in March following, above 600 miles to the southward. But with a remarkable attachment for each other like the two discovery ships, although they have not kept company, these two bottles have both arrived at very nearly the same place, Capt. Maclure's being found at Ambergris Cay, while this has been found about 30 miles to the northward of it, after a drift of some thousands miles, with the usual equatorial current. Capt Maclure's seems to have been picked up not many days after being washed on shore; but this of Capt. Collinson's has been lying many days unobserved. (53a.) A bottle containing the following written document was picked up on the Holywell Sands, about nine miles east of St. Agnes, Truro, Cornwall, by one of the coast guard, at 7 o'clock A.M, of the 17th inst. "Brig Mary Allan, of Irvine, Boyd; Montreal, to Liverpool, sailed from Quebec on the 28th November, 1848, at 1 P.M. Lat. by observation 50° 55'N, long. by chronometer 32° 10/W." The above appears in the Shipping Gazette of the 25th of August, 1849. Maritime Extracts, p. 2, col. 6. (26a.) Truro, January 29th.-On the 25th inst., a bottle was found by Lieut. Hussey, R.N., of the Coast Guard, on Perran Beach (on the north coast of Cornwall), containing the following extract from the log of the ship Marmion, from New York for Liverpool: "Hove overboard, August 16th, 1850, at 2 P.M., to ascertain the drift thereof-lat. 49° 8'N., long. 18° 51'W.; W.S.W. (2a.) Another bottle was picked up on the same beach during the early part of last week, enclosing a card. It was thrown overboard from the Prima Donna, schooner, off Cape Coast, in 1850, the month being obliterated. This bottle must first have been carried southward by the Guinea current; then westward by the Equatorial current, then by the Guinea current along the coast of South America to the Gulf of Mexico, and from thence by the Gulf stream northward and eastward to the Cornish coast.-Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, Jan. 30th, 1851. NEW CHARTS. Published by the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, in April, 1851, and Sold by J. D. Potter, 31, Poultry. 1221 OWERS TO DUNNOSE, including Spithead, Capt. Sherringham, R.N., 1848. 166600 22222 s. d BOUDROUM, Commander Spratt, R.N., 1847. SYDNEY HARBOUR, (Cape Breton Island) Capt. H. W. Bayfield, R.N. 1849. ANTIGUA ISLAND (West Indies, North Coast), Capt. Barnett, R.Ñ., 1848. Ditto ( South West Coast), SOUTH AMERICA INDEX CHART, 1851. Ditto 1848. 6990 INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE COMPUTATION of a Table of the Deviations of SOUTH AMERICAN LIGHTS, corrected to 1851. THAMES RIVER TO THE MEDITERRANEAN, additions to 1850 1 2 00306 1108 GIGHA ISLAND AND SOUND (Scotland W. Coast) Capt. Robinson, R.Ñ., 1850. 1 ANTIGONISH HARBOUR, Capt. H. W. Bayfield, R.Ñ., 1846 91 2 1 6 B. J. Hooper, 2 0 EDWARD DUNSTERVILLE, Master R.N. WANGARI HARBOUR, NEW ZEALAND, Capt. Stokes, R.Ñ., 1849. Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, May 22nd, 1851. METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER. Kept at Croom's Hill, Greenwich, by Mr. Rogerson, of the Royal Observatory. From the 21st of April, to the 20th of May, 1851. April, 1851.--Mean height of the barometer = 29 851 inches; mean temperature degrees; depth of rain fallen 2.50 inches. London:-Hunt, Frinter, 6, New Church Street, Edgware Road. 45.7 ON JULIUS CAESAR'S EXPEDITION, in relation to his point of depar ture from Gaul, and the localities of his first and second descent upon the opposite shore of England. THIS subject has been repeatedly investigated by men of keen and practical minds, whose fondness for antiquarian research has induced them to analyze the opinions of others, to compare them with every historical record within their reach, examining with minute criticism Cæsar's own Commentaries, and submitting them to the test of Roman Historians cotemporary with that great man; then, following through in detail, the testimony of succeeding writers, in the Saxon era, backed as they were by traditions (in their day) comparatively recent, and countenanced by the discoveries made also (in their day) of the decisive progress and route of the Roman Legions through Kantium, a country thickly strewed with the bones of the slain, and identified by the coins found among the fragments of armour, even from the sea board itself, among the marine exuviæ, to the barrows or places of burial in the interior. Again in more modern researches where geological changes have converted the anchorage of navies into pasture land, the cuttings of the agriculturist or engineer, have laid bare quays, and jetties, the materials of which afforded positive evidence of the preference which had been given by Cæsar's descendants, to the self same line of operations, which had been selected by him as the first invader; and the route to and from which was marked by the Pharos at Dover, Kingsdown, Richborough, Rutupiæ, and other unmistakable ruins, such as do not exist upon NO. 7.