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The tirant, with the prey by force yraft;
The toun destroied, ther was nothing laft.
Yet saw I brent the shippes hoppesteres,
The hunte ystrangled with the wild beres :
The sow freting the child right in the cra-
del."

In all these extracts there is a simplicity, and a condensation, and an energy of language, combined with a rapid succession of beautiful, and great, and terrible ideas, that form a curious contrast to the sweet songs, the sounding nothings, in which these poets abound whom we call polished. Compare them to the verses of Pope, in which prettinesses glitter like mock

diamonds on the head-dress of a

courtezan, and gaudy colouring like the paint upon her cheek, and every substantive is coupled with its epithet, often for the mere purpose of balancing the line, and without adding a shadow of meaning; and every couplet marches to the same monotonous chime, and ask why, for a century past, he has been read, and admired, and praised, to the neglect and oblivion of such a master of human thought, and language, as Chaucer? We would take the liberty of recommending it to some of his smart imitators among ourselves, who, after many years of hard toil, have never been able to rise above his faults, to visit the perennial springs of poetry, and, if they still persist in preferring his artificial fountains to the streams that have flowed in freshness, and purity, and beauty, for four centuries, to relinquish poetry as a trade in which they will never thrive, and to employ their talents in attempting to purify the muddy water of metaphysics, or, indeed, any thing else. Other of our contemporaries, men of genius, undoubtedly, might learn from him to put a little thought into their lines,

and do better things, (of which we seriously think them capable,) than, like Improvisatori, set the world agaping at the moonlight, we had almost said moonstruck, visions of a raising the halloo in a hunt of fairies, dreamy imagination, or be for ever or riding on the broomstick of a withered beldam. See with what strength Chaucer writes,

"Yet saw I woodnesse laughing in his rage."
And how a modern poet has ruined
the simple and sublime idea, by a load
of idle and tasteless epithets!

"Moody madness laughing wild
Amid severest woe."

It will be quite obvious to every un-
biassed reader, that the whole idea is
expressed in

"Madness laughing amid woe."

ed too, the thought is not only stolen, In this passage which has been praisbut strangled by encumbrances. Pope mistaken the very object of poetry, and his followers, who seem to have ruined its language by meretricious or naments; the poets of the present day would palm on the world for it, is as have diluted its ideas, till what they vapid and empty as their own brain. This remark applies equally to the inane mysticism of the poets of the Lakes, and to every man who has tasted of its debilitating waters, and to the unannealed lays of our own wild foresters. The only one of the present race of poets who is not afflicted with this impotence of imagination, and incapacity of conceiving, or expressing a great thought, is Lord Byron, and he, unfortunately, is like a pigmy, (we do not say that he is of that diminutive race,) who, by some sleight, has learned to wield the mace of a giant, and is so vain of his power, that he is on waving it around his head, and using all occasions swaggering with it, and it indiscriminately to crush a fly or smite a lion. Of Campbell we do not but he deserves to have lived in anspeak at present; he has his faults, other

age,

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** We are happy to learn that the long expected print from Stothard's beautiful picture of the procession of the Canterbury Pilgrims is at last published. This engraving, which may be considered as a national work, and

a fair specimen of the state of the arts in Britain at the commencement of the nineteenth century, was begun by the celebrated Schiavionetti, and, after passing through the hands of several eminent engravers, since dead, has been finished in a style worthy of the original, by Heathe. We understand Mrs Cromek, widow of the late R. H. Cromek, the ingenious editor of the Reliques of Burns, has been in this city delivering the subscription prints, which have been as much admired as the picture itself, one of the most classical productions of the British pencil was, when it was exhibited here about ten years ago. In our next Number we shall give some account of both.-EDIT.

NOTICES IN NATURAL HISTORY.
No. III.

New Wool-bearing Animal proposed to be introduced into Scotland. SOME time ago, Professor Jameson received from the Rocky Mountains, in North America, two specimens of a remarkable quadruped, which is known in America under the name of the Rocky Mountain Sheep. On a particular examination, it proves to be a new species of a new genus, and apparently intermediate between the genera Capra and Antilope. It is covered with a white wool of uncommon fineness, and judges are of opinion, that it promises to be even more valuable than that of the finest wool of the most highly esteemed varieties of sheep. Professor Jameson proposes the introduction of this animal into Great Britain; and we understand this interesting subject will be submitted to the consideration of that great national and patriotic association, the Highland Society of Scotland.

