had

In consequence of taking part in the negotiations between Persia and Russia, the Embassy left Tabriz, on the 7th September, for the Georgian frontier, visiting in this journey a country new to geography. The second day found them upon a region of wild and barren mountains, with the salt river Agi flowing in a deep valley below. The soil is so salt that all the water is brackish.

among the Persians, who, by being buried in his vicinity, hope to form part of his suite to paradise, on the day of resurrection. The whole exterior of the tombs, as seen from this court, exhibit the approach of ruin. The small cupola which covers the mausoleum of the Sheikh has given way in several places, and has already lost a great number of its varnished tiles, whilst the rents and fissures in the walls do not announce a much longer duration to them.

of the brothers prayed to be kept from en- | those of Persia. This wonderful innova- | testified the high reputation of the Sheikh thusiasm! A girl of six years of age be- tion is the work of the Prince, and bids came the next object of attention. A re-fair to have an extraordinary effect on the verend brother proclaimed that she " future destiny of the country. just received a visit from the Lord, and was in awful convulsions-so hard was the working of the spirit!" This scene continued for so.ne time; but the audience gradually lessened, so that by ten o'clock the field of active operations was considerably contracted. The women, however, forming a compact column at the most distant corner of the church, continued their shriekings with but little abatement. Feeling disposed to get a nearer sight of the beings who sent forth such terrifying yells, I endeavoured to approach them, but was stopped by several of the brethren, who would not allow of a near approach towards the holy sisterhood. The novelty of this exhibition had, at first sight, rendered it a subject of amusement and interest; but all such feelings soon gave way to an emotion of melancholy horror, when I considered the gloomy picture it represented of human nature, and called to mind that these maniacal fanatics were blaspheming the holy name of Christianity. Notwithstanding my warm love of liberty, I felt that, were ĺ an absolute lawgiver, I would certainly punish and restrain men who thus

On entering the first large hall we were stopt by a silver grating, where we were obliged to take off our shoes; and here we remarked the veneration of the Persians for the threshold of a holy place; a feeling that they preserve in some degree even for the threshold of their houses. Before they ventured to eross it they knelt down and kissed it, whilst they were very careful not to touch it with their feet. In writing to a Prince, or a great personage, it is common for them to say, Let me make the dust

On the 5th of October, Mr. Morier arrived at the Russian camp on the River Araxes, close at the foot of two very remarkable mounds, said to be the work of Tamerlane, who, in order to leave a testimony to posterity of the immense army under his command, ordered every soldier to fill his horse's tobrah, or of your threshold into surmeh (collyrium) corn-bag, with earth, and to deposit it for my eyes." The large hall was beautiin one place. These monuments, how-fully painted and ornamented; and from its ever, were not more striking than two ceiling were suspended silver lamps and others seen shortly after in the valley of lanterns made of talc, whilst its floor was covered with carpets, upon which, placed Khoi, thus described :upon reading boards, were several copies rendered almost unserviceable. At the

We rode in the evening to see two Kel

degraded their nature, who set so wicked leh Minar (pillars of sculls,) which are the of the Koran, but which time and use had

an example of religious blasphemy, and so foully libelled the name and character of

revelation.

I have since understood that one of the female converts upon this occasion had been turned away from her situation the previous evening for stealing five dollars.

66

A gentleman informed me that he was at "Ebenezer" a few days since, when the preacher stopped in the midst of his discourse, and directed those among his audience who were for King Jesus to stand up. Numbers of men and women immediately rose, shouting, "I am for Jesus," "I am for Jesus," "I am for King Jesus." "Oh, that I could press him to my bosom!" "There he comes." "I am for King Jesus." I am informed that these exhibitions are neither singular in occurrence nor partial in extent, and feel at a loss to account for such fanatical enthusiasm in this country. (To be concluded in our next.)

Morier's Second Journey through Persia.
4to. pp. 435.
(Continued.).

