to which it presented a vertical cliff of about 100 feet high. Such is very likely also to be the origin of the great southern barrier of 78 deg. 15 min. south.

Numerous low rocky islets, to the southwards, were called Danger Islets, and the most southerly of these Darwin Island. In these parallels Sir James Ross remarks

We observed a very great number of the largest sized black whales, so tame that they allowed the ship sometimes, almost to touch them before they would get out of the way, so that any number of ships might procure a cargo of oil in a short time. Thus, within ten days after leaving the Falkland Islands, we had discovered not only new land, but a valuable whale fishery, well worthy the attention of our enterprising merchants, less than six hundred miles from one of our own possessions.

On the 30th, the mainland was seen bearing from W.N.W. to S.S.W., and with the assistance of a fine breeze from the south they succeeded in forcing their way through the loose ice into an extensive sheet of clear water, between the land and the main pack. A mountain which attained an elevation of 7050 feet, and which formed the most striking feature of the newly-discovered land, was named Mount Haddington. A mountain with two peaks, to the northward, 3700 feet above the sea, was called Mount Percy. Various islands and capes also received their proper names, and the great gulf which separated these lands from Joinville land, was called after the Erebus and Terror. In other respects Mount Haddington land evidently constitutes the southerly continuation of Louis Philippe's land, which is itself again but a portion of Trinity and Graham's lands.

A landing was effected, and formal possession taken of these lands at a spot designated as Cockburn Island. Nineteen plants, but all mosses, algæ or lichens, were still found in these southerly latitudes. The mosses only grew in the soil which is harboured in the fissures of rocks, and they were so exceedingly minute that the closest scrutiny was requisite to detect them. On the other hand whole cliffs were belted with yellow pulverulent lichens (Lecanora minuta). The rocks were all of volcanic origin. This island was in latitude 64 deg. 12 min. south, and longitude 59 deg. 49 min. west.

While examining these lands, the ships were for some days closely beset in the ice, and exposed to much danger. A whole week was subsequently spent in endeavouring to force the ships through the ice, but at length all attempts to penetrate further southwards were given up, and on the 4th February, 1843, the ships were got clear of the ice altogether, and they bounded away with a high easterly swell, still, however, with the intention of tracing the pack edge to the eastward, in the hope of penetrating to the southward on the same meridian that Weddell had found so much clear sea.

VIII-RETURN of the EXPEDITION.

The expedition continued accordingly to beat to the eastward along the pack edge, making about thirty miles daily, frequently entering the outer edge as far as they could without getting beset, without perceiving any opening in it by which they could penetrate to the south. On the 14th February they crossed Weddell's track in latitude 64 deg. 37 min., but where he found an open sea was now a dense impenetrable pack.

On the 22nd they crossed the line of no variation in latitude 61 deg. 30 min., and about longitude 22 deg. 30 min. west.

On the 26th February the pack was observed to bend more to the southward, and it continued to do so for several days, so that notwithstanding much snow and thick weather, they were enabled to enter the Antarctic circle on the 1st March. On the 5th they reached the pack edge, and the ships were run into it about 27 miles, when they attained a latitude of 71 deg. 30 min. south, and a cask was thrown overboard containing a paper signed by Sir James Ross and all the officers, stating the fact.

The close and heavy structure of the pack prevented any further advance to the south, and the barometer falling rapidly at the same time, they were obliged to carry all sail to gain an offing as speedily as possible; and the season being now too far advanced to attempt any further examination of the pack, signals were made to the Terror, upon regaining clear water, of the commander's intention to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope. It came on, however, to blow a heavy gale while the vessels were still surrounded by icebergs, and a night and a day of fearful anxiety were passed. The utmost vigilance and activity were necessary to avoid the bergs, the heavy sea which broke against the perpendicular face of one of them having on one occasion fallen on board of the Erebus.

At length on the 11th March, 1843, the expedition recrossed the Antarctic circle for the last time, and proceeded on its way under a succession of strong south-west gales, but still passing a number of bergs, which obliged them to proceed under reduced sail during the long nights of this late season of the year. On the 21st and 22nd Bouvet Island was sought for in its reported latitude and longitude in vain. It is certain, however, that such an island exists, as it has been visited by vessels belonging to the Messrs. Enderby. It appears indeed from the log-books of these ships that there are several islands in the same vicinity, the number and position of which has not been yet accurately determined.

The expedition now experienced favorable winds and fine weather until the 4th April, when at 6 h. 20 m. A. M., the land was reported, and by noon they were close in with Cape Point, and at half-past seven the same evening, they were anchored close to her majesty's ship, Winchester, in Simon's Bay. The refitment of the ships, and refreshment of their crews; the repetition of the magnetic experiments, and the comparison of instruments, detained the expedition at the Cape till the end of the month.

