you dislike such a party? I am much mountain cast its broad shadow on the "The pure air of the morning invited me abroad at an early hour; hiring a skiff, I rowed about a mile down the stream, and landed on a sloping meadow, level with the waters, and newly mown. Heaps of hay still lay dispersed under the copses, which hemmed in on every side this little sequestered paradise. What a spot for a tent! I could encamp here for months, and never be tired. Not a day would pass by without discovering some untrodden pasture, some unsuspected vale, where I might remain among woods and precipices lost and forgotten. I would give you and two or three more the clue of my labyrinth; nobody else should be conscious even of its entrance. Full of such agreeable dreams, I rambled about the meads, scarcely aware which way I was going. Sometimes a spangled fly led me astray, and oftener my own strange fancies; between both, I was painfully bewildered, and should never have found my boat again, had not an old Genoese naturalist, who was collecting fossils on the cliffs, directed me to it. When I got home, it was growing late, and I now began to perceive that I had taken no refreshment except the perfume of the hay, and a few wood-strawberries-airy diet, you will observe, for one not yet received into the realms of Ginnistan." The description of Augsburg and Munich is hit off in a few clever and comprehensive sentences; which tell us more than a whole ream of ordinary travels. The women are in the very dresses in which Holbein painted them, and the gentlemen "as smart, as bags, swords, and pretty clothes could make them, looking exactly like the fine people one sees represented on Dresden porcelain." But the gentlemen and the ladies of Bavaria, and the peasants flocking to Munich fair, to eat sugared tarts and honied gingerbread, Mr. Beckford leaves behind him, as the wheels of his impatient chariot roll towards the mountains of the Tyrol. His descriptions of such scenery, with their not uncommon accompaniments, are too happy and well selected to be omitted. "As we were surveying this prospect, a thick cloud, fraught with thunder, obscured the horizon, while flashes of lightning startled our horses, whose snorts and stamping resounded through the woods. The impending tempest gave additional gloom to the firs, and we travelled several miles almost in total darkness; one moment the clouds began to fleet, and a faint gleam promised serener intervals, but the next was all blackness and terror. Presently a deluge of rain poured down upon the valley, and in a short time the torrents beginning to swell, raged with such violence as to be forded with difficulty. Twilight drew on just as we had passed the most terrible; then ascending a mountain, whose pines and birches rustled with the storm, we saw a little lake below; a deep azure haze veiled its eastern shore, and lowering vapours concealed the cliffs to the south; but over its western extremities hung a few transparent clouds. The rays of a struggling sunset streamed on the surface of the waters, tinging the brow of a green promontory with tender world, beyond the dark groves of pine, the caves, and awful mountains, where the river takes its source! Impressed with this romantic idea, I hung eagerly over the gulf, and fancied I could distinguish a voice bubbling up with the waters, then looked into the abyss, and strained my eyes to penetrate the gloom, but all was dark and unfathomable as futurity. Awakening from my reverie, I felt the damps of the water chill my forehead, and ran shivering out of the vale to avoid them. A warmer atmosphere than had reigned in the meads I had wandered across before, tempted me to remain a good while longer collecting dianthianthi, freaked with beautifully varied colours, and a species of white thyme, scented like myrrh. While I was thus employed, a confused murmur struck my ear, and on turning towards a cliff, backed by the woods from whence the sound seemed to proceed, forth issued a herd of goats, hundreds after hundreds, skipping down the steeps; then followed two shepherd boys,gambolling together as they drove the creatures along; soon after the dog made his appearance, hunting a stray heifer, which brought up the rear. I followed them with my eyes till lost in the windings of the valley, and heard the tinkling of their bells die gradually away. Now the last blush of crimson left the summit of Sinai, inferior mountains being long since cast in deep blue shade. The village was already hushed when I regained it, and in a few moments I followed its example." This description we think sweetly touched, and part of it breathes the very soul-almost the very words, of Vathek itself. Mr. Beckford flies along with ever increasing velocity, crying out with the sorceress of oldWhy tarry the wheels of my chariot?" as the azure of the skies, and the brightness of the sunshine, spoke to him of Italy. He left behind him the pine woods of the Tyrol, the tomb of Maximilian, the bronze statues of the Tyrolese counts, and the castle of Embras; and gazing from the heights of Schonberg, the mountain of beauty, he at once descended into the garden of nature, into the Elysium for which he had pined-the land of fragrance and flowers, of light and melody. In sober prose, he arrived at Bolsano; and surely Italy never opened her arms to receive a stranger more able to estimate her treasures, more inclined to admire her supereminent beauty, or, we may add, more richly endowed with the power of feeling and describing them. Mr. Beckford's Views of Venice have never been equalled except by Canaletti. The long blue lagoons, the islands surmounted with pines, and studded with fig-trees, the white silvery-looking convents; the crowd of boats, barges, and gondolas that sweep along the fairy scene; the music issuing from the Rialto, and swelling down gallery, and terrace, and portico; the gondoliers answering each other in the distance with soft and plaintive tones; the illuminated palaces, and tapers gleaming through the awnings and then