woods of cedars and ebonies, vast quantities of agallo chum, or wood of aloes; besides others valuable on account of their weight, durability and hardness, or for their being easily cut, pliable, of a fine colour, or an agreeable flavour. There are also in Mexico innumerable trees remarkable for their size. Acosta mentions a cedar, the trunk of which was sixteen fathoms in circumference; and Clavigero mentions one of the length of one hundred and seven Paris feet. In the city of Mexico he mentions very large tables of cedar made out of single planks. In the valley of Atlixco is a very ancient fir tree, hollowed by lightning, the cavity of which could conveniently hold fourteen horsemen; nay, we are informed by the archbishop of Toledo, that in 1770 he went to view it along with the archbishop of Guatimala, at which time he caused an hundred young lads to enter its cavity. Our author mentions some other trees, of the species called ceiba, which for magnitude may be compared with this celebrated fir: "The largeness of these trees," says he, " is proportioned to their prodigious elevation, and they afford a most delightful prospect at the time they are adorned with new leaves and loaded with fruit, in which there is inclosed a particular species of fine, white, and most delicate cotton this might be, and actually has been, made into webs as soft, delicate, and perhaps more so than silk; but it is toilsome to spin, on account of the smallness of the threads, and the profit does not requite the labour, the web not being lasting. Some use it for pillows and mattresses, which have the singular property of expanding enormously when exposed to the heat of the sun. De Bomare says, that the Africans make of the thread of the ceiba that vegetable taffety which is so scarce, and so much esteemed in Europe. The scarcity of such cloth is not to be wondered at, considering the difficulty of making it. The ceiha, according to this author, is higher than all other trees yet known. PART III-CHAP. III. AMERICAN BEAUTIES. Sublime and Interesting Views and Prospects, Buildings, Bridges, &c. -0000 How swells the enraptured bosom, while the eye To shade, from grove to thicket, from near groups At morn, at noon, at eve, by lunar ray, In each returning season, through your shades, Ye reverend woods! could visit every dell, Each hill, each breezy lawn, each wandering brook, GISBORNE. SUBLIME VIEWS AND PROSPECTS. Tw HERE is something truly sublime, says Mrs. Wright, in the water scenery of America; "her lakes, spreading into inland seas,-their vast, deep, and pure waters, reflecting back the azure of the heavens, untainted with a cloud; her rivers collecting the waters of hills and plains interminable, rolling their massy volumes for thousands of miles, now broken into cataracts to which the noblest cascades of the old hemisphere are mere rivulets, and then sweeping down their broad channels to the far-off ocean the treasures of a world. The lakes and rivers of this continent seem to despise all foreign auxiliaries of nature or art, and trust to their own unassisted majesty to produce effect upon the eye and the mind; without alpine mountains or moss-grown ruins, they strike the spectator with awe. Extent, weight, depth-it is by these intrinsic qualities that they affect him; their character is one of simple grandeur; you stand upon their brink, or traverse their bosom, or gaze upon their rolling rapids and tumbling cataracts, and acknowledge at once their power and immensity, and your own insignificance and imbecility. Occasionally you meet with exceptions to this rule. I recall at this moment the beautiful shores of the Passaic; its graceful cascades, its walls of rock, shelving into a glassy peaceful flood, its wooded hills, and rich and varied landscapes, all spread beneath a sky of glowing sapphires; a scene for Claude to gaze upon. These north-western waters, however, have nothing of this character; you find them bedded in vast level plains, bordered only by sable forests, from which the stroke of the axe has but just startled the panther and the savage. VIEW NEAR QUEENSTON, UPPER CANADA. (Howison's Sketches.) THE environs of Queenston are beautifully picturesque and romantic, and nothing car be finer than the prospect upon the Niagara River. Immediately above the village its channel narrows very much, and the banks rise to the height of three hundred feet perpendicular, while at the same time they become wild and rocky, and are thickly covered with trees of various kinds. In some places they partly over arch the river, and throw an appalling gloom upon its waters, now dashed into turbulence and impetuosity by the ruggedness of their sloping bed. It was