sullied with them. One will suffice:-"On conserve bien les cochons à Mayence."

The appointment of M. Jules Simon as Minister of Public Instruction is unexceptional: a member Here is another scie, as these effusions are called of the University, author of many excellent works, here:

Ah! Bismarck, si ça continue, De tous tes Prussiens il n'en restera guère; Ah! Bismarck, si ça continue, De tous tes Prussiens il n'en restera plus. M. Sarcey, in the Temps, writing of what were then called the exaggerations of the English papers, but which are now found to have looked overgrown because of the careful dwarfing of everything that was permitted to come in comparison with them, disinters a scrap from a part played by Arnal in an old Palais Royal piece: "Je me sauvai à travers l'escalier; j'arrivai au quatrième étage, et fermai sur moi la porte. Tout le monde accourait derrière moi, et ils étaient sur le palier plus de dix-mille, qui regardaient par le trou de la serrure.' -Oh! dix-mille?' lui dit son interlocuteur avec doute. Ils étaient au moins quatre,' reprend Arnal avec conviction."

The following bit is happy, and very Franch "Notre confrère de Pene vient de trouver un engin de defense qui laisse bien loin derrière lui chassepots, mitrailleuses, canons d'acier. Cet engin, ce n'est qu'un mot, mais un mot à aiguille, un mot rayé, un mot chargé au picrate de potasse.-'Si Paris est vaincu,' a-t-il dit, 'Paris sera RIDICULE!' Et comme Paris ne saurait se résoudre à être ridicule, sous aucun prétexte, Paris est désormais invincible."

The following, also attributed to the French paterfamilias, is witty:-" M. and Madame Prudhomme had heard much talk of works for the fortification of Paris. 'Joseph, my dear,' said Madame P; 'do you intend to go to the ramparts?' I have been already, Madame P--You don't understand me; will you be there when the Prussians come to Paris?'--Gabrielle,' said M. Prudhomme, with immense solemnity, 'learn that your husband felt bound in honour to precede these Vandals!'"

The 4th of September is the new red-letter day in the Republican Calendar. The Republic was initiated with more celerity and less trouble than usual, and was proclaimed, as usual, at the Hôtel de Ville, where a few imperial reminiscences were put an end to, but no further mischief done than the destruction of three pictures. Portraits of the Emperor and Empress were saved by a mot of M. Gambetta, who said, "We have put up with them for twenty years; turn their faces to the wall!" In the afternoon and evening the "Nation" paid visits to the Tuileries and other places, but little mischief was done; the eagles, however, were doomed to destruction: they were broken off the colours of the regiments, they were torn down from the new buildings of the Louvre, they were stripped or painted out by enthusiastic patriots mounted on ladders, from the shop fronts of all the imperial purveyors, and wherever they could be found they were destroyed, to the cry of " A bas Louis Bonaparte!"

The "Nation," we hear, have changed the name of the fine new street that leads from the Grand Opéra house to the Bourse, from the Rue Dix Décembre-or Deux Décembre, as it was often called with bated breath-to Rue Quatre Septembre, and that of the Avenue de l'Empereur to the Rue Victor Noir! Yesterday the Journal Officiel de l'Empire Français dropped out the imperial escutcheon, and became the plain Journal Officiel de la République Française, and Théophile Gautier signs the Fine Art feuilleton, as if no change had occurred and no threads had been snapped.

With the new Government, politically, I have nothing to do here, but one of the appointments comes within my province M. Duruy deserves great praise for what he did, and still more for what he tried to do for public education; but he was opposed at every step, and thwarted in every possible way by his colleagues, who eventually succeeded in driving him from office. He took a noble revenge, for when the war broke out he, like his son, who has since won the war medal in the field, enrolled himself as a private soldier, and still, I trust, is in the ranks.

and having already been acting Minister under his friend Carnot he comes to the task thoroughly prepared and deeply in earnest, as he is on all occasions; he is an advocate, the warmest advocate we have, for universal and gratuitous education, and there is no doubt that, if surrounding circumstances permit him free action, he will try the experiment of extirpating ignorance with equal boldness and judgment. I know no man so likely to succeed in such an experiment; he is respected by all classes, and has won the entire confidence of the working men by many years of hard labour in their behalf, not only in relation to education, but to every question which touches their well-being, materially and intellectually.

The Provisional Government has placed the national museums of the Louvre and Cluny under a Commission composed of the following artists: Jeanron, who was keeper of the Louvre in 1848; Robert-Fleury, jun., Coiot, Melssonier; Carpeau, sculptor; Henriquel-Dupont, engraver; M. Lalanne, aqua-fortiste. A Committee of Verification and Control is also appointed, and consists of Protais, Aug. Bonheur, Cibot, Durand-Brager, painters; Labrouste and Boeswilvald, architects; Hébert and Pascal, "sculptors" (?); Laurence, Mouilleron and Reverchon, engravers and lithographers. It is said that the Comte de Newerkerke is placed under arrest, or kept in view. The object of this detention is doubtless to obtain complete information respecting the pictures packed up and removed, and to verify the contents of the Museum generally. In 1848 M. Jeanron had to exercise all his firmness, and all his finesse and eloquence, to prevent the revolutionists from damaging the contents of the Louvre. There is no fear of any mischief being intentionally done now: twenty years have done much for the civilization of the masses. The late Government also conferred an immense service on the capital by arresting and keeping safe two or three thousand "useless mouths," vagabonds of all classes, male and female. The crowds are marvellously purified, and this fact may save enormous difficulties.

FROM THE TYROL TO LOMBARDY.

Y.

Bormio, Sept. 1, 1870.

THE valleys of the Dolomite country are becoming accessible to explorers who prefer to travel on wheels. From Neumarkt, on the railway between Botzen and Trent, a Postwagen goes to Cavalese and back twice a day. The road makes marvellous zigzags up a precipitous rocky hill to the lateral valley; and along the whole distance commands interesting views of crag and forest, crowding mountain peaks, running water, and scenes of Alpine life.

