OR,

Literary and Scientific Mirror.

"UTILE DULCI."

familiar Miscellany, from which religious and political matters are excluded, contains a variety of original and selected Articles; comprehending Literature, Criticism, Men and Manners, Amusement, Elegant Extracts, Poetry, Anecdotes, Biography, Meteorology, the Drama, Arts and Sciences, Wit and Satire, Natural History, Monthly Diary, Fashions, &c. &c.; forming a handsome Annual Volume, with an Index and Title-page.-Regular supplies are forwarded to the following

The Gleaner.

“ I am but a gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff.” WOTTON.

ANECDOTES OF SWIMMING.

Continued from the early Numbers of our present
Volume, pages 9, 24, 32, 46, 64, 96.]

SWIMMING ACROSS THE
HELLESPONT.

[From Baldwin's London Magazine.]

TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1821.

LETTER FROM THE RIGHT HONOURABLE thrown into the stream of this part of the

LORD BYRON TO MR. MURRAY.

European bank must arrive at the Asiatic
shore." This is so far from being the case,
that it must arrive in the Archipelago if left
to the current, although a strong wind from
the Asiatic side might have such effect oc-
casionally.

frigate, from Captain (now Admiral) Ba- the difference of the current, I perceived thurst, downwards, had any notion of a dif- none; it is favourable to the swimmer on ference of the current on the Asiatic side, neither side, but may be stemmed by plungof which Mr. Turner speaks. I never heard ing into the sea a considerable way above of it till this moment, or I would have taken the opposite point of the coast which the the other course. Lieutenant Ebenhead's swimmer wishes to make, but still bearing sole motive, and mine also, for setting out up against it: it is strong; but if you calfrom the European side, was, that the little culate well, you may reach land. My own Cape above Sestos was a more prominent experience, and that of others, bids me prostarting-place, and the frigate which lay be-nounce the passage of Leander perfectly low, close under the Asiatic castle, formed practicable; any young man in good health, a better point of view for us to move to- and with tolerable skill in swimming, might wards; and, in fact, we landed immediately succeed in it from either side. I was three below it. Mr. Turner says, "whatever is hours in swimming across the Tagus, which is much more hazardous, being two hours longer than the passage of the Hellespont. Of what may be done in swimming, I shall "Ravenna, Feb. 11, 1821. mention one more instance. In 1818, the "DEAR SIR,-In the 44th page, vol. 1st, Chevalier Mingaldo, (a gentleman of Basof Turner's Travels (which you lately sent sano) a good swimmer, wished to swim with me) it is stated that " Lord Byron, when my friend, Mr. Alexander Scott, and mye expressed such confidence of its practi"Mr. Turner attempted the passage from self: as he seemed particularly anxious on cability, seems to have forgotten that Le- the Asiatic side, and failed; "after five-and- the subject, we indulged him. We all three ander swam both ways, with and against the twenty minutes, in which he did not advance started from the island of the Lido, and ide; whereas he (Lord Byron) only per- a hundred yards, he gave it up from com- swam to Venice. At the entrance of the Formed the easiest part of the task by swim-plete exhaustion." This is very possible, Grand Canal, Scott and I were a good way mming with it from Europe to Asia." I cer- and might have occurred to him just as a-head, and we saw no more of our foreign ainly could not have forgotten what is readily on the European side. I particu- friend; which, however was of no consenown to every schoolboy, that Leander larly stated, and Mr. Hobhouse has done quence, as there was a gondola to hold his Crossed in the night, and returned towards so also, that we were obliged to make the clothes, and pick him up. Scott swam on till the morning. My object was to ascertain real passage of one mile, extend to between past the Rialto, where he got out; less from chat the Hellespont could be crossed, at all, three and four, owing to the force of the fatigue than chill, having been four hours in by swimming: and in this Mr. Ebenhead stream. I can assure Mr. Turner that his the water, without rest, or stay, except what and myself both succeeded; the one in an success would have given me great pleasure, is to be obtained by floating on one's back: hour and ten minutes; the other in one hour as it would have added one more instance this being the condition of our performance, and five minutes: the tide was not in our fa- to the proofs of its practicability. It is I continued my course on to Santa Chiara, Your; on the contrary, the great difficulty not quite fair in him to infer, that because he comprising the whole of the Grand Canal, was to bear up against the current; which, failed, Leander could not succeed. There (beside the distance from the Lido) and got so far from helping us to the Asiatic side, are still four instances on record; a Neapoli- out where the Laguna once opens to Fusina. set us down right towards the Archipelago. tan, a young Jew, Mr. Ebenhead, and myself: I had been in the water, by my watch, withNeither Mr. Ebenhead, myself, nor, I will the two last were in the presence of hun-out help or rest, and never touching ground venture to add, any person on board the dreds of English witnesses. With regard to or boat, four hours and twenty minutes. To

