THE Canton of Berne, thougn not one of the three great founders of Swiss independence, is the second in rank in the Helvetic confederation, and by far the first in size, wealth, and power. It comprises within its northern and western boundary part of the Jura, and in its southern and eastern some of the most remarkable of the Alpine chain, the intermediate space consisting of pastoral lowlands, a region of surpassing beauty, which is, however, nearly overlooked in contemplating the stupendous magnificence of the surrounding objects. That part of the High Alps which is included in the Canton of Berne, is usually known by the name of the Oberland, or Highland, of Berne, and of this we propose to give some account. The Bernese Oberland, then, consists principally of four great valleys, the waters of which are emptied into the common basin of the lake of Thun. The most western, and perhaps the least remarkable of these valleys, is the Simmenthal, which separates the chain of the Stokhorn from that of the Niesen. The second, parallel to the Simmenthal, is the Kanduthal, which rises at the foot of the Gemmi-pass in the Valais. These two valleys pour their united waters into the western side of the lake of Thun, where they form a landscape of meadows of the VOL. XII. richest verdure, interspersed with the most picturesque villages. The two other valleys empty themselves into the eastern corner of the lake, and of these, and the surrounding mountains, the Oberland properly consists. The principal of them is the valley of Hasli, which follows the course of the Aar from its source, the other consists of the united valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. Nowhere has nature displayed more magnificence than in this extraordinary region; nowhere can so constant a succession of rock, waterfall, or glacier, be found: the mind, hurried on from one wonder to another, is at first lost in a breathless enchantment, and it requires a continued residence among them to be able to appreciate them thoroughly. The grand features of these valleys are the mighty granite mountains which encompass them; of which the most remarkable are the following: The valley of Lauterbrunnen, with its celebrated cascade, the Staubbach, has been already described | in the Saturday Magazine, Vol. VII., p. 162, we will, therefore, proceed to the valley of Grindelwald, which, though of a somewhat different character, offers even greater beauties and wonders to the traveller. The usual access to it is by the valley of Lütschenen, but the route from Lauterbrunnen by the Wengern Alp, is much the most alluring to the lover of the sublime. The Wengern Alp is opposite to the Staubbach, and it requires two hours' hard labour to attain its summit, but when the atmosphere is clear, the prospect would well repay much greater exertion. For immediately opposite to the spectator rise the three enormous masses of the Jungfrau, Moneh, and Eiger, (the most imposing of the three,) covered with eternal ice, and apparently within his grasp, while the ear is struck with the frequent thunder of the distant avalanche. The effect of an avalanche is much greater to the ear than to the eye, as should the eye happen to catch it, the appearance (unless it is very near indeed,) is precisely that of falling water, whereas the sound, reverberated from a thousand rocks and caverns, is wonderfully awful and sublime, Till lately, the Jungfrau was thought to be inaccessible, but in 1828, after several ineffectual attempts, a party of Grindelwald chamois-hunters succeeded in attaining the summit, with considerable difficulty and danger. They described the area of the summit as about thirty or forty feet in diameter, and the vast glacier, or rather plain of ice, which reaches from the Bernese Mountains to those of the Valais, as much more extensive than was supposed before. This tremendous phenomenon, must be twenty-five miles in length, by from three to twelve broad. From the Wengern Alp to Grindelwald, the descent is over the Little Scheideck, on which may be observed the terrible effect of a glacier which fell about twelve years ago. It has been thought that forests were a complete protection against the progress of glaciers, but in the present instance the trees were entirely swept away before the moving mass, while in those parts where it did not touch, the mountain-side is still covered with magnificent pines. The principal objects of curiosity at Grindelwald are the glaciers, which are well worthy of a visit, and, indeed, are more easily attained than any other in Switzerland. The finest and most delicate turf reaches nearly up to the ice, and wild strawberries and flowers may be gathered within a few yards of it. The principal branch of the Lütchine issues from a natural arch of ice at the foot of the glacier Inférieur, supplied by the constant melting of the ice above. The whole of this glacier is covered with pinnacles thirty or forty feet high, and is intersected with cracks and chasms, from which, in the year 1790, a fatal catastrophe occurred. A Monsieur Monson, a pastor of the Pays de Vaud, visited the glacier with his guide, and having passed the lower part of it, proceeded to traverse the Mer de Glace. Having placed his "alpenstock" on the edge of one of the cracks, he leaned on it to contemplate the profound abyss, when suddenly the point of the staff slipped from under him, and he fell headlong into the gulf. The body was eventually recovered from the depth of 770 feet, so that consciousness must