From Cavalese another Postwagen carries letters and passengers on to Predazzo, and a Zweispänner plies daily to Vigo in the Fassathal, so that any one wishing to make mountain excursions can now reach a favourable starting-point without fatigue. The new road connecting Primiero with Predazzo, by the Pass of San Martino, will be finished in 1872, and is already passable for country cars. Another approach to the region is up the Grodnerthal, from Waidbruck, on the Brenner railway, by omnibus to St. Ulrich, whence the Seisser and neighbouring valleys may be reached.

Predazzo, with twenty-two saw-mills, is a prosperous place, and has just built a new church which does honour to the architect, and adds one more to the ecclesiastical surprises that await the traveller in Alpine villages. How happens it that while St. Paul's is not yet finished, and money for the finishing must be begged, one finds in remote places in the mountains well built and handsomely decorated churches, complete in every particular?

Mine host of the Nave d'Oro, Francesco Giacomelli, gives good entertainment to his guests, and shows an album containing the portraits of some who have visited Predazzo for scientific objects. His visitors' book opens with a memorandum of the discovery, in 1820-21, by Count Marzari Pen

cato of "il granito sovraposto al calcareo" at Canzoccoli, about half-an-hour distant; and since then the most famous geologists and mineralogists of Europe have journeyed to Predazzo to see the singular phenomenon with their own eyes. Humboldt's name occurs in 1822; Poulet Lord (sic) Scrope (not an autograph), in 1823; Signor and Signora Murchison in 1839, and many others. Among them are some who now survive in name only: James David Forbes, and Charles Daubeny. An Irish Doctor, under date 1854, has recorded in rhyme his impressions of a discovery which produced important modifications in the history of geology— Bread upon butter spread is rare, Rare heels up and head down, Grass growing toward the centre 's rare, Rare under foot a crown.

But of all rarest, granite here
Lying on chalk is seen;

And by some blunder chalk below,
Where granite should have been.

I walked up Val Travignolo from Predazzo to Paneveggio, a lone spot in the heart of great forests, 5,000 feet above the sea, on the line of the new road above referred to. The settlement comprises the inn, a chapel, a dairy, a saw-mill, a barn, Cow-stall and sheds. On sixteen Sundays during the summer a priest walks up from Predazzo to perform service; all the rest of the year the little community take care of themselves. The scenery around is impressive; the woods abound in mosses, ferns and flowers, and mountaineering may be indulged in to any extent. Above the great forest slope opposite the inn, the rocky summit of the Cimon della Pala may be seen towering aloft, looking far more inaccessible than the Matterhorn, and as if nothing but an eagle could set foot thereon, yet, as stands recorded in the book at Predazzo, it was conquered in June of the present year by that famous mountain-climber, Mr. Tuckett, and a party who built cairns on the summit.

Hoping to find warm weather at Meran I gladly left Paneveggio, after enduring two falls of snow. Situate amid vines and orchards, and groves of walnut and chestnut, Meran is one of the most attractive places in the valley of the Etsch (Adige). Every year new villas and pensions are built in commanding spots, and advantage has been taken of the numerous accidents of the ground to lay out pretty gardens and shady pleasure-walks, the charm of which is heightened by lively streams. To invalids fond of fruit, the "grape-cure" carried on here in autumn is another attraction. For the benefit of visitors a Prussian Protestant minister is established in Meran. The native Protestants, as he told me, number not more than fifteen.

About half way up the Etschthal is Eyrs, a small village whence, from June to September, a Postwagen travels over the Stelvio to Bormio, and, to use a favourite term in these parts, "vice versa." The journey, including stoppages, occupies eleven hours. Owing to the war, the passengers this season have been very few; I was the only one yesterday, and had full opportunity for talk with the driver, and for comparing my observations of fifteen years ago with those of to-day.

After the loss of Lombardy the Austrian authorities took no further care of the road on their side of the mountain, and it became for a time impassable; the wooden galleries fell into decay, and avalanches and stonefalls choked or swept away the thoroughfare. Nature was resuming her functions, when private enterprise stepped in and effected a partial restoration. But now the Austrian Government has again taken it in hand, and as there is no neglect on the Italian side, holiday folk may once more enjoy the grand prospects commanded by this remarkable pass. The galleries, however, are not restored, for the mountain above Trafoi is not traversed in the winter; and the old timber of which they were constructed is converted into fence-posts.

The road, carried by zigzags that seem innumerable up a grim narrow valley, up wild precipitous slopes to elevations where the lines of posts stand up against the blue, appeared to me even more wonderful than when first I saw it. As the horses walk all the way up, there is ample time to examine

everything, and in places, by taking the cut-offs, to gain a quarter-hour in advance for admiration of the prospects; and these are admirable. First the broad round heaped snowfields of Monte Cristallo come into view; then the Madatsch Spitze and glaciers; then the Königspitze with wide-spreading flanks, in which are two amphitheatres of spotless white, backed by a wall of snow a thousand feet high, looking like a huge breaker just ready for its plunge. And last the giant peak of the Ortler appears, and, glistening like burnished silver, the whole glorious array salute the sunshine; and rearwards, beyond the Etschthal the frozen summits of the Oetzthal lift themselves up and complete the scene in that direction. Under a cloudless sky the desire of my eyes was fully satisfied.

While I drank coffee at Trafoi, the Kellnerinn told me a young English lady had just left, after a sojourn of six weeks; and that the new house then building next door would be ready for guests next year. At Franzenshöhe, a wild, desolate spot, the Wagen stops to dine, and allows time enough. The best roast I have eaten in Tyrol was there placed before me. From the front door the road can be seen up to the summit; and, to a stranger looking thereon, it seems well-nigh incredible that any one should have thought it possible to make such a frightful slope available for a highway.

In the rear of the house I saw clumps of that fine blue flower, the Wolfen-kraut. It abounds too on the slopes above Paneveggio-facts which seem to discredit the statement that this flower grows only on a certain mountain in the Pusterthal.

