1818.] · M. Chabert-Expedition to the Arctic Regions. Signora Giradelli, who has been exhibiting her powers at Edinburgh; and Ivan Ivanitz Chabert, a Russian, who has been displaying similar qualifications in the English metropolis. All the stories of St. John escaping from the cauldron of boiling oil, of Queen Emma walking bare-foot over the red-hot plough-share, and of the Hindoos walking into nine inclosures with fiery balls of iron in their naked hands, now lose the impression which they were wont to produce, and almost sink into trifles, compared with the exploits of those incombustible persons. The following is a list of the wonders performed by the northern ad venturer. 1. He took a red-hot iron, like a spade, and repeatedly stamped upon it with his naked foot, which was quite cool after the experiment. 2. He held his naked foot long over the flame of a candle, which did not seem to affect his skin in the slightest degree. 3. Oil appeared to boil in a small brazier, and he took nearly two table spoonfuls into his mouth and swallowed it. 4. Black sealing-wax was melted at a candle and dropped upon his tongue, in which state two impressions of a seal were taken. 5. He put several small pieces of burning charcoal into his mouth. 6. A quantity of melted lead being poured into a copper vessel he jumped into it bare-footed. 7. He poured aqua fortis on steel filings and then trampled on it with his bare feet. 8. He scraped a red-hot shovel up and down his arm, then smoothed his hair with the flat side without singing the same, and lastly, licked the whole cool with his tongue. 9. He took a lighted torch and eat it as a sallad, and lastly, poured aqua fortis on a piece of copper in the hollow of his hand. It is evident, that whatever there may be of deception in these performances, there is still enough of the curious to merit attention. M. Chabert asserts, that he is the only naturally incombustible being exhibiting; the others using preparations which he disclaims. He is a dark, stout looking man, and his story is, that he fell into the fire when a year old without suffering any injury; and a similar accident when he was twelve, from which he also escaped unhurt, demonstrated that he possessed the quality of resisting fire. NEW MONTHLY MAG.--No. 55. 65 The expedition for exploring the arctio regions, gathers fresh interest every day, and therefore we shall bring together all that occurs illustrative of the subject. A letter from Copenhagen communicates the following details upon the breaking up of the polar ice. "Four hundred and fifty square miles of ice have been recently detached from the eastern coast of Greenland and the neighbouring regions of the pole. It was this mass which, during four hundred years, had rendered that country at first difficult of access, and afterwards totally inaccessible, so as even to cause its existence to be doubted. Since the year 1786 the reports of the whalers have invariably referred to some changes, more or less considerable, in the seas of the North Pole; but at the present time, so much ice has detached itself, and such extensive canals are open amidst what remains, that they can penetrate without obstruction as far as the 83d degree of latitude. "All the seas of the north abound with these floating masses, which are driven to more temperate climates. A packet from Halifax fell in with one of these islands in a more southern latitude than the situation of London; it appeared about half a mile in circumference, and its elevation above the water was estimated at two hundred feet. This breaking up of the polar ices coincides with the continual tempests from the south east, accompanied with heats, rains, storms, and a highly electrified state of the atmosphere; circumstances which, during three years, have caused us to experience in Denmark hot winters and cold humid summers. On the 25th of May there fell at Copenhagen five showers of hail, to each of which succeeded a dead calm. Many mariners are apprehensive that the ice will fix itself on the eastern coasts of America; but whilst the north east winds prevail, these floating masses will disappear in the southern ocean. Some of these floating islands conveyed forests and trunks of trees. We notice this last fact principally for the satisfaction of geologists, who attribute to phenomena of this sort, the rocks of foreign granite found in the chain of the Jura mountains, and conveyed at the epoch when our highest mountains were tovered with water." One of the whalers which has arrived in England, states that it fell in with the interesting expedition to the North Pole VOL. X. K 66 Prevention of Dry-Rot-Hardening Steel Springs. [Aug. 1, in the first week of June, opposite Magdalena Bay, Spitzbergen, lat. 79, 34, all well. On the 4th of March, a bottle was picked up on the N.E. side of Eleuthera, in lat. 24° 30'; long. 76° 30′ W. It contained a paper incribed, "Ship John Tobin, 8th August, 1815, lat. 22° N. long. 27° 30′ W. with a fine breeze N.E." signed, W. Swainson. Were these simple experiments often made, a number of them might lead to the establishment of a theory in regard to the currents of ocean. The succession of disappointments experienced in regard to the late attempts to penetrate into the interior of Africa, have not repressed the ardour of adventure. Mr. Ritchie, late private secretary to Sir Charles Stewart, has undertaken to reach the Niger and Tombuctoo by a new route, and the Bashaw of Tripoli has intimated his readiness to co-operate with the British government in the promotion of the plan. Fezzan is a dependancy of Tripoli; the Bey, by whom it is at present governed, is a son of the Bashaw; and it appears that there is a constant communication between Fezzan and Kashna, Bournou, and even Tombuctoo itself. We learn