direction; and being filled with water in the wet season, present the only obstacle to walking over the surface. These cavities are in general deep in proportion to their width, and many of them unfathomable: the water they contain is uncontaminated by the pitch, and is the abode of a variety of fishes. The arrangement of the chasms is very singular, the sides invariably shelving from the surface, so as nearly to meet at the bottom, and then bulging out towards each other with a considerable degree of convexity. Several of them have been known to close up entirely, without leaving any mark or seam.

The pitch lake of Trinidad contains many islets covered with grass and shrubs, which are the haunts of birds of the most exquisite plumage. Its precise extent cannot, any more than its depth, be readily ascertained, the line between it and the neighbouring soil not being well defined; but its main body may be estimated at three miles in circumference. It is bounded on the north and west sides by the sea, on the south by a rocky eminence, and on the east by the usual argillaceous soil of the country.

MUD LAKE OF JAVA.

THE following details relative to the volcanic springs of boiling mud in Java are extracted from the Penang

Gazette.

"We

Having received an extraordinary account of a natural phenomenon in the plains of Grobogna, fifty paals north-east of Solo; a party set off from Solo the 25th Sept. 1814, to examine it. On approaching the dass or village of Kuhoo, they saw between two topes of trees in a plain,an appearance like the surf breaking over rocks with a strong spray falling to leeward. Alighting, they went to the Bluddugs,' as the Javanese call them. They are situated in the village of Kuhoo, and by Europeans are called by that name. found them says the narrator, to be an elevated plain of mud about two miles in circumference, in the centre of which, immense bodies of soft mud were thrown up to the heightof ten to fifteen feet, in the form of large bubbles, which, bursting, emitted great volumes of dense white smoke.-These large bubbles, of which there were two, continued throwing up and bursting seven or eight times in a minute'; at times they threw up two or three tons of mud. The

party got to the leeward of the smoke, and found it to stink like the washings of a gunbarrel.-As the bubbles burst, they threw the mud out from the centre, with a pretty loud noise, occasioned by the falling of the mud on that which surrounded it, and of which the plain is composed. It was difficult and dangerous to approach the large bubbles, as the ground was all a quagmire, except where the surface of the mud had become hardened by the sun;-upon this, we approached cautiously to within fifty yards of one of the largest bubbles, or mud-pudding, as it might properly be called, for it was of the consistency of custard-pudding, and was about a hundred yards in diameter:-here and there, where the foot accidentally rested on a spot not sufficiently hardened to bear, it sunk-to the no small distress of the walker.

"We also got close to a small bubble, (the plain was full of them, of different sizes,) and observed it attentively for some time. It appeared to heave and swell, and, when the internal air had raised it to some height, it burst, and the mud fell down in concentric circles; in which state it remained quiet until a sufficient quantity of air again formed, internally to raise and burst another bubble, and this continued at intervals of from about half a minute to two minutes.

"From various other parts of the pudding round the large bubbles, there were occasionally small quantities of sand shot up like rockets to the height of twenty or thirty feet, unaccompanied by smoke:-this was in parts where the mud was of two stiff a consistency to rise in bubbles. The mud at all places we came near was cold.

"The water which drains from the mud is collected by the Javanese, and, being exposed in the hollows of split bamboos to the rays of the sun, deposits crystals of salt. The salt thus made is reserved exclusively for the use of the Emperor of Solo; in dry weather it yields thirty dudgins of 100 catties each, every month, but, in wet or cloudy weather, less.

"Next morning we rode two and a half paals to a place in a forest called Řam am, to view a salt lake, a mud hillock, and various boiling pools.

"The lake was about half a mile in circumference, of a dirty-looking water, boiling up all over in gurgling eddles

but more particularly in the centre, which appeared like a strong spring. The water was quite cold, and tasted bitter, salt, and sour, and had an offensive smell.

About thirty yards from the lake stood the mud-hillock, which was about fifteen feet high from the level of the earth. The diameter of its base was about twenty-five yards, and its top about eight feet-and in form an exact cone. The top is open, and the interior keeps constantly boiling and heaving up like the bluddugs. The hillock is entirely formed of mud which has flowed out of the top. Every rise of the mud was accompanied by a rumbling noise from the bottom of the hillock, which was distinctly heard for some seconds before the bubble burst ;—the outside of the hillock was quite firm. We stood on the edge of the opening and sounded it, and found it to be eleven fathoms deep. The mud was more liquid than at the bluddugs, and no smoke was emitted either from the lake, hillock, or pools.