Anchors were weighed on the 30th April. On the 13th May, the expedition was at St. Helena, and on the 20th, at the island of Ascension. On their way hence to Rio de Janeiro, being in latitude 15 deg. 3 min. south, and longitude 23 deg. 14 min. west, being nearly calm and the water quite smooth, they tried for, but did not obtain, soundings with 4600 fathoms of line, or 27,600 feet. This is the greatest depth of the ocean that has yet been satisfactorily ascertained.

On the 7th June, the expedition anchored in the beautiful harbour of Rio, and the magnetic and other observations having been completed by the 24th, they sailed the next day. Favoured by southerly winds, they crossed the line of no dip in latitude 13 deg. 20 min. south, and longitude 28 deg. 11 min. west, on the 3rd July. At length the shores of

Old England came into view at 5 h. 20 m. P. M. on the 2nd September, and the expedition anchored off Folkstone at midnight of the 4th.

It would have been highly desirable to have embodied in this concise report of the discoveries effected by the Antarctic Expedition, some account of the new and more important facts added to our knowledge of the physics of the globe; but we must, for various reasons, content ourselves with adding two more to those already noticed in the course of the narrative. Having crossed the parallel of 56 deg. south, upon six different meridians during this arduous voyage, Sir James Ross deduces that about that parallel of latitude, or 56 deg. 26 min., there is a belt or circle round the earth where the mean temperature of the sea, obtained throughout its entire depth, forms a boundary, or kind of neutral ground, between the two great thermic basins of the ocean. This temperature is, according to Sir James, 39.5, which in the equatorial regions is found at a depth of about 1200 fathoms; beneath which the ocean is said to maintain the same unwaning mean temperature.

If this be correct it results that, in opposition to the generally received opinion, the internal heat of the earth exercises no influence upon the temperature of the ocean; and what is of equal importance, it suggests that this circle of mean temperature of the southern ocean being a standard point in nature, if determined with great accuracy, would afford to philosophers of future ages the means of ascertaining if the globe we inhabit shall have undergone any change of temperature, and to what amount during a given interval.

In connexion with the same considerations of a constant temperature at a certain depth of the ocean, we must conclude with the following curious and suggestive remarks, taken from quite a different part of the narrative.

It is well known that marine invertebrate animals are more susceptible of change of temperature than land animals; indeed they may be isothermally arranged with great accuracy. It will, however, be difficult to get naturalists and philosophers to believe that these fragile creatures could possibly exist at the depth of nearly two thousand fathoms below the surface: yet as we know they can bear the pressure of one thousand fathoms, why may they not of two? We also know that several of the same species of creatures inhabit the Arctic that we have fished up from great depths in the Antarctic seas. The only way they could have got from the one pole to the other must have been through the tropics; but the temperature of the sea in those regions is such that they could not exist in it unless at a depth of nearly two thousand fathoms. At that depth they might pass from the Arctic to the Antarctic ocean without a variation of five degrees of temperature, whilst any land animals, at the most favourable season, must experience a difference of fifty degrees, and if in the winter, no less than one hundred and fifty degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer—a sufficient reason why there are neither quadrupeds, nor birds, nor land-insects common to both regions.

FINANCIAL RUSSIA AND ITS GOLD PRODUCE.

THE exceeding prosperity of the Russian finances, and the command of ready money possessed by the tsar of that country, as evidenced by almost simultaneous investments effected in France, Great Britain, and Prussia; has, probably more than any thing else-more, even, than the mystery that envelops its vast population, its secret struggles for a representative government, or the workings of its gigantic despotismattracted the attention of European nations to the progress and to the future prospects of that colossal power.

The position of Russia in Europe is, indeed, one of the most important questions presented by the future. The vitality of Great Britain and of France are concerned in it as a question of influence, of preponderance, and of equilibrium; but for Germany, upon which the empire of the tsars

*The orthography of this word has so varied of late, as to deserve a moment's attention. Formerly it was always written czar; but the custom of writing tzar, or tsar, has been gradually gaining ground, as being the only form which truly represents the Russian pronunciation. The Poles write it car, but pronounce it tsar like the Russian, their c being equivalent to ts, not as with us to k. The French now write tsar, but pronounce it gzar; the Germans can only express the word by their 3, which has a harsh sound, composed of t and s united.

It has been pretty generally received that the word czar is an etymological abbreviation of Cæsar, emperor. But a fatal objection is met with to this etymology, in the old Sclavonic version of the New Testament, where the title of Cæsar, is always represented by Kessar or Keçar, while that of tsar is simply given to kings.

Karamzine, the most esteemed historian of Russia,† says upon this subject, "This name is not, as many persons suppose without reason, an abbreviation of the Latin Cæsar, but it is an old term peculiar to the Oriental languages."