brig

-, belonging principally to my father, Troops of friends accompanied me as far as the sened at best a poor stock of that vulgar beverage, Rock, and, drinking to my success, materially ks. Barclay's Entire. Full of delightful anticipation, I the oft-frequented Bidston Light-house, and som bade adieu to the receding shore of Lancashire and felt myself in a state better to be conceived th ries of sea sickness. Five days, I cannot call them described by those who have experienced the m tedious, because books formed a part of my cont in three more 1 found myself in the calm of fa brought us in sight of Land's End, Cornwall, sa mouth harbour, after experiencing several severe squalls, particularly near the light-house, on the during the gleams of a watery sun, surrounded and rocks called Longships, the appearance of whic, uical language are called breakers, was anfally

at times almost covered with foam, or what in tech

this match, and during the greater part of of crossing at the narrowest point, instead in Messina; and more at home with the books of its performance, Mr. Hoppner, the Consul- of going up to the Cape above it, we should barked on Sunday, the 16th July 1813, on board the Virgil than the books of the counting-house, I e general, was witness, and it is well known have been swept down to Tenedos. The to many others. Mr. Turner can easily Strait is however not extraordinarily wide, verify the fact, if he thinks it worth while, even where it broadens above and below the by referring to Mr. Hoppner. The distance forts: as the frigate was stationed some time we could not accurately ascertain; it was of in the Dardanelles, waiting for the Firman, course considerable. I bathed often in the Strait subsequently to "I crossed the Hellespont in one hour our traject, and generally on the Asiatic and ten minutes only, I am now ten years side, without perceiving the greater strength older in time, and twenty in constitution of the opposing stream, by which Mr. Turner than I was when I passed the Dardanelles, palliates his own failure. Our amusement and yet two years ago I was capable of in the small bay which opens immediately swimming four hours and twenty minutes; below the Asiatic fort, was to dive for the and I am sure that I could have continued land tortoises, which we flung in on purpose, two hours longer, though I had on a pair of as they amphibiously crawled along the bot-grand. trowsers an accountrement which by no tom: this does not argue any greater vioI was at night much interested by the luminous means assists the performance. My two lence of current than on the European shore. or immediately a-stern of the vessel. I found the appearance of the water in what is termed the wake, companions were also four hours in the wa-With regard to the modest insinuation, that light sufficiently strong to distinguish all prat ter. Mingaldo might be about thirty years we chose the European side as "easier," I however, I attempted to secure the particles, vách of age, Scott about six and twenty. With appeal to Mr. Hobhouse and Admiral Ba-played like globules of mercury in the water, a it a this experience in swimming at different thurst, if it be true or no (poor Ebenhead beoccasionally washed upon the deck. periods of age, not only on the spot, but else-ing since dead.) Had we been aware of any where, of various persons, what is there to such difference of current as is asserted, we make me doubt that Leander's exploit was would at least have proved it, and were not perfectly practicable? If three individuals | likely to have given it up in the twenty-five did more than passing the Hellespont, why minutes of Mr. Turner's own experiment." should he have done less? But Mr. Turner failed; and, naturally seeking a plausible excuse for his failure, lays the blame on the Asiatic side of the Strait: to me the cause is evident. He tried to swim directly across, instead of going higher up to take the vantage. He might as well have tried to fly

over Mount Athos.

“That a young Greek of the heroic times, in love, and with his limbs in full vigour, might have succeeded in such an attempt, is neither wonderful nor doubtful. Whether he attempted it or not is another question, because he might have had a small boat to save him the trouble.

"I am yours, very truly,

"BYRON.

"P. S. Mr. Turner says that the swimming from Europe to Asia was "the easiest part of the task." I doubt whether Leander found it so, as it was the return; however, he had several hours between the intervals. The argument of Mr. T." that higher up or lower down the Strait widens so considerably, that he would have little labour by his starting," is only good for indifferent swimmers. A man of any practice or skill will always consider the distance, less than the strength of the stream. If Lieutenant Ebenhead and myself had thought

The Traveler.

