Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE MIGRATORY LOCUST.
(Gryllus migratorius.)

THE following intelligence has lately been published: "Locusts have appeared in such swarms in some departments of the west of France, and have become so destructive to vegetation, that the Council General of the Sarthe have assigned a sum of 6000 francs for their de

If such a dreadful scourge has made its appearance, the knowledge of the destruction which these insects bring upon the countries they infest, will make us, it is hoped, thankful to that kind Providence, which, favoured country, has settled us in a region free from the other advantages bestowed upon this

among

peculiar elegance, and of great national importance,
as it forms part of the communication between Liver-
pool and Dublin. It was commenced in 1822, with a
view to supersede the dangerous ferry which formerly
existed here; the designs for it were by Mr. Telford,
and it was opened to the public on the 1st of June, 1826.
The towers, on which the chains rest, are built in the
same style of architecture as the castle, so as to har-struction, at the rate of ten sous a bushel."
monize with it; and a slight effort of the imagination
would lead us to suppose that the present structure
was the original drawbridge of the ancient fortress.
The chains of the bridge are fastened at the west ex-
tremity into the rock beneath the castle, and at the
eastern end into an island rock, which is connected
with the shore by an embankment, upwards of 2000
feet in length. The length of the bridge, between the
supporting towers, is 327 feet, and the height of the
roadway, above high water of spring-tides, about 15
feet. An additional postage of one penny is charged
for every letter conveyed over Conway Bridge, and
this money is applied to the repayment of the sums
advanced for the building. From the time of the
erection of the Bridge, to October 1831, the sum
thus raised and paid into the Exchequer, amounted
to 13,7321, so that in little more than five years,
upwards of three millions of letters must have been
conveyed along this road.

The river Conway has been celebrated from the earliest period, for its pearl-fishery. Pliny asserts, that Julius Cæsar dedicated to Venus Genitrix, in her temple at Rome, a breast-plate, set with British pearls; and Suetonius says, that the chief motive assigned by the Romans for the invasion of Britain, was to obtain possession of the pearl-fishery. This branch of commerce is not, however, held in much estimation at the present day, though the species of muscle, called by Linnæus the Mya Margaritifera, which produced the pearls, is still found in the river. A pearl presented to the queen of Charles II. by Sir R. Wynne, was placed in the regal crown.

The town of Conway was formerly surrounded by high massive walls, one mile and a half in circumference, strengthened at intervals by twenty-four circular and semicircular towers, great part of which, with the four principal gateways, yet remain in a tolerable state of preservation. A Cistercian Abbey was founded at this place by Llewellyn ap Jorwerth in 1185, but scarcely any vestiges of it exist.

SUMMER.

OH! where is the voice of the summer heard?
In the flow of the stream, in the song of the bird;
In the hum of the honey-laden bee;
In the sound of the reaper's songs of glee;
In the sweet sad note of the nightingale's song :
Such music doth only to summer belong.
Oh! where is the smile of the summer seen?
In the golden cups that spring o'er the green;
In the light that maketh the bright blue sky
Shine like a golden canopy!

But summer its sweetest smile bestows,
On the crimson leaves of the blushing rose!

Surely, if heaven has given to earth,
One thought, in which we may guess its mirth,
'Tis the radiant smile of the summer glow,
As it wakes into life all things below;
But we are as captive birds that sigh
To wing our flight to a brighter sky.-C. L. B.

their inroads *.

In respect to Europe, Thevenot tells us that the reby the Cossacks, is greatly infested with Locusts, gion upon the Dnieper, and particularly that inhabited especially in a dry season. They come in vast clouds, which extend fifteen, and sometimes eighteen miles, and are nine to twelve in breadth. The air is rendered quite obscure; in two hours they devour all the corn wherever they settle, and oftentimes a famine ensues; at night, the ground is covered with them four inches deep and more.

The Sieur Beauplan, in speaking of the Ukraine, gives the following account of them. (CHURCHILL'S Collection of Voyages, vol. i.)

