mice, of which Olassen and Povelson have reported what Mr. Pennant believed, but Mr. Hooker and other writers have pronounced ridiculously incredible. The story, that these mice, besides other points of extraordinary sagacity, have admirable talents for navigation; going to considerable distances from their lodgements, in small foraging parties, to collect berries for their store, which berries they import, across rivers and lakes, on flat pieces of dried cow-dung, each manned by a crew of six or ten, all standing with their heads toward the centre, and rowing the vessel by means of their tails:

'Having been apprised," says Dr. Henderson, "of the doubts entertained on this subject, I made a point of inquiry as to the reality of the account, and am happy in being able to say, that it is now established as an important fact in natural history, by the testimony of two eye-witnesses of unquestionable veracity, the clergyman of Briamslaek, and Madame Benedictson of Stikesholm, both of whom assured me they had seen the expedition performed repeatedly. Madame Benedictson in particular, recollected having spent a whole afternoon, in her younger days, at the margin of a small lake on which these skilful navigators had embarked, and amusing herself and her companions by driving them away from the sides of the lake as they approached them. I was also informed that they make use of dried mushrooms as sacks, in which they convey their provisions to the river, and thence to their homes."

THE ICY CAVE OF SURTSHALLIR.

A number of hours were spent in exploring the grand cavern of Surtshallir, extending about a mile under an enormous bed of lava from the Bald Yokul, of the dimensions, through two-thirds of its length, of fifty feet in breadth, and forty in height, and reputed, by the early inhabitants, to be the abode of Surtur, "the black prince of the regions of fire," whose appointed office, according to their mythology, was to burn the world at the conclusion of the present system of things. The description of one part of this cavern will recall that of Antiparos. Its magnificent exhibition is indeed of a more frail material, but it will probably last as long.

"The roof and sides of the cave were decorated with the most superb icicles, crystallized in every possible form, many of which

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rivalled in minuteness the finest Zeolites; while, from the icy floor rose pillars of the same substance, assuming all the curious and fantastic shapes imaginable, mocking the proudest specimens of art, and counterfeiting many well-known objects of animated nature. A more brilliant scene perhaps never presented itself to the human eye, nor was it easy to divest ourselves of the idea that we actually beheld one of the fairy scenes depicted in eastern fable. The light of the torches rendered it peculiarly enchanting."

THE HOT SPRINGS OF HVERAVELLIR.

From this cavern, the route was directed toward the hot springs of Hveravellir, across a trackless desert, of lonely and formidable aspect, shining and frowning with icy and volcanic sublimities. "It was not," says Dr. Henderson, "without sensations of awe, that we beheld the columns of smoke that were issuing from almost innumerable apertures, and heard the thundering noise attending its escape." Among this prodigious and raging assemblage of cauldrons, most of them, ejecting at intervals, columns of water, there is the grand singularity denominated the "Roaring Mount,"

-"a circular mount of indurated bolus, about four feet in height from an aperture of which, on the west side, a great quantity of steam makes its escape with a noise louder than that of the most tremendous cataract. The steam issues with such force, that any stones thrown into the aperture are instantly ejected to a considerable height."

Exceedingly striking too, is the account of the regulated system manifest throughout the tremendous tumult of operations, to which this singular "Mount" seems appointed to act in quality of a magnificent trumpeter, a part which is performed in a manner which may, without presumption, claim to appropriate the description,

"Sonorous as immortal breath can blow."

"We could not sufficiently admire the connexion and regularity observable in the bursts of steam and jets of water that continued to ascend into the atmosphere the whole of the evening. The order they maintained can only be compared to that observed in the firing of the different companies of a regiment drawn up in the order of battle. The play commenced on a signal being given by the Roaring Mount, which was instantaneously followed by an eruption of the largest jetting fountain at the opposite end

of the tract; on which the turn went to the rest, vast columns of steam bursting from the surface of the general mound, while the jets rose and fell in irregular beauty. Having continued to play in this manner for the space of four minutes and a half, the springs abated for nearly two minutes; when the Roaring Mount renewed the signal, and the explosions took place as before."

It is needless to say how many important matters for geological discussion are supplied by the multifarious descriptions of the composition of so strange a territory.

THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF MAN.*

WERE it possible that a distinct knowledge could be obtained of all the remarkable forms into which human society has been modified, in the long series of ages, and in all parts of the world, a great majority of the intelligent and inquiring class would probably be eager for the exhibition to be made.

But it might not be altogether absurd to question the wisdom of such a desire. Is anything, it might be asked, really wanting to the means and materials already possessed for forming a satisfactory judgment of the nature of Man? Do not all his faculties, his passions, his principles, stand perfectly manifest before us?