We always renew with pleasure our intercourse with this volume. After the dispatch of political business at Teheran, the Ambassador and suite proceeded to Tabriz, where the Prince Royal, Abbas Mirza, held his court, being the chief city of his government. Here they found Persian soldiers, foot, horse, and even horse artillery, disciplined in the European mode, with shaven chins, and English arms and accoutrements. European military honours were added to

memorials of an extraordinary hunt of
Shah Ismael, who in one day is said to have furthest end of this hall is the tomb of
killed a multitude of wild goats, the heads Sheikh Seffi, and to approach it we mount-
and horns of which were arranged in thicked one high step, which is bounded by a
lines round two pillars of brick. Some less second silver grating, and then came to a
credulous, affirm that these heads were the gateway plated with gold, beyond which we
were not permitted to advance. Through
produce of the sport of one year, which I
think most likely; although it is allowed this gate we discovered the tomb, covered
with brocades and shawls, and upon the
that the flocks of goats and antelopes on
the mountains to the northward of Khoi, summit of which were placed bunches of
feathers, ostriches' eggs, and other orna-
are more numerous than it is easy either to
ments. Among the offerings, a golden
count or to conceive.
ewer, set with precious stones, was the
most conspicuous; and this, we were in-
formed, had been presented by Homayoun
Shah. This Prince was the son of Baber

From the wood-cut they seem to be from 25 to 30 feet in height, and about five feet in diameter.

It was during this part of their Per- Sultaun, a lineal descendant of the great sian travels that our countrymen rested. Timour or Tamerlane, and occupied the to a conspiracy formed against him beat Ardebil, a town of about 4000 inha-Mogul throne in the year 1530, but owing tween his brother and his Vizier he was

bitants:

The principal object of curiosity at Arde-obliged to take refuge in Persia at the cours bil is the mausoleum of Sheikh Sefli, of Shah Thamas, who recovered his throne founder of the Seffevian family, which gave for him, which he possessed until the year so many celebrated kings to the throne of 1552. He was the father to Jelaleddeen Persia. He lived at Ardebil when Tamer- Akbar, and ancestor to Jehangeer, Shahlane conquered Bajazet I., and was so cele- jehan, Aurengzebe, and those princes us under the title of Great brated for his sanctity, that that great con- known to queror held him in high esteem, and out of Moguls.* regard to him released the prisoners he had made in Asia Minor, whom he had reserved to kill on some extraordinary occasion.

The first approach to the tomb is by the gate at the NW. angle of the town, which leads into a street, composed of a brick wall on the left side, and of the habitations of the priests attached to the foundation, on the right. We then passed through a smaller gateway, faced with slabs of Tabriz marble, which brought us into a court filled with tomb-stones, which by their numbe

Close to the tomb of the Sheikh are those of his sons, who are said to have commenced these different buildings, but which were completed, beautified, and endowed by the great Shah Abbas. To the left, in a small dark room, is the tomb of Shaa Ismael, the first king of the Seffevies, which is overlaid by a very beautiful casement of fine work like mosaic, composed of ivory,. tortoise-shell, and turquoises, inlaid witlu

* Vide d'Herbelot, art. Homaioun.

passages from the Koran, and which, in our estimation, was the most valuable, as well as the most curious object that we had yet seen in this place. This also was a present from Homayoun Shah.

When on the banks of the Araxes a singular phenomenon occurred:

a storehouse. Not far from it is a place
where the Serdar casts and bores guns and
makes shot. His palace is also within the fort,
and has all the appearance of having once
been a fine and substantial building. Its
chief apartment opens upon the precipice
of the river, and commands a very beauti-
ful view, with the Zengui running close
under it. It is from the window of this
apartment that the Serdar amuses himself
by trying his skill with a gun, and shooting
with ball the asses of the peasants who hap-
pen to be going along the road on the other
side of the river.

SIXTY-FIVE SONNETS; with Prefatory Remarks on the accordance of the Sonnet with the powers of the English Language, &c. Anonymous. London 1818. pp. 124.

The author being a writer of Sonnets, in his preface maintains their cause: we, being only readers, and, we confess, generally not very willing or partial readers of Sonnets, will have nothing to do with the argument. One Idea (if indeed there be one) in fetters, is the common lot of this species of composition; and when a rare example of excellence occurs, it must be acknowledged that it is often unmeritedly mingled in contempt with its associating rubbish.