"Close to the foot of the hillock was a small pool of the same water as the lake, which appeared exactly like a pot of water boiling violently ;-it was shallow, except in the centre, into which we thrust a stick twelve feet long, but found no bottom. The hole not being perpendicular, we could not sound it without a line.

"About 200 yards from the lake were two very large pools or springs, eight and twelve feet in diameter; they were like the small pool, but boiled more violently and stunk excessively. We could not sound them for the same reason which prevented our sounding the small pool.

"We heard the boiling thirty yards before we came to the pools, resembling the noise of a waterfall. These pools did not overflow-of course the bubbling was occasioned by the rising of air alone. The water of the bluddugs and of the lake is used medicinally by the Javanese.”

ATMOSPHERICAL PHENOMENA.

METEORS.

From look to look, contagious through the croud,
The panic runs, and into wond'rous shapes
The appearance throws: armies in meet array,
Thronged with aerial spears and steeds of fire;
Till the long-lines of full-extended war

In bleeding fight commixt, the sanguine flood
Rolls a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heaven.
As thus they scan the visionary scene,

On all sides swells the superstitious din,
Incontinent; and busy frenzy talks

Of blood and battle; cities overturned,

And late at night in swallowing earthquake sunk,
Or hideous wrapt in fierce ascending flame;
Of sallow famine, inundation, storm;

Of pestilence, and every great distress;
Empires subversed, when ruling fate has struck
The unalterable hour: even nature's self
Is deemed to totter on the brink of time.
Not so the man of philosophic eye,
And aspect sage; the waving brightness he
Curious surveys, inquisitive to know
The causes, and materials, yet unfixed,
Of this appearance beautiful and new.

THOMSON.

THE nature of these splendid phenomena of the heavens cannot be so well elucidated as by an extract from the travels of M. M. Humboldt and Bonpland to the equinoctial regions of the New Continent. The sublime wonders described by the former of these travellers were witnessed by them at Cumana, a city of South America, and capital of the province of that name.

"The night of the 11th of November, 1779, was cool and extremely beautiful. Toward the morning, from half after two, the most extraordinary luminous meteors were seen towards the east. M. Bonpland, who had risen to enjoy the freshness of the air in the gallery, perceived them first. Thousands of bolides, (fire-balls,) and falling stars, succeeded each other during four hours. Their direction was very regular, from north to south. They filled a space in the sky extending from the true east 30° towards the

north and south. In an amplitude of 60° the meteors were seen to rise above the horizon at east-north-east, and at east to describe arcs more or less extended, falling toward the south, after having followed the direction of the meridian. Some of them attained a height of 40°; and all exceeded 25° or 30°. There was very little wind in the low regions of the atmosphere, and this blew from the east. No trace of clouds was to be seen. M. Bonpland relates, that from the beginning of the phenomenon, there was not a space in the firmament equal in extent to three diameters of the moon, which was not filled at every instant with bolides and falling stars. The first were fewer in number, but as they were seen of different sizes, it was impossible to fix the limit between these two classes of phenomena.— All these meteors left luminous traces from five to ten

degrees in length, as often happens in the equinoctial regions. The phosphoresence of these traces, or luminous bands, lasted seven or eight seconds. Many of the falling stars had a very distinct nucleus, as large as the disc of Jupiter, from which darted sparks of vivid light. The bolides seemed to burst as by explosion; but the largest, those from 1° to 1° 15' in diameter, disappeared without scintillation, leaving behind them phosphorescent bands (trabes) exceeding in breadth fifteen or twenty minutes, or sixtieth parts of a degree. The light of these meteors was white, and not reddish, which must be attributed, no doubt, to the absence of vapours, and the extreme transparency of the air. For the same reason, under the tropics, the stars of the first magnitude have, at their rising, a light evidently whiter than in Europe.

"Almost all the inhabitants of Cumana were witnesses of this phenomenon, and did not behold these bolides with indifference; the oldest among them remembered, that the great earthquakes of 1766 were preceded by similar phenomena. The fishermen in the suburbs asserted, that the fire-work had begun at one o'clock; and that, as they returned from fishing in the Gulf, they had already perceived very small falling stars towards the east. They affirmed at the same time, that igneous meteors were extremely rare on those coasts after two in the morning.

"The phenomenon ceased by degrees after four o'clock, and the bolides and falling stars became less frequent;