-VOL. XX. 2 x any other line or route. These taken in connexion with ancient traditions, induced antiquarians to coincide in their opinions through many centuries, that the first landing of Cæsar was upon the shore under the shelter of the South Foreland, with an autumnal southerly breeze in smooth water, near to Richborough, where the sand-hills upon a low shore, have been for time immemorial called Cæsar's Fleet, by the lower orders, and have been considered by the more learned, as mounds thrown up by the Roman Legions forming between each the causeways into which they drew up their ships, and constructed their naval encampment, as recorded by their own historians; and we shall hereafter be prepared to shew that these sand-hills were (previous to the filling up of the estuary) the line and margin of the sea; and probably the most accessible for disembarkation of any point of our coast. If the traditions of our ancestors were in opposition to long received historical data, and inconsistent with the extraordinary changes which during a lapse of two thousand years, have completely altered the features of our coast line, they would not be worthy our attention. But I think it is presumptuous to disbelieve every thing, which will not admit of positive proof, for how little would scepticism leave us, upon which we could rely, historically, religiously, or politically, if we cast aside all the traditions which are the handmaids of history, and only receive for our belief, those circumstances, and things, which we could prove to demonstration. We read that Paul landed among barbarians upon an island called Melita, now Malta, accompanied by a Roman guard, and it is also written that a similar succession of ages has elapsed since Roman Legions landed in another certain island called England. Nobody doubts the locality at Malta, called St. Paul's Bay, where the viper was shaken from the Apostle's hand into the fire; and we think it is equally to be credited, that Cæsar's descent was where history and tradition have almost universally assigned its locality. I am led into these reflections by a very interesting paper, in the March number of the Athenæum, by A. B. G. The author acknowledges, "That it has been very generally considered as established, that Julius Cæsar landed somewhere in the neighbourhood of Walmer or Deal, and that he himself, had accepted Dr. Halley's solution of this interesting question as perfectly satisfactory;" more recent investigations however, on his part, had originated certain doubts, to which he has given expression in the Athenæum, and by an attentive perusal of them, I think any reader will come to the conclusion, that they are put forth, most courteously to elicit replies, from all, or any, who are pleased to enter the lists, in an investigation which must confer intellectual pleasure, through the medium of scientific and literary research. The arguments in this paper are ingenious, but they have to contend with long received opinions, and what is more, it will be difficult, to explain away the premises upon which those opinions are based; such as the derivations of names of places having reference to occurrences which bear the Stamp of authenticity. We are reminded of the elaborate geological works which affect to despise the records of a universal deluge, although the traditions of all nations point through the mist of departed ages to such a catastrophe; but in this their denial they find it impossible to account satisfactorily for the foot-marks of a disrupted creation, while those who admit the fact, unmask without difficulty, every feature and development of the organic changes, which have taken place around them. In like manner, to form an estimate of the actors in the expedition of Cæsar, we must first contemplate the stage upon which the dramatis persona, were engaged. The scenery since then has been shaken by tempest, inundation, and tremora. Promontories have receded before the ever-wasting surge; hills have decreased in altitude.* Havens have been silted up by their detritus, and piers buried beneath the waters, leaving no trace but the names expressive of their derivation, and now only known as the rocks and shoals, which mark their former site.† In reviewing then this interesting paper of A. B. G., these facts must be especially alluded to, as the subject matter requires it for the sake of elucidation. Investigations such as these have been very cleverly handled by several members of the Cinque Ports, who had all the classical acquirements necessary to the task, combined with a long residence in the locality, and the inspection of the best museums and collection of Roman and British coins, fibula, and other relics, continually exhumed in their respective localities, such as originated the history of Sandwich in 1792, by William Boys, Esq., F.S.A., and the history of Dover in 1814, by the Rev. John Lyon, a gentleman within my personal recollection and knowledge, and who was assisted in his researches by the most eminent men of the day, who were making the antiquities of the Cinque Ports, their especial study. These gentlemer appear to have reasoned upon general evidences as to history; and it is fair to suppose that Dr. Halley who wrote exactly a century before them, might be supported in his conclusions by records which had in the intervening period gone to decay, for we know that Mr. Lyon found a most shameful neglect existing at Dover, as to the records of that ancient port. This was much to be lamented, as every excavation in that old town proved the existence of the features of its original haven as perpetuated from generation to generation, by oral tradition. The first doubt expressed in the Athenæum paper, related to the port of departure in Gaul, and as the Portus Iccius of the Roman navigators has always been conceded to Boulogne, let us at once examine the objection in detail. Boulogne was in the country of the Morini, and it is said that Cæsar had not then subjugated the Morini. Admitting that to be the fact, there is no reason why they should not have been passive allies, nay, it is probable that they assisted him with pilots for the opposite coast in his expedition. History is not silent as to the manœuvres of political expedience on the part of the Romans, and to which in a great measure they were indebted for their extended dominion! The conciliating some Shakespeare's Cliff Dover. † See Nautical Magazine, "Oral Tradi tions". The records of all the ports were originally kept in a room in the keep or tower of Dover Castle. |