This part of the country had not been refreshed with rain for forty days, and as ill luck would have it for us, it set in on the day of our arrival, accompanied by unceasing thunder and frequent lightning. It rained during the whole of the night, and so soaked our tents, that they were not in a fit The palace occupies nearly one half of state to be moved, and consequently, we the side of the castle towards the river, and were obliged to remain during the 5th at the women's apartments, the windows of Nasik. In the evening, we witnessed a which are screened with lattice work, look very curious phenomenon, the sky was immediately upon the precipice. During overcast with tempestuous looking clouds, the war with Russia, an occurrence took and we were expecting a shower, when a place, which would form a very good founmost awful noise was heard, like the rush-dation for a romance. In one of the predaof a great body of water. Every man in tory excursions into Georgia, the Serdar the camp, almost as if by general agree- made prisoner and placed in his harem, a ment, ran towards the place whence the young Georgian maid, who had been benoise came, expecting to find a rapid tor- trothed, and was on the point of marriage rent flowing through the bed of a small to a fine youth; the youth followed his river adjacent to the camp. Having arrived mistress to Erivan, and having made known there, we saw no water. Still the noise his arrival to her, they managed to escape The sixty-five specimens in the volume increased, and appeared to approach close for a short distance, but their steps were before us, are divisible, in our estimato us: we then became really alarmed, for traced, and they were brought back. The tion, into bad, tolerable, and good. nothing could be more awful. Every one lover was ordered to leave Erivan, and as expected either a hurricane or an earth- he was going over the bridge of the Zen-Among the bad, or unworthy, we reckon quake, when the falling of some very gui, which flows at the bottom of the preci- the xvIIIth and xxxiid; among the good large hail stones, nearly of the size of pi-pice, his mistress spied him, and threw or ingenious we class the viith, xivth, herself down from the immense height, de-xvth, xxist, and LVIIth; and the greater termining either to join him, or to die in number of the remaining body must be the attempt. Her fall was broken by the content with our assigning them the intervention of two willows, and she was rank of tolerable or middling, neither taken up much bruised, but not very dan- offending by any gross defects, nor degerously hurt. It must be told to the honour of the Serdar, that he did not carry lighting by any remarkable beauties. his tyranny further, but restored the couple to each other, gave them their liberty, and protection to return to their homes.

geon's eggs, informed us that the commotion was over our heads; and on looking up, we could plainly discover two violent currents of air impelling the clouds different ways, whose concussion produced the rush which had before appeared inexplicable. The rain drove from their holes many noxious reptiles that infest this part of the country, and we ourselves killed a scorpion, a tarantula, and a snake.

At Erivan, not far distant from the spot where this curious phenomenon was encountered,

This Serdar is, however, a great monopolizer; besides taking one third of their produce from his Armenian peasantry,

Those who interfere with his trade are

The fort has the reputation of being the strongest in Persia, and the failure of the Russians some years ago to take it by sure to suffer most severely; yet his rapastorm, has increased its fame an hundred city is not always successful, as a story refold; so much so, that the Serdar (com-lated to us on the spot may prove. During mandant) talking about it, said very gravely, the cessation of arms with the Russians, he "If three or four of the Kings of Fireng prohibited by the orders of his court, but (Europe) were to unite to take this castle, much against his own will, all the chapthey might just take the trouble of going pours, or predatory excursions, to which his back again, for their labour would be in troops were accustomed. But having heard vain." It stands on one side of an immense of a large caravan richly laden, that was precipice of almost perpendicular rock, at travelling from Teflis, he called some of his the bottom of which flows the river Zengui, soldiers about him, and said, "You know and on the other side it is surrounded by a that we are strictly ordered to abstain from dry ditch, over which are temporary chappow on the Russian territory, and a bridges. It has a double range of mud caravan is now on its road from Teflis:" walls, and round towers, which could not the hint was sufficient, and they immestand three hours' good battering. The in- diately departed to see what might be done. terior of the fort is in great measure com- A few days after, the Serdar's travelling posed of rained houses. An exceedingly merchant arrived in the greatest distress, good mosque, built by the Turks, of brick saying, that as he was proceeding with the and stone, and crowned with cupolas co- caravan from Teflis with great quantities of vered with lead, stands conspicuous in rich goods for the Serdar's service, he had the centre. It is now only used by way of been plundered of every thing by a band of

We shall make our first quotation from the favourable side.

THE WALL-FLOWER.

I will not praise the often-flattered rose,
Or, virgin like, with blushing charmis half seen,
All her magn ficence of state she shows;
Or, when in dazzling splendor like a queen,
No, nor that nun-like lily, which but blows

Beneath the valley's cool and shady screen;
Still eyes the orb of glory where it glows;-
Nor yet the sun-flower that with warrior mien,
But thou, neglected wall-flower, to my breast
And muse art dearest, wildest, sweetest flower,
To whom alone the privilege is given

Proudly to root thyself above the rest
As gerus does, and, from thy rocky tower,
Lend fragrance to the purest breath of heaven.

noun.