have ceased long before the unfortunate man reached the bottom. There are many peculiar usages of the inhabitants of the valley of Grindelwald, of which some account shall be given in a future paper. THE DUTCH WHALE FISHERY. THE Whale fishery in Holland dates from the ninth century; and even earlier than that it seems to have been engaged in by the Norwegians. The Flemings of the eleventh, and the Icelanders and Normans of the twelfth century, also took part in it; but no authentic accounts remain of the manner in which it was conducted in those remote times. We know not even how the whales were killed; though we may conjecture that the practice in this respect may have resembled that of the Esquimaux and Aleoutians of the present day. Probably no certain mode of procedure was followed; but whales were attacked and destroyed like beasts of prey by the readiest means that circumstances at the moment might suggest. The inhabitants of the coasts of the Bay of Biscay are said to have been the first to engage in Whale fishing as a distinct branch of commerce; and indeed, this hardly can be disputed, since so early as the twelfth century, traces of such a commerce may be discovered on those coasts. It is known also that whales used at one time to frequent the bay in great numbers, a fact which admits the supposition that capturing them might have been a great resource for the people as long as those animals remained within a moderate distance, but ceased to be so when, frightened by continual pursuit, they retired gradually northward, and sheltered themselves from the Biscayans, along the coasts of Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. At the close of the fifteenth century that people, as well as the inhabitants of Rochelle, Dunkirk, and other ports, which afterwards shared their fortunes, lost this branch of industry, after having possessed it from the twelfth century. The Northern Whale fishery commenced in the sixteenth century, and was conducted then as it has been ever since. The first enterprise seems to have been conducted by the English in 1594. About the same period the Dutch also first took part in it, and to them it has been a source of wealth almost ever since. They sent to Biscay, for harpooners, and what they called a spek-snyder, blubber-cutter, who was also virtually second captain, for on the ship arriving at its destination, he took the command and directed all the operations. This arrangement was a powerful element of success in the early period of these enterprises. The first expeditions were fitted out by companies chartered by the States; but in 1649, the Whale fishery was declared free, and then it rose to its most flourishing condition. Though privileged companies were at first thought requisite, in order to the surmounting of obstacles with which the fortunes of private adventurers might have struggled in vain, the time for abolishing monopolies had arrived. The original difficulties once overcome, private adventures, less cumbersome and less expensive, still further increased profits which were even then immense. The rigorous economy which distinguished them was seen chiefly in the mode of outfit. The hull of the vessel was supplied by its owner, who also took the command; a master sail-maker furnished the sails, a cooper the hogsheads, and so on. This clubbing of interests obviated the inconveniences arising from the smallness of individual capitals, and goes far to account, as a general principle, for the extraordinary rapidity with which the Dutch advanced in wealth, at a time when money was scarce, and banking operations extremely limited. When the vessel returned, each received his own share of the profits in proportion to his contribution, the sailors themselves receiving shares instead of wages. This mode of procedure increased the number of vessels employed tenfold. They amounted at last to three hundred, manned by ten thousand seamen, sent out in one year. About the middle of the seventeenth century, when as yet there was abundance of whales on the coasts of Spitzbergen, the Dutch built forts there, and afterwards added establishments for the preparation of oil, amply providing these with boilers and other utensils for that operation. So opulent had the whale-traders become, that a taste for luxury led them to build a town on that desolate island. Houses were actually constructed upon it within eleven degrees of the pole, fitted up with many of the conveniences enjoyed in Holland, in hopes of enabling their inhabitants to brave the rigours of the climate during all seasons of the year. These habitations were originally constructed piecemeal, in the ship-building yards of Amsterdam, and taken to Spitzbergen at a heavy cost, but the project of living there in Winter proved fatal to the lives of many. This town of theirs they called Smeerenberg, and so entirely has it now dispeared, doubtless in part from the combustible nature of its materials, that the very site it occupied can hardly be ascertained; while Batavia, founded by the same people, at the same time, on the island of Java, is now the centre of Indian trade. The idea, however, of the former of these settlements, be it remembered, was suggested, and the sacrifice of the large amount of accumulated profits which it cost, was made, only in prospect of the place becoming an inexhaustible source of wealth. It was at that time the central point of meeting for all the whalingvessels; there they met, followed by numerous tenders, charged with victuals and