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the present instance, by their novelty. Scenery so ample and stupendous, I never before beheld. A plain, broken up into luxuriant undulations, checquered by sunshine and shade, divided into regular enclosures of grove, corn-field, and meadow, and forming a circle, whose diameter was hardly less than forty miles, was diffused before us. The cliff on which we stood formed part of the circumference of this circle. The Sound and the shadowy ridges of Long Island formed another part. The remainder was shut out by a smooth and gradually swelling ridge, covered with wood, which advanced into the midst of the circle, and then sinking suddenly to the level of the adjacent spaces, left an abrupt knoll, which we conjectured to be ten miles distant.

Nothing is more deceitful than the common estimate of heights. That which we occupied appeared the greater by being so abrupt, and by contrast with that wide spread and billowy surface which it bounded. The fields appeared like the plots of a garden. In one of them, immediately beneath us, were kine grazing, which my companions, for a time, mistook for sheep. Viewed from so high a pinnacle, their outlines were indistinct, and peculiarities of shape and motion were not to be distinguished.

My friends dared not to approach the verge. Dizziness and a disposition to spring forward seized them when they caught a glance at the abyss. I gave them much disquiet, and brought upon me the reproach of fool-hardiness and temerity, by venturing to sit upon the utmost brink, and look steadfastly on the gloomy and profound dell, in which the cliff terminated. I took pleasure in following with my eye the rocks which they rolled down the precipice, and which carried down with them the stony fragments which they encountered in their passage, and bounded over rocks and chasms with a noise that had in it no small portion of sublimity.

Satiated with this amusement, we at length prepared to return. This was more difficult than the ascent had been. It cost us much trouble to find a practicable path for our horses. D and I, taking the way which we had already traversed, arrived, after much stumbling and sliding, at more footable spaces. A- and W, who had charge of the chaise-horse, made their way, with extreme difficulty, and some injury to the poor animal whom they conducted, over a more dangerous track.

We carried refreshments along with us; and stopping at a farm at the mountain's foot, enjoyed the luxury of coolness, and shade, and pleasant viands. Lemonade and cold ham formed an agreeable repast, in the midst of new made hay, and beneath an apple-tree, in an orchard, whence the neighbouring mountain could be advantageously

seen.

POWDER HILL.

After our refreshment, much of the day being unconsumed, we proceeded, over a pleasant road, to Powder hill. I had much talk with Das we trotted side by side.

We found colonel Lyman, a farmer who lives near the hill, busy in his hay field. He led us to an excellent spring, where we once more regaled ourselves on lemonade, and leaving our horses in the meadow, ascended the hill. Like the former, this hill consists of a gradual ascent on one side, and a towering precipice upon the other. The cliff was not so high, nor the landscape so extensive, as the former, but it was an enchanting scene. The atmosphere was, in a high degree, serene and luminous, and the sun promised to set with uncommon splendour. The cliff looked towards the west, and the harbour of Newhaven and the Sound were distinctly visible. I was willing to sit here till the sun

had disappeared, but my friends did not concur.

The artifices of description would give as much dignity and splendour to these scenes, as if they had occurred in the bosom of the Alps. All mountains and mountainous excursions agree in essential particulars. The difference is unimportant, and would not be discovered in the hands of an eloquent describer.

JOB'S POOL.

Yesterday afternoon, A. W- -, and I crossed the river, half a mile wide in this place, in a kind of boat, which I cannot better describe than by calling it a batteau, both whose ends are stern-fashion, that is, broad and square. It was impelled forward, not by rowing, but by sculling. We were provided with a half dozen limes and a glass tumbler, which we produced at the edge of a spring, and refreshed ourselves after a fatiguing walk.

This lake was made to embellish a poetical description. Fancy, in her pictures, is ingenious in omitting all harsh and untoward features. All is chrystaline, and cool, and flowery, in the abode which she selects for the nymphs. Here, however, the truth is so graceful and enchanting as to require no omissions, and be scarcely susceptible of any embellishments.

This lake is called Job's Pool. It lies in the midst of cultivated lawns and wooded dales. Its surface is unbroken by shoals or islets, and is spread over some hundreds of acres. Its sides constitute waving and corresponding lines, whose curvature is the smoothest and most luxuriant imaginable. Its supplies are drawn from subterranean or secret sources, as no stream either enters it or issues from it, and its height is said to be equally unaffected by winter's torrents or summer's droughts.

Its depth, in the middle, has not hitherto been fathomed. The bottom ascends on all sides, and by

equable degrees, to the margin, which is smooth, unembarrassed by stocks or stones, and covered with white clover, whose blossom is exceeded by few plants in its fragrance and beauty. This embroidery extends to the very skirts of the lake, and ends only where its liquid murmurs and transparent refluence begin.