There are several anacreontic, or, as | spiritment," which is used in the last of the author writes, " anacreontique," and them, is unknown to us as an English these seem to breathe as genuine an abhorrence of water, as if inspired by the bite of a mad dog instead of Apollo and the Muses. The prettiest fancy in any of these is the following conclusion: Look, where a tinted rose-leaf, midst our joy, Hath thrown itself into my brimming glass, To give the rich, red juice a brighter zest:

The minutes, thus, thou tell'st us we destroy In wild unthinkingness, are spent the best,

Shedding a charm on all the rest we pass.

A conceit of this sort is quite enough for a sonnet, but surely it can never be imagined that the mighty soul of Genius can find occasion or room to display itself in such trifles, or within such bounds. That Ireland should not be compared to an emerald, but to a blood-stone," which would show at once the greenness and the sanguiue stains," is the burthen of another of these poems; and another still, is constructed on the advice to love in old age as well as in youth, since Venus is an evening as well as a morning star. Now this is all very agreeable as far as it goes, but a poor foundation for the lofty pretensions of Sonneteers. Still less can they be supported by fourteen lines which prefer ale to wine, because the latter

All restraint has pride in scorning, Full soon grows riotous and knocks you down, Gives you a tossing sickness through the night, Perhaps a quarrel to adjust next morning.

Or by such thoughts or versification as the following:

O Woman, thou, who, for an hour of vanity,
Oft doom'st another to an age of pain,
To mar a heart and cast it back again,.
Favours, soft creature, nothing of humanity;
And know, 'tis only reasonless inanity

To ask "what tie can bind thee to retain,"
And say, "the bondage of thy rosy chain
Can little harm the most unstable sanity:"
For, as within the gentlest grasp continuing
The butterfly assured misfortune brings,
So love, alack! is such a tender minion,

That if ye hold him, e'en in silken strings,
Ye chafe the fragile plumage from his wings,
And haply, too, for ever, lame his pinion.
More puerile ideas, a more unfortunate
choice of rhymes, and less intelligible
meaning, could scarcely be compressed
into one sonnet. But we have dwelt
long enough on this publication, wherein,
as our extracts demonstrate, are to be
found some compositions indicative of
fancy and talent; and others (such as
the preceding) which it is strange that any
person possessed of these qualifications
could write. A few miscellaneous poems
are added to the Sonnets, of nearly
similar merits, and rather easy and pleas-
ing than otherwise. The word "
* Quære woman.

en

Travels in Italy and Sicily. By Augustus
William Kephalides.

These Travels, from which, while they were
still in the press, we gave the interesting

account of the author's "Visit to Mount
Etna," (see Nos. 52, 53, 54, of the Literary
Gazette,) are now published. We shall
make some further extracts from this well-
written and entertaining work.

in

geography already begins to shew itself VENICE. The ignorance of the Italians here. When we shewed to the police officers, who are very polite, our passports to Padua, they first took the name of our native city, Breslau, for our own names, and registered it as such, and then mistook the capital of Silesia far Barcelona in Spain.

ple flocked from all quarters to see it; and how diminutive is it, compared to the largest churches of Europe! not to mention St. Peter's. The dweiling-houses must have been still more confined, which is

most clearly to be seen at Pompeii. The

ancients in their houses must have crowded fore they examine the remains of antiquity, one upon another like swine. People, beshould carefully clip the wings of all extra

vagant ideas.

