try is frozen up, the temperature of the cave is such, that the Russians state they could sleep in it without their sheepskins.

Sir John Herschel, to whom the facts were referred, explains them on the principle of a transfer of heat by conduction. Every one is familiar with this mode of transfer. If, for example, an iron rod have one end placed in a fire, while the other is retained in the hand, by the conduction of heat from particle to particle, the end in the hand will soon become hot. Sir John Herschel assuming the mean temperature of the region around the cave to be in summer, about 59 degrees, in winter 4 degrees, and the annual mean 33 degrees, not much above the freezing point, thus explains the anomaly:

"Rejecting diurnal fluctuations of temperature, and confining ourselves to a single summer wave of heat, propagated downwards alternately with a single winter wave of cold, every point at the interior of an insulated hill rising above the level plain, will be invaded by these waves in succession, (converging toward the centre in the form of shells similar to the external surface) at times which will deviate further from mid-winter and mid-summer the deeper the point is in the interior, so that at certain depths in the interior, the cold waves will arrive at mid-summer, and the heat waves in mid-winter. A cave (if not very wide-mouthed and airy) penetrating to such a point, will have its temperature determined by that of the solid rock which forms its walls, and will of course be so alternately heated and cooled."

SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION.-An important addition has been, or ultimately will be made to our botanical collections by the labors of the Exploring Expedition. The number of live plants brought home, amounts to between 200 and 300 species, among them several new fruit trees from the East Indies. The collection of seeds embraces many hundred kinds, from all the various places where the Exploring Expedition touched; among them many of the ericas, from the Cape of Good Hope, and the splendid Pinus Lambertiana, and others from the Columbia River. The seeds were placed under the direction of the National Institute, at Washington, and have been liberally distributed by Dr. Pickering, the curator.

For the growth of the live plants, a greenhouse 50 feet long has been erected on the vacant ground in the rear of the Patent office. Part of this has been partitioned off, as a store or hot house for the tropical plants and fruits. These, when increased, will probably be distributed among the nurserymen of the country.

JOURNALS OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.

The AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, is the title of a new agricultural journal, published by Messrs. Saxton & Miles, 205 Broadway, New-York, under the editorial supervision of Messrs. A. B. and R. L. Allen. The large circulation it has already attained, is a gratifying evidence of the value which the public attach to the labors of its well known and able conductors. We are happy to announce the name of the senior editor, as an occasional contributor, on subjects connected with Agricultural Science, to the American Review.

We have received the January and February numbers of the MAGAZINE of HORTICULTURE and BOTANY, edited by C. M. HOVEY, ESQ., of Cambridge, Mass. This old favorite sustains itself nobly, in the interesting department of natural science to which it is devoted.

Our future numbers will be enriched by a LITERARY CHRONICLE of the best new works, in every department of science, literature, and art, published at home and abroad.

THE

AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. III.

MAY, MDCCCXLIII.

HORE DRAMATICE;

OR, HOURS WITH THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS.

No. I.-ESCHYLUS.

Or the three great masters of the Athenian Tragedy, Eschylus was the first and grandest. He flourished in the most vigorous period of Greek freedom, the earliest successes of which he had witnessed, having himself borne arms with high distinction in the two mightiest encounters of the European and Asiatic races, the overthrows and annihilation, namely, of Darius and his successor Xerxes; that on the plains of Marathon; this at the strait of Salamis; names not to be forgotten, while liberty is held a blessing, and bravery a glory, among men! Not to delay our readers with the familiar description of the old school of Thespis, the rustic actors conveyed from place to place in wagons, their vehicles and theatres alike, their faces stained with the lees of the wine-press, and their harsh voices chanting the rude and inharmonious ditties of the olden time, we shall premise merely that

undoubtedly Eschylus was the creator of the Greek Drama, as it has come down to us; that, to borrow the words of the acute and laborious Schlegel, "He clothed it in a state of suitable dignity, and gave it an appropriate place of exhibition; he was the inventor of scenic pomp, and not only instructed the chorus in singing and dancing, but appeared himself in the character of a player. He was the first who gave development to the dialogue, and limits to the lyrical part of the tragedy, which still, however, occupies too much space in his pieces. He draws his characters with a few bold and strongly marked features. The plans are simple in the extreme." In later days, Sophocles and Euripides introduced further alterations, which some have deemed improvements, into the tragic style; but though the pathos of Euripides, and the complete and all-harmonious finish of the far nobler and more virtuous Sophocles, must neither be disparaged, nor their due influence denied, it seems to us that neither the lighter beauties of the one, nor the superb and dignified simplicity of the other, can equal the magnificent and fiery flow of torrent-like elocution which clothes the thoughts of Eschylus, the grand and awful sublimity of his heroical or divine personages, the singleness of his dark, mystic creed-meet for the giant gods, or godlike mortals, of those primeval ages among which he delights to lay his scenes of fate and phrenzy-and, last not least, the wild imagery, fraught with the very soul of poesy, which glows in every line of his high, harmonious lyrics. It has been alleged against our favorite author, that he deals too exclusively with the darker and more stormy passions; that hatred, and revenge, and terror, are too generally the sole instruments by which he controls the senses of his readers; but ere we decide on this point, it will be well to remember that love, the point of interest in almost all modern tragedies, the pure and sentimental true love, we would say, which "never did run smooth,' was excluded necessarily from the dramas of the old Greeks, not merely, as some critics have surmised, because they deemed it too light and trivial a theme for the stately march of solemn tragedy, but rather because they knew it not at all; because, from the very nature of their domestic and social institutions, and from the whole spirit of their civil and martial polity, it was almost impossible that