Rose witnessed the exhibition of an improvvisatore in one of the halls of the Teatro Olimpico. "Two understrappers appeared upon the stage with materials for writing, and a large glass vase; one of those took down, on separate scraps of paper, different subjects, which were proposed by such of the audience as chose to suggest them. The other having duly sealed them, threw them into the above mentioned vase, which he held up and shook before the spectators. He then presented it amongst them for selection, and different subjects were drawn, till they came to "Alfieri alla tomba di Shakspeare,' an argument which was accepted by universal acclamation.

"The two assistants now retired, and the principal appeared in their place. He was young and good-looking, and being of opinion that a neckcloth took from his beauty, wore his neck bare, but in other respects had nothing singular in his dress, which was precisely that of an Englishman. He received the paper on entering, and immediately threw himself on a chair, from whence, after having made a few Pythian contortions, but all apparently with a view to effect, he poured forth a volley of verse, without the slightest pause or hesitation; but this was only a prelude to a mightier effort.

"He retired, and the two assistants re-appeared; subjects were proposed for a tragedy, the vase shaken as before, and the papers containing the arguments drawn.

"Amongst the first titles fished out was that of Ines de Castro,' which, as no objection was taken to it, was adopted, and communicated to the improvvisatore. He advanced, and said, that, as he was unacquainted with the story, he desired to be instructed in the leading facts. These were communicated to him, succinctly enough, by the suggestor of the theme, and he proceeded forthwith to form his dramatis persona, in the manner of one who thinks aloud. There were few after the example of Alfieri. As soon as the matter was arranged, he began, and continued to declaim his piece without even a momentary interruption, though the time of recitation, unbroken by any repose between the acts, occupied the space of three hours.

"Curiosity to see how far human powers can be carried, may tempt one to go and see a man stand upon his head; but to see a man stand on his head for three hours is another thing. As a tour de force, the thing was marvellous; but I have seen as wonderful in this country, which is fertile in such prodigies. I recollect once seeing a man to whom, after he had played other pranks in verse, three sub. jects for sonnets were proposed, one of which was, 'Noah issuing from the ark; the other, 'The death of Caesar;' and the third, The wedding of Pantaloon.' These were to be declaimed, as it may be termed, interlacedly; that is, a piece of Noah, a piece of Caesar, and a piece of Pantaloon. He went through this sort of bread and cheese process with great facility, though only ten minutes were given him for the composition, which was moreover clogged with a yet more puzzling condition: he was to introduce what was termed a verso obligato, that is, a particular verse, specified by one of the audience, at a particular place in each of the sonnets. This last somerset in fetters appeared to please the spectators infinitely, who proposed other tricks which I do not remember, but which were all equally extraordinary."

In the earlier part of the present century, the Signora Fantastici was the favourite improvvisatrice of the day. Mr. Forsyth has described her performances, which displayed very extraordinary powers: "She went round her circle, and called on each person for a theme. Seeing her busy with her fan, I proposed the fan as a subject; and this little weapon she painted, as she promised, col pennel divino di fantasia felice. In tracing its origin, she followed Pignotti, and in describing its use, she acted and analyzed to us all the coquetry

which they would bring down to a level with affairs of the most common nature. They for. get, or overlook its true and essential character; they are insensible to its institution, recorded in that book of truth which bears the to the voice which informs us that, even in a state of innocency, man, the lord of the creation, "created a little lower than the angels, to be crowned with glory and worship," found a void, an insufficiency, which could only be replenished by the gift of his benevolent Crea

The curious philologist who visits Vicenza will not neglect the Sette Communi, the descendants of some northern tribes, residing amongst the hills in the neighbourhood of Vicenza, and retaining not only the characteristic habits and manners, but even the language of their ancestors. Much controversy has arisen as to the original stock from which this tribe is derived, which, undoubtedly, from the language still spoken by them, was of northern extraction. It is said that one of the kings of Denmark, visiting Italy, found that the idiom of the Sette Communi so much resembled the Danish, as to enable him with ease to understand their language. This tribe furnishes by no means a singular instance of a community retaining the language of their ancestors in the midst of another nation. On the borders of Transylvania a Roman colony is still in existence, by whom the Latin language is familiarly spoken. A late traveller, passing through this part of the country, was wakened one morning at his inn by the entrance of a Transylvanian Boots, with a glass in his hand, who addressed him in the following words, "Domine, visne schnaps?" The traveller, summoning up his classical acquirements, replied by another interrogatory, "Quid est Schnaps?" "Schnaps est res," said the Boots, " omnibus maxime necessaria omne die,"-presenting to him the glass of brandy.