TIVOLI.-We would advise no traveller, virons of Naples, to make the little journey particularly if he has seen Sicily, or the enfrom Rome to Tivoli with great hopes of findthing to be seen besides some pillars of the ing remarkable antiquities, as there is noturesque, indeed, but extremely confused Villa of Mæcenas, except the very picruins of the immense Villa of Adrian :of all the other villas, of which Tivoli was the centre, there are scarcely any traces. On the other hand, how inconceivably ROME. In many parts you cannot take charming and delightful, in this loveliest a step without treading on antiquities a spot of Italy, is Nature. Never did the thousand years old. We once saw an an- fancy of a Poussin or of a Claude Lorraine, the figure, fixed in a wall as a corner stone; so soft, diversified, and wondrously sweet, tique pedestal, with the half-broken fect of dream of a landscape, so complete in itself, in the square Pescaria lie unsavoury fish troughs, on the broken pillars of a Tem- eyes. Where are the olive trees so fresh as Nature really paints at Tivoli before our ple of Juno; in the Forum of Nerva, be- and green, the pines and cypresses so slentween the magnificent colonnade of a Tem-der and lofty, the mountains so beautifully ple of Minerva, is a miserable dram shop; rounded, and so wildly torn? Where do the and in the golden house of Nero, asses are crystal-waters so rush in milk-white streams fed with thistles. In the Colosseum, where down the rocks, the brows of which are processions are made with bells and cenformerly men and beasts combated, sacred crowned with ruins two thousand years old? Where is the sky so blue and golden, sers; and, but a short time ago, flowers the air so balsamic, and the evening red so blossomed against the house of a poor fa- glowing? No Idyl of Theocritus equals the mily, which had fixed itself between the poetic charm of this delicious Paradise. pillars of the Temple of Concord, where Cicero poured forth the thunders of his eloquence against the wretched Catiline. A paltry traffic is carried on in the theatre of Marcellus; and we could not enter the sepulchre of the virtuous Caius Publius, the inside of it being hung full of hams and sausages.

THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF THE AN

THE ROMAN NOBILITY.-Many of them are dreadfully reduced by the circumstances of the times: thus Prince Rospoli thanks God that he has become Burgomaster in Tivoli; he who was once the possessor of a palace, the staircase of which alone was worth half a million. (The Scala de' Gaetani.)

THE MUSEUM OF KIRCHER, AT ROME.Here, among other rarities, we saw an old skait hanging up. Upon our expressing our surprise at it, we were told that it was an instrument the Turks made use of. Thus, in the Vatican, a volume of German poems, in the title-page of which there catalogue as a Treatise on Astronomy. were some asterisks, were set down in the

CIENTS. It is highly probable that they
were all built on a very small scale. This
is proved by the existing remains of Roman
temples and similar edifices. The three
great halls on the ria sacra, whether they
belonged to the Temple of Peace which
ancient writers, made the largest and most
Vespasian, according to the testimony of
magnificent in Rome, or to some other pub- THE COLOSSEUM.-The aspect of the
lic building, form one of the greatest ruins of Amphitheatre of Flavius Vespasianus, is
their kind; and yet they are scarcely as large beyond every thing colossal, and almost op-
as one of the chapels attached to St. Peter's pressive. The rent walls tower into the
in the Vatican. The church of St. Lo- evening sky, and the moon shines through
renzo, in Miranda, one of the smallest and the compartments of the upper story, as if
fully as large as the celebrated Temple of the vast edifice. This awe-inspiring sight,
most inconsiderable in Rome, is, however, it were a lantern suspended in the midst of
Faustina: the great effect which all an- shews at once the character and the energy
cient buildings produce upon the mind and of all the ages of Rome together, for the Co-
the eye, has most likely been the cause that losseum rises with such commanding ma-
a far too high idea has been given of their jesty and savage gloom, from its profound
size. The Temple of the Olympian Jupi- sepulchre to the skies, that it seems to
ter at Girgenti (Agrigentum,) was the threaten to crush the whole world like a
most colossal of antiquity, and so large, dwarf. After the Ave Maria you may not
that it was indeed never finished, yet peo-enter in o't; and that it may not become

History of the Revolutions of Norway, &c.
By J. P. Catteau Calleville.

(Concluded.)