It is the same word, apparently, which is met with as the final syllable attached to the names of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, as Phalas-sar, Nabonas-sar, &c. In the Persian language, the word still represents the throne and the supreme authority. It was used by the Tatar and Mongolian khans, and by the kings of Kasan, Astrakhan, and Siberia. Hence it was that Huppel‡ thinks that it was derived thence, and that the Russian autocrats adopted the titles of the sovereigns whose territories they had conquered by the force of arms.

But it is to be objected to this that Muller§ relates that the citizens of Pskof, on the occasion of a deputation to Joann III., Vassilievitch, in 1477, gave this title to the Prince of Moscow. In 1505, according to Karamzine, the same princes assumed no other title; and, according to Huppel himself, Joann IV. assumed the title of tsar as early as in 1547, whereas Kasan was not definitely subjected till 1552, Astrakhan till 1557, and Siberia till 1582. It is, therefore, to the khans of the great Golden Horde, that we must refer the origin of this name, adopted by the princes of Moscow and the kings of Russia.

Peter the Great acknowledged the difference between tsar and Cæsar, by substituting the title of Césarevna for that of tsarevna, which had been given, up to that period, to the royal princesses. Catherine II. first adopted the title of césarévitch for the heir-presumptive. This termination of vitch (not witz nor wicz) in the feminine evna, or ovna, is patronymic.

* “Isydé provélénié oth Keçara Augousta"-"There went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus." (Luke, ii., 1.) And. "Vozdaditié ibo Keçaref Keçarevi❞— "Render, therefore, unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's." (Matthew, xxii., 21.)

Histoire de l'Empire de Russie, t. vi., chap. vii.

Staatsverfassung des russischen Reichs, t. ire., p. 260.
Muller, Sammlung russischer Geschichte, t. v., p. 461.

will bear down with its whole weight, the moment that no more obstacles are met with in Poland, it is a question of life and death, of independence and nationality. This threatening perspective has been more particularly made manifest of late by M. Thiers and M. de Lamartine. "Nature, says the historian of the Girondists (t. 1, p. 293, &c.), "has granted to it an immense, but ungrateful soil, upon the globe," yet this ungrateful soil is covering itself with inhabitants, and nowhere, except in some parts of the United States, has the progress of the population been more remarkable."

In the time of Peter the Great, scarcely a century and a half ago, Russia had only 16,000,000 souls, in the present day it has nearly 60,000,000; and it must not be supposed that this prodigious increase has been derived from new conquests, for, in the same interval, the superficies of the empire has only increased one-fourth.

The same remarkable progress has also characterised the revenues of the empire. At the death of the great tsar, the total revenue did not exceed 26,000,000l. sterling; at the commencement of this century it rose to 140,000,0007., and it is now not less than 500,000,000%.

These data are derived from a work just published by M. J. H. Schnitzler, the veteran statistician of the Russian empire, who, in 1829, published his celebrated" Essai d'une Statistique Generale de l'Empire de Russie," and who, faithful to his first attachment, after having consecrated to Russia all his youthful zeal, imposed upon himself the weighty task of studying this great subject, in all its possible ramifications, and of considering it attentively under every possible aspect. The result has been a newly published "Histoire Intime de la Russie, sous les Empereurs, Alexandre et Nicolas."

This work, although devoted to the consideration of the same period as that to which the almost simultaneously published work of the distinguished statesman Tourgueneff (M. Nicolas Tourghénief, Schnitzler calls him) refers, more especially in what concerns the crisis of 1825, still differs materially from the ex-statesman and supposed conspirator's work, inasmuch as M. Schnitzler does not admit the basis of M. Tourgueneff's argument, as opposed to the report of this commission of inquiry; that the secret societies had no concern with that ill-fated movement. M. Schnitzler argues, that the participation of Pestel, of Troubetzkoi, and others, both in the acts of secret societies and in the insurrection, attest the intimate relations that existed between the two; but he at the same time admits, that the first founders of the secret societies had no connexion with their subsequent progress and with the conspirators of 1825.

As we intend, however, to devote some space hereafter to the separate consideration of these important subjects, we shall confine ourselves, in the present instance, to one of more immediate interest, the great native resources of the precious metals, in connexion with their workings upon the financial system of the country.

Up to 1821, only two golden mines were known in Russia, of which those of Bexesof and of Krilatof in the government of Tobolsk were the richest, about forty pouds (each of forty Russian pounds), being furnished every year. But after the discovery of the great Üral mines, where a mass of native gold of an extremely pure quality, weighing twenty-five pounds, was obtained; the rate of produce assumed quite a new aspect.

* Essai de Statisque Generale, &c. J. H. Schnitzler.