feet. On the other hand granite, which in Europe crowns the highest mountains, is not found in the American continent at a greater height than 11,500 feet. The icy summits of Chimborazo, of Cayambé, and of Anitsana, are entirely composed of porphyry, which on he sides of the Andes form a mass 1,000, or 1,200 feet thick.

The planters of New Spain divide the cultivated part of the country into three zones. First, the hot territory, not rising above the elevation of 1,000. This region produces, in abundance, sugar, indigo, cotton, plantains, and bananas. Secondly, the temperate lands, which lie on the acclivity of the great chain, and which, at the height of 5,000 feet, enjoy the temperature of spring, which rarely varies, during the course of the whole year, so much as ten degrees. Thirdly, the cold region, at the height of 8,000 feet, comprehending such elevated plains or platforms as those of Mexico, whose temperature is generally under 63 degrees, and never exceeds 75.

where man is so easily supplied with the necessaries of life. Althoughthey are sometimes governed by caprice, they are never induced to depart for a moment from their habitual listlessness by the love of gain. When our travellers visited the Havannah, they were struck with the singular beauty of the flowers which fell, white as snow, from the tops of the royal-palm, and, being desirous to examine the economy of vegetation in this efflorescence, for every branch or sprig, bearing flowers, they offered the children of the negroes inhabiting the neighbouring villages two piastres, or near eight shillings sterling; but nothing could move them to stir a step.

As the summer advances, the low plains of the American coast begin to be scorched with excessive heat. The herbage is dried up to the very roots, and the hardened soil is of a burning heat. The cattle and other beasts of the field, enveloped in clouds of dust, and tormented with thirst, run wildly from place to place. But the mule, better guided by his natural instinct, scrapes out the water-melon with his foot, and sucks in a refreshing beverage. All of a sudden the piercing cries of apes of the largest kind announce the approach of rain. Incessant torrents inundate the plains. The crocodile and the boa, long concealed in a state of torpor, raise their horrible heads, and come out of their tombs with a terrible noise. By and by the rivers, overflowing their banks, cover the land with their vast inundations. The whole delta of the Oronooko is laid under a sheet of water. In the

midst of these aquatic scenes lives, in peace and liberty, the nation of the Quaranis, on the tops of the maritia, or palm-trees with fantailed leaves, in hammocks formed of the fibres of the leaves plaited and overlaid with clay. In these frail fabrics do the women light their fires and dress their vegetable food. The tree on which each family is suspended, furnishes it with the whole of its food. The pith of the maritia, which resembles sago, and its shelled fruit, furnishes this singular people, according to their respective ages, with nourishment both salubrious and pleasant. The wine of the palm is refreshing drink, and can even produce that state of inebriation which constitutes the supreme happiness of the savage. But although the members of this aerial republic enjoy a constancy of undisturbed repose, this is by no means the case with other savage tribes. Agitated by the most malignant passions, they are always ready to bathe themselves in blood. Those miserable wretches have no pleasure but in murder and rapine. When a tribe, weaker than its neighbours, ventures to traverse the plains, the individuals use the precaution of defacing their footsteps, to escape being surprised and massacred. Nature seems to have seconded the ferocious propensities of those savages, in producing, in the burning climates of the torrid zone, the most active poisons. The darts and arrows impregnated with these carry with them inevitable death. And when these instruments are wanting to the savages, their ferocious industry finds means of supplying their place. frightful Ottomaque is in the habit

The

of dipping the nail of his finger in the curare, a very active poison, extracted from a species of the phyllanthus, and the least laceration produced by that nail is mortal. Thus the visions of primitive innocence vanish before the discoveries of travellers. Men become generous only in proportion to the degree of their civilization.

There have been lately published some numbers or deliveries of the Atlas Pittoresque, which was to accompany the Relation Historique, &c. under the title of Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the People of America, by Alexander de Humboldt.

Travels in the North of Europe, containing Observations on some Parts of the Coasts of the Baltic and the North Sea. By J. A. De Luc, F. R. S. Translated from the French MSS. illustrated with a Map and Drawings.

The investigations of philosophers in the present period, appear to be directed chiefly to two opposite extremes;nature in her grandest operations, and in her most subtle, minute, and secret resources; the kindred studies of astronomy and geology, and the properties of light and heat. It was observed in the last article, that some remarks have been made by Humboldt, in his travels in the equatorial regions, that might perhaps occasion some embarrassment to geologists. Geology is the youngest of the sciences; it is but lately that the exact figure of the earth was ascertained; and later still that men were tolerably acquainted with physical geography.

Geology

"21. Effects of the sea on steep coasts composed of stony strata. "22. Effects of the sea in gulphs.

23. General considerations on the phenomena which prove the small antiquity of our continents. "24. The accumulation of fallen materials under the abrupt sides of mountains, as well in valleys as towards the plains, and those which are formed at the foot of steep coasts, constitute one of the most common of the classes of chrono

meters.

"25. The alluvial lands formed by rivers along their course constitute another class of chronometers.

"26. The maritime new lands form a large class of chronometers. "27. Since the sea has occupied its present bed, its level has never changed."

Mr. de Luc, having endeavoured to prove and illustrate the truth of each of these heads or positions, proceeds thus:

"The history of our globe, like every other which relates to past time, can be traced back only by monuments. It is thus that the histories of nations have been compiled; but of those the most ancient monuments have been successively effaced or disfigured by a

thousand various events and interests; and, for the most part, nothing remains in that respect but traditions, obscure, imperfect, and often fabulous: hence have arisen so many contradictions in the early annals of the same nation; and from these has originated historic doubt.

