THE CICADA, AND ITS ORGANS OF VOICE. THE Cicada are insects belonging to the order called Hemiptera, (half-winged,) on account of the wings partaking generally of a double character, being partly of a leathery substance and partly transparent; in the Cicada, however, this distinction is not so apparent. The Cicada are found in abundance in most of the warmer parts of the globe; there are also several species, natives of more temperate regions. These insects are noted for the singular noise they produce, and on this account they were in great favour among the ancient Greeks. They were kept in cages for the sake of their song, and were a favourite image of innocence and cheerfulness with the poets of Greece. One bard intreats the shep

herds to spare the innoxious Tettix, (the Greek name for the Cicada,) that nightingale of the Nymphs, and to make those mischievous birds, the thrush and blackbird, their prey.

Sweet prophet of the Summer, (says Anacreon, addressing this insect,) the Muses love thee; Phoebus himself loves thee, and has given thee a shrill song; old age does not wear thee out; thou art wise, earthborn, musical, impassive, without blood.

The sound produced by the Grecian Cicada must necessarily have been musical; it was called by the same name as the music of the harp.

A Cicada, sitting upon a harp, was a usual emblem of the science of music, which was thus accounted for:-When two rival musicians, Eunomus and Ariston, were contending upon that instrument, a Cicada, flying to the former, and sitting on his harp, supplied the place of a broken string, and so secured him the victory.

The Cicada of modern times are equally famous for the power, if not for the musical property of their voice. Dr. Shaw, in his Travels, says,

In the hotter months of Summer, especially from midday to the middle of the afternoon, the Cicada is perpetually stunning our ears with its most excessively shrill and ungrateful noise. It is, in this respect, the most troublesome and impertinent of insects, perching upon a twig, and squalling sometimes two or three hours without ceasing, thereby too often disturbing the studies or short repose, which is frequently indulged in in these hot climates for a few hours.

The Brazilian Cicada are said to sing so loud, that they can be heard at the distance of a mile. On account of the sound this insect produces, it is called in the United States, the American Locust.

A

Fig. 1.

The apparatus by which the male Cicada produces the sound for which it is famous, is thus described in Kirby and Spence's beautiful work on Entomology. If you look at the underside of the body of a male, the first thing that will strike you is a pair of large plates, of an irregular form, B; in some semioval, in others triangular, in others again a segment of a circle of greater or less diameter, covering the anterior part of the belly; these are the drum-covers, or opercula, from beneath which the sound issues, at the back of the posterior legs. Just above each operculum there is a small pointed triangular process, (persillum,) A, the object of which, as Réaumur supposes, is to prevent them from being too much elevated. When an operculum is removed, beneath it you will find, on the exterior side, a hollow cavity, with a mouth somewhat linear, (like a slit, the width of a line,) fig. 2, A, which seems to open into the interior of the abdomen. Next to this, on the inner side, is another large cavity, B, of an irregular shape, the bottom of which is divided into three portions: of these the posterior is lined obliquely with a beautiful membrane, which is very tense, c; in some species semi-opaque, and

On

in others transparent, and reflects all the colours of the rainbow; this mirror is not the real organ of sound, but is supposed to modulate it. The middle portion is occupied by a plate, of a horny substance, placed horizontally, and forming the bottom of the cavity B. its inner side this plate terminates mon to both drums. Between the in a crania, or elevated ridge, complate and the after-breach, (post pectus,) another membrane, folded transversely, fills an oblique, oblong, or semilunar cavity. În some species I have seen this membrane stretch or relax it at pleasure, but in tension, probably the insect can

D

B

A

C

Fig. 2.