The house on the summit, formerly tenanted by the Road Inspector, is now used as a lodging for labourers. The brow is no sooner reached, than you begin at once to plunge down into Lombardy, and at a lively trot, which soon brings you to the barracks at Santa Maria. No passport is asked for, but baggage is examined, and instead of Tiroler wine, you now get that of the Valtellina; then, by multiplied zigzags, you plunge down into the gorge of the Adda, a scene as savage as any in Norway; and through this you rattle at the same lively trot, -now disappearing in the gloom of the heavy stone galleries-now emerging into the paler gloom of the gorge. In many places the arched roofs of the galleries are propped by timbers; in others, they have fallen, having been constructed, not of shaped stones, but of big lumps of stone of all forms, set thickly in mortar. Perhaps, as Austria

has been able to afford the cost of a fortress at Gomagoi, on her side of the mountain, below Trafoi, Italy will be able to furnish means for repairing in a durable manner the galleries, without which the Stelvio road on her side could not be travelled in safety.

At one of the most savage parts of the gorge, two iron rods slope down from a high rocky ledge on the right, to the crags on the left bank. In that tall cliff iron ore is dug, and is sent down on one rod in a little car, which hauls up an empty car on the other.

The gorge ends suddenly: a bleak-looking valley appears, in which are seen the smelting-works, a small village, two or three churches, and the Baths of Bormio, old and new. A few more bold zigzags, and we are in the courtyard of the new baths, which, as the inscription at the entrance states, is 1,340 mètres above the sea.

The house is spacious and well kept, with room for more than a hundred guests; but at present the number is a dozen only. There are good marble baths, and a perennial stream of hot water pouring from the rocks to supply them; so that those who come here for health find an unfailing resource.

A diligence comes and goes every day between Bormio and the Lake of Como; and travellers who wish to get to the Engadine turn off at Tirano, and from there cross the Bernina Pass to Pontresina, enjoying on the way the grandest of mountain W. W.

scenery.

THE LAWS OF VERSE.
Athenænm Club, August 31, 1870.

ALLOW me to notice, in the way of simple correction of an oversight of the reviewer or printer

of the article on my 'Laws of Verse,' that the word unstopped, in the first poetical quotation, is unstooped in the original, and that recent excavations on the spot have brought to light the fact that Aefula (the correctness of which seems to be questioned in the extract), and not Aesula (which phonetically I should have preferred), is the true reading of the name.

I only beg to add, that on turning to Poe's Rationale of Verse,' I find that I have not misunderstood, or, as far as I can perceive, mis-stated, his opinion in affirming that he regarded so-called accentual dactyls substituted for trochees, or anapasts for iambs, to be of the same length in time as the feet which they are used to replace. J. J. SYLVESTER.

P.S. In his first prose quotation from 'The Laws of Verse' the reviewer has (I doubt not, quite unintentionally) spoiled my meaning by quoting "with unintended" in place of "into unintended." These evidences of infirmity of memory, to which we are all liable, may, I hope, induce him to take a less harsh view of the couroo of my error in writing Rationale of Versification' instead of 'Rationale of Verse.'

** The misprint had been noted before we received Prof. Sylvester's letter. The force of Prof. Sylvester's objection we fail to see. We still affirm that, according to Poe, feet in modern verse are not of equal length. He would not admit a spondee to be equivalent to a trochee or an iambus, or allow of a trochee in dactylic verse.

OUR ITALIAN LETTER.

Naples, Sept. 3, 1870. OUR great theatre remains closed, and up to the present moment there is no indication of its being re-opened this season. What probability, indeed, would there be of its being able to pay its expenses with half Europe in a state of agitation? Few stronger facts could be adduced to prove the universal paralysis with which war has struck the Peninsula than that San Carlo shows no signs of returning animation. It has always been considered a necessity of existence for our Neapolitans. Let any disaster befall the people, but let the great theatre open wide its doors! Something, however, may be done later; hopes have been expressed that a foreign Appaltatore may come forward to risk his reputation, and what would be considered of more value, his purse, to revive the ancient glory of this City of the Muses. To tell the truth, however, the pulses of the country beat too strongly now to allow of much expenditure of thought on Art. There has been an event at the Fondo which has excited much attention, and it is the production of 'Giannina e Bernardone' by Cimarosa. For some time the false taste which has encouraged mere noise, or what the Patria well styles "tempeste obbligate " and "migliatrici applicate all'orchestra," has ignored the purity of an older school, but, thanks to Signor Trisolini, the 'Matrimonio Segreto' and the 'Giannina e Bernardone' of Cimarosa have been disinterred from the dust of the archives of the College of Music, and have been received with delight by large audiences who never before had heard them. It is hoped that this may inaugurate a period of better taste, and that "young writers who, deficient in study and inspiration, now fill works of a day with polkas and mazurkas," may hereafter give more attention to a "Master" whom Rossini studied diligently. The performers, who were well received, were La Paoletti, La Valeriani, La Bolis, Paoletti, Brignoli, Borelli and Palmieri, of whom La Paoletti and Brignoli especially were applauded. 'Il Conte d'Ory' will, it is expected, be shortly put on the stage, and with this the season of the Fondo will close. And what then? Are we to have an exhibition on a larger scale in Rome? Time has yet to show it. Meantime, the press of Naples is divided into parties on this subject, and

that of the awful war now carried on between France and Germany. I acknowledge great improvement both in the style and spirit of the daily press since 1860: there is more courtesy, less personnality, than existed at that time; but still the press

i sadly deficient in that spirit of impartiality which alone can render journalism valuable and raise it to its proper elevation. Every writer is a partisan who descends into the arena not to support the truth but to maintain his particular views; and hence one journal indulges in personal reflections on another, and the public are bored by articles of a personal character for which they care not a sou. Much has been done for the improvement of journalism in Naples, but much remains to be done; and it is to be greatly desired that editors and writers would think less of themselves and more of the public whom it is their duty to enlighten and instruct. Very grave offence has been given here by the suppression of a great nuisance. Hitherto, the Toledo and some of the most public streets of the City have been invaded at certain intervals in the day by flying columns of ragged persons of both sexes. Bearers of the journals just published, they swept like a deluge through the streets, almost impeding the progress of pedestrians and carriages, whilst they shouted at the top of their voices the names of their journals and the last bit of news. This has been put a stop to, very properly, by our new "Quaestor," and great discontent is the consequence. "What is the use of liberty, if a man may not do as he likes -jostle his neighbour in the streets, block up his passage, and deafen him with shouting?" I have heard many strange definitions of liberty since 1860, and now find that, by the masses, it is understood to be the substitution of the despotism of the many for that of one. H. W.