In the neighbourhood of Vicenza a singular contrivance is described by Ray, who visited Italy in 1663. "In the same village we had also sight of the famous Ventiduct, belonging to a nobleman of Vicenza, contrived for the coolness of his palace, during the heat of the summer, to effect which channels are cut through the rocks from a spacious high-roofed grotto to the palace, so that when they intend to let in the cool air, they shut up the gate at the cave, and by opening a door at the end of the channel, convey the fresco into the rooms of the palace, each of which has a conduit or hole to receive it."

MARRIAGE.

BY THE REV. W. SHEPHERD.

"Young, chaste, and lovely-pleased, yet half afraid,
Before yon altar droops a plighted maid,
Clad in her bridal robes of taintless white,
Dumb with the scene, and trepid with delight,
Around her hymeneal guardians stand,
Each with a tender look and feeling bland;
And oft she turns her beauty-beaming eye,
Dimm'd with a tear for happiness gone by!
Then coyly views, in youth's commanding pride,
Her own adored one panting by her side,
Like lilies bending from the noon-tide blaze,
Her bashful eyelids droop beneath his gaze;
While love and homage blend their blissful
And shed a halo round his marriage hour."

power,

Omnipresence of the Deity. "WHAT is truth?" was the question put by the Roman governor to his innocent and heavenly victim. The question involved a comprehensive reply, for which, however the inquirer, to mark either his contempt or fear of the answer, did not wait. There are many in the present day disposed to say, What is marriage? with the same feelings and sentiments of indifference to the result of their inquiry. Such people, and there are such even amongst British senators, esteem the ordinance of marriage as a civil contract, the celebration of

tor.

That gift was woman, lovely woman, abstracted from man himself, and therefore part of his very existence. "A help meet for him," was thus provided, that being "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh," she might, knowing her dependence on him as her superior, grow up by his side, and repay his protection and support by smiles of loveliness, and the charins of willing and affectionate duty. Thus was "marriage instituted in Paradise in the time of man's innocency," amidst angels and blessed spirits, who walked familiarly on the earth, the Almighty's last and most interesting work of creation; whilst the eternal God pronounced his blessing on the guileless pair, and proclaimed, once and for ever, such union divine and indissoluble. Thus instituted in Paradise, the record and usage of it descended through successive ages to the various families who peopled the earth. Hence we find not only amongst the Jews, upon whom especially the light of Jehovah's countenance beamed, but also among the Gentiles, alienated as they were from their first estate, and darkened by the clouds of immorality and ignorance, marriage was considered holy, and celebrated with religious observances.

Had marriage been merely a civil contract, every individual would have been at liberty to enter into it with any one whomsoever he might choose without any restriction whatever; at least, such is the nature of civil contracts, there is no prohibition of bargains between even the nearest relations and kindred. But amongst the Jews there were express restraints imposed, prohibiting the intermarrying of persons of the same family within certain degrees of consanguinity. The priests also were limited within certain rules, which they might not disregard in the choice of their wives. Surely such restriction exalts marriage, independent of its divine institution, high above civil obligations, and stamps it with a seal which belongs not to the common transactions of life. Founded as it was in Paradise, and containing the germ of man's salvation, the chosen people upon whom these restrictions were laid, considered it a holy ordinance, which they might neither corrupt nor defile by any unclean mixture or impure debasement. Hence, they call its observance "a conjugal sanctification," and they celebrated it by several religious rites and blessings. Surely, therefore, they held it in the estimation of something more than a civil contract. They appear to have entertained juster notions of this benevolent institution than the enlightened patriots and reformers of the nineteenth contury, the splendour of whose brilliant minds and philanthropic hearts bewilders their understandings, and contracts their mental visions against the milder, and purer, and inore heavenly dispensations and ordinances of God. Either they are more enlightened by reason than the Jews were by revelation, or they la. bour under an eclipse more dark than that which involved the heathens; for even these erected the obligation of marriage upon a pedestal made hallowed by religion. They called marriage holy; and the ceremonies instituted by Romulus were such as "to bind the wife entirely to her husband as her only resource, and the husband to rule his wife as a possession closely allied to him, and which might not be taken away." Let the Remuses of the present day, who would insultingly leap over the walls which protect the Capitol of public morality and domestic virtue, blush to