Under View, with the Drumcovers turned back.

even all this apparatus is insufficient to produce the sound of these animals. One, still more important and curious, still remains still to be described. This organ can only be discovered by dissection. A portion of the first and second segments being removed from that side of the back of the abdomen which answers to the drums, two bundles of muscles, fig. 3, B, meeting each other in an acute angle, attached to a place opposite to the point of the mucro (a pointed prominence, like a sharp tooth,) of the first ventral segment of the abdomen will appear. These bundles consist of a prodigious number of muscular fibres, applied to each other, but easily separable. Whilst Réaumur was examining one of these, pulling it from its place with a pin, he let it go again, and immediately, though the animal had been long dead, the usual sound was emitted.

their sounds, here are parts enough to do it for them, for the mirrors, the membranes, and the central portions with their the cavities, all assist in it. If you remove the lateral part of the first dorsal segment of the abdomen, you will discover

If these creatures are unable themselves to modulate

a semi-opaque, and nearly semicircular concave-convex membrane, with transverse folds, fig. 3, A; this is the drum. Each bundle of muscles before mentioned, is terminated by a tendinous plate, nearly circular, from which issue several little tendons that, forming a thread, pass through an aperture in the horny piece that support the drum, and are attached to its under or concave surface. Thus the bundle of muscles, being alternately and briskly relaxed and contracted, will by its play, draw in and let out the drum, so that its convex surface being thus rendered concave when pulled in, when let out, a sound will be produced by the effort to recover its convexity, which sound striking upon the mirror and the other membrane. before it escapes from under the operculum, will be modulated and augmented by them. I should imagine that the muscular fibres are extended and contracted by the alternate approach and recession of the trunk and the abdomen to and from each other.

LONDON:

了

The Drum of the Cicada,

and the Muscles by which it is moved.

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE SIXPENCE.

PART II.

CAUSES OF THE ROMANCE OF ANCIENT

NAVAL HISTORY.

WE have already observed that the scene of the earliest known navigation was the Mediterranean Sea, which naturally seemed to the ancients to be situated in the middle of the earth; as is implied by its name. As navigation advanced only at a creeping pace, and as but a small amount of fresh experience was laid up by one generation for the benefit of the next, it took very many ages to explore the Mediterranean, Tyrrhene, Hadriatic, and Egean seas. The people of Tyre and Sidon, the Phoenicians, "whose merchants were princes," (Isaiah xxiii. 8,) were among the first whom the spirit of commerce and the desire of gain had made dissatisfied with what had hitherto VOL. XII.

seemed the natural limits of marine excursion. The great antiquity of the Phoenicians, however, is perhaps the reason why our knowledge of them is obtained from incidental and isolated accounts: but on the naval spirit and industry of Carthage, a colony planted by the former power, in the ninth century before Christ, the light of history, owing to their connexion with the Romans, is more abundantly shed. With the Carthaginians, perhaps, had originated the idea of quitting the Mediterranean by the straits of Gades, (now Gibraltar,) of sailing southward, circumnavigating the coast of Africa, and then returning northward by the Red Sea, towards the Levant, or eastern side of the Mediterranean. This notion seems to have been cherished for ages, as the prime, the crowning enterprise, long thought of and debated; but which only a solitary few, at long intervals of time determined to try 379

to effect. Knowing only a portion of the globe, and conceiving that portion to be upon an extended plane, those who held a voyage from Crete to Egypt to be a signal proof of naval courage, and who had never reached Sicily or Africa, but by a wayward tempest, or by shipwreck, and who were then objects of wonder at having escaped the dangers of Scylla and Charybdis, and the Syrtes, those wave-bound prisons of mariners, might justly have feared for themselves, in being committed to unknown waters, and in tracking shores, which the reports of others, who had never seen these regions, no less than their own fears, had represented as the abode of every horror. In short, distance from the land seems to have alarmed all the ancients; who, upon every occasion, when quitting sight of the shore fancied they saw, as Homer tells us,

A length of ocean and unbounded sky,

very

Which scarce the sea-fowl in a year o'erfly. The general truth of these observations is corroborated by the story of the Pamphylian, who was taken prisoner, and carried to Egypt. He was kept as a slave, for long time, at a town near one of the mouths of the Nile, where Damietta now stands. Being frequently employed to assist in maritime business, he conceived the idea of committing himself to the mercy of the waves in a sailing boat, in order that he might once again behold his native country. Having provided himself, to the best of his means and ability, he set sail, resolving rather to perish in the bosom of the old ocean than to remain longer in captivity. He traversed the vast expanse of waters which lies between Egypt and Asia Minor, and arrived safely at Pamphylia. From this bold and unusual adventure he lost his original name, and received the appellation of Mononautes, or the lone sailor, which, for a long time after, we may presume, served his family as a patent of nobility. We have the foregoing account from Eustathius, the commentator of Homer.