Literary Gossip.

IN our next number (No. 2238) we shall commence a series of detailed reports of the proceedings of the British Association. We shall continue these reports in subsequent numbers, and they will, when completed, form a full history of the meeting at Liverpool.

FEARS, our Paris Correspondent tells us, are entertained, that the mail between England and France will soon be interrupted. We trust that the Post-Office authorities may be able to avert such a catastrophe. There are very many of our countrymen in the French capital who cannot quit it, and to whom it is of great consequence that they should not be cut off from all communication with England.

WE have received a letter from Messrs. Peterson, of Philadelphia, complaining that one of our American correspondents has called Messrs. Ticknor & Fields Mr. Dickens's authorized publishers in America. They say that, as they have bought the rights of several publishers who had paid Mr. Dickens considerable sums for advanced sheets, they are the "authorized" publishers. We have no wish to revive an old controversy, and we need only remark that Messrs. Peterson appear to attach an unusual meaning to the term "authorized."

HIS Majesty the King of Portugal has sent the Cross of Knight Commander of the Order of Christ to M. Octave Delepierre, Secretary to the Belgian Legation, whose historical and literary works we have more than once mentioned in our paper.

M. DULAURIER, of the French Institute, has undertaken the editorship of a new edition of the 'Histoire Générale du Languedoc,' by the Benedictine Monks, and has communicated the first portion of the introduction to the Academy of Inscriptions. This work, due to the learned investigations of Dom de Vic and Dom Vaissète -to use the old title of honour given to the Benedictines and other fraternities-was left

unfinished by them, and is to be completed and brought up to the level of the knowledge of the time by a committee of savants and historians. M. Dulaurier's introduction will throw much light on the life and labours of Dom Vaissète, about which but little is at present known.

THE Phonix is the name of a new monthly magazine, established by a zealous Sinologue, the Rev. James Summers, for subjects connected with the Tibeto-Chinese group and its appendages, and the Japanese group, and embracing all the populations connected with that area. Prof. Summers includes particularly Tibetan and Manchoo, which have been neglected in England and cultivated in France. The cultivation of Manchoo in London met with no encouragement years ago; and we have no school of Tibetan, although we have

given a good example in Mr. B. H. Hodgson, Dr. Archibald Campbell, Jaeschke, and others. The French have reaped the honours of our collections. The first number of the Phoenix includes a paper on the Ainos in Yesso. Prof. Summers promises, if encouraged, to devote considerable space to the subjects embraced in his domain.

SOME excellent papers on the Irish printing presses of the Low Countries have been recently published. They are by the Père de Buch, a Bollandist, who is engaged in writing the lives of the Irish saints. A good many Irish books were printed at Louvain, and a few at Brussels. They are nearly all devotional works. THE Morale Indépendante, following in the wake of several other French papers, has offered a prize of 1,000 francs for the bestwritten essay on rather a strange subject. The essay is to comprise biographies of Confucius, of Buddha, of Socrates, and of the Saviour of the World; with a complete analysis of their respective doctrines, an account of their relations to the times and societies in which their teachings were publicly made known, and a comparison of their respective influence on their own times and on posterity. The different compositions are to be sent in to the editor of the Morale Indépendante, in Paris, before the month of December of this year, and the prize is to be awarded in January, 1871. We shall be curious to see the successful essay.

HERR LAZAR GEIGER, says the Allgemeine Zeitung, has died at Frankfort in his forty-second year. He has left the second volume of his Ursprung und Entwickelung der Menschlichen Sprache' in a tolerably complete state; but he had hardly begun the third and concluding

volume.

We have received the first part (A-F) of the 'Sächsiches Schriftsteller Lexicon,' which gives a list of all living Saxon writers and their writings. A short biographical notice is appended to each name. It appears to be a useful work of reference.

PROF. J. SCHWARZ, of Jena, died some little time ago. His reputation as a preacher was great, and his sermons deserve to be more read in this country than they are. Everybody, however, who knows anything of German thought, is acquainted with his brilliant sketches of the state of modern theology.

WE hear that the Eco della Grecia, which is under the direction of Signor Alfonso Lazzaro, and is the only Italian newspaper

published in Greece, is suffering from the negligence of the subscribers in the payment of their subscriptions. It would be a pity if its publication were to cease, as the modern Greek newspapers must naturally be a mystery to Italians. There are, however, three newspapers published in French at Athens. These are, La Grèce, the oldest Greek under the direction of A. Stephanopolis, and newspaper written in French, which was lately has been in existence seven years; L'Indépendance Hellénique was founded five years ago dance Hellénique was founded five years ago by the late Miltiades Canellopulos, and is now under the editorship of his brother. The third paper, Le Courrier d'Athènes, was founded by A. Stephanopolis three years ago; it is now edited by D. Coromilas; it defended the late Zaímis ministry against the opposition. All these newspapers treat of Italian affairs, and the Princess Dora D'Istria on Italy and Italian havo published several important. writings of

progress.