that the French are also turning their attention to this object, and that the Spanish traveller, Badia, so well known under his assumed name of Ali Bey, is about entering upon an expedition nearly similar to that projected by Burckhardt. Lieutenant Kotzebue arrived on the 17th of June at Portsmouth, in the Russian ship Rurick, from his voyage of discovery, which lasted two years and eleven months. In the course of this voyage, which was at first directed towards the north, he fell in with a singular ice-berg of great magnitude, which not only had part of its surface covered with earth and mould, bearing trees and vegetable productions, but a portion of its water-line covered with a shore formed by a deposit of the earthy matter washed down from the more elevated situations. On this shore a landing was effected, and considerable remains of the mammoth were found in such a state of putrefaction as to produce an intolerable stench. The Rurick brought away some of the tusks and other parts of these immense animals, which had probably been preserved frozen for many ages, till the mass of ice which inclosed them, put in motion by some unknown cause, reached a more temperate latitude. Mr Gavin Inglis, in some observations on the prevention of dry-rot, concurs with several gentlemen who have recently published the results of their experience, that timber, especially for shipbuilding, ought never to be cut till after the fall of the leaf. "In examining masses of oak," says he, " dug from the alluvial strata of the country, where it has lain for ages, many of them are found fresh and sound as the day on which they had been torn from their respective roots. In this case the timber is uniformly black as ebony, and obdurately hard. I was led from curiosity to examine chemically several of these old trunks, and found a far greater proportion of iron than could be supposed to exist in the natural state of the tree. To this iron I attribute the incorruptibility and high state of preservation of this antediluvian timber. This extraneous iron must have been supplied from the ore of the soil or chalybeate waters: in this state of solution it would penetrate the substance of the wood, unite with the astringent principle and produce not only the black colour, but such a density of texture as almost to resist the sharpest instrument. Should the period of cutting above recommended be considered incompatible with that important branch of national industry, the leather-trade, the same means will season the new timber, and render it proof against dry-rot, that will cure it in the old, namely, the application of iron in a state of solution. This can be obtained at a comparatively small expense from a solution of green copperas, in which the wood must be soaked till it has acquired the colour of new ink. This would completely counteract every vegetative principle and communicate durability and firmness of texture, with this additional advantage, that the sulphur of the solution, penetrating the substance of the plank, would defend it against the ravages of insects." Steel springs are usually hardened and tempered by two distinct operations, being first heated to the proper degree and hardened by quenching in water, oil, &c. and then tempered, either by rubbing them bright and heating them till they acquire a pale blue or grey colour, or by burning or blazing off the oil. Mr. Thomas Gill, however, informs us that it is now found that both operations may be advantageously performat once, in the following manner:The steel being heated to a proper degree, is to be plunged into a metallic bath composed of a mixture of lead and 1818.] The Mammoth-Situation of the Tarpeian Rock, &c. tin, such as plumber's solder, heated by a proper furnace to the tempering degree, as indicated by a pyrometer or thermometer placed in the bath, when the steel will be at once hardened and tempered, and with much less danger of warping and cracking in the process than if treated in the usual way. It would be a further improvement to heat the steel in a bath of red-hot lead to the proper degree for hardening previously to quenching and tempering it in the other metallic bath, as it would thereby be more uniformly heated and be in less danger of oxidation. There have been recently discovered in the parish of Motteston, on the south side of the Isle of Wight, the bones of that stupendous animal supposed to be the Mammoth, or Mastadon: several of the vertebræ, or joints of the back bone, measure thirty-six inches in circumference: they correspond exactly in form, colour, and texture, with the bones found in plenty on the banks of the Ohio, in North America, in a vale called by the Indians Big-bone Swamp.-Also, in the parish of Northwood, on the north side of the island, the bones of the crocodile have recently been found, by the Rev. Mr. Hughes, of Newport. They seem to have belonged to an animal of that species, whose body did not exceed 12 feet in length. Their calcareous nature is not altered: but the bones of the mastadon (found on the south side of the island) contain iron. Mr. Joseph Small, gardener, in a communication to the Caledonian Horticultural Society, recommends the following remedy as an effectual one against the injuries done to the bark of trees by hares and rabbits: Take hog's lard and as much whale oil as will work it up into a thin paste. With this gently rub the stems of the trees upwards, at the fall of the leaf. Once in two years will be sufficient, and the innocent nature of the ingredients is such that the trees will not be in the least affected by it. The American farmers are said to prevent the blight in apple trees, and secure plentiful crops, by the simple process of rubbing tar well into the bark about four or six inches wide round each tree, and