stores of all kinds; so that while the fishing was in full activity, there were good inns, well-furnished shops, and many things else to make life agreeable, particularly to strangers. It was only towards the close of the seventeenth century, on the whales retiring about seventy leagues further north, that Spitzbergen was abandoned. Ham, and some other northern towns alone could compete with the Dutch, who, though they abandoned Spitzbergen, continued in possession of the trade until about the middle of the eighteenth century, when the English, after great sacrifices, got it into their own hands, and it seems not unlikely that they in turn will be supplanted by the Americans. On retiring from Spitzbergen, the whales were still to be found in the northern parts of the icy sea, on the east coast of Greenland, but now they hardly appear even there. They confine themselves almost entirely to the sea, called Baffin's Bay, which connects with the ocean by Davis's Straits. There they are still to be found in vast numbers, but the icebergs, so formidable in those latitudes, make the fishery dangerous. I AM by all means for encouraging the contemplation of the celestial part of the world, and the shining globes that adorn it, and especially the sun and moon, in order to raise our admiration of the stupendous power and wisdom of Him who was able to frame such immense bodies; and, notwithstanding their vast bulk, and scarce conceivable rapidity, keep them for so many ages constant both to the lines and degrees of their motion, without interfering with one another. And doubtless we ought to return thanks and praises to the Divine goodness for having so placed the sun and moon, and determined the former, or else the earth, to move in particular lines for the good of men and other animals; and how disadvantageous it would have been to the inhabitants of the earth if the luminaries had moved after a different manner. I dare not, however, affirm that the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies were made solely for the use of man; much less presume to prove one system of the world to be true and another false; because the former is better fitted to the convenience of mankind, or the other less suited, or perhaps altogether useless to that end.-BOYLE. PRESERVATION OF APPLE-TREES. MANY a time nave I helped to cut away the branches of decaying apple-trees, and to insert healthy grafts in their places; hoping to restore the tree to the sound and fertile state in which it once had been. Revolving seasons did but tend to show that I had completely lost my time; for the American bug, supposed to have been unknown fordable array, that nothing could withstand its fury. merly, in this country, attacked my labours in such formi Every lover of the orchard must have observed this white pestilence in the enclosures sacred to Pomona. It is seen on the branches and on the bole of the apple-tree in the month of June, when it gives them the appearance of being dotted over with little patches of a downy white. Long ago I turned my thoughts to the extermination of the spoliator, which had nearly rendered the choicest parts of the orchard a sickly, sad, unprofitable waste. I began by trying to make the branches upon which these diminutive harpies had settled, as disagreeable to them as it were possible, hoping by this manoeuvre to starve them out of house and home. With this in view, I applied unctuous preparations to the injured parts of the trees; but finding, in the long run, that this availed me nothing, I made a decoction from walnut leaves, and washed the branches well with it, calculating that the bitterness of the decoction would render the favourite food of the insects unpalatable to them. But I was deceived: the bugs continued their depredations as though no pains had been taken to dislodge them. The application of the spirit of turpentine killed them at once, and for a few days after it had been applied I was in hopes that their extermination had been effected: but others soon appeared. Despairing of success, I was on the point of quitting the field, and leaving the bugs in undisturbed possession of it, when I began to conjecture that I had not gone the right way to work. I reflected that none of my applications could have penetrated sufficiently deep into the curved and knotty sinuosities of the diseased parts; and that, on this account, there would be a sufficient force of the enemy left alive to recommence its depredations at the first favourable opportunity. Wherefore I concluded that nothing short of the entire destruction of the eggs, the young, and the adult, could save the trees from ultimate ruin. Knowing that the bug could not exist if totally deprived of air, I resolved to bury it alive; I effected this by an application at once the most easy and simple that can be imagined. It costs nothing. I mixed clay with water, till it was of a consistency that it could be put on the injured parts of the tree, either with a mason's trowel, or with a painter's brush. I then applied it to the diseased places of the tree, and it soon smothered every bug. A second coat upon the first filled up every crack which showed itself when the clay had become dry; and this resisted, for a sufficient length of time, the effects both of sun and rain. The sickly parts, now effectually freed from the enemy which had been preying upon their vitals,. were placed in a state to be cured by the healing process of nature; and that nature has done her duty, my apple trees amply testify.