It was quite time for him to go in search of another order of human beings, or of some such scenes of nature as might captivate and enlarge the mind independently of man. He took the right direction for both these objects by setting off for Geneva and the Alps.. He engaged a vehicle with two poor horses which were to take him all the way to Geneva. Partly to relieve them, and partly from curiosity and love of little adventures, he performed a great part of the journey on foot, in a series of excursions nearly collateral to the main road, and ending each evening where the voiture was to stop. He saw, of course, a great deal of rural, and some romantic, and even some little passing forms of moral beauty. The melancholy effects of war were the most conspicuous about Sens, where 'the inhabitants having been plundered by three different armies, were left quite destitute, and literally starving' Among the Jura mountains he found himself brought within that dominion of gloomy sublimity, of which he was ambitious to approach even the central majesty. The distant view of the scene he was approaching, was suddenly presented before him. The road now began to descend from these lofty mountains (of Jura) to the vast plain in which is situated the Lake of Geneva, and passing under an arch cut through the solid rock, the whole extent of this immense expanse of water lay beneath our feet, backed by mountains and glaciers, with Mont Blanc, reigning monarch of all around.' и He visited the Chateau de Ferney, of which he briefly describes the apartments, the characteristic decorations, and the memorials of its famous departed proprietor and inhabitant.We visited his chamber,' says the Oxonian, with an awe hich we should not have felt before the tripod of Delphi.'Does he mean that at Delphi he should have had a less forcible impression of the reality of the suspected haunting of an evil spiri: In the slight notices and anecdotes of that personage, there is an apparent effort to magnity the little good belonging to him, and somewhat extenuate the evil. On another day he visited Delices, where Voltaire at one time resided, for the benefit of being within the Genevese territory. Here (he re'marks) we found the bench to which he was carried in his last illness, that he might once more contemplate the majestic beauties of the surrounding scenery before he quitted it for'ever.' This appears an odd statement, when we recollect, what our Author has himself just adverted to, that Voltaire's last illness and his death took place in Paris. 6 Every thing relating to Geneva must be in some degree interesting, especially now when it is a place once more accessible to our countrymen. But we must not let ourselves be detained on the subject, as we have hardly any space for even the descriptions of Alpine scenery, which form the most pleasing part of the book. Two or three short extracts will probably make most readers wish to see the whole. Our Author was, for a genteel promenader of the streets of Oxford, very laudably daring among precipices, glaciers, and torrents. Indeed he had nearly done, at one moment, a great deal more even than he dared. In crossing one of these snow-clad precipices,* from whence a cataract descended, an eagle, which we had disturbed from its solitary abode, hovered over our heads; I gazed up at it from the narrow ledge on which we stood. The stunning roar of the waters, the dark abyss below, and the awfulness of the situation altogether, concurred to confuse the imagination and turn the brain. When I cast my eyes down again, all swam before me, my pole dropped from my hand, and had not my attentive guide caught me at the moment, I must have followed it. p. 125. A little afterwards he was more frightened than endangered. 'We were standing and admiring the stupendous scenery around, when on a sudden the rolling of an avalanche struck our ears: we listened the noise was yet far off but grew louder, and in a few seconds a mountain of snow seemed falling over us. Like the country rat we fled, "A la porte de la salle "Ils entendirent du bruit ; "Et son compagnon le suit." but we knew not where to go. The noise echoed, sometimes on the one side, sometimes on the other; then it seemed afar off in the distant vallies. To put an end at last to our alarms, an avalanche of snow, which caused all the confusion, rolled down with a mighty crash, and covered the rocks we had just been traversing. p. 127. The simile and poetry in this extract will have reminded our readers, that it is very common for persons who have, through terror, made a very sorry figure in unpleasant situations, to endeavour to recover their credit with themselves, as well as others, by affecting gayety and wit in referring to the fright. He was tolerably safe in another magnificent scene, of which the description, like some others that he has given, does, no doubt, excite our envy. 'Having crossed the Arve, and proceeded a few hundred paces *This scholar is continually falling into this blunder of construction, of which, indeed, we observe many writers to be habitually guilty. How could our Oxonian write this sentence without perceiving that he makes the eagle cross the snow-clad precipice? along the edge of the precipice, what a spectacle presented itself! We saw before us the torrent, boiling, angry, throwing its masses of white spray to the height of twenty or thirty feet with a convulsive roar. The rocks by which it rushed staggered, [!] the trees shook. Although at the height of eighty feet above this terrible convulsion, we felt the agitation of the air, and were enveloped in foam and spray.' p. 101. A little further on, 'We approached the torrent of Gias, one of the largest that fall from these mountains, and passed it on foot, upon the blocks of granite which rose above its surface. A prodigious mass of waters precipitated themselves around, rolling huge fragments of rock, trunks of trees, and whatever obstructed their passage, with a frightful noise. In passing this spot our guides told us, that a few days before it had been the grave of a poor peasant girl. Her mule, alarmed at the waters, rushed over the precipice, and was caught by the trunk of a pine, while its ill-fated rider continued falling from rock to rock, and disappeared in the boiling torrent below.' The guides declared there was too much snow for an attempt at Mont Blanc. Was not our Author very glad to hear that? He fully did his duty, however, we will