Its waters abound with perch and other fish, whose sports are seldom or never interrupted by the fisherman. The temperature, as we experienced by bathing in it, was, in the highest degree, mild and salubrious. We lingered here for some time, and returned to Middletown at the close of a delightful day.

For the Literary Magazine.

PASSAGE OF THE ALPS.

The

BONAPARTE'S passage of the Alps has been celebrated as an exploit no less singular than arduous; and yet France has produced, almost every war, for this half a dozen centuries, at least one Hannibal as adventurous and successful in surmounting this gigantic barrier, as the Hannibal now living. attempt of the prince of Conti, under Louis XV, to pass these mountains, by no means falls short of the recent one, and shows as forcibly that the greatest difficulties may be surmounted by valour and perseverance. Most of these passages are equal to each other in the havock and cruelty committed on the people of the invaded country. Among many like instances which occurred under the prince of Conti, the following was by no means the most atrocious. Thirty peasants were carried to their native village, and hanged, in the presence of their friends and relatives, for having opposed the invaders of their country. Bonaparte's punishments were still more summary and comprehensive. When a village was found a little restive and turbulent, all the inhabitants were collected and shot to

death, and the houses, after being well rummaged and ransacked, were burnt to the ground.

For the Literary Magazine.

EMPLOYMENT A CURE FOR

LUNACY.

IT may be very wise in most cases, and in some cases absolutely necessary, to shut up maniacs alone, in naked, gloomy, noisome cells, and to consign them to total inactivity. One, who is no physician, can hardly fail of condemning such modes of treatment. We know that these circumstances would make a sound man crazy. It is hard to believe them capable of making a crazy man sound.

The following information, to be found in a report upon the state of the lunatic hospital at Saragossa, in Spain, is worthy notice. The cure, says the reporter, is generally at tempted by cold bathing and refrigerant medicines; but the treatment seldom answers. Constant experience has shown, that some employment, which exercises the patients' limbs, is the most efficacious mode of cure. Most of those lunatics, who are employed in the shops and offices of the house, recover. Their occupation consists in cleaning the house, carrying wood and water, harvest work, and the like.

Part of the house is appropriated to persons of the richer class, whose friends support them. It is asserted that lunatics of distinction, who are not employed in any servile occupation, nor in labour of any sort, seldom recover.

For the Literary Magazine.

MARVELLOUS STORIES.

IGNORANCE, they say, is the mother of credulity; but I think

this maxim is a false one. It is the characteristic of human nature to discredit what is opposite to our own observation or experience.Whether this observation and experience be narrow or extensive, we are equally disposed to deny credit to that which contradicts it. Perhaps it is the natural consequence of enlarged knowledge to produce credulity, or a disposition to admit, if not the truth, yet, at least, the likelihood or possibility of facts, not enforced by the strongest testimony, though such facts do not coincide with our own experience. The more we know, the larger are the limits of possibility. Every new fact or appearance is, of course, not coincident with previous knowledge, and seems to allow us to conjecture the possibility or existence of things, as remote from the fact just known, as this fact is from what was previ ously known.

Should a traveller in unknown countries, half a century ago, have related, on his return, that, in this remote region, he met with an animal, whose fore legs were not onefifth part, in length or size, of the hind ones. Suppose him to say, that the strength this animal has, in its hind quarters, is very great: in its endeavours to escape when surprized, it springs from its hind legs, and leaps at each bound about six or eight yards, but does not appear in running to let its fore feet come near the ground; indeed they are so very short, that it is not possible that the animal can use them in running: they have vast strength also in their tail; it is, no doubt, a principal part of their defence, when attacked; for with it they can strike with prodigious force, I believe with sufficient power to break the leg of a man; nor is it improbable that this great strength in the tail may assist them in making those astonishing springs.

The opossum (which, before the discovery of America would have been thought a natural impossibility) is also very numerous here, but it is not exactly like the American opos

sum; it partakes a good deal of the moka, in the strength of its tail, and make of its fore legs, which are very short in proportion to its hind ones; like the opossum it has the pouch, or false belly, for the safety of its young in time of danger, and its colour is nearly the same, but the fur is thicker and finer. There are several other animals of a smaller size, down as low as the field rat, which, in some part or other, partake of the moka and opossum. I have caught many rats with this pouch for carrying their young when pursued, and the legs, claws, and tail of this rat are exactly like those of the moka. It was wonderful to see what a vast variety of fish are caught, which, in some part or other, partake of the shark: it is no uncommon thing to see a skate's head and shoulders to the hind part of a shark, or a shark's head to the body of a large mullet, and sometimes to to the flat body of a sting-ray.