AT a meeting of German schoolmasters, held at Louisville, U.S., a long discussion took place on the best means of preserving the knowledge of the German language, and the habit of speaking it among the descendants of German immigrants. This is not the first time the question has been raised. Ever since 1866 the future of the Germans in America has been

mooted in pamphlets and newspapers, both in the United States and in Germany. There is some probability that recent events will increase the desire of the Germans to preserve their nationality and their language in the New

World.

MR. MONCURE D. CONWAY is contributing a series of sketches of the South Coast of England to an American magazine.

SIGNOR GIUSEPPE SPATA has collected from the State Archives at Turin the first constituthe State Archives at Turin the first constitutional Acts of the House of Savoy, in a volume entitled 'I primi Atti Costituzionali dell' augusta Casa di Savoia ordinati in Palermo Prima Sedes. Corona Regis. Regni caput. Vittorio Amedeo Regnante,' and published at Turin.

AMONGST other curiosities at the Exhibition of Antiquities and objects of Art belonging to the Sienese province, held at Siena on the 15th of August, under the direction of Prof. Carlo Livi, was the autograph will and testament of Boccaccio.

THE report of Baboo Rajendralal Mitra on the collection and preservation of Sanskrit MSS. has now been made. Notwithstanding obstructive action of the old parties, 4,000 MSS. have been already submitted for inspection, chiefly at Benares and Dacca. It is said 400 were seen at Kishnagur. The Asiatic Society of Bengal has copies of most of these MSS., but some new MSS. have been discovered, and are to be examined at leisure. The most valuable of the Baboo's discoveries include an Upanishada, the Commentaries upon it, a few old medical works, and a rare old Mahabashya.

AN addition to native books in India is the promised manual of rifle instruction for native troops, on which a committee of officers is now engaged.

NOTWITHSTANDING disasters in Mexico, there has just been printed there for the first time, in a quarto volume of 900 pages, the

'Historia Ecclesiastica Indiana,' a work of

the sixteenth century, by Fray Geronimo de

Mendieta. Another recent work is an 'Enchiridion of Greek Roots,' by Oloardo Hassey. One of not less interest is a reply, by a triplet of authors, to the book of Prince Felix of SalmSalm, under the title of 'Maximilian, and the Last Events of Mexico.'

Dr. E. Uriocochea, of Bogota, is editing at NEW GRANADA has given us a philologist. Paris a Grammar of the extinct Chilcha Language; and we are promised other works on American linguistics.

THE new Lahore University College gets just another bonus in the foundation, by the Maharajah of Kashmere, of a Sanskrit scholarship in honour of Sir Donald M'Leod, at a cost of 3,1007. Already sixty students have entered the law classes of that college. We fear India is threatened with a greater supply of lawyers and spouters than of steady workers for real civilization; and we may find civilization checked, as in Greece, by an overproduction of Graduates, who engage in agitation to make their way to the small public offices.

ROYAL POLYTECHNIC.-Prof. Pepper's New Lecture, showing how the marvellous GHOST EFFECTS are produced.-New Musical Entertainment, by Mr. Suchet Champion, DER FREISCHUTZ-Sand and the Suez Canal.-American Organ daily.-The whole for One Shilling.

SCIENCE

An Analysis of Wrecks and Casualties, reported in Lloyd's List,' during the Year 1869. (Published by the Committee of Lloyd's.) SUMMARIES and analyses are, for the most part, but dry reading; and yet we question whether any words have been written which tell of the perils of the deep in language of sterner eloquence than does a passage in the work now before us. It is very simple and very brief. It consists of figures alone, with the legend "Annual Total." But it tells us that for the past ten years, one with another (if we strike out the Sundays to arrive at round numbers), more than ten casualties at sea have not only occurred, but been posted in Lloyd's loss-book for every day. The actual number, during 1869, amounted to 2,986. That and the preceding year have been unusually free from shipwrecks. The average annual total for the period named has been 3,343. The highest number, 3,906, was attained in 1863. The most fatal month has

been November; and the least disastrous, July; the average casualties in the former being almost exactly three times as numerous as those in the latter.

The above figures are taken from the abstract issued by the Statistical Committee. They do not, however, exactly correspond with the more detailed' Annual Summary of Wrecks and Casualties reported in Lloyd's List from January to December inclusive, 1869.' The gross total of these disasters, on 29 identified geographical stations, in "other places not provided for geographically," and

in

"unidentified voyages," is 10,972. Of these the cases of "total loss" are 2,006, those of "constructive loss," 156, and those of "great damage," 1,154. From a comparison of the figures it would seem to result that of the 3,316 instances of loss and great damage reported in Lloyd's List,' 2,986 are "posted in Lloyd's loss-book."

A little additional information in future editions of the 'Analysis' would widely increase the sphere of usefulness attained by the publication. In its present state few persons will care to open it, except for purposes more or less closely connected with underwriting and marine assurance, A little more would render the volume one of great import ance to the students of those phenomena which group themselves around physical geography. A wreck-chart is so manifest a requisite for such a publication that it is difficult to understand why it has been omitted. An annual chart of wrecks and casualties, published on the high authority of the Statistical Committee of Lloyd's, in illustration of their detailed returns, would be a document of the utmost value. It would present a record of the path of great storms; it would indicate the regions of greatest peril, whether from shoals, from rocky coasts, or from atmospheric disturbance; and it would present to the student at a glance information for which he has patiently to plod through 80 pages of tabulated figures. Again, as regards the average of safety and of loss, it is desirable that some further information should be given on the face of a record of casualties. The state of the navies of the chief maritime states, as far as regards the approximate number and tonnage of the vessels, should be given, in order to afford materials for estimate. How far any information can be given as to the number of individual voyages, or the proportion of vessels actually afloat in the more and less dangerous years, and months of the year, and in the more or less perilous hydrographical districts, is another question of extreme interest. In the tables before us the number of casualties exceeds the number of vessels; 10,991 ships and steamers having undergone 11,606 disasters during the year 1869. It is instructive to observe that the accidents to steamers are only about one-tenth of the number of those that have occurred to sailing vessels, being 1,247 and 10,359 respectively. But the pith of this observation is wanting to those who are unable to form any comparative idea of the numbers of the respective classes of vessels; and thus to arrive at some conclusion as to the relative increase of safety effected by the employment of steam. In the British navy, out of 431 vessels afloat in February 1868 only 29 were unprovided with steam power. But in our mercantile marine, against 25,842 sailing vessels in 1867 we had only 2,931 steamers, the proportions of tonnage being respectively 4,852,911 and 901,062. The French mercantile marine, in 1866, comprised 15,230 sailing vessels, of 915,034 tons aggregate burden, and 407 steamers, rated at 127,777 tons. The mercantile marine of the United States, in 1867, out of a total tonnage of 3,868,615 contained 2,820,781 tons of sailing vessels and 1,047,834 tons of steamers; upwards of one-third of the American merchant vessels being provided with steam power, against one-eighth part of the English, and one thirty-sixth part of the French mercantile marine numerically speaking: the comparison of the tonnage being more favourable to France.