acknowledge, on other eminences, especially Mont Anvert, the account of his ascent of which is highly interesting. And, indeed, in parting with our gay associate, we will fairly acknowledge that this latter part of his book is worthy to be read even by all the literati, young and old, of the celebrated seat of literature to which he belongs. The scenes themselves have a commanding fascination: our Author will not probably lose much by our declining to distinguish and ascertain how much of their effect, in description, they owe to him. We will conclude with one short extract. One evening we visited the extraordinary pass which forms the only communication between the baths of Leuck and the village of Albinen on the heights above. A perpendicular rock, four hundred and twenty feet high, is scaled by nine ladders, placed one above another, and supported only by the projecting crags. An Austrian general, whom curiosity had induced to ascend, a short time before, was so alarmed by the awfulness of his situation when upon the seventh ladder, that he was obliged to be bound hand and foot to it, till assistance could be procured to take him down, when he was carried back insensible to the village. I was glad to find myself safe again at the bottom; yet we were told that the women of the country will go up and down with a dead calf at their backs.' Art. III. Transactions of the Geological Society. Vol. II. 4to. pp. 558. Thirty-nine Plates. Phillips, 1814. IN one of the later volumes of the former series of our Journal, we noticed the First Part of the transactions of this infant S ociety, and anticipated the gratification and instruction the fri iends of science were likely to receive, from the subsequent abours of its members. The collection of papers before us, bears ample testimony to the indefatigable exertions, the philosophic spirit of inquiry, and (for we esteem it a feature not the least worthy of notice in a work of this kind) the moderation and candour of the gentlemen who have contributed to form the volume. The greater part, and, we may without disparagement to the rest safely say, the most valuable part, is from the able pen of the President, Dr. Mac Culloch, who has furnished nine papers out of the twenty-four, all of which throw light upon interesting and difficult parts of the science. As we shall shortly have an opportunity of taking a sketch of the present state of Geology, as a science, in noticing some recent publications on the subject, we shall now, without detaining our readers with any farther preamble, give a short account of the different papers, which, we trust, will be amusing and instructive, even to those persons who are not initiated into the mysteries of Floetz and transition formations. 1. On certain Products obtained in the Distillation of Wood, with some Account of Bituminous Substances, and Remarks on Coal. By J. Mac Culloch, M. D. &c. In the preparation of charcoal for gunpowder, a dense black fluid called tar, is produced. By exposure to heat, this fluid assumes the consistency, appearance, and chemical properties of asphaltum. Dr. Mac Culloch compares this product, with the vegetable resins and bitumen, and shews that it is a new compound, formed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and azote. The carbon and hydrogen constitute its basis as of the bitumens'; and the large proportion of oxygen appears to give it the peculiar properties by which it is distinguished from them. Dr. Mac Culloch then proceeds to illustrate, from the history of this compound, the subject of the conversion of vegetables into coal, which he considers as a bitumen varying as to the facility of yielding naphtha by distillation, from the fattest Newcastle coal to the dryest Kilkenny coal, but not containing charcoal as an admixture, though the extremity of the chain or anthracite is identical with carbon, as the result of the distillation of asphaltun is also charcoal. Afterwards he investigates the diffe rent chemical properties of lignites, as Jet, Bovey coal, &c. and concludes, that the conversion of vegetable matter into bitumen, has been effected by water, and not by fire; but that the alteration of the texture into coal, may be imitated by subjecting the lignites to igneous fusion. The coaly residuum of the wood tar contained, from the distillation having been carried on in iron vessels, so much iron, as to be a real plumbago; and the Doctor hints at the probability of its being produced in a state fit for the arts. Lastly, he shews that this pitch of distilled wood, is the substance called bistre by painters; and describes how its tone and consistency may be improved by chemical means, a desideratum long sought after by artists. II. Mineralogical Account of the Isle of Man. By J. F. Berger. The central and mountainous part of the Isle of Man consists of clay slate, and granite has been found in a mine worked through this stratum near the centre of the island. On the N. W. and S. E. as well as at the southernmost extremity of the island, the grauwacke skirts the clay slate, containing, at Castle-Town, limestone, and at Peeltown and Longness, patches of the old red sandstone. At one place, the granite also rises through this stratum. The northern extremity of the island is covered with a bed of marl and sand. Lead mines were formerly worked in the island, but they are now abandoned; and, for want of geological knowledge, here, as in numerous other places, attempts have been made to discover coal, where no known analogy would indicate its existence. III. On the Granite Tars of Cornwall. By J. Mac Culloch. The Loggingrock or Logan stone, at the Land's End, has been described by most Cornish tourists, and figured by several; but few have been so well qualified for either undertaking, as Dr. Mac Culloch; and as it is an object of equal interest to the artist, the antiquary, and the geologist, we readily transcribe his account of it. on The general height of the mass of granite on which the logging stone is placed, varies from 50 or 80 to 100 feet, and it exhibits all round a perpendicular face to the sea. It is divided into four summits, one of which, near the centre of the promontory, the stone in question lies. If the whole peninsula be viewed laterally, the conformity of the rocking stone to the mass on which it stands, and to the other small stones which crown the summits, is such, that the eye cannot detect it, so perfectly it seems in its place. It is in the front |