In entering on a history twenty times more ample than all our present information of the past, could the inquirer, even if possessed of the secret of the elixir vitæ, to assure' him of a course of ages to study it through, expect to descry any one feature of the human nature, which is not already familiarly apparent? Have we not facts enough to show how man will act in any given circumstance; in other words, how any given causes will act on him? Does not our present compass of view display him under all imaginable forms of social institution; and might we not, from the exhibition of his qualities under half of these modifications, have confidently divined how those qualities would appear under all the others? If the dark empire of superstition has contained more vanities, impostures, and abominations than we have

The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland. By Walter Scott, Esq. Two vols. 4to. 1814-17.

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ever heard of, what would be the benefit of their being now brought to light? Does any vacancy in the imagination require to be replenished, and illuminated, by loathsome or fantastic shapes of wooden and earthenware gods as yet nondescript and undelineated? May we not be well content that all these detestable forms of thought and of matter, should be retained exclusively in the memory of those departed beings who were once either agents or dupes of the dire delusion; and of those long observers of this world, those heavenly spirits, whose wide capacities are so filled with a pure and divine element, that these odious reminiscences cannot defile them ?—as the atmosphere of our planet maintains its general purity, in spite of all the smoke and mephitic exhalations that rise into it. What would be the use, again we might ask, of an indefinitely aggravated evidence of facts, that men have hated and destroyed one another through all ages? Or could the indefatigable reader really flatter himself that, somewhere or other, he should come upon a delightful historical tract of contrary evidence, and find that the golden age did once actually exist? But there would be no end to such questions; we will only ask further, Does any one important moral principle need an addition of facts, either to verify it, or to ascertain the proper rules of its application?

We do not know whether the above paragraph will appear quite pertinently prefixed to a slight notice of the work by which it has been suggested. A state of society forming so very extraordinary a picture, furnishing such strong illustrations of some principles in human nature, so conspicuous in our national history, and leaving so many visible monuments and vestiges, cannot be among the things that any man would wish consigned to oblivion. But at the same time, some portions of the present work, taken in conjunction with other works, written and compiled, respecting the same tract of territory and history, would afford, we are apt to think, a fair exemplification of the uselessness for any present valuable purpose, of a great deal of what can be recovered from the past, and a fair presumption as to the uselessness, if it could be recovered, of infinitely more that is fortunately beyond the reach of research.

The most interesting part of Mr. Scott's work is his rapid,

clear, and lively epitome of the Border History, from the earliest times that anything is known of the restless inhabitants, down to the period when they were destined to sink in comparative repose and insignificance, under the complete consolidation of the union of the two kingdoms.

THE CELTIC TRIBES, OTTADINI, GADENI, AND SELGOVÆ.

After marking the portions of territory respectively occupied by the three warlike tribes, the Ottadini, the Gadeni, and the Selgovæ, he describes their arms in their successive and improving forms, their rude fortifications, and their modes of warfare; and assigns to the use of their worship, assumed to be Druidical, the circles of detached stones which abound in various places on the Border. Funeral monuments, also, of these Celtic tribes are numerous, and consist of the cairns, or heaps of stones, so frequently piled on remarkable spots.

"On opening them, there is usually found in the centre a small square enclosure of stones set on edge, with bones and arms such as we have already described. There is frequently found within this stone chest, or cist-vaen, as it is called by the Welsh, an urn filled with ashes, and small beads made of coal. The manufacture of these urns themselves is singular. The skill of the artist appears not to have been such as to enable him to form his urn completely, before subjecting it to the operation of the fire. He therefore appears to have first shaped the rude vessel of the dimensions which he desired, and then baked it into potter's ware. On the vessel thus formed and hardened, he afterwards seems to have spread a very thin coat of unbaked clay, on which he executed his intended ornaments, and which was left to harden at leisure. The scrolls and mouldings thus hatched on the outside of these urns, are not always void of taste. In these tombs, and elsewhere, have been repeatedly found the Eurdorchaug, the Torques, or chain, formed of twisted gold, worn by the Celtic chiefs of rank. It is not a chain forged into rings, but is formed of thin rods of flexible gold, twisted into hoops, which pass through each other, and form oblong links."

MILITARY WORKS OF THE ROMANS ON THE BORDERS.

The author passes quickly over the tumultuous period of the Roman dominion over the border country; a dominion maintained at an enormous expense of military works, and so maintained, not because the invaders set any great value on the tract itself, but because they were resolved to make it