-WATERTON. WHAT a chain of evils does that man prepare for himself who is a slave to anger! He is the murderer of his own soul, yea to the letter he is so, for he lives in a continual torment. He is devoured by an inward fire, and his body partakes of his sufferings. Terror reigns around him, every one dreads lest the most innocent, the most trifling occurrence, may give him a pretext for quarrel, or rouse him into fury. A passionate man is alike odious to God and man, and is insupportable even to himself.—ST. EPHRAIM; Book of the Fathers. ALL the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance; it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united by canals. If a man was to compare the effect of a single stroke of a pickaxe, or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the slender force of human beings.-JOHNSON. THE ORIGIN OF CORONATIONS. THE ceremony of the Coronation is not to be regarded simply as a splendid spectacle, and an imposing form; it is a solemn recognition of the mutual obligations between the sovereign and the subjects, made in the presence of that Almighty Being "by whom alone kings do reign." When God selected Saul to be the first king over his chosen people, we find that "Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?" (1 Sam. x. 1.) From that period, the unction, or anointing with oil, became an important part of the ceremonials used at the installation of kings in Judah and Israel. St. Augustine expressly assures us that this custom was peculiar to the Jews: "Nowhere else," he says, were kings anointed, than in that kingdom where Christ was foretold, and whence he was to come." The ceremony of Saul's inauguration was a simple recognition: "Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God save the king." (1 Sam. x. 24.) The ceremonies used at the coronation of David were also unction and recognition, and the forms were used when Solomon was made king, during the life-time of his father. But when Jehoash, being saved from Athaliah's massacre, was anointed king by Jehoiada, we find that several additional forms were used, which deserve attention. "Jehoiada brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon his head, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands and said, God save the king." The crown appears to have been taken as a royal ornament, because the circle was regarded as the symbol of completeness and perfection; for the same reason, investiture by the ring was used at a much earlier period: it was by this form that Pharaoh constituted Joseph his viceroy over Egypt. A circlet for the head was used at a very early period in Persia, and probably in Babylonia; but most of the other Asiatic nations adopted the tiara, or fillet, which was bound round the king's head, on his accession, with great solemnity. The Persian received the crown, or, perhaps, we should rather call it the royal circlet, from the hands of the Chief Mobed, or High Priest; but the kings who were vassals to the Persian monarch received this emblem of their royal dignity from the sovereign himself. In the annexed engraving we see one of those vassal princes receiving the regal circlet from the hands of the Persian monarch, who claimed for himself the title of king of kings. The queen also was crowned by the king, and not by a mobed: thus, we read in the Book of Esther, "The king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight, more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti." (Esther ii. 17.) We learn, also, from the next verse, that the ceremony of the coronation in Persia was celebrated by a public entertainment, and by various acts of grace and favour. "The king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king." (Esther ii. 18.) The Roman title of emperor originally signified nothing more than commander of an army, and was regarded as inferior to that of king. It will be remembered that Julius Cæsar refused to accept a crown; Mark Antony, in his oration over Cæsar's body, is represented as declaring You all did see that on the Lupercal, I thrice presented him a kingly crown, In the Western empire, indeed, there seems to have been no established form for the installation of the sovereign; but in the Eastern or Byzantine empire the Roman customs were intermingled with those of the Oriental nations, and the emperors received from the prætorian guards a crown and a sword, which seemed to be a tacit acknowledgment of the right claimed by the soldiers to dispose of the empire. Justin II. deprived the imperial guards of this privilege, under the pretence of giving a religious sanction to the ceremonies of the coronation; and from his time the crown, sceptre, and sword, were publicly given to the emperor by the patriarch of Constantinople, in the church of St. Sophia. The ceremony of anointing was first introduced by Andronicus the Younger, in the thirteenth century, long after it had been adopted in Western Europe; he added this form in order that the soldiers should not revive their claim to perform the coronation, because that unction and chrism, that is, anointing with oil and ointment, could only be performed by a person of episcopal dignity. The empresses of Constantinople, like the queens of Persia, however, could only receive the crown matrimonial from the hands of the emperor. The warlike tribes of Germany elected their kings, but they always chose one of royal blood for their sovereign. Indeed, the principles of hereditary and elective monarchy, which now