With respect to the feathered tribe, the parrot prevails; I have shot birds with the head, neck, and bill of a parrot, and with the same variety of the most beautiful plumage on these parts for which that bird here is distinguished, and a tail and body of a different make and colour, with long, straight, and delicately made feet and legs, which is the very reverse of any bird of the parrot kind formerly known. I have also seen a bird with the legs and feet of a parrot, the head and neck made and coloured like the common sea-gull, and the wings and tail of a hawk. I have likewise seen trees bearing three different kinds of leaves, and frequently have found others bearing the leaf of the gum tree, with the gum exuding from it, and covered with bark of a very different kind.

There are a great variety of birds in this country; all those of the parrot tribe are clothed with the most beautiful plumage that can be conceived; it would require an able pencil to give a stranger an idea of them, for it is impossible by words to describe them. The common

crow is found here, but the sound of their voice and manner of croaking are very different from those in Europe. Here are a great variety of smaller birds, but I have not found one with a pleasing note. I have seen several large birds, which I supposed, when I first saw them, to be the ostrich, as they could not fly when pursued, but ran so exceedingly fast, that a very strong and fleet greyhound could not come near them: it was, when standing, seven feet two inches from its feet to the upper part of its head. The only difference which I could perceive between this bird and the ostrich was in its bill, which appears to me to be narrower at the point; and it has three toes, which, I am told, is not the case with the ostrich. It has one characteristic, by which it may be known, and which may be thought very extraordinary; this is that two distinct feathers grew out from every quill. The ants are of various sizes, from the smallest known in Europe, to the size of nearly an inch long. Some are black, some white, and some of the largest sort, reddish. Those of this kind are really a formidable little animal; if you tread near the nest, which is generally under ground, with various little passages, or outlets, and have disturbed them, they will sally forth in vast numbers, attack their disturbers with astonishing courage, and even pursue them to a considerable distance; and their bite is attended, for a time, with a most acute pain. Some build their nests against a tree, to the size of a large bee-hive; an other sort raises mounts on the ground, of clay, to the height of four feet. In speaking of the spider, it would be improper to be silent on the industry of this little creature: I call them little, although, if compared with our common spider, they are very large; they spread their web in the woods between trees, generally to a distance of twelve or fourteen yards, and weave them so very strong, that it requires considerable force to break them. I have

seen the silk of which the web is composed wound off into a ball, and think it equal to any I ever saw in the same state from the silk worm. I have found upon bushes, on which the web has been hanging in clusters, a thin shell, something like that wherein the silk worm prepares its silk, and, on opening them, I have seen a quantity of this silk within, in which a spider was found wrapped up.

When speaking of birds, I should have mentioned the black swan which is found in some parts of the west coast of this country; the extremities of their wings are white, and all the rest of the plumage black. I have seen one which answered the above description as to colour, but the bill was a pale pink, or crimson; it was about the size of a common white swan, and was good meat.

Here we will suppose the traveller to end, though indeed the patience and attention of his hearers must have ended long ago. These stories would be classed with fictions, no less absurd than impudent, and their authors would speedily be consigned to contempt and oblivion. And yet such are almost literally the representations made of the animals of New Holland, by the English governors of the colony in that region, and which are supported by such evidence as the ignorant would probably reject, though the wise and knowing cannot but admit it. Change the word moka into kangaroo, and the original of the strangest of these pictures is familiar, by hearsay at least, to most readers.

X.

For the Literary Magazine. MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST.

Continued from page 114.

I RETIRED accordingly to my apartment, and spent the prescribed

hour in anxious and irresolute reflections. They were no other than had hitherto occurred, but they occurred with more force than ever. Some fatal obstinacy, however, got possession of me, and I persisted in the resolution of concealing one' thing. We become fondly attached to objects and pursuits, frequently for no conceivable reason but the pain and trouble they cost us. In proportion to the danger in which they involve us do we cherish them. Our darling potion is the poison that scorches our vitals.

After some time, I went to Ludloe's apartment. I found him solemn, and yet benign, at my entrance. After intimating my compliance with the terms prescribed, which I did, in spite of all my labour for composure, with accents half faultering, he proceeded to put various questions to me, relative to my early history.

I knew there was no other mode of accomplishing the end in view, but by putting all that was related in the form of answers to questions; and when meditating on the character of Ludloe, I experienced excessive uneasiness as to the consummate art and penetration which his questions would manifest. Conscious of a purpose to conceal, my fancy invested my friend with the robe of a judicial inquisitor, all whose questions should aim at extracting the truth, and entrapping the liar.

In this respect, however, I was wholly disappointed. All his inquiries were general and obvious.They betokened curiosity, but not suspicion; yet there were moments when I saw, or fancied I saw, some dissatisfaction betrayed in his features; and when I arrived at that period of my story which terminated with my departure, as his companion, for Europe, his pauses were, I thought, a little longer and more museful than I liked. At this period, our first conference ended. After a talk, which had commenced at a late hour, and had continued many hours, it was time to sleep,

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