the abode of robbers, guards are stationed | ravaged the Danish coasts, and even car- Dalecarlia, but he overpowered his foes by at the entrances. Nay, even when we ap- ried his barbarity so far as to throw a number his eloquence. He possessed himself of the proached it a little too near, the Popish of women and children into the sea, to throne by feats of valour, and maintained soldiers, thinking undoubtedly no good of lighten the burden of his ships during a his power successively against the people, us, called to us, alarmed, "Remain a stone's tempest. In the account of this war, our the priests, the nobles, and foreign armies. throw from me, or else I shall fire!" In historian does not agree with Meursius; he When excommunicated by Celestine III. at reality these guards have their arms gene- differs from him on a number of essential the instigation of the Archbishop of Dronrally loaded with ball. points; but the version of Torfilus, which theim, who refused to officiate at his corohe adopts, is founded on acts the date and nation, Sverrer, smiled at the fury of the authenticity of which cannot be doubted. Vatican, made his Confessor a Bishop, and Harald III. turned his arms and his am- obtained the royal unction in his own way. bition towards England, immediately after His clergy were reduced to the necessity the death of Edward the Confessor, whose of predicting that he would be devoured by crown was disputed by the son of Godwin wild beasts; but the hero, when on the The Danish monarch and one of the and William the Conqueror. Harald of point of expiring, insisted on being carried Princes having visited England, Olaus Ha- Norway sailed to England with six hun-out in the midst of the people, to prove raldson, a branch of the royal family, took dred ships, gained two pitched battles, and that the prophets had spoken falsely, and advantage of their absence to reascend the took the city of York. A third battle, that he should die a natural death. His throne of his ancestors. He had fought as however, decided the victory in favour of heirs were so proud of his memory, that, in an adventurer in Great Britain, Spain, and the English. "What will you grant him?" their public acts, they frequently took the Italy. He appeared before his mother in said one of Harald's Lieutenants to the son title of Descendants of the Great Sverrer. all the pomp of a conqueror and a king, tri- of Godwin, previous to this last battleAbout a hundred years later, at the comumphed over his rivals, carried off the "Seven feet of ground," replied the Eng-mencement of the 14th century, the last daughter of the king of Sweden, established lish Prince. The Norwegian indeed gained male of this family died. The female Christianity in his dominions, and waged no more. He perished amidst the confu- branch conveyed the crown to the house of war against Canute the Great, king of Den- sion; but twenty days after, his proud ad- the Folkungians, who possessed the throne mark, who required that he should relin-versary shared the same fate on the field of of Sweden, and who, becoming extinct in quish a portion of Norway. He was repulsed Hastings. their turn, left to Margaret of Waldemar by this formidable riva!; but he returned The dynasty of the Ynglingians subse- the glory of founding a powerful empire, at the head of a numerous army of Swedes, quently produced twenty Princes more or by the union of the three crowns of the rallied three thousand of his subjects, and less celebrated, who, during the space of north. From that time Norway had no perished like a monarch at the battle of two hundred and fifty years, hurled each particular sovereign. The sport and vicStiklastad, in August 1033. He was sur- other from the throne, and covered Norway tim of the families who rose up in Denmark named the Great during his lifetime, and with the corpses of their subjects, or of the and Sweden, and who contended for the was made a Saint after his death. Churches auxiliaries which were sent to them by triple diadem, Norway passed from one to were erected to his memory, in all the em- neighbouring monarchs. Amidst these dis- the other according to the caprices of that pires of the north of Europe. The kings of cords, in which all right was decided by fortune which is too often the accomplice Norway were crowned under his auspices, force, the ambition of the Archbishops of tyranny and iniquity. It finally became and he was regarded as the Patron of the of Drontheim, the Primates of the kingdom, subject to Denmark, and was governed by kingdom. was remarkable:-they constantly endea- the Counts of Holstein Oldenburg, whom The battle of Stiklastad having placed voured to raise their patriarchal mitre above the Danish Senators raised to the throne of Norway under the dominion of Canute the the crown. One of these Prelates, taking Copenhagen. The slave of a foreign desGreat, who already possessed the crowns advantage of the infancy of Magnus V. and tiny, the only glory of Norway is to have of Denmark and England, he transferred it the imbecility of his guardian, stipulated produced some illustrious navigators, who to his son Sweyn, whose mother was an that in future the crown should be at the have re-discovered Greenland, sought a English concubine. Sweyn, instead of disposal of St. Olaüs, the patron of his northern passage to America, and fought taking measures to legitimatize his usurpa- Metropolitan See; reserving to himself the to make the Danish flag respected in the tion, did all that would have overthrown privilege of awarding it, in the name of the wars in which France, Holland, and the most legitimate government. He con-holy king, with the consent of the bishops, England have contended for the empire of ferred honours on the Danes, loaded the abbots, and nobles. About a century after, the ocean. The people of Norway no longer Norwegians with taxes and humiliations, Magnus VI. destroyed this compact, so in- interfered in the political transactions of and provoked by every means the pride and jurious to the dignity of the throne. The Denmark, except for the maintenance of hatred of his subjects. Archbishop, however, maintained the right their privileges. They, by degrees, accusPrince Magnus, the son of St. Olaüs, of coining money, and his successors fre- tomed themselves to the sad dependance to who had fled to Russia, took advantage of quently endeavoured to resume their autho- which fate had reduced them; and, though their just discontent. He appeared in Nor-rity; they bathed the kingdom in blood, Norway had descended from the rank of a way, was acknowledged by the nation, and on account of their politics, and always nation to that of a province, they valiantly constantly proved himself worthy of his headed the party in opposition to the Mo-defended the integrity of their territory happiness. Attacked by an ambitious in-narch; but Luther's reformation penetrated against the armies of Sweden. There fell dividual of his own family, he experienced into Norway and destroyed this haughty that madman, Charles XII., whose follies the fidelity of his people. Harald, his uncle have had so great an influence on the fate and rival, would have failed in his enterof Poland and Europe, by the increase prise had he not been assisted by the Swedes. which they gave to the Muscovite power. Through them he obtained a share of the Norwegian crown, of which, on the death of Magnus, he became sole possessor. This Monarch is the only one who was supported by his subjects, because he is the only one who considered their interests in his institutions and pacific administration. The ernel Harald was not formed to enjoy his inheritance. He carried on an obstínate war against Sweyn, king of Denmark,