a foot from the ground. Mr. Joseph Swan, in a paper read to the Royal Society, recommends corrosive sublimate as an improved method of making anatomical preparations. An intelligent correspondent says, that the tender shoots of Scotch fir peel 67 ed, and eaten fasting early in the morning in the woods when the weather is dry, has performed many cures of pulmonary complaints among the Highlanders. A gentleman who recently visited St. Kilda, carried with him twelve Gaelic Bibles to distribute among the poor inhabitants of that place. It will speak volumes to those who are so fond of illuminating the heathen abroad, that out of the twelve Bibles, he brought back eleven, as he found only one among a community of one hundred and ten souls who could read. We pledge ourselves (says the editor of the Caledonian Mercury) for the truth of this statement. FRANCE. Messrs. Truttel and Wurtz have put to press the Correspondance inedite of the Abbé Ferd. Galiani, with Madame d'Epinay, Baron d'Holback, Grimm, &c. between the years 1765 and 1781, with an Account of the Life and Works of Galiani, by M. Ginguené and notes by M. Salfi, of Naples. The work will form two 8vo. volumes, and will be printed from autograph letters in the possession of the publishers. The same booksellers have also announced a French translation of Bramsen's Excursions of a Prussian traveller in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. M. Dureau de la Malle has submitted to the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, a Memoir on the Situation of the Tarpeian rock. He deduces from his researches the following re sults:-that the rock shown to strangers behind the palace of the Conservators cannot be the Tarpeian-that the rock of Cormentum and the Tarpeian were distinct, the one forming the base of the mount of which the other is the summit that the house of Manlius stood opposite to the Temple of Concord-that the Tarpeian rock was situated on the south side of the Mons Capitolinus, opposite to the Forum, before the Temple of Jupiter-that this declivity, surrounded by houses may still be seen in front of the site of the ancient Forum. We learn from Bar-sur-Ornain, that the prefect of the department of the Maese, being informed that some peasants of the village of Naives, near Bar, when cultivating their land, had discovered several antiquities, has given orders to make further researches. As far as they have hitherto been prosecuted, they have been attended with complete 68 Book of Tournaments of Duke William IV. success. A magnificent building has been discovered, with public baths, the chambers of which are painted in Fresco, and were warmed by pipes which conveyed the heat under ground. They have found, also, fragments of columns, a Minerva of bronze, tombs, and a very considerable number of silver and copper coins, with the heads of several Roman Emperors; various iron and earthen vessels; fragments of colossal statues of white marble; the walls of a building covered with cement; antique lamps; a bason formed in the ground, with mosaic works, &c. These remains are supposed to be part of a great city, whose origin is of high antiquity. An extraordinary fish has been taken alive at Nantes by some fishermen, who have given it the name of the sea-tiger. M. Cuvier has been elected member of the French Academy in the room of M. de Roquelaure: there were eleven candidates. The Journal des Savans continues to be conducted with great ability, and we may venture to say, affords an example to our literary journalists in this country which they would do well to imitate. In our future numbers, we shall give a concise view of the contents of this parent review. GERMANY. M. Von Schlichtegroll, secretary-general to the Academy of Munich, is publishing lithographically the Book of Tournaments of Duke William IV. of Bavaria, in 34 admirably coloured drawings, most carefully painted by Hans Schenk, armourist to that prince, from all the tournaments undertaken by his master. This work will be published in eight numbers, each containing four large coloured plates, with the editor's illustrations and remarks. The first number is already published. The title-page, which is also adorned with lithographic ornaments, is as follows;-" The Book of Tournaments of Duke William the Fourth of Bavaria, from 1510 to 1545, faithfully copied in Lithographic Engravings, by Theobald and Clements Senefelder, after a Manuscript of that Time in the Royal Library at Munich, accompanied with illustrations by Frederick Schlichtegroll." This first number contains four combats, the first of which Duke William, still a minor, had at Munich with a Count Von Ortenburg; the second in Augsburg, with the Count Palatine Fre [Aug. 1, deric, in 1510. The two following tourneys took place at Munich with three knights, Hans Von Preising, Wolf Count Von Montfort, and Leinhard Von Lichtenstein. The execution of the helmets and the armour in gold and silver, are extremely ingenious; the representation of the combat itself, of the plumes of feathers, the caparisons, &c. of the horses, with devices and arms embroidered on both sides, is very characteristic. Facsimilies are given of the inscriptions on every plate, and in general every part of the work is executed with scrupulous fidelity. With respect to the metallic colours, a particular process is employed to lay them on fast; the gold or silver being laid upon the paper by means of models, and then drawn under the press; after this comes the printing of the lithographic outlines, then the colouring. M. Von Schlichtegroll is much to be commended for his determination not to allow this book of tournaments to be merely an amusement for the eye, but to join to it as complete a history as possible of these shows, which are such an important