tiguing. "These rocks," he writes, “appear solid in the distance, but on examination, they were found to be full of fractures in every direction, so that it was with difficulty that a specimen of five or six pounds in a solid mass could be obtained. The least movement sent floods of stones down the rock. Cliffs of a thousand feet were found fissured in every direction; and toward the sea edge, stones weighing more than two or

win makes the same observation on Terra del Fuego and within the Andes. Here, he says, he often observed that where the rock was covered with snow, its surface was shivered in an extraordinary manner into small angular fragments. On the Cordilleras, the rock crumbles in great quantities, and masses of detritus slide down every spring like great avalanches. There can be

powers of this humble insect; and apprehensions | of jumping run, which proved inordinately faare seriously entertained that, by its injuring the timber-work of the dams, the day may come when the country will be flooded. The authors of the "Introduction to Entomology" tell us that the piers of Bridlington harbor, in our own country, are going rapidly to ruin by the attacks of a little wood-louse! In three years they reduced a three-inch plank to less than an inch in thickness. What will be thought of our subject when we state that a ship of the line, a British man-of-three ounces each could not be obtained. Darwar, was attacked by insects, and the vast structure more roughly handled than she had been in the severest action? So seriously, indeed, had she been injured, that it was only by firmly lashing her together that she could be saved from foundering with all on board! And lastly, the termites, or white ants, are worse still. Think of an army of puny insects sweeping away every relic of a village, or reducing a monarch of the forest to the thickness of brown paper; or, more audacious still, threatening the gorgeous palace of the governor-general of India with ruin! We may well join, then, with Mr. Lyell, while wondering at the vast and often suddenly-created powers of the insect world, in saying, "If, for the sake of employing on different but rare occasions a power of 200 horses, we were under the necessity of feeding all these animals at great cost in the intervals, we should greatly admire the invention of such a machine as the steamengine, which was capable at any moment of exerting the same degree of strength without any consumption of food during the periods of inaction. The same kind of admiration is excited when we contemplate the powers of insect life, in the creation of which the Author of Nature has been so prodigal. A scanty number of mi-annual temperature, to construct a coping of nute individuals, to be detected only by careful research, are ready in a few days, weeks, or months, to give birth to myriads: but no sooner has the destroying commission been executed, than the gigantic power becomes dormant."

Our final illustrations may be taken from the kingdom of inorganic nature. Our endeavor is to show the vast energies of the expansive force of such an insignificant thing as a drop of frozen water, or a foot of heated rock. Whoever has read Scoresby's interesting and valuable work on the arctic regions, must have been struck with the account he gives of the broken state of the rocks in Spitzbergen. On landing, he ascended the beach towards several hills of some elevation; but he found that climbing was almost impossible, in consequence of the excessively loose state of the stones on the surface. It was in vain to attempt to walk, as the feet lost their hold, and the traveller came down in a shower of stones. The only pace to be adopted was that of a sort

no doubt that this enormous destruction of rock is due to a very simple cause. Many of our public buildings suffer in a similar manner; and in the severe winters of Quebec, the most serious damage is done to the granite piers by the same force. Yet the power which thus levels the great mountains by degrees, and brings them to communion with the dust of the lowly earth, is but the expansion of water, which, becoming infiltrated into their substance, or dropping into crevices, rends them asunder, when it is in the act of freezing, with a force nothing can resist. How important an agent this is in the work of renewing the earth we need scarcely say.

From certain experiments made in America by a gentleman of practical scientific research, it appears that it is impossible, in countries having a variation of more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit

stones five feet long in which the joints will be water-tight. Mr. Lyell, proceeding on the calculations arrived at in these experiments, states that if we can suppose a mass of sandstone a mile in thickness to have its temperature raised 200 degrees Fahrenheit, it would lift a superincumbent layer of rock to the height of ten feet. "But suppose a part of the earth's crust 100 miles thick, and equally expansible, the temperature of which was raised 600 or 700 degrees. This might produce an elevation of between 2000 and 3000 feet. The cooling of the same mass, again, might afterwards cause the overlying rocks to sink down again, and resume their original position. By such agency we might explain the gradual rise of Scandinavia." Calculations have been made by geologists which appear to account for the elevation of land in Sweden by a rise of only 3 degrees temperature (Reaumur,) supposing the stratum to be 140,000 feet thick. Upon a similar supposition, the rise and fall of the wa

COLLECTANEA.

556

Collectanea. Short Reviews and Notices. Recent Publications.

breeches. All this is reconcileable with that want of foresight which led him to contemplate setting up to teach English in Holland, without knowing a word of Dutch; and that story which is told of him by Dr. Farr, to whom he communicated a scheme he had in view of going to decipher the inscriptions on the Written Mountains, though he did not understand a syllable of Arabic. It was this guilelessness, and thoughtlessness, and innocence of character, which no deceits or injuries could deform into selfishness, or strain into practical sagacity in his dealings with the world—this extraordinary union of wisdom as an observer of mankind, and incapacity to turn his wisdom to advantage on his that made the beauty of his life, and kept it pure. And it is remarkable that, with feelings so impressionable and impul sive, this easy-natured and most tender of human beings appears never to have fallen in love. A passing emotion of that sort flitted over him in Dublin, but left no permanent trace. But the truth was that his nature was too diffusive, his affections too comprehensive, to be narrowed to a passion that finally reverts to, and concentrates in self. And his life was unfavorable to its indulgence, and opened few opportunities for its awakening in a heart so shy, and weak in its self-reliance. Bentley's Miscellany.

own account

SHORT REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONS FROM 1789 TO 1848. By T. W. REDHEAD. Part I.

| stances of time, place, and condition. The best remarks in the little book are on the power of habit in modifying the constitution; so that the open air, or thorough ventilation, is really noxious to a person accustomed to confinement.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

ENGLAND.

Egypt's Place in Universal History: an Historical Investigation, in five Books. By Christian C. J. Bunsen, D. Ph., and D. C. L. Translated from the German, by Charles H. Cottrell, Esq., M. A.

Italy in the Nineteenth Century, Contrasted with its Past Condition. By James Whiteside, Esq., A. M., M. R. I. A., one of her Majesty's Counsel. In three volumes.

Chronicles of the Crusades; being Contemporary Narratives of the Crusade of Richard Cœur de Lion, by Richard of Devizes and Geoffrey de Lord John de Joinville. With illustrative Notes | Vinsauf; and of the Crusade of Saint Louis, by | and an Index. (Bohn's Antiquarian Library.)

The Prose Works of John Milton. Volume I. With a Preface, Preliminary Remarks, and Notes. By J. A. St. John. (Bohn's Standard Library.)

The Bee-Hunter; or the Oak Openings. By the author of "The Pioneer," &c. In three volumes.

The Origin of the English, Germanic, and Scandinavian Languages and Nations; with a Shetch of their Early Literature, and Short Chronological Specimens of Anglo-Saxon, Friesic, Flemish, Dutch, German from the MasoGoths to the present time, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish; tracing the Progress of the Languages, and their Connection with Modern Eng

Origin of Alphabetic Writing, and its extension to the West. A Map of European Languages is prefixed, with Notes, &c. By the Reverend Joseph Bosworth. D. D., F. R. Š., F. S. A. &c.

Sadness and Gladness; a Story of the Present Day. By the Honorable Adela Sidney, author of" Home and its Influence." In three volumes.

This publication, forming one of Chambers's 'Books for the People,' sets out with high pro-lish; together with Remarks on the Oriental fessions of philosophy and original research, and supports them far better than might be expected from a speculation that gives 160 pages of original writting for a shilling. Mr. Redhead seems to have consulted the original authorities on the first Revolution, and to have extracted their pith, without allowing himself to be encumbered by matter good in itself but unavailable for his purpose. He also takes a fair view of his subject in the main, though perhaps allowing too little for circumstances and national character in some of the Mountain party. The writing is close; and the work seems likely to form a very useful book at a very cheap rate.

CHANGE OF AIR: Fallacies regarding it. By JOHN CHARLES ATKINSON, ESQ. Member of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The chief “fallacies” pointed out by Mr. Atkinson, regarding "change of air," are the notion that it will cure incurable disease, and that it ought to be tried under improper circum

Roberts's Sketches in Egypt and Nubia. With Historical Descriptions, by William Brockedon, F. R. S. Lithographed by Louis Haghe. Part

XI.

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