power.

Among this multitude of kings, who may almost be termed a race of barbarians, some extraordinary characters occasionally rose up. M. Catteau Calleville has collected a number of noble traits, which rouse the attention, and excite in the mind of the reader a kind of chivalrous, elevation and enthusiasm. Sverrer, one of the greatest heroes which this dynasty produced, was reared amidst the tumult of factions. He was on the point of being assassinated among the mountaineers of

The three kingdoms of the North enjoyed long tranquillity after his death. The Norwegians drew resources from their mines and forests, extended their trade, devoted themselves to the arts and sciences, and founded academies, which have produced illustrious poets and philosophers. The French revolution extended its influence even to this nation, so near the pole, and king Charles John has at length united it

gular, sometimes not visiting certain districts parties of the inhabitants, from all parts of for several years in any considerable num-the adjacent country, came with waggons, bers, while at other times they are innu- axes, beds, cooking utensils, many of them merable. I have witnessed these migrations accompanied by the greater part of their in the Genessee country-often in Pennsyl- families, and encamped for several days at vania, and also in various parts of Virgi- this immense nursery. Several of them nia, with amazement; but all that I then informed me that the noise in the woods saw of them were mere straggling parties, was so great as to terrify their horses, and when compared with the congregated mil- that it was difficult for one person to hear lions. which I have since beheld in our wes- another speak without bawling in his ear. tern forests, in the states of Ohio, Ken- The ground was strewed with broken limbs tucky, and the Indiana territory. These of trees, eggs, and young squab Pigeons, fertile and extensive regions abound with which had been precipitated from above, the nutritious beech nuts, which constitute on which herds of hogs were fattening. the chief food of the Wild Pigeon. In sea- Hawks, Buzzards, and Eagles, were sailing sons when these nuts are abundant, cor- about in great numbers, and seizing the squabs from their nests at pleasure, while from twenty feet upwards to the tops of the trees, the view through the woods presented a perpetual tumult of crowding and fluttering multitudes of Pigeons, their wings roaring like thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber, for now the axemen were at work cutting down those trees that seemed to be most crowded with nests, and contrived to fell them in such a manner, that in their descent they might bring down several others, by which means the falling of one large tree sometimes produced two hundred squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and almost one mass of fat. On some single trees upwards of one hundred nests were found, each containing one, young bird only, a circumstance in the history of this bird not generally known to naturalists. It was dangerous to walk under these flying and fluttering millions, from the frequent fall of large branches, broken down by the weight of the multitude above, and which in their descent often destroyed numbers of the birds themselves, while the clothes of those engaged in traversing the woods were completely covered with the excrements of the Pigeons.