Navigation has served to bring the families of the earth nearer together, to remove ignorance and barren limitation of thought; and consequently, it has been a means for advancing the landmarks of knowledge and civilization, and for helping man to appreciate the acts of a Divine Providence. But, as it is entirely consonant with humanity that the increase of knowledge should carry with it its alloy of evil, we find that the means for spreading knowledge, served also as a vehicle for the diffusion of falsehood. The accounts, therefore, that have been handed down to us of the exploits of early navigators must be received without prejudice either way, and their errors and their romances must be imputed to the right source. This source seems to be of a twofold nature; firstly, misapprehension in making their observations and statements, arising from ignorance and want of experience, which engender fear: secondly, the love of lucre is so strongly implanted in the human mind, that this affection is oftentimes too apt to get the better of all other feelings, whether good or ill. Hence, in the growing spirit of trade and commerce, the monopoly long enjoyed by the Phoenicians, and subsequently by other commercial nations, was protected by the publication of appalling accounts of the dangers, distresses, and horrors, which they underwent; the dread of which, they hoped, would deter the sailors of other regions from disputing with them a claim to the wealth of the earth. In looking back, therefore, through the vista of time, to the early condition of this world, and in studying the accounts thereof, as handed down from the heathen authors, who are our chief guides, we must separate the probable from the improbable, and the true from the false, and revolve in our minds the progressive condition of mankind, as illustrating the moral government of the Almighty.

VOYAGES RELATED IN ANCIENT HISTORY-FEARS OF THE ANCIENT MARINERS.

THE general correctness of the foregoing observations may be estimated by an epitome, in the way of illustration, of the principal ancient voyages, with which history makes us acquainted. We may remark, in the highly coloured memoirs of the times, that many things which were false were credited then, and still later; whereas, other things, which have been subsequently recognised as perfectly true, seemed at that time so startling to the conceptions of mankind, that no credence was awarded to them. The accounts of the first and third voyages, which follow, are mainly derived from the rhapsodies of the poets.

1. In the thirteenth century B. C., Jason, accompanied by

a

Phoenician pilot, sailed in the ship Argo, over the Euxine, which we now call the Black Sea, to recover the treasure which had been carried away by Phryxus, in the ship The Phoenician word for treasure, is Aries, or Ram. almost the same as the Greek word for fleece. Hence, the confusion of ideas, by which the poets profited to adorn their legends, for Jason was reported to have made a voyage to recover the ram with the golden fleece. Those who manned Jason's ship, were called Argonauts, or sailors of the Argo; and, at their return, declared that their passage had been alongside of the abodes of the just and the prisons of the infernal regions.

Some endeavour to clear up the account of this voyage, by relating that the inhabitants on the eastern side of the Euxine Sea were in the habit of extending fleeces of wool, to catch the golden particles which were washed down from Mount Caucasus.

2. It is believed by some commentators on the Bible, that Solomon, who lived about a thousand years before the Christian era, sent large fleets down the Red Sea, and so eastward to India; or towards the south-west, along the African coast. These ships were managed by Tyrian mariners who were the most expert of the day; yet, for want of the mariner's compass, their navigation was performed by coasting along the shores; so that a voyage to India is said to have frequently taken up three years, as we read in the Sacred Record. Prideaux thinks that the suc

ceeding kings of Judah carried on the same commerce; which was at length lost, when Elath, their port on the Red Sea, was taken from King Ahaz by Rezin, King of Damascus. (2 Kings xvi. 6.) It would seem as if this intercourse with India was stopped for several centuries after the times we have just spoken of.