the freshness, the beauty of the morning scene; the Grand Canal covered with fruits and vegetables, and loads of grapes, and peaches, and melons; and noble Venetians just come from their casinos, met to refresh themselves with fruit, before they retired to sleep for the day. But we must close the account of Venice with a passage, which all must remember, as it appears reflected with fresh lustre in the mirror of Mr. Rogers' beautiful poem : "I had not much time to contemplate the beautiful effect of the waters-the emerald and purple hues which gleamed along their surface. Our prow struck foaming against the walls of the Carthusian garden, before I recollected where I was, or could look attentively around me. Permission being obtained, I entered this cool retirement, and putting aside my hands the boughs of figs and pomegranates, got under an ancient bay tree on the summit of a little knoll, near which several tall pines lift themselves up to the breezes. I listened to the conversation they held with a wind just blown from Greece, and charged, as well as I could understand their airy language, with many affectionate remembrances from their relatives on Mount Ida." So farewell to the Place of St. Mark, in whose princely area Petrarch beheld a tournament, which he describes ; farewell to that enchanted square which the Senate hung with awnings, and covered with the richest carpets of the East, and sat to receive Henry the Third, hastening to his more splendid and more secure throne, and to put the lilies of Fiance on his brow; and we must bid farewell to the architectural elegance of Sansovino, and the colossal sculpture of the Scala dei Giganti; and we sympathize with the melancholy of the Author, whom one of the Sbirri awoke from his transporting dream by closing the gates of the Ducal Palace on him one hour-one brief inestimable hour-too soon. "For the twilight," says the voice of the Charmer, "enlarged every portico, lengthened every colonnade, and increased the dimensions of the whole just as imagination desired. This faculty would have had full scope had I but remained one hour longer. The moon would then have gleamed on the gigantic forms of Mars and Neptune, and discovered the statues of ancient heroes emerging from the gloom of their niches." From these moonlight dreams and poetical associations, the Traveller was awakened by finding himself in the Great Square, just lighted up, and all Venice assembling on its glittering pavement. The nobles were in their casoins, drinking coffee and playing trieze; Turkish and Armenian, and Sclavonic, and Greck, were muttered in every corner. Here was a circle of Armenian priests and jewellers; there were assembled the pliant Greek and smooth Dalmatian: here was just landed a Russian prince, with his dwarfs and his governors; and there was a grave Venetian magistrate stealing with his goddess under his arm, and skulking away through blind alleys and winding passages, unknown even to his family, where he could carry on his intrigues in inaccessible retreats, and in haunts unsuspected and undiscernible. Now the romantic and inquisitive Author of Vathek was in his element,-here rose in reality the Palace of the Five Senses; not, indeed, on the hill of the PIED Horses, but in the city of the immortal FOUR,-here was everything of fair, and beautiful, and divine that his fancy had so long anticipated, and so often created; and how long he would have lingered here, or how he would have escaped the thousand perils that surrounded him, masked in their false and delusive beauty, we dare not think; but, fortunately for him, Madame de Rosenberg arrived, whisked him away with her, and set him down to coffee and the card table, where we will leave him till three in the morning, hearing the sound so delightful to Venetian ears-Uno, due, tre, quatre, cinque, faute, cavalleo, re,-till the apartment echoed with no other syllables, and the guests participated in no other interests. (To be concluded in our next.) MEMOIRS OF ICHTHYOSAURI AND PLESIOSAURI. BY THOMAS HAWKINS, ESQ., F.G.S. THE announcement of any oryctological work must necessarily create deep interest and anxiety in the mind of every naturalist and philosopher; to pry into the mysteries of departed ages, and the wonders of the past and future conditions of our globe, is the instinctive and gratifying exercise of the human mind. Indeed, under the guidance of sound judgment, and becoming humility, it expands alike the knowledge and faculties of man, as well as becomes the handmaid of virtue, liberality, and piety. But more especially will that interest and inquisitiveness be enhanced, GENT. MAG. VOL. II. R when the subject involves the debris contained in the substrata of our own country, and the remains shrouded by the rocks from whence we derive the supplies requisite for the sumptuous erection and ornament of our private as well as public edifices. The contemplation of the Ichthyoi and Plesion sauroi even afford us an additional charm; they are peculiarly British-pre-eminently under our own protection, and bear an undoubted claim upon our national zeal and liberality. That great prodigy of natural science, the illustrious Cuvier, has himself awarded the palm to our countrymen for their labours in this department; and the undeviating candour of the Baron has left on immortal record, that it is to the zeal of our virtuosi that the discovery, description, and classification of these reptiles is to be ascribed. The discovery of the Ichthyosaurus appertains to Sir Everard Home, and its name to Koenig; and although Sir Everard halted for a time between two opinions, and would fain have designated them protrosauri, still the researches of our amateurs soon furnished materials for the firm establishment of the early nomenclature. The Plesiosaurus is the fondling of Mr. Conybeare, and to which he has assigned the most seductive of all Homeric epithets, Dolichodeirus. Other names might be adduced to swell out our catalogue, as Buckland, Mantell, Lyell, &c.; but their exertions and talents are