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said to depend. The magistrates of Catania applied to Signor M. Gemmelaro, in the hope that his local knowledge of Etna might enable him to point out some crevice or grotto in the mountain where drift snow was still preserved. Nor were they disappointed: for he had long suspected that a small mass of perennial ice at the foot of the highest cone was part of a larger and continuous glacier covered by a lava current. Having procured a large body of workmen, he quarried into this ice, and proved the super-position of the lava for several hundred yards, so as completely to satisfy himself that nothing but the subsequent flowing of the lava over the ice could account for the position of the glacier. Unfortunately for the geologist, the ice was so extremely hard, and the excavation so expensive, that there is no probability of the operation being renewed. On the 1st of December, 1828, I visited this spot, which is on the southeast side of the cone, and not far from the Casa Inglese; but the fresh snow had already nearly filled up the new opening, so that it had only the appearance of the mouth of a grotto. I do not, however, question the accuracy of the conclusion of Signor Gemmelaro, who being well acquainted with all the appearances of drift-snow in the fissures and cavities of Etna, had recognized, even before the late excavations, the peculiar position of

the ice in this locality. We may suppose, that at the commencement of the eruption a deep mass of drift snow had been covered by volcanic sand, showered down upon it before the descent of the lava. A dense stratum of this fine dust mixed with scoriæ is well known to be an excellent non-conductor of heat, and may thus have preserved the snow from complete fusion when the burning flood poured over it. The shepherds in the higher regions of Etna are accustomed to provide an annular store of snow to supply their flocks with water in the summer months, by simply strewing over the snow in the spring a layer of volcanic sand a few inches thick, which effectually prevents the sun from penetrating. When lava had once consolidated over a glacier at the height of ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, we may readily conceive that the ice would endure as long as the snows of Mont Blanc, unless melted by a volcanic heat from below. When I visited the great crater in the beginning of winter (1828), I found the crevices in the interior encrusted with thick ice, and in some cases hot vapors were streaming out between masses of ice and the rugged and steep walls of the crater. After the discovery of Signor Gemmelaro, it would not be surprising to find in the cones of the Icelandic volcanoes repeated alternations of lava streams and glaciers.

HYDROPHOBIA-ILL MANNERS-PHYSICIANS AND POETS.

North.—Is it a true bill, James, that you have had Hydrophobia?

Shepherd.-A fearsome fit o' it, sir, no o' the mere feegurative sort, sic as reigns at a Noctes, but bonny feedy, bodily, flesh and blude, bane and sinny convulsions.

North-I did not believe, my dear James, there ever could have existed a dog in all this world so mad as to bite the Shepherd.

Shepherd.-A mad dowg does na 12 ATHENEUM, VOL. 5, 3d series.

ken a Hogg frae a hoolet. The optic nerves o' his een are a' diseased

as ye may weel sce, gin ye hae courage to examine sic pupils and they dootless distrack the cretur's sowl within him wi' hideous apparitions o' his ain master, in the shape o' the decvil, wi' a pitch-fork, gaun to pin him up again' the barndoor.

Mr. Seward.-Buller, how picturesque !

Mr. Buller.-The great Poet of Hydrophobia!