The Expedition to the North Pole. THE public, in general, it is well known, regret that the expedition which has now sailed towards the North Pole was not entrusted to Mr Scoresby, because he is justly considered as one of the most eminently qualified persons for such an undertaking at present known to the nautical and philosophical world. Captain

Buchan, who commands this remarkable enterprise, is distinguished amongst the officers of the British navy, where all are brave, and all are adventurous, for his cool, bold, and determined spirit. But this excellent officer wants that practical acquaintance with the Greenland Seas, which is so imperiously demanded of the commander in such a voyage. This practical knowledge and skill must be pos sessed by the chief; it cannot be delegated; and it is, therefore, absurd to talk of its being carried in the persons of Greenland masters, who are to act under Captain Buchan. With the view of diminishing to the public mind the dangers of this enterprise, the author of an able article on the Polar expeditions, in the last number of the Quarterly Review, maintains the following positions, viz. That vessels have reached within a short distance of the Pole in an open sea,-that ice does not occur but near the land, -and that the ocean around the Pole is free of ice. But, on what facts does this statement rest? . It is mentioned, on the authority of a person who is said to have reported that another person said, the master of a Greenland ship, from Aberdeen, reached north latitude 83° 20′, with an open sea, and clear of ice. This is surely very lame evidence for so important a fact; it is so vague, that we give no credit to it, and do not, therefore, consider ourselves entitled to maintain, that ships have reached within 400 miles of the North Pole, and that, too, in a sea clear of ice. We have the authority of Scoresby, and of other Greenland captains, for denying the second position of the reviewer, viz. That ice occurs only near the land, and that, therefore, we have only to steer clear of the land to get into the Polar basin, where, it is maintained, the sea is free of ice,-an assertion hazarded, in our opinion, without a single fact to support it. Although we are confident that no exertion will be wanting on the part of the commander, and agree with the reviewer in believing that we have to apprehend that too much, rather than too little, will be attempted, still, taking all circumstances into consideration, we shall feel surprised should the expedition reach the 83° of north latitude.

Captain Scoresby's Observations in ré

gard to the Polar Seas.

Ir will, no doubt, be interesting to the readers of this Journal to know, in a general way, what Captain Scoresby has done in regard to the natural history of the Polar Seas, as it is a subject, at present, very much before the public. The following short statement, we conceive, will be sufficient for this purpose. 1. It was Captain Scoresby who first described, in an accurate and complete manner, the forms, magnitudes, motions, and distributions of the north polar ice. 2. He was the first who, of late years, rediscovered the east coast of West or Old Greenland. 3. It was Captain Scoresby who first observed and announced the breaking up the ice on the east coast of West Greenland. 4. It was the same skilful navigator who first determined, in an accurate manner, the longitude of the east coast of West Greenland, under latitudes 74° and 76° N. as stated in a letter to Professor Jameson, and inserted in the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. 5. The idea of a journey over the ice towards the north pole originated with Captain Scoresby. The particulars of this proposed journey, and the detail of the various remarkable circumstances to be expected during such an enterprise, were communicated by him to the public through the Wernerian Society. 6. It was the reports of the various remarkable papers, descriptive of the North Polar regions, read at different times before the Wernerian Society, that first, in our time, roused the public attention to the state of the Arctic seas. 7. And lastly, we believe that the present expedition to the North Pole was principally occasioned by the discoveries and observations of Captain Scoresby, and by his direct communication of a plan of a voyage of this description to gentlemen high in reputation and influence in the philosophical world.*

We have received a letter from a worthy old seaman, in which the writer denies the natural effulgence of the ice in Polar Seas, as mentioned by Scoresby, and also maintains that the ice islands of the Greenland Seas are never so large as described by the same author, and concludes by ridiculing Scoresby's description of the motion and concussion of the floating mas

On the Polar Ice."

As erroneous ideas are in circulation, in regard to the North Polar ice, the following short statement may prove useful.