"Next to the flies, let us talk of the grasshoppers (or locusts). I have seen this plague several These creatures do not only come in legions, but in years, one after another, particularly in 1645 and 1646. whole clouds, five or six leagues in length, and two or three in breadth. It is not easy to express their numbers, for all the air is full and darkened; and when they alight to feed, the plains are all covered. They make a murmuring noise as they eat, and in less than two hours they devour all close to the ground; then, rising, they suffer themselves to be carried away by nished to see the air so full of them, that I could the wind. Having stayed at Novogorod, I was astonot eat in my chamber without a candle; all the houses being filled, even the stables, barns, chambers, garrets, cellars, &c. After they had consumed atl that grew in the country, and having gained strength to fly, the wind took them up and carried them away, to do as much mischief in another place. I have seen them at night, when they sit to rest themselves, that the roads have been four inches thick of them, one upon another. By the wheels of our carts and the feet of our horses bruising these creatures, there came from them a stink, which not only offended the nose but the brain. I was not able to endure the stench, but was forced to wash my nose with vinegar, and to hold an handkerchief dipped in it to my nostrils perpetually. About October, they make a hole in the ground with their tails, and, having laid their eggs, and covered them with their feet, they die, for they never live above six months and a half; and, though the rains should come they would not destroy the eggs, nor does the frost, though never so sharp, hurt them; but they continue to the spring, which is about mid April, when, the sun warming the earth, they are hatched and leap about, being six weeks old before they can fly.

The most fearful accounts are from Africa, where the heat of the climate, and the nature of the soil in

In the year 1747-8, England, with France and many other

THE body is the shell of the soul, and dress the husk of countries of Europe, were visited by these insects; but here they that shell; but the husk often tells what the kernel is.

did little mischief, as the natural coldness of the climate soon put a period to their existence. But in the year 1693, two vast flights of locusts were observed in the counties of Merioneth and Pembroke, CATO MAJOR Would say, that wise men learned more by in Wales, where they made considerable depredations among the fools, than fools by wise men.-BACON.

young wheat.-Encycl. Edin.

many places, contribute to the production of these insects in astonishing numbers. The consequences are so terrible that they would not gain belief, were it not that authors of different countries, and of different ages, afford so particular and uniform evidence, that it cannot be called in question.

Francis Alvarez, ambassador from Portugal to Abyssinia, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, thus speaks of these calamities:-" In this country there is a very great and horrible plague. This arises from an innumerable company of locusts, which eat and consume all the corn and trees. And the number of these creatures is so great, as to be incredible: they cover the earth and fill the air in such wise, that it is a hard matter to see the sun; and if the damage which they do were general through all the provinces, the people would perish with famine. But one year, they destroy one province, sometimes two or three; and wherever they go, the country remaineth more ruined and destroyed, than if it had been set on fire. While I was in a certain district, there arose a great storm and thunder towards the sea, which came right against them. It lasted three hours, with an exceeding great shower and tempest, and filled all the rivers. And when the water ceased, it was a dreadful thing to see the dead locusts, which we measured to be above two fathom high, upon the banks of the rivers.

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

a

timber; by a sudden blast of wind they were wafted away in different portions, and having for a whil been supported in the air, they were ultimately all plunged into the sea. After this, the surf threw up upon that long extended coast, in such immense heaps, their dead and corrupted bodies, that there ensued from their putrefaction a most unsupportable and poisonous stench. This soon brought on pestilence, which affected every species of animals, so that all birds, and sheep, and cattle, also the wild beasts of the field, died, and their carcasses being soon rendered putrid by the foulness of the air, added greatly to the general corruption. In respect to men, it is impossible, without horror, to describe the shocking devastation. In Numidia, eighty thousand persons perished. Upon that part of the sea-coast which bordered upon the region of Carthage and Utica, the number of those, who were carried off by this pestilence, is said to have been two hundred thousand.

These accounts show how dreadful must have been the plague of locusts in the land of Egypt, and how miraculous their sudden removal, without leaving any young ones behind them. No expression can more truly or more terribly describe the ruin these insects create, than that of the prophet: the land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. And highly poetical as is the descrip

"At another time, I went with the ambassador Zagation of them in the Book of Joel, yet it is proved by the Zabo, to a town and mountain called Agoan; and we travelled five days' journey, through places wholly waste and destroyed. The trees were without leaves, and the barks of them were all devoured; and no grass was to be seen. And if we had not been warned to carry victuals with us, we and our cattle had perished. The country was all covered with locusts, without wings; and they told us, that they were the seed of those which had eaten up all; and that as soon as their wings were grown, they would seek after the old ones. The number of them was so great that I will not speak of it, because I shall not be believed.