calm analysis, be found to consist of some degree of truth. 3. The following mythological narration may, by a little Neptune is reported to have delivered the princess Hesione from a monster, raised by some divine interposition out of the sea, and to which she was exposed by express command of the oracle. It is probable that this Neptune was Ra meses, who, being a chief of restless disposition, quitted Egypt, his native country, incited either by a thirst of effecting some territorial discovery, or a lust of acquiring by conquest the dominion of some foreign country. Chance or inclination conducted him and his followers to that spot, where their bravery as warriors, and their skill in passing through a country by means deemed preternatural by all not acquainted with them, made them to be honoured and feared, as beings of a superior order. The marine monster we may fairly interpret to have been a vessel, conveying to the same spot some unknown adventurers equally bold, but who, being less powerful, or less fortunate, fell easily before the Egyptians.

4. Necho, King of Egypt, in the year 610 B.C., endeavoured to solve the grand nautical problem of Africa. He Sea, which lay at the east of his dominions, and to explore employed Phoenician navigators to set sail from the Red towards the south. We are told that they spent three years in the voyage; and, as the ships of the ancients did not admit much room for stowing away provisions, they debarked at times on the coast, sowed grain, waited its ripening, reaped, prepared food, and again set sail. This they did in each year, being favoured with the maturing beams of a tropical sun. At length, to their great joy and astonishment, they reached the Straits of Gibraltar, passed between. the pillars of Hercules, two rocks being the nearest and opposite points of the continents of Europe and Africa, and at length arrived safely at the shores of Egypt.

In the publication of this memorable voyage, the world was astonished at being informed, that the sun, while the Phoenicians were passing round the southern part of Africa, was at their right hand; or, in other words, that it described its course from East to West, in the northern heavens; or, speaking still more simply, that it appeared at mid-day in the north, contrary to their former experience.

To an inhabitant of the equator, the sun will appear at noon, during one half of the year, in the north; during the rest of the year, in the South. At the southern promontory of Africa, or Cape of Good Hope, which is below the its meridian in the north; and it is evident that the oider southern tropical line, the sun will always appear to attain of their voyage would keep the coast on their right hand continually.

We are given to understand that the relation of this voyage was almost universally discredited among the an * See Saturday Magazine, Vol. III., p. 116.

cients, for the very reason which should have moved them to belief; namely, the appearance of the Sun in the North at mid-day.

5. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, being the sovereign of the vast Persian Empire, was influenced by that insatiable ambition which has distinguished all conquerors. He planned an expedition to India, about 510 B. C., in order to conquer the country; but that he might not proceed without knowing something of the nature of the country he was about to attack, he fitted out a naval expedition, which he placed under the command of Scylax, the Caryandæan, giving him orders to sail down the river Indus, into the Southern Ocean; then to return by steering westward, and to make the best discoveries he could, as to the strength and riches of the countries on both sides of the river, as also on the sea-coast. Scylax, in pursuance of these instructions, passed down the Indus into the Indian Ocean, and returned by the straits of Babelmandel into the Red Sea, and landed on the Egyptian coast, near the neck of land which we now call the Isthmus of Suez. Scylax employed about thirty months in making this voyage; and gave a favourable report to Darius concerning the nature of the countries which he had seen. Accordingly, Darius fitted out a naval armament, which was to co-operate with his army, in the subjugation of the Indians; this attempt of Darius was successful; and opened the way for a more frequent intercourse between India and the nations bordering on the Mediterranean. The voyage of Scylax is believed to have been the first maritime expedition to India.

6. The next attempt to sail round the continent of Africa was that of Sataspes, a Persian nobleman, whom Xerxes had condemned to death, but whose sentence was commuted to the circumnavigation of Africa. He sailed from Egypt, in the year B. c. 480, through the straits of Gibraltar; and then southward. But, horror-struck at the mighty waves of the Atlantic, those walls of water, which dashed upon the shores of the desert,-after beating about for some months, he returned home, and suffered according to his original

sentence.