appear so utterly irreconcileable, were so far from seeming inconsistent to our Saxon ancestors, that they insisted on both being united in .the person of their monarch, and some traces of this apparent anomaly may be found in the present ceremonials of coronation. ELEVATION OF AN ANCIENT GERMAN KING. When the Germans had chosen a king, they prepared a pavis, or very large shield, on which they seated the new monarch; and elevating the pavis on the shoulders of the principal officers, carried their king in triumphal procession three times round the army. On these occasions, the Germans used to manifest their spirit of rude independence by playing practical jokes on their sovereign, such as shaking the pavis, and attempting to unseat him. Such barbarous sport had nearly proved fatal to Gunwald, king of Burgundy: he was thrown from the shield, as he was borne round the army a third time, and was so severely bruised that it was feared he would have expired upon the spot. This custom was introduced into England by the Saxons, and it is still preserved in the chairing of successful candidates after elections. Even the spirit of practical jesting was preserved down to the beginning of the present century: within the memory of persons still alive, it was considered rather hazardous to encounter the perils of a popular chairing at Yarmouth or at Norwich. This custom of elevating the sovereign on a shield, was introduced into the Roman empire a little before its fall; Gordian and Julian were thus proclaimed emperors by their soldiers, who had learned the practice during their campaigns in Germany and Gaul. This custom was also adopted in the Byzantine empire. Cantacuzenus informs us that the emperor was to be elevated on the shield at sunrise ; that the fore-part of the shield was to be supported by the emperor's father, if he were alive, and if not, by his nearest male relation; and that the back part was to be borne by the patriarch of Constantinople, and the principal nobles. In this state the emperor was conveyed to the church of St. Sophia, where he was invested with the ensigns of imperial dignity. In Navarre, the ceremony of elevating the sovereign on the shield was considered of greater importance than the coronation itself. The arms of the kingdom were painted on a shield, which was placed upon the ground in some public place; the king, led by two of the principal nobles, advanced and stepped upon the shield, when it was raised up by six stout slaves, and the monarch was borne in this fashion into the midst of the assembled multitude. In an ancient law of Don Pelayo, one of the Gothic kings of Spain, we find the following directions for the creation of their kings: "Let the king be chosen and admitted into the metropolitan city of this kingdom, or at least into some cathedral church, and the night before he is exalted, let him watch all night in the church; and the next day, when they come to lift him up, let him step upon a shield or buckler, and the principal men there present shall raise him aloft, and when he is so elevated, the people shall cry, Real, Real." Among the Jews, the Norwegians, and the Irisn, the ceremony of investing the monarch with sovereign power was performed near or at some remarkable stone pillar. Thus Abimelech was made king "by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem." (Judges ix. 6.) Jehoash, during his coronation, "stood by a pillar, as the manner was," (2 Kings xi. 14;) and Josiah, when he restored the pure worship of Jehovah, "stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord." (2 Kings xxiii. 3.) The Norwegians and Danes used to place twelve stone seats in the form of a circle, for the principal nobles, and one in the centre for the king. The royal stone was of great size, and was rudely shaped into the form of a seat. Three of these circles still exist in Denmark, which was anciently divided into three kingdoms: the most perfect of them is that called Kingstolen (the royal seat), at Leipa in Zealand; the others are at Lunden in Scania, and Viburg in Jutland. These stone circles for the installation of kings were introduced into the Shetland Isles, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man, by their Norwegian conquerors. They were called Tings, and the hill on which the stone circle in the Isle of Man was erected, is stil called Tinwald Hill. The Germans adopted this custom from the Norwegians: their Königstuhl is near Coblentz upon the Rhine; it consists of seven stone seats ranged in a circle, for the seven electors, and a large stone in the centre for the emperors. In Hungary, the kings took their coronation oath on a stone column. After the monarch had sworn, he mounted a spirited horse, and leaped over a mound of earth prepared for the purpose, after which he ascended the mound, and waved his sword in the form of a cross over the multitude. The most singular ceremony connected with the stone column was that which took place at the installation of the dukes of Carinthia. A large rock near the city of St. Veit was the place where the installation was performed. On the day appointed for the celebration of the ceremonial, a peasant, who claimed the place by hereditary descent, took up his position on the top of the rock, and had below him, tethered at the base, a black cow, a black calf, and the leanest mare which could be found in the province. A little after sunrise, the duke-elect came out from the city, clad in a peasant's dress, a coarse bonnet on his head, buskins of untanned |