"While we abode in the same signorie of Albuguun, in a place called Aquate, there came at another time such an infinite swarm of locusts, as it is incredible to declare. They began to come about three o'clock in the afternoon, and ceased not till midnight. The next day, in the morning, they began to depart, so that by nine there was not one of them left; and the trees remained without their leaves. The same day came another squadron; and these left neither tree nor bough unpilled: they continued the space of five days. The compass that these locusts took was nine miles. The country did not seem to be burnt up, but rather to be covered with snow, by reason of the whiteness of the trees, which were all pilled."

But the most grievous calamity of this kind happened to the regions of Africa, in the time of the Romans; and particularly affected those parts which were subject to their empire. About the year of Rome 628, and 123 years before the Christian æra, when Africa had scarcely recovered itself from the miseries of the last Punic war, it underwent another desolation, terrible in its effects, and contrary to all experience. For after that immense numbers of locusts had formed themselves in a huge body all over the region, and had ruined all hopes of any fruits of the earth: after they had consumed all the herbage of the field, without sparing the roots, and the leaves of the trees with the tendrils upon which they grew, and had gone so far as to penetrate with their teeth through the bark, however bitter, and into the dry and solid

above accounts to be literally true in every particular. But so much of good does the mercy of Providence interpose among the evils of life, that these insects are looked for, in some parts of Arabia and Libya, as a blessing, and a deliverance from famine; for they eat them, either boiled, or dried in the sun and pounded. Many ancient authors inform us that they were used for food, and so Burckhardt says they are at present, in some parts of Syria bordering on the desert; and it is an agreed point with him, as well as others, that they were the food of St. John the Baptist, in the wilderness.-BRYANT, on the Plagues of Egypt.

THE TENDENCY OF PLANTS TO FOLLOW LIGHT.-In the spring, a potato was left behind in a cellar, where some roots had been kept during the winter, and which had only a small aperture of light at the upper part of one of its sides. The potato, which lay in the opposite corner of this aperture, shot out a runner, which first ran twenty feet along the ground, then crept up along the wall, and so through the opening by which light was admitted.JESSE.

THEY who look with a severe and indignant eye upon all the recreations by which the cares of men are relieved, and the union of society is cemented, are, in two respects, injurious to religion. First, they exhibit it to others under a forbidding form, by clothing it with the garb of so much unnecessary austerity: and next, they deprive the world of the line between innocent and dangerous pleasures. By a the benefit which their example might afford, in drawing temperate participation of those which are innocent, they might successfully exact that authority which a virtuous and respectable character always possesses, in restraining undue excess. They would show the young and unwary, at what point they ought to stop. They would have it in their power to regulate, in some degree, the public manners; to check extravagance, to humble presumption, and put vice to the blush. But, through injudicious severity, they fall short of the good they might perform. By an indiscriminate censure of all amusement, they detract from the weight of their reproof, when amusement becomes undoubtedly sinful. By totally withdrawing themselves from the circle of cheerful life, they deliver up the entercorrupted; and permit the blind power of fashion, uncontainments of society, into the hands of the loose and the trolled, to establish its own standards, and to exercise its dangerous sway over the world.--BLAIR.

[graphic][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small]

The hats of the Saxons (the most ancient of which we can find any mention made), were supposed to have been by no means universally worn; felt or woollen hats, however, they are known to have possessed. In the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, the merchant wears on his head a Flaundrish beaver hat;" and, in the Chronicle of Froissart, we hear frequently of the hats of the time of Edward III. and Richard II., some of which were in this shape;

[ocr errors]

White Hats were, even in those days, worn at Ghent, in Flanders, and seem to have been used as the political badge of a party, though this is not quite certain. "Hats of biever and eustryde's (ostrich) fethers," are also mentioned. In the Journal of Beckington, secretary to Henry VI., 1442, is mentioned a "scarlet hat given as a new year's gift." Among the inventory of effects of Sir John Fastolfe, 1459, "j hatte of bever, lynyd withe damaske gilt, and also ij strawen hattes." In the Ship of Fools, printed in 1517, is an account of "the great hats that is set all upon one side." We have thus shown the antiquity of white hats, beaver hats, and hats worn on one side.