to Sweden, from which it could never have
been separated but in defiance of the laws
of nature. M. Catteau Calleville, aware
that those events which are nearest us, most
powerfully excite our curiosity, has entered
into a minute detail of this union. He has
annexed to his second volume the acts
which resulted from it, the speeches of
Charles John Bernadotte to the Norwegians,
and the proclamations of that Prince on his
accession to the throne.-We have said
enough to prove the merit of this work;
we must, however, observe, that one half
of the second volume is far from being so
interesting as the rest. The Norwegians
are no longer brought before us, and the
subject of the two last chapters having pre-responding multitudes of Pigeons may be
viously been treated by the historians of confidently expected. It sometimes hap-
Sweden and Denmark, the Author could pens, that having consumed the whole pro-
only repeat what they have said before him. duce of the beech trees in an extensive dis-
The first six chapters, on the contrary, are trict, they discover another at the distance
full of novelty, and present a vast fund of perhaps of sixty or eighty miles, to which
entertainment and information. Perhaps they regularly repair every morning, and
the style is not entirely free from faults; return as regularly in the course of the day
but these faults are too trifling to injure the or in the evening, to their place of general
success of such a work.
rendezvous, or, as it is usually called, the
roosting-place. These roosting-places are
always in the woods, and sometimes occupy
a large extent of forest. When they have
frequented one of these places for some
time, the appearance it exhibits is surpris-
ing. The ground is covered to the depth
of several inches with their dung; all the
tender grass and underwood destroyed; the
surface strewed with large limbs of trees,
broken down by the weight of the birds
clustering one above another; the trees
themselves, for thousands of acres, killed
as completely as if girded with an axe. The
marks of this desolation remain for many
years on the spot; and numerous places
could be pointed out where, for several
years after, scarce a single vegetable had
made its appearance.

AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY.
By Alexander Wilson.
(Concluded.)

We conclude our extracts from this entertaining and useful work, with an account of the extraordinary habits of

The Passenger Pigeon. Columba Migratoria. Vol. IV. p. 102. The Wild Pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide and extensive region of North America, on this side of the Great Stoney mountains, beyond which, to the westward, I have not heard of their being seen. According to Mr. Hutchins they abound in the country round Hudson's Bay, When these roosts are first discovered, where they usually remain as late as De- the inhabitants from considerable distances cember, feeding, when the ground is co- visit them in the night with guns, clubs, vered with snow, on the buds of juniper. long poles, pots of sulphur, and various They spread over the whole of Canada-other engines of destruction. In a few were seen by Captain Lewis and his party near the Great Falls of the Missouri, upwards of two thousand five hundred miles from its mouth, reckoning the meanderings of the river-were also met within the interior of Louisiana, by Colonel Pike, and extend their range as far South as the Gulf of Mexico, occasionally visiting or breeding in almost every quarter of the United States.

But the most remarkable characteristic of these birds is their associating together in their migrations, and also during the period of incubation, in such prodigious numbers, as almost to surpass belief; and which has no parallel among any other of the feathered tribes on the face of the earth, with which naturalists are acquainted.

These migrations appear to be undertaken rather in quest of food, than merely to avoid the cold of the climate, since we find them lingering in the northern regions around Hudson's Bay so late as December; and since their appearance is so casual and irre

When the author was in this part he saw the remains of the vast aviary he has described, but the Pigeons were then settled about 80 miles off, near Green hours they fill many sacks, and load their River; and his own observation of their horses with them. By the Indians, a Pigeon- daily flight in search of food, and return, roost, or breeding-place, is considered an confirms the most exaggerated report of important source of national profit and their incalculable multitude. For many dependance for that season, and all their hours the living torrent poured over active ingenuity is exercised on the occa-head, as thick as the birds could crowd sion. The breeding-place differs from the together, and as far as the eye could see. former in its greater extent. In the wes-The breadth of the body was also very tern countries, above mentioned, these are generally in the beech woods, and often considerable several miles, as was also extend in nearly a straight line across the their new breeding-place. country for an immense way. Not far from Shelbyville, in the state of Kentucky, about five years ago, there was one of these breeding-places, which stretched through the woods in nearly a north and south direction, was several miles in breadth, and was said to be upwards of forty miles in length. The Pigeons made their first appearance there about the 10th of April, and left it altogether, with their young, before the 25th of May.

It was said to be in Green County, and that the young began to fly about the middle of March. On the seventeenth of April, forty-nine miles beyond Danville, and not far from Green River, I crossed this same breeding-place, where the nests, for more than three miles, spotted every tree; the leaves not being yet out, I had a fair prospect of them, and was really astonished at their numbers. A few bodies of Pigeons lingered yet in different parts of the woods, As soon as the young were fully grown, the roaring of whose wings was heard in vaand before they left their nests, numerousrious quarters around me.