We do not presume to offer any advice to the Statistical Committee of Lloyd's as to the mode in which they should complete their schemes for their own special use; but in the

interest of general statistical science, and of that great part of statesmanship which comes within the province of literature, it is highly important that the reader of a publication issued by so influential a body should not be driven to seek other sources of information before he can make any practical use of the army of figures presented in an analysis like the present. The work is entitled to measure of public gratitude, from its painful and laborious character. We are anxious that, in future editions, it should form an authoritative source not only of commercial, but of physical knowledge, from its statesman-like completeness.

THE INSCRIPTIONS AT BRAKH.

a fair

United University Club, August 31, 1870. DR. BEKE has called Mr. Fergusson's attention to two inscriptions at Brakh, strangely referred to by Mr. Macgregor, as "dated three centuries before Christ." It is certain that Mr. Macgregor alluded to the inscriptions copied by Burckhardt, and described in the Handbook to Syria' (p. 473), where we read: "On two or three of the houses of Brakh are Greek inscriptions of a very early period. One of them bears the date 10th of Peritius, in the year 8'; and another, '7th of Apuleius, in the year 5.' The era is most probably that of the Seleucida, as the months are Macedonian, and thus these dates are respectively B.C. 304 and 307." The inference scriptions seems to be at best a careless guess. The here drawn as to the era employed in these inMacedonian names of the months are frequently employed by Josephus, and there is surely no reason to suppose that they were never used with the Bostran era (A.D. 106), which (as the 'Handbook' also tells us) is that generally found on the Hauran inscriptions. Moreover, one of the inscriptions begins ETOUC È THC полЕoC; does not this settle the question?

6

D. W. FRESHFIELD,

SNAKE-BITES.

Furzewell House, Torquay, Sept. 5, 1870. IN your last issue (of Sept. 3) I find under the heading Science Gossip' the statement that "some cases of snake-bites have been treated by injection of ammonia with success at Melbourne." Permit me to state that for the last two years and upwards snake-bites in Victoria, and that it has been the the ammonia treatment has been the remedy for means of saving a number of cases in an apparently hopeless state of collapse. The inhabitants of Victoria are so deeply impressed with the great practical value of the discovery that they are collecting subscriptions for a fitting testimonial to present to Dr. Halford, who was the first to suggest and carry feel inclined to forward to me subscriptions to the out this mode of treatment. If any of your readers Halford Testimonial-Fund, I shall be happy to take charge of them and transmit them to the treasurer. GEORGE E. DAY, M.D., Late Professor of Medicine in the University of St. Andrews.

MONUMENTS OF THE DISCOVERIES OF THE
PORTUGUESE IN AFRICA.

Bekesbourne, August 31, 1870. THE object of Senhor Castilho's communication to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, of which an abstract is given by "H. M. C." in the Athenæum of the 13th inst., appears to have been to enumerate and describe the twelve memorial padrãos or columns erected by the Portuguese discoverers of the end of the fifteenth century along the shores of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The

second of the three stated to have been set up by Bartholomew Diaz, in 1487, is described as "dedicated to S. Cruz or S. Gregorio," it being generally asserted to have been erected on St. Croix, Cape Colony, though Senhor Castilho "is disposed to place it on the point of Cape Padrone (Padrão), long. 26° 35′ E. Greenwich, lat. 33° 45′ S.; but he

admits that the data are insufficient to enable us to arrive at any certain conclusion."

all doubt respecting the position of the Padrão in The following particulars will, I believe, remove question; at the same time, they will show the origin of the system of error in the construction of the maps of the continent of Africa, which, in a greater or less degree, has exercised its influence on the cartography and geography of that continent, from the fifteenth century down to the present day.

Vol. I., N.S., is given a copy of a curious map of the world, containing a delineation of the entire continent of Africa, accompanied, at pp. 446-454, by a communication made on the subject by Dr. J. G. Kohl, in 1856, to the Geographical Society

In the Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Erdkunde,'

of Berlin.

From Dr. Kohl's statement, it appears that this map is contained in a manuscript work in the British Museum, indexed 'Addit. MS., No. 15,760,' and bearing the title "Insularium Illustratum Henrici Martelli Germani. Omnium insularum nostri maris, quod Mediterraneum dicimus, exteri etiam pelagi, quod Oceanum appellant, quas quidem partim vidimus, partim ex antiquorum nostrique temporis auctorum monumentis scriptisque cognovimus, liber hic nuper à nobis elucubratus, illustratas continet descriptiones."

I have not seen the original work; but I possess a copy of a fac-simile of the map in question, which the late Count de Lavradio obligingly gave me in 1863, when he had the same made.

Without following Dr. Kohl in his speculations respecting the authorship and character of the work itself, I will confine myself to the subject of the continent of Africa as represented in that map. This is labelled "Hæc est vera forma moderna Affricæ secundum descriptionem Portugalensium inter mare Mediterraneum et Oceanum Meridionalem"; and it is remarkable for showing, entirely and correctly, or as nearly so as was then practicable, the full extent of Diaz's explorations of 1487 east of the Cape of Good Hope, which is not the case with the celebrated globe of Martin Behaim of 1492.