The Persians were generally unacquainted with maritime affairs, and therefore never made any advance in the naval art, worth describing; this accounts for the want of perseverance on the part of Sataspes and his crew. The Athenians had made great improvements in their war-shipping, when the Persians attacked them during the reign of Xerxes. These improvements related chiefly to the formation of decks over the rowers, whereon the men of war carried on their operations without interfering with the rowers, and impeding the motions of the ship. This is believed to have contributed greatly to the success of the Athenians over the Persians, in their naval conflicts with that power.

7. In a collection of ancient voyages, published about one hundred and thirty years ago, there is a curious account of the discovery of an island, about five or six hundred years before Christ. There can be no doubt that this narrative is founded in truth; but that it is made more important than it really was by exaggeration, and a love of the marvellous. It is a translation from an ancient writer.

"There was one Jambulus, who from his youth was addicted to learning: his father was a merchant; and, after his decease, the son applied himself, with great diligence, to the same profession. This man, travelling into Arabia, in order to purchase spices, was there taken prisoner, with all his company, by a party of robbers. At first, he and one of his companions were employed in keeping sheep; but they were soon after carried off by the Ethiopians, inhabiting the coast, who conveyed them into their own country, in order to serve a very extraordinary purpose. These Ethiopians had a custom, which had then subsisted six hundred years, and was originally derived from the direction of an oracle, to expiate the sins of their nation once in an age, or generation, which with them comprehended the space of thirty years, by exposing two strangers, in the following

manner:

"They prepared a little vessel, well built, and extremely well equipped, with provisions for six months; on board of which the men were put, at a certain season of the year, with instructions to steer directly south, in order to arrive at a certain fortunate island, inhabited by a king and some hospitable people, with whom they might live happily all the rest of their days. The oracle declared, that if these men succeeded in their voyage, the country would enjoy rest and quiet for many years; but if, frighted by the dangers of the sea, they should return, it was ominous to Ethio

| pia; and therefore, they threatened Jambulus and his companion with the severest punishments, in case they did not prosecute their voyage. When the season of the year came, the Ethiopians celebrated the festival of Purgation with most splendid sacrifices; and then, having crowned each of them with garlands, they put Jambulus and his companion on board the vessel that had been prepared for them, and obliged them to put to sea.

They were four months tossed by the winds and waves, before they arrived on the coast of the island to which they were bound; but at length they reached it safely. In its form it is almost round, being about five thousand stadia in compass; containing about five hundred of our miles, if we allow six hundred stadia to a degree. As soon as they came within sight of land, the people on the island crowded to the shore, to behold them: and, when they landed, multitudes came from all quarters to gaze at and admire them, wondering how they came thither; but treating them with the utmost kindness and civility, and offering them, with the greatest readiness, whatever their country afforded. "These people differed not a little from other nations in their appearance, as well as in their manner; for they were all of a pretty equal size, each of them about four cubits, or six feet high. They bent and turned their bodies with such agility, that their bones seemed to our travellers as flexible as the sinews of other people: their bodies were very tender, notwithstanding which, they were so strong, that whatever they grasped could not be forced out of their hands. On their heads, eye-brows, eye-lids, and on their chins, they had hair; but the rest of their bodies was perfectly smooth. They were handsome and well-shaped; only the holes in their ears were much wider than those of other men, and had fleshy protuberances in them. Their tongues were very singular, being by nature somewhat divided, and cut in their infancy to the very root, so that they seemed double, which enabled them to imitate the notes, and even the chattering of birds; and, if our travellers say true, they could discourse with two people at once.

"This island is situated in a most excellent and moderate climate, lying very near the Equator, so that the people are neither scorched with heat nor perished with cold; enjoying at once, all the seasons, without any division, like ours, of Spring and Harvest. The days and nights there are always of equal length; neither is there any shadow at noon-day, because the sun is directly in the zenith. They are learned in all sorts of sciences, especially in Astrology. They use eight-and-twenty particular letters, for the expressing what they mean, composed of seven characters, each of which is varied four ways. They live long, without ever being sick, and commonly to one hundred and fifty years of

age.