feature of the times of chivalry, and thus to give a very instructive contribution to the history of mankind, He intends to treat this matter thoroughly in a series of essays, which will make the first part of every number, and to unite with them a complete literature of tournaments, and an enumeration of the printed and unprinted books on the subject. The Royal Library at Dresden contains some account of a book of tournaments with beautiful paintings, which is not at all known; and many interesting particulars respecting the rare monuments of the tournaments formerly held in Dresden, and preserved in a suite of six rooms in the Royal Armoury. Aloys Senefelder, who may be called both the inventor and perfector of the new art, desires now to term it chemical printing, instead of lythography, or stone-printing, which is not adapted to it; because other materials, such as brass, copper, tinfoil, prepared paper, &c. are used in it in many cases instead of stone. He is on the point of publishing the history of this art, which has spread from Munich over all Europe. A tragedy, entitled Sappho, has been brought on the stage at Vienna, formed entirely on the Greek model; and though completely at variance with the German drama, its success is almost without a parallel. At the close of the third act, the 1818.] Switzerland-Italy-Spain-Africa. author was so loudly called for, that he was under the necessity of appearing on the stage he was crowned at the termination of the tragedy, and carried in procession to his residence. On the following day, a considerable subscription was opened for him, and filled up in the course of a few hours. He is a young man, named Gripalzer. The following paragraph, in addition to what we have already translated, is from the pen of one of the most distinguished critics in Germany: "The tragedy of Sappho is written in Iambic verse without rhyme, and even without measured prosody, with the exception of an ode to Venus. The author has imposed upon himself difficulties hitherto unknown among the German dramatists: he has introduced only six speaking characters, and has confined himself to a strict observance of the three celebrated unities, But M. Gripalzer has avoided the rocks on which even the most celebrated French tragic writers have been wrecked; he has not, like them, sacrificed probability, interest, propriety, and local colouring, to those puerile laws." Several modern Greeks are at this time pursuing their studies at Munich, Wurtzburgh, Gottingen, Jena, and other German Universities. At Wurtzburgh, one of the students is called Prince of Epirus. They purchase many books to take with them to their native country, which may, probably at no distant period, rise again into consequence, both in learning, arts, and arms. A new era is certainly bursting into existence. Mr. Bramsen, in his interesting tour, observed a strong spirit of curiosity and love of letters, even in the classical but rocky isle of Ithaca. SWITZERLAND. A lake has recently been formed in the valley of Bagnes en Vallais by the fall of ice from the glacier of Chedroz into the bed of the river Drance, which, thus blocked by mountains of ice and snow dissolving into water, has converted the lower part of the valley into a lake 7,200 feet in length, 630 feet broad, and 180 feet deep at the greatest depth on the 14th of May last. ITALY. An Essay which Dr. Jos. de Matthæis read in the Archaelogical Society at Rome, on the 29th of February, 1818, has now been published by Bourlié un 69 der the title of Sull Origine de' Numeri Romani. (On the Origin of the Roman Numerals), thirty-six pages in 4to. and a lithographic print. The author attempts to prove, that the Roman numerals, as well as the ancient Etruscan, originate in the nails which the above-mentioned nations, in the earliest period of their history, caused to have fixed annually by their magistrates, not for chronological purposes, the first in the Temple of Jupiter, the last at Vulsinium (Bolsena) in the Temple of Nurcia, their goddess of Fortune. SPAIN. In the neighbourhood of Counha, in the principality of the Asturias, at an elevation of 250 fathoms above the level of the sea, and at the distance of a short league from it, there are many vestiges of of a hill, though now for the most part destroyed by the peasantry of the neighbouring country. The houses are round, and were joined together, though with a separation between them, each one having a single door; the walls, which are a most ancient town, situated at the foot made of stone, without mortar or any kind of cement, are admired for their soThere exists, likewise, a piece of wall lidity, smoothness, and workmanship.of the same kind, and very near a large bath of granite of a single piece. The weight of this stone is not less than by what machinery it was brought to 140 cwt. it is not easy to be imagined this spot, since there is no stone of this kind nearer than three leagues, and in situations whence it is extremely difficult to remove it. The whole circuit of this town on the lower part, which is upon a deep rivulet, is full of shells, marine pe trifactions, and incrustations, more or less decomposed, according as they were on the surface of the ground or below it. On the same level there is also a great quantity of rounded stones, sea sand, shells, and other similar productions. The licentiate Don Pedro Canel Azevedo, who lives at a small distance from the above town, and is a person much devoted to the study of natural history and antiquities, after having examined all this ground, has come to the conclu sion, that this town must be anterior to the entrance of the Carthaginians into Spain. AFRICA. Another enterprise to explore the termination of the Niger is undertaken, and, as in all former ones, with sanguine |