At the further end of Diaz's voyage is another label, containing the words, "Hucusque ad ilhe de fonte pervenit ultima navigatio Portugalensium. Anno Domini 1489." From this date, it appears that the original map must have been drawn almost immediately after Diaz's return to Portugal; and from the mongrel language in which the names of places along the African coast are written,-all the rest of the map being in Latin,-it is further evident that either this portion of the map is a copy made by an Italian from a Portuguese original, or else the original itself was drawn by

some skilled Italian mariner on board of Diaz's

ship. This latter supposition is the more probable, because at first, as their own historian, De Barros, relates, the Portuguese seamen were unaccustomed to venture upon the open ocean, and confined themselves to coasting voyages, in which they never lost sight of the land; so that they were glad to avail themselves of the services of pilots and seamen of other maritime States, especially Genoa.

The extreme limits of Diaz's discoveries are marked on this map with the words "Golfo de Pastorj," "Padram de S. Giorgi," and "Ilha de Fontj." The first of these names is simply an Italian rendering of the Portuguese "Bahia dos Vaqueiros" (Herdsmen's Bay), now Algoa Bay. Mr. Major, who has discussed the subject of Diaz's voyage in his 'Life of Prince Henry,' says that that navigator set up his furthest pillar on one of the islands in that bay which still bears the name of Santa Cruz; the same being that which, in the map of 1489, bears the appellation of "Padram de S. Giorgi," not of "S. Gregorio," as stated by Senhor Castilho. The additional name in the

map of "Ilha de Fontj" is evidently an Italianized form of "Penedo das Fontes," (the Rock of the Springs,) which name, according to Mr. Major, was given to the island by Diaz on account of two springs of water there found by him.

This island, as I have already stated, is the extreme point marked on the map of 1489. But it

should be mentioned that, although by the refusal of his crew to continue the voyage Diaz was compelled to return, he yet induced them to go along the coast some twenty-five leagues further; the last name in his log being that of Rio do Infante, so called by him after João Infante, the captain of his consort vessel, the S. Pantaleon, and now known as the Great Fish River.

This map of 1489 is most memorable as being the first on which the outline of the continent of Africa is distinctly, even if not quite correctly, laid down; for, although the explorations of the Portuguese had at that time extended along the east coast of Africa as far only as the Great Fish River in 33° 20′ S. lat., the entire contour of the continent is nevertheless completed on the map by the ingenious expedient of supplying from Agathodaimon's Map of Africa, accompanying Ptolemy's "Geography,' the remainder of that east coast from the Red Sea downwards as far as Cape Prasum (Cape Delgado or Cape Punna?), to which point that geographer expressly states the coast had been visited, but "beyond this the country is unknown." And the same map of 1489 includes the course of the Nile, with its two lakes and its sources in the Mountains of the Moon, as also its two great tributaries, the Astapus and Astaboras, taken likewise from Agathodaimon's map.

Although no scale is marked on this map of 1489, it was evidently drawn in due proportion; the Mountains of the Moon, placed by Ptolemy in 12° 30′ S. lat., being laid down at a corresponding distance north of the parallel of Cape Negro, on the west coast, the latitude of which Cape is 15° 50′ south.

Senhor Castilho states that the "padrãos" set up by his countrymen were each surmounted with a Cross, " as a symbol of the protection which was ever invoked for our conquests, and in the hope that communication might be thereby opened with Prester John, who was reported to hold the Christian faith." It was, however, only by some extraordinary confusion of ideas that the mysterious potentate reigning in the far East could have been thus identified with a sovereign dwelling in the interior of Africa, of whose existence intelligence had then just been obtained through the discoveries of the countries of Benin and Congo, on the west coast: and this error is the more inexplicable because, in this very map of 1489, the dominions of Prester John are distinctly marked as lying in the extreme east of the continent of Asia, on the Sinus Magnus, beyond the Aurea Chersonesus of Ptolemy,-the China Sea of the present day,—where we find the inscription, "Hic dominatur Presbyter Johannes, Imperator totius India."

The story, derived from the original sources, of how this error arose, has been well told by Senhor Costa Quintella, in the 'Annaes da Marinha Portugesa' (Lisboa, 1839, 4to.), Vol. I. pp. 200, 201. In 1486, D. João Affonso d'Aveiro, on his return from Benin, brought the intelligence that the powerful monarch reported to reign in the interior of Africa, could only be the "Preste João"; and as the Priest was a common topic of conversation in India, and the king (João II.) having learnt from some Abyssinian priests who had come to Spain and from some monks who had been to Jerusalem, where they had been commissioned by him to obtain information respecting this potentate, that the country of the Priest was above Egypt and extended as far as the southern ocean; and D. João d'Aveiro being learned and expert in the art of navigation and in matters relating to cosmography, he called together the cosmographers of the kingdom to consult with him on the subject.

The Board of Mathematicians, combining all these reports with Ptolemy's description of Africa and with the discoveries of the Portuguese on the west coast of that continent, were of opinion that this unknown prince must be the Priest John; and it seemed to them that if the exploration of that coast were continued further southwards, a point would at length be reached, at which the coast would necessarily change its direction and turn to the east. This conclusion was self-evident; and therefore the king decided on sending some intelli

gent persons both by sea and by land, who should undertake to solve this important problem. Accordingly Pedro de Covilham and Affonso de Paiva were despatched by land on a mission to this African Prester John, whilst Bartholomeo Diaz de Novaes was sent by sea on the expedition on which, in 1487, the Cape of Good Hope, at first called by its discoverer Cabo Tormentoso, or the Stormy Cape, was rounded and a portion of the east coast of Africa explored. It is interesting to remark that in the map of 1849 the name is "Cavo de Speranza," that is to say, Cape of Hope"-not "of Good Hope."