"After Jambulus and his companion had continued in this island seven years, they were compelled to depart, as persons of a vicious life, and not to be broken of foreign customs. Their ship, therefore, being again fitted out for them, and well furnished with provisions, they were constrained to put to sea; and, after continuing their voyage for above four months, they fell, at length, upon the sandy shallows of India, where his companion was drowned, and himself was afterwards cast ashore near a certain village, and carried away by the inhabitants of the place to the king, who was then at a city called Polybothra, or Polimbothra, many days' journey distant from the sea; where he was kindly received by that prince, who had a great love for the Grecians, and was studious in the liberal sciences. At length, having obtained provision from the king, he first sailed into Persia, and from thence safely arrived in Greece."

It has been supposed by most commentators on the above account, that the main incidents are true; but, as was before observed, they have had a tinge of the mavellous imparted to them. With respect to the island mentioned, some have supposed it to be Sumatra,-others Borneo, others again Java,-while one writer has considered it to be one of the

Maldive Islands.

8. About 500 years B. c. the Carthaginians fitted out two expeditions, for the sake of prosecuting discovery to the north and to the south, after clearing the Herculean straits. Hanno commanded one fleet, and proceeded southward, along the coast of Africa; and Himilco steered northward, along the Hiberian and Gallic shores.

Those under Hanno, steered round by Mount Atlas, the pillar of heaven, and doubled “the African Forehead," as its great western promontory was called. By day the land was too hot to walk upon, the country seemed to lie silent

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and deserted, in the full unmitigated glare of a vertical sun, but by night the mountains seemed on fire, songs of rejoicing were heard, accompanied with the sounds of flutes, drums, cymbals, and gongs, together with cries, which waked the shrill echoes of night, and startled the senses of the Punic sailors. Scarcely different have been the records of modern travellers, respecting the inhabitants of these tropical wilds; who, fearing to be scorched by the solar ray, pass the day in caverns, or in sylvan shades, and wake up into lively existence under the milder beams of the moon and stars. Here they saw the various species of the monkeytribe, pre-eminent among which is the ourang-outang, original of Satyrs. The Thessalians had, before this, given rise to the fables of the Centaurs, by appearing to their neighbours on horses, which they had been the first to tame. In these places gold was found to be the universal metal; so common that the chains of captives were forged from it. The Carthaginians relate that the transactions which they had with the people of the African coast were carried on in dumb-show, that, a signal having been made with smoke, the savages placed the goods which they had to dispose of on the coast and retired, and that the Carthaginians, having removed these goods, deposited an equivalent. If that which the latter laid down, did not satisfy the former, it was not removed until a suitable addition had been made. This sort of barter is the primeval state of commerce. They were once astounded at the sight of sheets of flame, traversing the country and spreading in every direction down to the sea-shore; a conflagration made by the natives to get rid of the dry and waste grass at the end of autumn. Such were the causes of Africa being the reputed dwelling-place of the Gorgons, and other monstrous creations, springing from ignorant fear. Pliny tells us that this voyage was effected round the whole extent of the African continent.

Himilco, we are told, sailed as far as Britain and Ireland, the great Western Islands. It is generally, and with great reason, believed that the Phoenicians, and subsequently the Carthaginians, traded to the south-western coasts and islands of Britain for tin. Hence, Cornwall and the Scilly Isles were called by the ancients Cassiterides, or Tin-countries, a term derived from the Phoenician and Sanscrit.