In the reign of Henry VIII. we find hats frequently mentioned, and in the privy-purse expenses of that monarch is this entry :-" Item, paid for a hatte and plume for the King in Boleyn, (Boulogne,) xys." As the value of money was much greater then than it is at present, we may conclude that hats were still articles of luxury, and only worn by the rich. The following are taken from a painting at Cowdray House, done in 1544; and it is somewhat singular to observe, how closely one shape resembles that so familiar to us in prints and pictures about fifty years old.

it is

In the expenses of a nobleman at college, 1577, we find a broad riding-hat;" a hat lined with velvet." About this time high-crowned hats came into fashion; one of these is here represented, that of Douglas, Earl of Morton; the second is that of Sir Philip Sidney, the most accomplished gentleman of his day. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, hats appear to have become common, and beaver hats seem to have been first introduced into common wear. The following curious passage is from a rare book, published about 1585, called Stubb's Anatomie of Abuses." Sometimes they use them sharpe on the crowne, pearking up like the spire or shaft of a l

[blocks in formation]

steeple, standing a quarter of a yard above the crowne of their heads; some more, some lesse, as please the fantasies of their inconstant mindes. Othersome be flat, and broade on the crowne, like the battlements of a house. Another sort have rounde crownes, sometimes with one kind of band, sometimes with another, now black, now white, now russed, now redde, now grene, now yellow; now this, now that; never content with one colour or fashion two daies to an end. And as the fashions be rare and strange, so is the stuffe whereof their hattes be made divers also; for some are of silk, some of velvet, some of taffatie, some of sarcenet, some of wool, and, which is more curious, some of a certaine kinde of fine haire; these they call bever hattes of xx., xxx., or xl. shillings price, fetched from beyonde the seas, from whence a greate sorte of other vanities doe come besides; and so common a thing it is, that every servyng man, countreiman, and other, even all indifferently doe weare of these hattes; for he is of no account or estimation amongst men, if he have not a velvet or taffatie hat, and that must be pinched and cunningly carved of the best fashion." Shortly afterwards the rim became remarkably broad, and when much worn was liable to hang down, from thence the In 1607, a horseman's hat name of slouched hats.

is recommended to be a hat which will sit close and firme upon your head, with an indifferent narrow verge or brim, so that in the saults or bounds of your horse it may neither through widenesse or unwieldinesse fall from your head, nor with the breadth of the brim fall into your eies, and impeach your sight, both which are verie grosse errors." In a play, called A Challenge for Beauty, written by Heywood in 1636, there is a song describing the fashions of different nations, in words which will equally apply to the present period :

The Turk in linen wraps his head,
The Persian his in lawn too;
The Russe with sables furs his cap,
And change will not be drawn to;
The Spaniard's constant to his block,
The French inconstant ever;
But of all felts that may be felt,
Give me your English beaver.

During the reign of Charles I., the Commonwealth, and the reigns of Charles II., James II., and William III., very broad brims were in fashion, as may be seen from these shapes.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

various sorts, were for the ensuing fifty or sixty years, much in vogue. In the Tatler and Spectator they are frequently alluded to, and the "Monmouth Cock," the "Ramillies Cock," the "Hunting Cock," and the "Military Cock,"

In

are alluded to. No. 532 is a letter from John Sly, Haberdasher of Hats, in which he says, "his hats for men of law and physic do but just turn up, to give a little life to their sagacity; his military hats glare full in the face; and he has prepared a familiar easy cock for all good companions, between the above extremes." About 1750, round hats became very prevalent among the lower orders, and cocked hats were considered as a mark of distinction from them. In the Rambler, dated 1751, a young gentleman says, that his mother exclaimed," she would rather follow me to the grave than see me tear my clothes and hang down my head, sneak about with dirty shoes, blotted fingers, hair unpowdered, and hat uncocked." About 1780 round hats first became fashionable, and about 1790 cocked hats disappeared from common wear.