TO THE EDITOR.

I

SIR,-After an interval of more than two years,
am at length induced to comply with your very flatter-
ing request, that I would contribute a narrative of my
foreign travels to the pages of the Kaleidoscope, and
which I shall devote to the subject.
now hand you the first of a series of familiar letters

I

To amuse is my humble aim, although to be the
medium of instruction would afford me greater pleasure.
ing letters contribute in the smallest degree to the ad-
If then the facts or observations contained in the follow-
vancement of literature, science, or the arts; to the
removal of prejudice, and the consequent enlargement
of the human mind, my ambition will be abundantly
gratified.

I have only to add, that important avocations so absorb
my time, that I am unable to pledge myself to any de-
gree of regularity in my communications.
and entertaining publication, I am
With best wishes for the prosperity of your useful

Your most obedient servant,
PEREGRINE.

Liverpool, April 4, 1821.

Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."
"The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
So help me, God!"

LETTER I.

SIR,-Quarreling with my bread and butter for an apparently eligible offer of a commercial nature reasons which it is unnecessary to state, I embraced

from the windows of the cabin. It was in van,

to examine minutely a glass of the sea water, which Satisfied without inquiry, it did not occur to me was afterwards done by the scientific Dr. Trail,

his voyage to Gibraltar, and who proved that the light in question proceeded from a species of mediad

or insect.

only from its being, as it now is, the principal paciet
Falmouth was at that time a bustling place, not

station, but from the constant rendezvous of vesse
proceeding with convoy, upwards of two hundr
sail of which were then assembled. We wer
tained a fortnight before the men of war and met
chant vessels for our destination arrived from
eastward, during which time I had an opportun
of viewing the environs. I was disappointed in
it was impossible without risking my passage, had
visiting the tin mines, not many miles distant; but
the signal for sailing been made in my abstuce.

Pendennis and St. Maw's castles protect the
trance of the harbour. The former is extensive and
strong; the latter little more than a small fort, af
the town a fishing hamlet; although the o
liament.
Governor, and the other scuds its Member to Pr

were illuminations and other demonstrated Whilst I remained at Falmouth, there the battle of Vittoria. Many officers and mea for the Hero of Waterloo, who had just before embarking to recruit his ranks, full of enthusias and contributed no little to enliven the secre month of August so frequently affords, when t It was one of those enchanting evenings which the vishod-for signal bade us prepare, and the feet t moored. The sun was setting in the western, and cast a warin glow upon every object; the ar was bright and serene; the breeze, although t scarcely sufficing to fill the sails. All was trans save the cheering cry of sailors heaving the an from the deep, and at intervals the wafted stres the bands at Pendennis and on board the men playing the national anthem of Rule Brit Our convoy consisted of the Venerable, 74, Heral frigate, and Echo sloop, having under their profe tion about ninety sail, amongst which was the tr by the notorious Delano, brig Francis Ernest, of this port, then command

A few days of rough weather brought us into tr famed 'Bay of Biscay O!' aud in a week more t misty mountains near Corunna were in sight.

I could not look upon the grave of the brave bui unfortunate Moore without a sigh.

the west of Portugal, but although we steri si We were highly favoured with fine weather down

times pretty near the land, and left many vessels at Oporto and Lisbon, the atmosphere was too hazy to allow more than a faint glimmer of the rock near the latter port.

we have sometimes very sharp frosts in this month | feeds on insects, in search of which it is continually as well as in its successor, MÂY:

The traveler deplores
The wild caprice of April's veering hours;
Now, mid soft gales, throws back her wintry vest,
Now, in the rude storm, folds it o'er her breast.

running up and down small branches of trees. The house-wren destroys many pernicious insects. That most elegant little bird, the yellow-wren, is only noticed by the frequenters and lovers of the country; it is a more early harbinger of spring than any other of the migratory tribes: it animates the woods by its constant motion; and the frequent repetition of its simple note has a cheerful and varied modulation, that renders it very pleasing. Its arrival is commonly regulated by the season; but early in April, if the weather be at all mild, the little groves resound with its harmony. The stone-curlew or great plover arrives about this

time.