9. Pytheas, an illustrious navigator of antiquity, who flourished in France, at Marseilles, a colony from Greece, about 400 years B.C., directed his course to the northwestern parts of Europe. He reached Britain, then called Al-fioun (Albion), or White-land, from the appearance of its cliffs at a distance. He kept on sailing, we are told, towards the north, and arrived at Thule. This is supposed to have been Iceland. Of this place, as also of the other islands and coasts of this sea, he relates that he found, in some parts, the light of the setting sun continuing so strong, till dawn of day, that the stars could not venture to appear; in others he found the sun shining by day and night. This account seems to have perplexed those who would otherwise have been inclined to credit him; but this fact, related by Pytheas, is quite natural during the middle of our summer, when approaching towards the Arctic circle. The converse of this, the polar winter, or the effects of it, felt less in proportion to the diminution of latitude, may apply to the account which we have of Ulysses, who, we read, sailed, perhaps at the fall of the year, to the ends of the ocean, where the Cimmerians dwell in profound gloom, who see neither the rising nor setting sun, but have the veil of night for ever spread over them. The credit of Pytheas was not much improved by his accounts of the four and six-horned sheep on the shores of the Baltic; but modern information attests the general accuracy of the Massilian sailor. Some part of his story wears, at first sight, a fabulous aspect; when we find from Tacitus, who retails it from him, that the noise of the sun in its passage below the ocean is heard; and that the

figures of the gods appear visible, crowned with immortal light. By the latter observation we are to understand the varied effects of the Aurora Borealis; by the former the hollow noise of the rolling sea against the dreary shores of Norway. He intimates, that, in going very far to the north, sea, land, and air, seemed all confused; owing perhaps to fogs:-and that the water was of such a dense character, as could hardly be cleaved by the ship's prow; alluding, perhaps, to the strong tides of those seas. He is said to have been the first who ascribed the tides to the influence of the moon. The vulgar opinion, even up to the time of Mela, in the middle of the first century after Christ, was that the earth was a huge animal, the heaving of whose breast occasioned the rise and fall of the waters. Another opinion was, that the ocean had within itself vast caves, into which the water was regularly received, and out of which it was again as regularly ejected. Previously to quitting the Mediterranean, the tidal influence had not come under the consideration of man. This sea scarcely indicates any perception of that lunar attraction, which operates upon the waters of the earth generally. The probable reason is, that this sea, as also the Baltic, which admits of a parity of reasoning, is almost entirely cut off from the main oceans; and that the narrowness of the connecting straits does not allow the swell of the great waters to be felt within the requisite time of the moon's passing the meridian.

10. Before speaking of the naval exploits of Alexander the Great, of Macedon, we may mention that Curtius gives a circumstantial account of a fire-ship, which was equipped by the Tyrians, at the time their capital was besieged by Alexander. Having selected one of the largest galleys they possessed, they loaded it by the stern with stones and other ballast, so that the prow became considerably elevated above the surface of the water. The whole of the vessel, which was above water, was covered very thickly with sulphur and other inflammable substances; which operation being completed, advantage was taken of a wind favourable for the attempt, and all the sails being set, the crew, who, in aid of the sails, used their oars also, directed it towards the mole which Alexander had, with so much difficulty, laboured to construct. When they had approached sufficiently near to the destined object of destruction, the vessel was set on fire, and the crew jumped into boats, which had followed for the purpose of receiving them. This project completely succeeded, and Alexander was frustrated in his attempt on Tyre at that period. This place he ultimately subdued, and having no more land to conquer he sought the waters.

We now come to the voyage of Nearchus, the Macedonian admiral, down the Indus, along the Erythrean Sea, and up the Persian Gulf, as far as the mouth of the Tigris. Alexander the Great, having made himself omnipotent by land, resolved to encroach, at least by his lieutenants, on the realms of ocean. He therefore set in motion an expedition for maritime discovery. He sailed at the head of the fleet down the Indus, and gazed upon the expanse of ocean, which the ancients deemed the circular boundary of the world. The ocean had been held, from the oldest times, to be a river running round the earth; which river was bounded by the dark clouds of heaven. Such, we are told, was it depicted on the shield of Achilles, which seems to have presented on its surface, a map of the world, as then known. That this notion was very ancient we learn from the Sacred Writings;-"When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it." Job. XXXVIII. 9. The writer of the Book of Job probably lived nearly 2000 years before the birth of our Saviour, Christ.

We find that Alexander, at sight of the crocodiles, for some time confounded the Indus with the Nile; owing pro