too well known and appreciated to need an enumeration in advocating our pretensions to the Saurian conquest. Yet even by the co-operation of these distinguished geologists, the extraordinary sauri were known only by isolated detached fragments, and very imperfect specimens sufficient had been collected to determine the species, though not to point out with undeviating certainty the varieties of their race. Our knowledge of them was abundantly ample to screen the Altorf vertebræ from Scheuchzer's theory of anthropolites, but not to indicate them as the spoils of the Cheiroparamekostinus or the Hextarsostinus specifically. This difficulty has at length been surmounted by the indefatigable and disinterested Hawkins; and no small degree of honest pride may we modestly foster, since the researches and assiduity of a fellow-citizen have effected such an advance in science by an immense sacrifice of time, of comfort, and of wealth. More particularly we rejoice that the paddles and hinder extremities, which were either totally absent, or exceedingly mutilated in all former specimens, are in the plates before us in most excellent order, and in the highest state of preservation, so much so, that they have furnished the means of assigning a peculiar and characteristic feature to each animal. This is a step further in our acquisitions than we could well hope to attain, and its importance may be estimated by the result to which our author was led, to compose a new name for each variety; so that the ancient Ichthyosaurus platyodon of Cuvier is now introduced as the I. Chirostrongulostinus, the I. Communis as I. Chiropolyostinus, the I. tenuirostris as I. Chirostrongulostinus, and the I. Intermedius as the I. Chiroparamekostinus. We dislike exceedingly to quarrel with names, but these strongly remind us of the unmouthable words of the "Memoria Technica." The Plesiosauri have undergone a similar metempsychosis, and we opine on a more satisfactory and uniform plan than the former; but whether the vertebræ can be better distinguished now by their paddle names, than formerly by their snout appellations, must be left for more practical geologists to decide. Perfect specimens were wanted, and the meed of praise is due to Mr. Hawkins for his zeal and perseverance in obviating the deficiency. The paramount necessity of possessing such entire remains may be deduced from the visionary ideas which have been propagated concerning, and the egregious errors incident to calculating from, such as are mutilated and imperfect; witness the carnivorous megalonyx, the Veronese Ichthyolites, &c. We have the instance of Conybeare's having originally drawn the Plesiosaurus-his dolichodeirus-with a short neck; and even to the present day, Dr. Buckland's Megalosaurus is contracted by one into thirty feet long, expanded by a second to fifty-five feet, and a third, like a boy tugging at his India-rubber, stretches the same animal to seventy feet, or upwards should occasion require it, and his book gain a more speedy sale by the wonderful tale. All these special pleaders, of course, proceed upon some fancied analogy; but speculation is an injury to true science, and tends to the discredit of their actual determinations. The subject of the volume before us is intended to disseminate the knowledge of the immensely valuable and interesting specimens of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri now in the cabinet of the author, and which have justly elicited from the oryctologists of our times the most unbounded applause, as well as furnished the best foundations upon which the superstructure of this branch of the science may ultimately be reared. Some parts of the production are decidedly singular and humorous, attributable no doubt to Shakspearean dreams of youth, and too great a desire to soften down the asperities of science, and render his work acceptable to the general reader. He has, however, volunteered to supply the place of Hiram in bequeathing lias stone and gold; and although he may have failed as a "Sampson" to consummate the edifice, yet we hope some Solomon may soon arise to erect it a temple to the Lord. We feel constrained to repress every playful sentiment, when we view the magnificence of the plates, and the sumptuous liberality of Mr. H.'s "Lares," in preparing them for the public service. They are the most beautifully executed delineations we have ever beheld in any geological work, and alike do credit to the projector's enthusiasm, and O'Neill's lithographic skill. They rival the head of the Cheiropolyostinus itself, which is valued in the mind of its kind master at a "necklace of Oriental pearls!" The descriptions of the Lyme and Street stratifications are minute, useful, and interesting; and the anatomical analysis of the wonderful oviparous reptiles is scientific, and, we presume, accurate. This division of the work would most indubitably have proved of infinite service to M. Gaillardeau in classing his anomalous Luneville discovery in a strata coeval, to mention the least point of analogy, with the blue lias of Lyme. In a second edition we should recommend a revisal of the Orthography of the new Nomenclature, the classification of the Scarborough "Goliah, and plates of the four omitted Plesiosauri. In the mean time we urge Mr. Hawkins to prosecute his researches with unabated vigour and accustomed liberality. He has every inducement to incite him, for already his collection appears to be, sui generis, unrivalled, occupying more than four thousand superficial feet, and is in weight above twenty tons. As we love soaring imagery and extraordinary schesis, we will mount a Pterodactyle, that rara avis in terris, and take an airing whilst cogitating on the pristine world of Hawkins, who, in spite of all Cuvier's hypothetic theory of Asia and New Holland becoming sportive, still persists in a planet ante-human: cattle, and over all the earth, and upon every creeping thing. "Theirs was the pre-Adamite-the just emerged from chaos-planet, through periods known only to God Almighty. |