I shall not here concern myself with the results of these two expeditions further than as regards their operation on the cartography of Africa, and the influence thereby exercised on the minds of subsequent geographers and travellers. It has been seen that the mathematicians and cosmographers of Lisbon combined the reports received from the west coast of Africa with Ptolemy's description of that continent. After the Cape of Good Hope had been rounded by Diaz, they combined the positive results of his explorations on the east coast of Africa with Ptolemy's description of the same coast and of the interior of Africa as represented on Agathodaimon's map, and so produced this remarkable map of 1489, of which one portion was positive and real, and the other hypothetical and traditional.

But though substantially adopting Ptolemy's views respecting the Upper Nile, the constructors of this map of 1489 were anything but servile imitators. In the various manuscript copies of Agathodaimon's map the number of streams rising in the Mountains of the Moon, and flowing into the two lakes of the Nile, are differently represented,being six, eight, ten, eleven, twelve, and in the Burney MS. No. 111,' in the British Museum, an indefinite number of rough scratches with the pen; whereas in the map of 1489 the western lake is shown as receiving only two streams and the eastern lake likewise only two, one of which, however, has a double source. And these four streams are marked as if they all ran through and across the two lakes respectively, and issued from them at points exactly opposite to those at which they each entered them. These fancies of the cartographer, which have no more reality than the larger number of streams as arbitrarily marked on the several copies of Agathodaimon's map, require to be thus particularly noticed, because they became accepted and treated by the subsequent geographers and cartographers of Portugal and other European nations as if they were the results of actual observation; and, indeed, they are so considered by some persons even at the present day. Moreover, on the map in question the names Astapus and Astaboras are made to change places; the latter river, which thus becomes the more westerly of the two, having given to it a second head-stream.

It is a mere truism to say, though it is a fact that should always be borne in mind in the consideration of the subject, that none of the details thus introduced into the map of Africa could by any possibility have been derived from the explorations of the Portuguese in or previously to the year 1489, or even from any native information obtained by them respecting the interior at that early period; but,

like the delineation of the east coast of Africa as far as Cape Prasum, these details were solely and exclusively founded on the text of Ptolemy and Agathodaimon's map. When, in the course of their subsequent explorations, the navigators of Portugal became acquainted with the whole of the east coast of Africa, they filled in the same on their portulanos, or sea-charts, from their actual surveys, in substitution for the incorrect outline provisionally adopted from Ptolemy and Agathodaimon; and their many beautiful maps, of which fac-similes have been produced by the care of the Visconde de Santarem, M. Jomard, and the Conde de Lavradio, demonstrate with what surprising accuracy those surveys were made.

But, whilst the Portuguese geographers and cartographers, with commendable discretion, did not hesitate to accept the authority of their own practical

marine surveyors, in preference to that of the great cosmographer of Pelusium, as regards the coast line of Eastern Africa, they inconsiderately and inconsistently allowed his crude and imperfect ideas respecting the interior of that continent and its great river to remain undisturbed and unquestioned. Thus it was that, whilst correcting the coast-line, they retained the delineation of the course of the Nile, its lakes and head-streams, and the Mountains of the Moon, substantially as they had been introduced into the map of 1489 from that of Agathodaimon; and this fantastic and erroneous image was thenceforth used as a lay-figure, which they proceeded to clothe, in the most heterogeneous manner, with the results of the positive information obtained from time to time on both coasts of Africa, and also in Abyssinia; whereas reflection might have taught them, that, if the divine Ptolemy's acquaintance with the sea-coast, which Syrian and Greek navigators had personally visited, was so defective and inaccurate as it was now proved to be by their own countrymen, his knowledge of the interior, which was founded solely on the hearsay evidence of the same Syrian and Greek navigators, must necessarily be still more erroneous and insufficient. For it must be regarded as purely accidental that the great southern extension attributed by Ptolemy to the Basin of the Nile should so closely coincide with its actual limits as determined through the explorations of the greatest of African travellers, Dr. Livingstone; and it would indeed be swearing in verba magistri, were it contended that either Ptolemy or his chief authority, Marinus of Tyre, possessed the means of arriving at any other than most general and indefinite conclusions respecting the interior of Africa, which, hidden from them and all the civilized world both in previous and in subsequent ages, is only beginning to be revealed to ourselves at the present day. CHARLES BEKE.

Science Gossip.

PARTLY from their inconvenient size and partly from their remote habitat, our knowledge of the Cetacea a few years back was very slender. The exertions of the Scandinavian anatomists abroad and of Mr. Flower in England have since largely increased our information. M. van Beneden has added a contribution to the history of the order in a long paper on the Entozoa of the Cetacea.

THE Germans having found that the eggs sent from a distance for the wounded in the hospitals were often rotten by the time they reached their destination, have applied to Frhr. von Liebig for a remedy: he suggests that each egg should be smeared over with bullock-fat, so as to protect the shell from the external air.

THE last meeting of the Académie des Sciences was merely formal, and it seems probable that all meetings of the Institute will be suspended for the present.

DR. GUYON, one of the oldest surgeons of the French army, is dead. He was the author of a monograph on Yellow Fever, and other medical

works.

ALTHOUGH Italian wines have not, for various reasons, been popularized in this country, a pro bable result of the present war will be to develope, for a time, the wine commerce of Italy. A new work by Signor Felice Garelli, 'La Coltivazione interesting information on Italian vineyards. della Vite in Italia,' published at Turin, affords

French mathematician, is dead. He had been for M. FEDOR THOMAN, a laborious but little known some time engaged in a work on the Integral Calculus.

THE Fauna and Terebratula Janitor of the North of Sicily are well described in the paleontological studies of Signor Gaetano Gemellaro, Sulla fauna del calcare e terebratula Janitor del Nord della Sicilia,' published at Palermo.

WHAT may be called a return current in ethnological movements is the reported fact of a batch of Persian gipsies finding their way to Lahore.