One evening, just before sunset, the commodore made a signal for the ships to close, an enemy being in sight. It proved a false alarm, the supposed hostile vessels turning out to be Portuguese men of The arrival of the swallow, about the middle of war. When the largest of them was descried, we the month foretels the approach of summer. The had no doubt of her being an American frigate, and swallow was a favourite bird among the Greeks: his probably one of a squadron on a cruize, and I must first appearance made a holiday for the Greek boys, confess I felt all anxiety to be eyewitness of an ac- and a song has been preserved in Athenæus, by tion. I observed the shark and the dolphin in these which the little mendicants used to levy contriseas; the latter is a most beautiful fish, in shape butions on the good nature of their fellow-citizens. like the salmon, but the brilliancy of its colours It is the general opinion of naturalists that the same exceeds description. I did not succeed in harpoon-pair of swallows annually return to the village where Most birds awake early, but yet are abroad at ing any, but the sailors informed me, that whilst the they built the preceding year, and attach themselves different times. The rook is the first that awakes fish is in the agonies of death, it changes its colours to the same nest, if it remain: should it be destroy- to salute the rising morn: roosting higher than repeatedly. The dolphin of the ancients, which weed, they erect another in the same station, and this most other birds, the rays of light first reach his so often see introduced in candelabra and tripods, as long as they escape the various contingencies of abode. The restless inquisitive robin immediately is a fabulous creature. Nature seems to have given their migratory life. That rooks feel an attachment follows: he is the last that retires to his dormitory, great facilities to the escape of small fish from the to their old nests is obvious, from their commencing and is often about when the night birds appear; Is of that insatiable monster, the shark; as he is the repair of them so long before they finally inhabit and, moving very early in the morning, he has less aliged, from the peculiar construction of his mouth, them, and the noisy warfare that resounds through rest than any other bird. The cheerful melody of turn upon his back before he can seize his prey. the rookery in contending for their ancient posses- the wren comes next, and we hear him caroling often amused myself with throwing cabbage leaves sions. There is perhaps no bird more attached to when the songster is hardly visible in the twilight. d other matters to entice them under the stern, particular sites thau the common flycatcher; one The sparrow roosts in holes, and under caves, where id although they swallowed every thing so given, pair, or their descendants, building for many years the light of the morning does not so soon enter, could not get them within harpoon length. In one successively in the same hole in the wall, or on the and hence he is rather a tardy mover; we see him tempt of this kind, I had well nigh gone overboard, same branch of a fruit-tree: being perfectly harm-peeping from his shed, to note what is going forhich made me desist. less, and hence never molested, instinct may teach ward: should any food be about, the sparrow in an them, that where they found safety for their young instant descends and makes himself welcome; and, at one time, they may find it at another. A pair with a boldness that no other bird possesses, filches of these birds has been known in one season to his grain from the trough of the pig, or shares with bring off two broods from the same nest without the gigantic turkey: scared away, he returns, and its undergoing any repair. pilfers a portion, undismayed. The constant attendant on man, he follows him to the desert, associates with him in a distant isle, and partakes the profit of his industry; he is not known in a solitary and independent state. The blackbird leaves his ivy mantled shed. The martin welcomes the first solar ray, and from this time it is difficult to mark the priority of our wakers: if in summer, an universal tuning and piping confounds the first notes of awakening pleasure; if in winter, their voices rarely detect them; a twit or a short chirp, when disturbed, alone is uttered.

Passing pretty close to the promontory which res title to the veteran Earl St. Vincent, Cape rafalgar presented itself, and I sailed tranquilly rer the spot rendered famous by the deeds of the froic Nelson. Several ships here left us for the Vestern Islands.

We had only just arrived at the mouth of the straits of Gibraltar, when a violent gale from the astward, called by seamen a levanter, kept us tossg and tumbling two days and nights; it having, wever, spent its fury on the third morning, we stered the Straits on the African side, and coasting, force of the current more than of the wind, as far Apes Hill in Barbary, one of the Pillars of Herdes, opposite Gibraltar, a light breeze carried us, ter sixteen days' ploughing the main, into safe chorage under the guns of this justly celebrated The peculiar situation and great imbi rtance of Gibraltar will be a sufficient excuse for y entering into rather a minute description of its rious interesting points, I shall therefore reserve ch for the matter of another letter, and, in the lerim, bid you adieu.

rtress.

The Naturalist's Diary,

For APRIL, 1821.