Shepherd.-The very bit weans that used to ride on his back, wi' their arms roun' his neck, and sometimes kissing the very chowks o' him, seem then to the destracked dowg to be sae mony demons, a' glowerin' and girnin' at him, wi' red het pokers in their talons, threatening him wi' the death o' Edward the Second in Berkley Castle. Wee Jamie himsel❜-though certes a bit angel o' licht-seemed to Luath, when he gaed mad, a very imp o' hell. No wunner he tries to bite. But in the last stage o' the disease -he can only snap-snap-snapfor his unner jaw has amaist lost a' its poor, his puir tongue's hingin' out,—his flew a' smeared wi' slaver, his hide rouch and tawted, wi' a' the hair stannin' on end like the feathers o' a frieslan', his lugs like sere leaves, owre feeble even to flap, his tail nae mair "hingin' owre his hurdies wi' a swirl," but mire-woven and a' draggled wi' dirt; and there he gangs stoiterin' frae ae side o' the road to the tither, and wae's me! aften stacherin' quite doited intil the ditch,-noo and then emittin' a sort o' short snoke o' a sneevil frae his rinnin' nose, for to bark noo has lang been beyont his abeelities, puir fellow! let him try't as he may, though ance he could bark, walkin' about the house a' nicht on the watch for trampers stravagin' thro' the kintra at untimeous hours, after nae gude. A rueful spectacle, Mr. North, to them that kent him when he was wice, and aneuch to break ony Christian heart that kens hoo he used to lie during the evenings on the hearth "beside the ingle blinkin' bonnily" in the midst o' the sma' household, hearkenin' and unnerstaunin' a' that was said,and hoo he used, God pity him, as regular as clock-work, to loup up upon the coverlet on the wide chestbed, and fa' into a watchfu' sleep at the bairns's feet!

Mr. James Ballantyne (much affected).

"And from mine eyelids wipe the tears
That sacred pity hath engender'd."

Shepherd.-A' the parish wi' pitchforks are at his heels. In the haunted glimmer o' his blindness, the puir possessed colley misses the brig, and the rinnin' stream seems to his red een a pool o' blude. He daurna-he canna-lowp in to soom for his life-for the Hydrophobia is stronger than his dim dread o' his fellow-creturs, and shiverin', and shudderin', and yowlin', as if he had fa'n intil a bonfire or a biler o' bilin' water, he cowps owre, sticket and shotten wi' a hunder prongs and a thoosan bullets, in convulsions o' the dead-thraws. A' the while women and weans are seen tossin' their arms, and heard shriekin' frae hill-taps, and wundows o' houses wi' steeket doors, and the boughs o' trees-till Luath lies still at last, covered wi' a rickle o' cruel stanes, only a bit o' his skin here and there seen through, and then, to be sure, there is a wailin' o' weans, baith callants and lassies, to think that colley should hae been killed, wha used to gang wi' them to the verra kirk on the Sabbaths, and, till God had allowed him till gang mad, had never offered to bite onybody but neerdoweels, a' his born days! Grown-up folk are a' feared to bury him-but-I'm tellin' a true story— wee Jamie and his feres, in their grief, ware na sae couardly, and placing the dead body on a haunbarrow, they muved awa' wi't in funeral procession-heaven bless them-and haein' howkit a hole, buried their beloved Luath aneath a green brae, and laid a flat stane on him frae the channel o' the Yarrow, just as if he had been a Christian interred in a kirkyard!

Mullion.-Now, Jamie, yourself in hydrophobia.

Shepherd.-Na. I shanna-for nae ither reason-just becausewi' that girnin' gab-you asked me -Moolyon. You've na bizziness

"Smooth the down o' my ravin' darkness

till it smile."

Delta.-Let me feel your pulse, my dear sir.

(DELTA takes out his gold stop-watch, a keepsake from CHRISTOPHER-a memorial of friendship—and mark of gratitude to him, the Pain-reliever-presented to the Poet by NORTH at the termination of a fit of gout in the stomach, which, but for Mr. Moir, had certainly proved fatal).

till be impident. In a' Mr. North's banter-even when at the waurstthere's sic a visible and audible speerit o' amity and respek, that I can thole amaist ony nonsense frae him-though my face, at chance times, wull grow a wee red-at least a wee het; but hoo daur ye preshume to imagine that I will thole a thimmlefu' o' impertinence frae the likes o' you, wha, I aften think, are sairly out o' your ain place in a Noctes, and would be seen to far mair advantage in your A hundred and ten-a hundred— natural sphere, your ain provision- ninety-eighty-seventy-five-sixwarehouse, ye bardy body, in the ty-eight.-Now-you will do-my Lawnmarket! As Joe says, "Tak dear James. The circulation is your change out o' that!" restored to its former currency. Mullion (aside to his next-chair neighbor).-He's gettin' fou.

Shepherd.-What's that you're sayin', sir? nane o' your whusperin'! The man that whuspers in company should be smotheredpitten intil a tea-chest, and sent aff to Dr. Knox. The maist disgustfu'est trick about a whusperer is, that a' the while he's whusperin' intil anither's ear something about you, the coof, though cunning and crafty aneuch for ordinar, forgets that ye may be observin' his mean motions, and senselessly keeps keekin' up at you, every noo and then, with the odious tail o' his ee, joggin' wi' his loathsome elbow him he's forcin' to commit a breach o' gude mainers in listenin' for ae single instant to his sickenin' insiniations till he is recalled to a sense o' the awkwardness o' his situation, and the enormity o' his sin, by a jug o' water just aff the bile, sent wi' a bash intil his face, and a blatter again' the wa' ahint him, and deevil tak him but he wou'd hae been cheap o't, had he been brained! Faith—I'm rather ruffled come, my dear Delta-for you are aye the gentleman-by some pleasant observation as Milton, I think, says, or something like it for I hate a correck quotation

North.-My dearest Delta, it has long delighted me to see you and our friend there, whom we have christened by the somewhat heathenish name of the Modern Pythagorean*-strewing the paths, and adorning the pursuits, of your profession, in the olden time often so strewed and adorned-witness Garth, Armstrong, Arbuthnot, Akenside, Glyn, and many other poetical powers, or otherwise fine genius-with the flowers of litera

ture.

men of

Delta.-I have long since dismissed from my mind, my dear sir, any misgivings on that subject. Your judgment, and that of other enlightened men, have confirmed my own, that such occasional relaxation, as the study of elegant literature affords, from the not unsevere and rarely intermitting labors of a profession, of which I conscientiously endeavor to discharge the duties, to the best of my skill and knowledge, so far from either incapacitating or disinclining my mind from such labors and such duties, does greatly strengthen both its moral and intellectual energies; and I am happy-heaven forefend I should say I were proud-to believe that in my own circle those occasional relaxations, so far from being

* Robert Macnish, M.D., author of " The Anatomy of Drunkenness."

disapproved, or their fruits despised, have been thought to add to the respectability of my character. My name in literature I know is humble-but such as my reputation is, I am satisfied with it. My ambition lies elsewhere-it is in my profession. North.-Your name in literature is not humble-it is high; and all who have heads to know, and hearts to feel, what true poetry is, acknowledge Mr. Moir to be a poet. It is a delightful thought to me, sir, to think, that your fine native genius offered almost its first fruits to the Work which I occasionally overlook, and in which I now take an almost fatherly interest. It is now enriched with many gems of your ripened and matured imaginationand no Number can ever be unworthy of the name of Maga that is graced with the signature of Delta. Heavens! can any studies be idle in a physician-in a medical man— that inevitably lead to elevation of spirit, breathing into it tenderness and humanity? Will he be a less thoughtful visitant at the sick or dying bed, who from such studies has gathered knowledge of all the beatings of the human heart, and all the workings of the human imagination, at such times so wild and so bewildering, aye, often even beyond the range of poetry, in those delirious dreams?

Shepherd. That's a truth. In the ancient warld, was na there but ae God for poetry, music, and medishin? and the ancients, tak ma

word for't, saw far intill the mysterious connexions o' things in natur. Owre mony folk noo-a-days, forgets that the alliance atween sowle and body's stricker-though no unlike it

than that atween church and state. Let doctors learn a' they can o' baith-and hoo they are to do that without lecterature, philosophy, and poetry, as weel's anatomy and mere medishin, surpasses my comprehenshun. Some doctors practeeze by a sort o' natural rumblegumshun, without ony knowledge either o' leeterature or onything else; and that accoonts for some itherwise unaccoontable kirkyards.