Account of the Nuremberg Boy, Caspar Hauser, who was shut up in a Dungeon from the fourth to the sixteenth year of his age. ABOUT twenty-five years ago public curiosity and the solicitude of the scientific world, were powerfully excited by the discovery of the wild man of Aveyron, who was surprised in the woods leaping from tree to tree, living, in a naked state, the life of a baboon rather than that of a man, emitting no other sounds

than imitations of the cries of animals which he had heard, or those which made their escape from his breast without the emotions of pleasure or suffering. A phenomenon of nearly a similar nature has for the last fifteen months engaged the attention of the learned in Germany. But in this case there do not exist the entire liberty, and the wild and erratic life, which degraded the intellect of the unfortunate being just mentioned. There has, on the contrary, been a state of absolute constraint and captivity. Hitherto nothing had transpired in France respecting this singular phenomenon, and we should probably have still remained ignorant of it, had it not been for the attempt at assassination made a month ago upon this unfortunate creature, now restored to social life; and, as would appear, pursued by the same villain who, for twelve years, had kept him buried in a dungeon. A person of high rank, and distinguished by the superiority of his mind, has addressed to us the following letter, which reveals, in some measure, the entire history of this unfortunate being. Our correspondent has seen and conversed with this mysterious young man. We have thought it right to publish his letter in the same spirit which dictated it, that is to say, less as the recital of an extraordinary and touching adventure, than as a subject of moral and psychological study. At the moment when we were sending this letter to press, we received the Nouvelle Revue Germanique, which is printed at Strasburg, and in which the same facts are translated, from the Hesperus, one of the best of the German journals. But we have in addition, the assurance of authenticity and the observations made on the same subject by a person who, by profound study, has been familiarized with all the great questions of philosophy.*

"TO THE EDITOR OF LE GLOBE.

was haam; (the provincial pronunciation of heim, home,) to express the desire of returning to his dungeon.

"When it appeared evident from the state in which the young man was, that the statement contained in the letter was true, he was confided to the charge of an enlightened professor of the most respectable character, and, by a decree of the magistrates, was declared an adopted child of the city of Nuremberg. "Previous to my return to France, I had determined to visit that city, the only large town in Germany which I had not seen. This was about the end of last September. I was furnished with a letter to one of the magistrates, who, from the nature of his functions, had the charge of superintending the educa tion of Caspar Hauser. It was this person who brought him to me; and, by a privilege which I should not have ventured to claim, the last moinents of a residence devoted to the examination of the curiosities of this great monument of the middle age, afforded me an opportunity of seeing a very rare, if not unique, subject for the study of human nature. We beheld a young man, below the middle stature, thick, and with broad shoulders. His physiognomy was mild and frank. Without being disagreeable, it was no way remarkable. His eyes announced weaknes of sight, but his look, especially when a feeling of internal satisfaction or of gratitude made him raise it towards the skies, had a heavenly expression. He came up to us without embarrassment, and even with the confidence of candour. His carriage was modest. He was urged to speak, to give us an account of his emotions, of his observations upon himself, and of the happiness of his condition.

"We had no time to lose, for our horses were already harnessed. While I was reading an account composed by himself, in which he lated to my travelling companion whatever had begun to retrace his recollection, he rehad not yet been recorded in it, or replied to his questions. I shall, therefore, first present the details of the narrative, and then mention what was repeated to me of a conversation of which I heard only a part.

ing German was that of a foreigner, who has "His manner of speaking and of pronouncexercised himself for some years in it. The motion of the muscles of the face indicated an effort, and was nearly such as is observed in deaf and dumb persons who have learned to speak. The style of the written narrative resembled that of a scholar of ten or eleven years, and consisted of short and simple phrases, without errors in orthography or grammar. The following is a brief account of it:

"In the month of May, 1828, there was ob served at the entrance of one of the gates of the city of Nuremberg, a young man who kept himself in a motionless attitude. He spoke not but wept, and held in his hand a letter addressed to an officer of the regiment of Light Horse, in garrison in the town. The letter announced that from the age of four to that of sixteen years, the bearer had remained shut up in a dungeon, that he had been baptized, that his name was Caspar Hauser, that he was destined to enter the regiment of Light Horse, and that it was for this reason that the officer was addressed.

"On being questioned he remained silent, and when further interrogated he wept. The word which he most frequently pronounced

The letter is probably the production of the celebrated Cousin.

"His recollections disclose to him a dark dungeon, about five feet long, four broad, and very low; a loaf of bread, a pitcher of water, a hole for his wants, straw for a bed, a cover

terial, and some ribbons, with which he amused himself in decorating them. He had no recollection of hunger, but he well remembered being thirsty. When he was thirsty he slept, and on awakening the pitcher was found full, When he was awake he dressed his horses with the ribbons, and when his thirst returned he slept. The man who took care of him always approached him from behind, so that he never saw his figure. He remained almost constantly seated. He recollects no feeling of uneasiness. He is ignorant how long this kind of life lasted; and when the man began to reveal himself and to speak to him, the sound of his voice became impressed upon his ear. His words are indelibly engraved upon his memory, and he has even retained his dialect. These words ran exclusively on fine horses, and latterly on his father, who had some, and would give them to him. One day, (I make use of this word although it is improper, for to him there were neither day, nor time, nor space,) the man placed upon his legs a stool with paper, and led his hand in order to make him trace some characters upon it.

When the impulse given by the man's hand ceased, his hand also stopped. The man endeavoured to make him understand that he was to go on. The motion being without doubt inopportune, the man gave him a blow on the arm. This is the only feeling of pain which he remembers. But the stool greatly embarrassed him, for he had no idea of how he should put it aside, and was utterly unable to extricate himself from this prison within a prison. One day, at length, the man clothed him, (it would appear that he wore only a shirt, his feet being bare,) and taking him out of the dungeon put shoes upon him. He carried him at first, and then tried to make him learn to walk, directing the young man's feet with his own. Sometimes carried and some. times pushed forwards, he at length made a few steps. But, after accomplishing ten or twelve, he suffered horribly, and fell a crying. The man then laid him on his face on the ground, and he slept. He is ignorant how long these alternations were renewed; but the ideas which he has since acquired have enabled him to discover, in the sound of his conductor's voice, an expression of trouble and anguish. The light of day caused him still greater sufferings. He retains no idea of his conductor's physiognomy, nor does he even know if he observed it; but the sound of his voice, he tells us, he could distinguish among

a thousand.

"Here ends the narrative, and we now come to the conversation. During the first days which he passed among men, he was in a state of continual suffering. He could bear no other food than bread. He was made to take chocolate: he felt it, he told us, to his fingers' ends. The light, the motion, the noise around him, (and curious persons were not wanting to produce the latter,) and the variety of objects which forced themselves upon his observation, temper, but this distemper must have existed caused an indescribable pain, a physical disin the chaos of his ideas. It was music that afforded him the first agreeable sensation: it was through its influence that he experienced a dispersion of this chaos. From this period he was enabled to perceive a commencement assailed. His memory has become prodigious: of order in the impressions by which he was he quickly learned to name and classify objects, to distinguish faces, and to attach to each the proper name which he heard pronounced. He has an ear for music, and an aptitude for drawing. At first he was fond of amusing himself with wooden horses, of which a present had been made to him, when he was heard continually to repeat the word horses, beautiful horses (ress, schone ress). He instantly gave up, when his master made him understand that this was not proper, and that it was not beautiful. His taste for horses has since been replaced by a taste for study. He has begun the study of the Latin language, and by a natural spirit of imitation, his master being a literary man, he is desirous of following the same career.

"So extraordinary a phenomenon could not fail to inspire, independently of general curiosity, an interest of a higher order, whether in observing minds or in feeling hearts, and the women especially have expressed their feelings towards him in little presents, and letters of the most tender kind. But the mul titude of idle visits they made to him, and especially these expressions of tender feeling, were productive of danger to him, and it became necessary to withdraw him from so many causes of distraction, and to lead him into retirement. Accordingly, he now lives retired in the bosom of a respectable family. Pure morals, an observing mind, and a psychological order, preside over his education and instruction, in proof of which, he has made immense progress in the space of the last sixteen months.

"Here, then, by the inexplicable eccentricity of a destiny without example, we have presented, and perhaps solved a problem,

Miscellany.

Preservation of Firemen exposed to Flames. -The Chevalier Aldini of Milan has been earnestly occupied in the construction of an apparatus, or rather clothing, intended to preserve persons from injury who are exposed to flames. The apparatus has lately been fully tried at Geneva, and an account of it, and the trials, given in the Bibliothèque Universelle. A union of the powers possessed by a metallic tissue to intercept flame, with the incombustible and badly conducting properties of amianthus, or other substances, has been made in the apparatus; and the latter consists of two distinct systems of clothing, the one near the body composed of the badly conducting incombustible matter, and the other, or external envelop, of a metallic tissue.

The pieces of clothing for the body, arms, and legs, are made of strong cloth which has been soaked in a solution of alum; those for the head, the hands, and the feet, of cloth of asbestos. That for the head is a large cap, which entirely covers the whole to the neck, and has apertures in it for the eyes, nose, and mouth, these being guarded by a very fine copper-wire gauze. The stockings and cap are single, but the gloves are double, for the purpose of giving power of handling inflamed or incandescent bodies.

M. Aldini has, by perseverance, been able to spin and weave asbestos without previously mixing it with other fibrous substances: the action of steam is essential in the bending and twisting of it, otherwise the fibres break. The cloths prepared with it were not of close texture, but loose: the threads were about onefiftieth of an inch in diameter, and of considerable strength: cords of any size or strength may be prepared from them. M. Aldini hopes to be able so to prepare other fibrous matters, as to be able to dispense altogether with this rare and costly material.

The metallic defence consists of five principal pieces: a casque, or cap complete, with a mask: this is of such size as to allow of sufficient space between it and the asbestos cap, and is guarded before the face by a visor, so that the protection is doubled in that part; a cuirass, with its brassets; a piece of armour for the waist and thighs; a pair of boots of double wire-gauze; and an oval shield, five feet long, and two and a half wide, formed by by extending gauze over a thin frame of iron. The metallic gauze is of iron, and the intervals between the threads about one-twenty-fifth of

an inch each.

When at Geneva, M. Aldini instructed the firemen in the defensive power of his arrangements, and then practised them, before he made the public experiments. He showed them that a finger enveloped first in asbestos, and then in a double case of wire gauze, might be held in the flame of a spirit-lamp or candle for a long time, before inconvenient heat was felt; and then clothing them, gradually accustomed them to the fiercest flames.

The following are some of the public trials made. A fireman having his hand inclosed in a double asbestos glove, and guarded in the palm by a piece of asbestos cloth, laid hold of a large piece of red hot iron, carried it slowly to the distance of 150 feet, then set straw on fire by it, and immediately brought it back to the furnace. The hand was not at all injured in the experiment.

The second experiment related to the defence of the head, the eyes, and the lungs. The fireman put on only the asbestos and wire gauze cap, and the cuirass, and held the shield before his breast. A fire of shavings was then lighted, and sustained in a very large raised chaffing dish, and the fireman approaching it, plunged his head into the middle of the flames, with his face towards the fuel, and in that way went several times round the chaffing dish, and for a period above a minute in duration. The experiment was made several times, and those

who made it said they suffered no oppression | or inconvenience in the act of respiration.

The third experiment was with the complete apparatus. Two rows of faggots, mingled with straw, were arranged vertically against bars of iron, so as to form a passage between, thirty feet long, and six feet wide. Four such arrangements were made, differing in the proportion of wood and straw, and one was with straw alone. Fire was then applied to one of these double piles; and a fireman, invested in the defensive clothing, and guarded by the shield, entered between the double hedge of flames, and traversed the alley seve ral times. The flames rose ten feet in height, and joined over his head. Each passage was made slowly, and occupied from twelve to fifteen seconds; they were repeated six or eight times, and even oftener, in succession, and the firemen were exposed to the almost constant action of the flames for the period of a minute and a half, or two minutes, and even

more.

When the course was made between the double range of faggots without straw, the fireman carried a kind of pannier on his back, prepared in such a way as to be fire-proof, in which was placed a child, with its head covered by an asbestos bonnet, and additionally protected by the wire gauze shield.

Four firemen made these experiments, and they agreed in saying, that they felt no difficulty in respiring. A very abundant perspiration came on in consequence of the high temperature to which they had been exposed, but no lesion of the skin took place except in one instance, where the man had neglected to secure his neck by fastening the asbestos mask to the body dress.

No one present could resist the striking evidence of defence afforded when they saw the armed man traversing the undulating flames, frequently hidden altogether from view by them as they gathered around him.

The fact that in M. Aldini's apparatus a man may respire in the middle of the flames is very remarkable. It has often been proved, by anatomical examination, that in cases of fire many persons have died altogether from lesions of the organs of respiration. It would appear that the triple metallic tissue takes so much of the caloric from the air as it passes to the lungs, as to render its temperature supportable; and it is known, by experiments in furnaces, that a man can respire air at 120 or 130° C. and even higher. Perhaps also the lesions referred to may have been due to aqueous vapour, which is often produced in great abundance in fires where endeavours are made to extinguish them by water, for such vapour would transfer far more heat to the lungs than mere air. Hence in every case, and however guarded, firemen should enter houses in flames with great prudence, because the circumstances are not the same as in the experiments just described.

It is remarked that several suits of this defensive clothing should be provided, not to clothe many persons at once, but that, in endeavouring to save persons or valuable things in cases of fire, the fireman should not approach again and again in heated clothing, but have a change at hand. The Grand Duke of Tuscany has ordered six suits for the city of

Florence.

M. Aldini showed several experiments relative to the extinguishing power of his preparations before the Société de Physique de Genève. One consisted in placing an asbestos cloth of loose texture over a flame either of wax or alcohol; the flame was intercepted as well as it could have been by a piece of wire gauze. This experiment is supposed to favour the objections made to Sir H. Davy's explication of the theory of the wire gauze safetylamp; but there seems to be a mistake in the idea which has been taken of that theory. Sir H. Davy never explained the effect of his lamp by absorption of heat from flame dependant upon the good conducting power of the

tissue alone, but by the joint action of absorption and radiation. There is no doubt that cloth of asbestos is an admirable radiator, and that this power, with its conduction, is probably sufficient to explain the effects upon Sir H. Davy's theory.

Fresh Water Springs at the Bottom of the Sea. These springs occur near the islands of Bahrain and Arad, which are situated on the south side of the Persian Gulf. Bahrain is low and more fertile than any island in that gulf. Many fine groves of date trees are scattered over it, and perhaps the purest fresh water is to be found at a large pool having a spring near it, within two or three miles of the town of Monama. When Captain Maughan left Bahrain in 1828, the island was in the possession of the Ootoobies, a powerful tribe of Arabs from the desert opposite. About one and a half or two miles to the north-east lies the little island of Arad, merely a low sandy islet, with a few date trees upon it, and a hamlet composed chiefly of fishermen's huts. The barbour for shipping is formed between Bahrain and Arad islands, from which project extensive reefs of rocks. The depth of the barbour is from three to four and a half fathoms, with a sandy bottom. On the western and north sides of Arad, at some distance from the beach, are springs of fresh water gushing from the submarine rocks, where the salt water flows over them at the depth of a fathom or two, according to the state of the tides. Some of the fresh water springs are close by the beach, and here the fishermen fill their jars or tanks without difficulty, but many of the springs are distant from the shore; and whenever the fishermen on the bank near them require water, they bring their boat close over the spring, and one of the crew dives under the surface of the salt water with a leathern mussuck, or tanned skin of a goat or sheep, and places the neck or mouth of it over the spring. The force of the spring inmediately fills the bag with fresh water, and the man ascends without difficulty to the surface, and empties his cargo into a tank, and he descends continually to replenish his mussuck, until the tank be filled. Captain Maughan was told that some of the springs are in three fathoms water. The mussuck they use may contain from four to five gallons; the people who generally fish about these islands are pearl divers, accustomed to dive in twelve and fourteen fathoms water for pearls. They are a quiet, and, if not molested, a harmless race of Arabs; during the summer they wear but little clothing. There are also springs of fresh water under the sea near the north-eastern part of Bahrain island. From all that Captain Maughan could learn, above thirty springs of fresh water have been discovered in the sea in the neighbourhood of Bahrain and Arad.

The sandy beaches of the neighbourhood are composed of the usual sea-sand, chiefly composed of broken corallines and shells. The nearest highland is the coast of Persia opposite, about Cape Verdistan, Kongoon, Assiloo, &c.; and it is composed chiefly of sandstone, black coarse marble, and gypsum. The vegetation is scanty, merely a few shrubs, mostly a species of balsam, skirting the sides of the mountains. The land about El Katiff on the main, twenty miles further to the westward of Bahrain, is of moderate height, and not of any considerable extent. All the coast to the eastward of Bahrain is very low and sandy, until it joins the mountains over Cape Mussendom.

On the Lofty Flight of the Condor-Next to the Condor, the Lammergeier of Switzerland and the Falco destructor of Daudin, which is probably the same as the Falco Harpya of Linnæus, are the largest flying birds.

The region which may be considered as the habitual abode of the Condor, begins at a height equal to that of Etna, and comprehends strata of air at an elevation of from 9600 to 18,000 feet above the level of the sea. The