heat and compression on it were observed. It was found that at the temperature of about melting zinc it passed into vapour in a space nearly four times that of its original volume; whereas alcohol, petroleum, and ether, undergo the same change in a volume rather exceeding twice that of the fluid. The pressure exerted during

the change of form, De la Tour found varied in the different fluids subjected to experiment. By exposing them to heat in a particular apparatus, he ascertained that alcohol may be reduced to vapour in a space rather less than three times its bulk, and that it then exerts a pressure equivalent to that of 119 atmospheres, while the pressure of ether, converted into vapour, is only 37 atmospheres; the former requiring a temperature of 392 F. the latter of 492. These experiments promise to lead to interesting results, as it is likely that, by the joint action of heat and pressure, substances may be made to combine which cannot otherwise be united, and thus their action on each other may be ascertained. FLUID IN THE CAVITIES OF CRYSTALS.

"

A fluid of a very singular nature, has been discovered by Dr. Brewster in the cavities of minerals. It possesses the remarkable property of expanding thirty times more than water, and by a heat from 75 to 83 it enlarges, so as to occupy the cavity which contained it, and resumes its original state as the temperature falls. It is remarkable for its optical properties and for its extreme volubility, adhering very slightly to the sides of the crystal. It is almost always accompanied by another fluid like water, with which it does not mix, and which does not perceptibly expand at the above-mentioned temperature. In a specimen of chrysoberil, Dr. Brewster has discovered a stratum of these cavities in which he has reckoned thirty thousand in the space of one-seventh of an inch square, each containing this new fluid, a portion of the liquid like water, and a vacuity, all of which vacuities disappear at the temperature of 83, being then filled by the expanded fluid.

VARIATION IN THE BULBS OF THERMOMETERS.

Mr. Flauguergues has observed, that in mercurial thermometers, in which there is a vacuum above the mercury, the freezing point has gradually risen nine-tenths of a degree, and has gone on increasing for years, which is attributed to a change of form occasioned on the bulb by the pressure of the air; he therefore recommends that their stems should be left open, so that the pressure on the outside and inside may be the same.