night when I first viewed this scene, and as the moon gradually rose, she threw a broken light successively upon different portions of the stream, and sometimes brought to view the foamy bosom of a rapid, at other times unveiled the struggling and heaving waters of a whirlpool, while the mingled roar, on all sides, excited a shuddering curiosity about those parts of the river that rolled along in darkness. Over the precipice, on the summit of which I stood while I contemplated this scene, many of the American soldiers had rushed at the close of the battle of Queenston heights. They were so warmly pressed by our troops and the Indians, and had so little prospect of obtaining quarter from the latter, that a great number wildly flung themselves over the steep, and tried to save their lives by catching hold of the trees that grew upon it; but many were frightfully dashed to pieces by the rocks, and others who reached the river perished in their attempts to swim across it. Several, who had dropped among the cliffs without receiving any injury, were afterwards transfixed and killed by falling upon their own bayonets, while in the act of leaping from one spot to another. Í almost imagined I saw these unfortunate men writhing in all the agonies of a protracted death, and gazing with envy at their companions, who were convulsively catching for breath among the sullen waters below. Were the Canadians inclined to be superstitious, they could not select a more suitable place than this for the haunt and appearance of unearthly beings. The wildness of the scenery, the gloom of the cliffs, and the melancholy incident I have just related, would subject Queenston heights to the suspicion of any people more under the influence of imagination than the Canadians are, and make them conjure up half a dozen bleeding sentinels at the top of the precipice, every night after sun-set.' VIEW AT CARACCAS. (Humboldt's Personal Narrative.) de Humboldt remained two months at Caraccas, M. where he and M. Bonpland lived in a large house in the highest part of the town. From a gallery they could survey at once the Silla, thé serrated ridge of the Gallipano, and the charming valley of the Guayra, the rich cultivation of which, forms a pleasing contrast with the gloomy curtain of the surrounding mountains. In the seasons of drought, and in order to improve the pasturage, the savannas and the turf that covers the steepest rocks, are set on fire. These vast conflagra tions, viewed at a distance, produce the most singular effects of light. In a dark night, for instance, wherever the savannas, following the undulating slope of the rocks, have filled up the furrows hollowed out by the waters, the inflamed land appears like currents of lava, suspended over the valley. Their vivid, but steady, light assumes a reddish tint, when the wind, descending from the Silla, accumulates streams of vapour in the low regions. At other times this aspect is still more solemn; these luminous bands, enveloped in thick clouds, appear only at intervals, where it is clear; and as the clouds ascend, their edges reflect a splendid light. These various phenomena, so common under the tropics, become still more interesting from the form of the mountain, the disposition of the slopes, and the height of the savannas, covered with Alpine grasses. But during the day, the wind of Petare, blowing from the east, drives the smoke towards the town of Caraccas, and diminishes the transparency of the air. But above all the appearances in the heavens that of the southern constellations is the most striking and impressive upon the common observer. M. de Hum boldt asserts, that from the time he entered the torrid zone, his party were never weary with admiring every night the beauty of the southern sky, which, says he, as we advanced towards the south, opened new constellations to our view. "We feel an indescribable sensation when approaching the equator, and particu larly on passing from one hemisphere to the other, we see those stars which we have contemplated from our infancy, progressively sink, and finally disappear. Nothing awakens in the traveller a livelier remembrance of the immense distance by which he is separated from his country, than the aspect of an unknown firmament. The grouping of the stars of the first magnitude, some scattered nebulæ, rivalling in splendour the milky way, and tracts of space remarkable for their extreme blackness, give a particular physiognomy to the southern sky. This sight fills with admiration, even those, who, uninstructed in the branches of accurate science, feel the same emotion of delight in the contemplation of the heavenly vault, as in the view of a beautiful landscape, |