North.-No persons of the slightest sense will for a moment suffer themselves to be misled into such a gross delusion. Your mere professional man-in the narrowest sense of that much-misused word-is a man utterly destitute of all knowledge that will not go into a pill-box. He is, in truth, little better than a practitioner on the purses of his patients. But such practitioners it is, and such patients, who would revile all literature as worse than idle or useless-as pernicious-in a follower of Galen, Hippocrates, or Esculapius. Are they, pray, the followers of these immortals? Much in the same way as a dung-cart drawn by a single horse, which might probably perform the distance from London to Edinburgh in a month, may be said to follow his Majesty's most gracious mail-coach, which now does it in about forty hours.

SUNSHINE.

THE world, the sunny world! I love
To roam untired, till evening throws
Sweet shadows through the pleasant grove,
And bees are murmuring on the rose.

I love to see the changeful flowers
Lie blushing in the glowing day-

Bend down their heads to 'scape the showers,
Then shake the chilly drops away.

The world, the sunny world! oh bright
And beautiful indeed thou art-

The brilliant day, the dark-blue night,
Bring joy, but not to every heart.

No! till, like flowers, those hearts can fling Grief's drops from off their folded leaves, "Twill only smile in hope's bright spring,

And darken when the spirit grieves.

THE LATEST FEMALE FASHIONS.

EXPLANATION OF THE PRINT OF THE FASHIONS.

CARRIAGE DRESS.

A DRESS composed of black gros de Naples the corsage, cut rather high, is ornamented before and behind with a drapery of the same material let in horizontally. The folds of the drapery have rather more than the usual fulness; the sleeve is extremely wide from the shoulder to a little below the elbow; and it sits close to the arm from thence to the wrist. Chemisette of white tulle, finished at the throat with a double ruche of the same material. White crape hat, ornamented on the left of the inside of the brim with a single coque of white gauze ribbon; a full nœud is placed close to the edge on the right side. A very large bouquet of white crape flowers, divided in the centre by a nœud of ribbon, ornaments the front of the crown. The brides hang loose. The pelerine is composed of India jaconot muslin. It is of three falls; the two first a moderate size; the third very large, and with ends which fall to the knee; it fastens at the throat with a bow of white ribbon. Bottines of crinoline, the upper part grey, the lower black. Grey kid gloves.

MORNING DRESS.

A redingote of batiste laine, striped in broad grey and white stripes. Corsage tight behind, and disposed in front in longitudinal folds. The shawl part is square, larger than usual, and made quite up to the neck behind. The width of the sleeve is excessive, and it is the same size from the shoulder to the cuff, which is rather deep. The stripes in the sleeve are placed horizontally. Cambric chemisette, with a collar standing up round the throat, which, as well as the bosom, is finished with a double frill. Tablier à la bonne of thin jaconot muslin, with a broad hem; the pockets are ornamented with nœuds of ribbon.

White crape cap of a round shape; the caul is low; there are two borders so arranged as to form shells. A knot of ribbon, to correspond with the dress, is placed over the left temple, and two others are attached to the caul immediately behind the borders. The shoes are of black kid.

CARRIAGE DRESS.

; cor

A gown of alépine; the color the darkest shade of gris lavande sage cut square and low, plain behind," but ornamented in front by rouleaux of gros de Naples of a corresponding color, which form a demi losange. The upper part of the sleeve is of the double bouffant form, the lower part displays the shape of the arm it is ornamented down the centre with points disposed in contrary directions. The trimming of the skirt consists of points à jour formed by rouleaux. The canezou is composed of India jaconot muslin, made to sit close to the upper part of the bust, but with a little fulness at the bottom of the waist. High standing collar, which is adorned as well as the upper part of the bust, and the epaulette, with a rich embroidering à la Grecque. The hat is composed of black watered gros de Naples, and lined with white satin. A band of very broad, white figured gauze ribbon, disposed in folds, and terminating in a triple coque, ornaments the left of the brim on the inside. A bouquet of white ostrich feathers issuing from a coque of gauze ribbon loosely twisted, is placed at the right side of the crown near the top; the ends of the coque traverse the crown in a bias direction, and attach at its base a second bouquet of feathers, which fall over the brim; the ribbon continues from the crown to the edge of the brim, where it joins the coque that we have described above. Black gros de Naples bottines. Black kid gloves.

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