1. The North and South Poles appear to be surrounded with fixed ice.

2. The ice extends much farther from the South than from the North Pole the nearest approach to the South Pole being a distance of 1130 miles, whereas that to the North Pole is only 510 miles.

3. The extent of the Polar ices varies with the season, being greater in winter than in summer.

4. The southern or exterior limit of the North Polar ice breaks up on the approach of spring, and during the course of summer so much ice is broken and carried away, that ships have occasionally reached as high as latitude 81° N. A short way beyond that limit, the ice appears to be solid, and probably extends in this state onwards to the Pole.

5. The great body of fixed ice which surrounds the North Pole, and which extends to latitude 82° or 81° N. in the summer season, is a compound of salt and fresh water ice. The lower part of this vast body of ice is frozen sea water; over this are layers of fresh water ice, formed by the freezing of melted snow, rain, and hail.

6. The formation of this great body of ice does not appear to be dependent on the presence of land, for no land occurs in the Antarctic Ocean, where ice is even more abundant than in the Arctic Ocean.

7. The extent of the polar ice must depend on the temperature of the circumpolar atmosphere and ocean. We know that there is a determinate portion of heat appropriated to the circumpolar regions; in their long summer, the heat must be considerable, and during the melancholy and protracted winter, the cold must be

ses of ice. We are certain this gentleman has not read Captain Scoresby's valuable paper, and are confident he either is unacquainted with the accounts and descriptions of the Polar ices, as given by Mulgrave, Egede, Crantz, Cook, Forster, Pages, Fabricius, Giesecke, &c. or, if he has read them, he must have forgotten them. But we shall be glad to hear from him again on this interesting subject.—Editor.

intense; but these two periods of heat and cold appear to be so balanced, that the heat of summer is never able to melt all the ice formed during the winter, and much of the ice which is melted in the summer, is frozen again in winter, and the deficit occasioned by the flowing away of part of the water of the melted ice, is made up by the freezing of the sleet, hail, and snow, of the succeeding winter. It is, indeed, highly probable, that, ever since the earth's axis received its present inclination, the polar ices have continued fixed, and within certain limits, in this arrangement, agreeing with the distribution of snow and ice above the snow line in all countries of the earth where the elevation is sufficiently great. Were there no limits set to the increase of this circumpolar ice, it would have long since accumulated to so great an extent, as to have destroyed the climate of the temperate regions of the earth.

8. Periods of maxima and minima of many atmospherical phenomena are mentioned by naturalists, and, corresponding with these also, periods of increase and decrease of the glaciers, and of the limits of the snow line. It is, therefore, not improbable that the polar ices exhibit similar phenomena, and may continue to increase for a long series of years, until they reach a period of maximum, or greatest increase, and after this gradually decrease until they reach a period of minimum, or greatest decrease, when the Greenland seas will be clearer than usual, and even to the 82d or 83d of north latitude; but it is very improbable that any extensive breaking up of the ice takes place much beyond these limits.

that these blocks are derived from veins, or imbedded masses of granite in the limestone itself. In this country, we have granite formed in sandstone, and blocks of such granite in sandstone districts are erroneously considered as boulder stones brought from distant granite mountains by the agency of water.

New Magnetical Instrument for de termining the Longitude by Simple Inspection.

A gentleman in Liverpool, Mr Benjamin Wood, of strong mechanical genius, has, he conceives, made the discovery of a new principle in magnetism, which, if such a principle really exists, will be of great service to navi gators, shewing the longitude by simple inspection. He has been much in the habit of fitting up compasses, and preparing magnetic needles for them. After adjusting the bar and the card to the plane of the horizon, he found, on touching the former, that it not only dipped towards the north, but likewise invariably inclined to one side. In the course of some experiments on this subject, he prepar ed a cylindrical bar, which he adjusted so nicely between two centres of agate, that it whirled round with great freedom, and rested indifferently in any position whatever; but, on being magnetised, it turned with a certain part upward, and obstinately maintained that position when at rest. On this cylindrical magnet, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, he placed a kind of wheel of brass, graduated at the edge in 360 degrees. Of this wheel, which might be two or three inches in diameter, the magnet formed the axis. The bar, with its wheel, he fixed in a brass frame, and

Blocks of Granite in Limestone Dis- balanced the frame upon an agate

tricts.