[To be continued throughout the year.]

fow laughing SPRING comes on, and birds, in pairs,
hirp in the lively woods, while balmy airs
and warming beams, no more with frosts at strife,
Vake from its trance the genial tide of life,

'hat, as it flows through Nature's swelling veins,
'rces every pulse from Winter's icy chains,
nd tints her mantling cheek with rosy hue,
and calls her vernal beauties all to view.

At this time of general renovation among the arious tribes of plants and trees, the swelling buds spring from their coverts,'

And push away the withered leaves that hung
Whispering through many a shivering, wintry blast,
To fall in the first breath of Spring at last.

In April the weather is mild, with gentle showers, ffording to vegetables an abundant supply of water, which is so indispensibly necessary to their existence. This is the general character of April; yet,

Young moles are now to be found in the nests; this is a good time, therefore, for destroying them. There are commonly four or five in a nest, and they are naked when first born. Weasels and stoats are great enemies to moles, and frequently get into their holes, kill the inhabitants, and take up their own abode there.. Thus do the several sorts of vermin help to keep up a kind of balance of power among them.

The next bird which appears after the swallow, is
that sweet warbler the nightingale. From the time
of Homer to the present day, the poets have ever
considered the nightingale as a melancholy bird.
That beautiful little bird the wryneck makes its
appearance about the middle of the month, pre-
ceeding the cuckoo by a few days. The well known
cry of the cuckoo is heard soon after the wryneck,
and ceases the latter end of June; its stay is short;
the old cuckoos being said to quit this country
about the end of June.

Hail to thee, shouting Cuckoo! in my youth
Thou wert long time the Ariel of my hope,
The marvel of a summer! it did soothe
To listen to thee on some sunny slope,
Where the high oaks forbade an anipler scope
Than of the blue sky upward-and to sit,
Canopied, in the gladdening horoscope
Which thou, my planet flung-a pleasant fit,

The tenants of the air are, in this month, busily employed in forming their temporary habitations, and in rearing and maintaining their offspring.

About the middle of April, the bittern makes a hollow booming noise during the night in the breeding season, from its swampy retreats.

end of the month, and affords great delight to the The song of the blackcap is heard towards the lovers of rural harmony. The time of the arrival of the male bird is often the most enchanting part of our spring; the groves resound with that gratulation and harmony which are so particularly exhilirating at this season, after the long silence and deprivation of winter. The most eminent of the choir is the blackcap, and his fine clear melody is easily distinguishable. Immediately upon his arrival he

Long time my hours endeared, my kindling fancy smit. begins to make a nest which he soon abandons, and

And thus I love thee still-thy monotone

The self-same transport flashes through my frame;
And when thy voice, sweet Sybil, all is flown
My eager ear, I cannot chuse but blame.
O may the world these feelings never tame!
If age o'er me her silver tresses spread,

still would call thee by a lover's name,
And deem the spirit of delight unfled,
Nor bear, though gray without, a heart to nature dead!
Wiffen's Aonian Hours.

commences another; and thus often makes a third or a fourth essay before he is satisfied with his labours or his site: during the period of incubation he is timid and restless to a degree; when the summer fruits become ripe, his timidity ceases, and, repairing to our gardens with all his progeny, commences his ravages: the antwerp raspberry is his delight, and he clears away the crop in our very presence with a boldness he at no other time possesses. The garden fruit becoming scarce, he retires from the scene of his plunder, and leaves the The other summer birds of passage which arrive kingdom very early. A gentleman once tried the this month, make their appearance in the following experiment of having a considerable number of the order: the ring-ousel, the redstart, frequenting old spring flight destroyed previously to the hatch, but walls and ruinous edifices; the yellow wren; the with no success: the depredation on his fruit was swift; the whitethroat; the grasshopper lark, the not lesssened; he lost his harmony, and saved no smallest of the lark kind; and, lastly, the willow-fruit: the experiment was not repeated. A ripe wren, which frequents hedges and shrubberies, and jargonel pear is one of his prime delights.

Sweet concord of sounds through the ball-room re- With a lance of great length and Herculean strength, sounds,

Many others, dear creatures, preserved their sweet fea- But particular offers still waiving, he proffers

Were employ'd, as they say, both by night and by day, Who in foreign costume for once could assume

Many others with cloaks, which excited the jokes
Of the fair, of their friends, or their neighbours,
Tho' ill they became 'em, with caution we blame 'em
For wanting some taste in their labours.

The Finneys, Macleans, Woodvilles, Hodgsons, and Some men of condition and honest ambition
Cains,