[Abridged and arranged from a paper in the Archeologia.]

AMONG the ancients, especially in the East, every one that came to a marriage-feast was expected to appear in a handsome and elegant dress, which was called the weddinggarment. This was frequently a white robe; and when the guest was a stranger, or was not able to provide such a robe, it was usual for the master of the feast to furnish him with one: and if he who gave the entertainment was of high rank and great opulence, he sometimes provided marriage-robes for the whole assembly. To this custom we have allusions in Homer, and other classic writers; and there are some traces of it in the entertainments of the Turkish court at this very day*. It must be remarked, also, that it was in a very high degree indecorous and offensive to good manners, to intrude into the festivity without this garment.-BISHOP PORTEUS.

At the entertainment, given by the Grand Vizier to Lord Elgin and his suite, in the Palace of the Seraglio, pelisses were given to all the guests.

FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATIONS OF NATURAL PHENOMENA.

[graphic][graphic]

No. I. THE TIDES.

EVERY body knows how useful the Tides are. Upon the sea-coast we constantly see a number of ships, all waiting at anchor for some hours, while the crews are able to take their rest. We keep looking at them, and, at a certain time, without any change of wind having taken place, we see them all busy setting their sails and weighing anchor, and, in a few hours more, they are all out of sight: they were, in fact, waiting for the change of the tide. If the wind was unfavourable, they could never make head against it, as long as the tide was against them too; but with the tide in their favour they can pursue their voyage, even against an unfavourable wind.

In rivers, the use of the tides is seen still more plainly. The tide brings not only a current, but a whole supply of water every twelve hours; and the continual change, which can be quite calculated upon, is just as useful as having a wind constantly fair up and down a river, alternately, for a certain number of hours every day.

Besides the immense importance of the tides to navigation, no one can calculate how conducive they are to health and cleanliness. Such a river as the Thames is thoroughly washed out, twice a day, by a current, carrying with it, towards the sea, all the drainage of a population of a million and a half of people, and as often bringing up clear water and fresh air. It is a system of lungs, breathing regularly twice in about twenty-four hours.

Hundreds of people are deriving benefits from this beautiful arrangement of Providence, without thinking at all about it; and many others are contented to see such changes happen, without trying to comprehend how they are brought about. Now it is certain, that the more we study the works of Nature, the clearer proof we find of the wisdom of God who contrived them all; and the tides are a very remarkable instance of a vast variety of beneficial effects arising from one simple cause.

We shall endeavour to show how the tides are produced; and we hope none of our readers will be prevented from trying to understand the explanation, under the notion that it is too difficult to be comprehended without previous study: we promise them that the subject requires only ordinary attention, and plain common sense, and that it will well repay the trouble of attending to it.

It is soon seen that the tides are in some way occasioned by the moon; for the time of high and low water comes back to the same hour whenever the moon is at the same age.

The height of the tide on different days plainly depends also upon the age of the moon. The highest tides are always found about the time of new and full moon, and the lowest when the moon is in her quarters.

What is to be explained then is, why the waters should rise and fall twice in rather more than twentyfour hours, and how this fluctuation is connected with the position of the moon. For this purpose, we will first see what the effect of the moon would be, if the whole earth were covered with water, and we shall afterwards easily discover what changes will be made, when we consider the actual condition of the globe made of land and water.

up

TIDES OF AN OPEN OCEAN.

It is well known that the moon is a solid body, which goes round the earth every month, in a direction from West to East, and, from the real motion of the earth on its axis, appears to move round from

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

every solid body, such as the moon, is found to draw towards it any other body, by a force which is called gravitation, and is really the same force by which a stone falls to the ground; and this force is the greater, the nearer the attracted body is to that which attracts; thus a would be attracted by м more than c is, and c would be more attracted by м than в is. If these three particles, A, C, and в, were quite at liberty to move towards м at the end of any time, as a minute, a would have moved towards м through a greater space than c had, and c through a greater space than в had; hence A would be further from c, and c further from B, than each was at first. And if the motion of в be regarded only with reference to the point c, considered as at rest, the effect would be the same as if it were really drawn away from c, by the attraction of some other body (m) exactly opposite to M*.