"The case is not the same with the history of the earth; the mo

SO

magnitude to have been essentially changed by mankind, and the surface of the globe is covered with them: What, then, can be the reason that this history has been traced back in manners so discordant with each other? It is because here the monuments are those of effects, produced by natural_causes; that, unless these effects are recognized as indubitably belonging to certain causes, their nature cannot be really determined; as reciprocally, unless this be perfectly determined, the real causes cannot possibly be discovered. Those geologists, therefore, who attempted to connect these effects with their causes, long before observation had made sufficient progress, could do it only at random. But the monuments remain, and may still lead to truth.

"This is what I have endeavoured to render evident, in my determination of each of the preceding heads. I flatter myself that those who shall read them with attention will readily agree, that, if all the facts, of which they offer the compendium, are such as I have represented them under general forms, the history of the earth, which I have here successively traced, in opposition to different opinions, is established beyond all possibility of doubt, Now every thing in this history is connected, as may have been seen, with the four following points, which the observations assembled in my Travels will all concur to prove:

"1. The catastrophes, of which evident marks are impressed on the mass of our continents, by the valleys among mountains, the cavities of lakes, and the disturbed si

tuation

"3. Since that great revolution on our globe, the level of the sea has never changed.

4. From the known operations of causes of every class upon the continents since their birth, it is certain that they cannot have existed a great many ages.

"I have shown in the Elementary Treatise on Geology,' that the whole of the history of the earth is connected with these propositions. They shall now be submitted, in all their parts, to the determination of facts; and I do not believe that the field of natural sciences can present any point of view, so well deserving the attention of every reflecting man.

For

the question to be decided is no less than this: whether geological monuments authorize us to discard, as so many authors have done, either explicitly or implicitly, the only written history of the earth and of mankind which now exists; a history more ancient than any other authentic writing, the origin of all religions, and the first, the positive, the only foundation of

our own."

With the advantage of this veneration for the writings of Moses for a guide, at least as a beacon against the danger of error, Mr. de Luc proceeds to confirm this theory by his late geological travels.

In perusing both the publications controverted by Mr. de Luc, we are struck with the variety and extent of knowledge that may be brought to bear on the subject of geology. Geology, which connects earth with heaven, and inquires, not only into the natural differences of things, but into all that is capable of modifying and changing the world of minerals, plants, and animals, in the lapse of time, appears to come in contact with all kinds of study or knowledge.

A View of Spain; comprising a Descriptive Itinerary of each Province, and a general Statistical Account of the Country; including its Population, Agriculture, Commerce, and and Finances; its Government, Civil and Ecclesiastical Establishments; the State of the Arts, Sciences, and Literature; its Manners, Customs, Natural History, &c. Translated from the French of Alexander de Laborde. In Five Volumes ; with an Atlas in a separate and small Volume.

Mr. de Laborde does not merit a place in our literary selections for the year, on account of any eminence in point of either genius or learning. He is a book-maker, though not one of the lowest class, that is, a mere operator with scissors and paste. He uses his own pen as well as those of others. He is a book-maker on a great scale; a banker become a book-maker, under the idea of its being a good mercantile speculation; and this circumstance alone might perhaps

justify

justify the notice here taken of him. It is rather a singular phenomenon. It is a remarkable effect of the universality of the French language, that the probable circulation of a book shall induce a banker to betake himself to the business of authorship and bookselling. Mr. Laborde, too, has been at great pains and expense to seek, and has had opportunities of being well acquainted with Spain and the Spaniards; he has had the aid of many books little known, and of others which few can either purchase, or have access to otherwise; and the subjects of his compilation are, at the present moment, particularly interesting.

Mr. de Laborde is editor of an expensive and splendid publication, intituled "Voyage Pittoresque de l'Espagne," which was undertaken by the banking-house of Laborde, at Paris, in which Alexander has a share, as a commercial speculation, to be executed by artists paid and employed under its direction. During the slow progress of this work, which was to derive its principal value, not from written narration or description, but from the arts of drawing and engraving, Mr. Laborde had leisure, collaterally with the "Voyage Pittoresque," to carry on the work before us, the object of which is thus briefly set forth by the author:

"It is with pain I repeat, that I have dared to present to the public a work written and printed with such haste; I have left it nearly as it was committed to paper on the very spots where it was writbut the cause of its faults may be an excuse for them. It would have taken me three years

ten;

use.

to execute this work tolerably, which it was necessary to finish in a few months. If I had delayed it, it would have been of no The works which relate to the laws, customs, and even manners of Spain will soon be to that country what the ancient ordinances of war, the arrêts of parliament, and of the chamber of accounts, the liberties of the Gallic church, &c. are now to the French. Whatever may happen, bounds are now fixed between the past history of this country, and the future unknown events to which it is destined; and as the Picturesque Travels through Spain' will describe the monuments, such as they have been, preserved to this time, so I have endeavoured, in this work, to ascertain the state of the legislation and of the industry of the country before they experienced any change whatever. My design is, that these two works should illustrate each other, and that neither should encroach too much on what belongs to the other. Thus the details in the Itinerary of the public edifices, of the arts, sciences, and literature, will be little more than a simple nomenclature in comparison to the expansion they will receive in the other work; whereas, all that relates to political economy, will appear simply as a sketch in the Voyage Pittoresque.'

Mr. Laborde's View of Spain' consists of an Introduction, which occupies about one-fourth part of the first volume; of short directions for travelling in Spain, which are taken chiefly from Fischer; of observations on the climate and physical geography of Spain, by the baron de Humboldt; of a de

scriptive