IN the mountains of Jura, on the Continent, we occasionally meet with great masses of granite, which are generally supposed to have been brought from distant granite ranges by the agency of currents of water that for . merly swept the face of the earth. We do not deny the former existence of such currents, yet we do not conceive it to be necessary to call in their aid to explain the phenomena of the granite blocks of Jura. It is probable

centre, whereby the magnet readily assumed its proper position, that is, its parallelism to the magnetic meridian. His whole apparatus he placed in charge of an American captain, whom he considered as a friend, for the purpose of trying the effect in crossing the Atlantic. The captain, in a letter addressed to the inventor, states positively, that the instrument accurately shewed the longitude all the way across, by turning a different degree upward for every degree of longitude passed over; thus constantly

maintaining its vertical, as well as its horizontal parallelism. The captain's letter is perfectly satisfactory, as far as his authority goes, is well written, and evinces much science; and, in proof of his high opinion of the instrument, he has taken out a patent for its construction in America.

How far this may be a discovery of a new principle, or a new property of the magnet, those versed in the history of magnetism will be able to judge. We confess we should like a few more trials to be made before we could give it complete credence. We saw the instrument, and had some conversation with the inventor, who, we found, had been in the habit of delivering lectures on magnetism, and appears well calculated to give as much information on this particular

as it is now believed, that the natural repository of the diamond is a rock of the trap series.

Diamond conjectured to be occasional ly of Vegetable origin.

PROFESSOR JAMESON, in a paper lately read before the Wernerian Society, after a detail of curious facts in regard to the natural history of the diamond, stated it as a conjecture, that the remarkable hardness of some wood might be owing to their containing carbonaceous matter, approaching to the adamantine state, and that the diamond itself might occur in grains, or even in crystals, in some of the vegetables in the warmer regions of the earth.

subject, as any person with whom we Trapp-Porphyry the general seat of have lately met.

Great Mass of Native Copper dis

covered in North America.

Volcanoes.

BARON VON BUCH, the celebrated traveller, in a discourse read before the Royal Academy of Sciences of that all the volcanoes in America are Berlin, has endeavoured to prove, situated in trapp-porphyry, and that the same is generally the case with the extinct volcanoes in Europe. The same indefatigable observer is even inclined to suspect, that the mines in tricts, are situated in a volcanic porHungary, and in other similar dis

NATIVE copper has been met with in different parts of the world, particularly in North America and Siberia, but generally in small pieces. The largest mass hitherto mentioned by naturalists, is that described by Link in his travels in Portugal, and which is calculated to weigh 2616 pounds, and which was found in Brazil. Very lately Dr Francis Baron, of the Unit-phyry. There is no doubt that this ed States, discovered in the bed of the latter opinion is completely erroneous, river Onatanagan, to the south of as is shewn by the circumstance of the same metalliferous matters occurLake Superior, a mass of native copper of still more extraordinary magnitude, for it is stated to measure 12 feet in circumference at one end, and 14 feet at the other.

Coal in Veins in the Calton-hill. THE principal rock of the Calton Hill is porphyry, which passes occasionally into trap tuff, greenstone, and sandstone, and is often traversed by veins of calcareous spar. These veins, as in the porphyry immediately under the Observatory, contain portions. of a variety of glance coal, (blind coal of miners.) This coal, according to. Professor Jameson, does not consume, even when exposed to a high temperature, and hence is considered as approaching, in its chemical qualities, to the diamond; and this circumstance is the more remarkable,

ring equally disseminated through the surrounding slate, as in the porphyry.

Dr Bruce of New York.

WE lament to state, that Dr Bruce. of New York in America, the conductor of that interesting work the American Mineralogical Journal, died a short time ago. The United States have lost in him a valuable citizen, and the philosophical world a man of no common talent and acquirements. It was Dr Bruce who first successfully introduced into North America the study of mineralogy, and who, by his acquaintance with the Wernerian geognosy, was enabled to instruct his countrymen in the mode of investigating the structure of the earth. He was far from viewing this branch of knowledge as a mere speculative science;

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