If, then, ACB were a sphere of water, a particle at A or at в would be lifted a little above its ordinary level, reckoned from c, and all the water near A and B would also be lifted, but in a less degree; hence the form of the globe would be altered; it would no longer be a perfect sphere, but would take an egglike shape, the two little ends pointing towards M, and in the opposite direction; that is, there would be a high water at A and B ; but at such a point as E, in the circumference A E B, half way between A and B,

[blocks in formation]

the height of the water would certainly not be raised by the attraction of м, and it can be readily shown, that it would be rather lowered, and there would be there a low water.

Now suppose this watery globe to turn round upon an axis, Ff, at right angles to the plane BE A, it is plain that, for any place in the circumference BEA, there would be two high waters in each revolution; one when it comes to A, the other at B; and two low waters, one at E, the other at a point exactly opposite to E.

For every point as a on the globe, between a and F, there would also be a high and low water twice in every revolution, but not so high nor so low, as for *It may appear somewhat strange to those who have not thought

before about the matter, that an attraction towards м should cause a rise of the waters in the part opposite to м; and it may be worth while to explain the principle upon which it depends a little more clearly. Suppose then ACB to be three equal small balls of iron, floating on pieces of cork, and one foot asunder; then suppose a powerful magnet to be applied at M, which draws a through three inches, c through two inches, and в through one inch; if the bodies

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

a point in the circumference AEB, in the plane of which м lies.

If the earth, then, were a globe of water, there would be a high water nearly at the time of the moon's southing, or coming to the meridian of any place, and a low water at about six hours after that time. Since the moon, in consequence of its own motion round the earth, comes to the meridian of a place about forty minutes later every day, the times of high water would also be so much later.

Such is the sort of tides which would take place We shall upon a globe totally covered with water. duced in the tides, upon a globe which has a surface see, on another occasion, what changes are intropartly of land and partly of water.

ENGLISH PROSE WRITERS.
No. II. HOOKER.

As a short life of Hooker has already appeared in this Magazine, I shall proceed at once to give some extracts from his works. In setting about this task, I feel that a few unconnected passages can no more give a just notion of this great writer's power, than a few stones, however beautiful, could convey an adequate idea of the magnificence of a temple.

The first sentence of his preface may be a specimen of the fulness and gravity of his style, which is as opposite as can be imagined to the "asthmatic publications of our own day."

"Though for no other cause, yet for this; that posterity may know we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream, there shall be for men's information extant thus much concerning the present state of the Church of God established among us, and their careful endeavour that would have upheld the same."

66

Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the most High; whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of his name, yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know him not as indeed he is, neither can know him; and our safest eloquence concerning him is our silence, when we confess, without confession, that his glory is inexplicable, his greatness above our capacity and reach. He is above, and we upon earth: therefore it behoveth our words to be wary and few.”

"What is virtue but a medicine, and vice but a wound? yet we have so often deeply wounded ourselves with medicine, that God hath been fain to make wounds medicinable; to cure by vice when virtue hath strucken; to suffer the just man to fall, that, being raised, he may be taught what power it was that upheld him standing. I am not afraid to aflirm it boldly with St. Augustine, that men puffed up with a proud opinion of their own sanctity and holiness, receive a benefit at the hands of God, and are assisted with his grace, when with his grace they are not assisted, but permitted, and that grievously, to transgress. Whereby as they were in overgreat liking of themselves supplanted, so the dislike of that which did supplant them may establish them afterwards the surer. Ask the very soul of Peter, and it shall undoubtedly make you itself this answer: 'My eager protestations, made in the glory of my ghostly strength, I am ashamed of: but those chrystal tears wherewith my sin and weakness was bewailed, have procured my endless joy: my strength hath been my ruin, and my fall my stay.'

[ocr errors]

"These things, wheresoever they fall, cannot but trouble and molest the mind. Whether we be therefore moved vainly with that which seemeth hurtful and is not; or have just cause of grief, being pressed

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »