spring; and from Iceland, where the skies, at one season of the year, exhibit not a single star; and where at another The western clouds retain their yellow glow, While Hecla pours her flames thro' boundless wastes of snow. How does it differ, too, from a large portion of Crim Tartary, where scarcely a brook is heard to murmur, or a bush, a shrub, or a bramble, are ever seen to grow! Crim Tartary is subject to few phenomena; but Greenland is frequently visited by one, which is seldom witnessed in any other quarter of the world. Sometimes the images of travellers are reflected on a frozen cloud, as in a mirror; at other times, the ships in the harbours, with their sails unfurled, and their streamers flying, with huts, animals, trees, and other objects, are reflected, magnified, or diminished, according to their distances, and the density of the atmosphere. These phenomena resemble the Fata Margana in Sicily, which Howel erroneously attributes to a bitumen, that issues from rocks at the bottom of the sea. A phenomenon similar, though of more striking effect, was observed by Vernet, the landscape painter; who, during his stay in Italy, saw a town, with all its houses, towers, palaces, and steeples, completely reversed in the atmosphere. A Than Greenland, in no quarter of the globe could the sciences of gravitation, magnetism, and electricity, be cultivated with such probability of producing advantageous results. Than Spitzbergen, no country is more sublime and terrific. Its peaks are inaccessible; capt, as they are, with snow, coeval with the globe. Its valleys are choaked with glaciers, which, in spring, pour vast cataracts of melted snow from their bosoms: while, in summer, the mid-day and the midnight are illuminated with almost equal splen dour. In this island there are no settled inhabitants; but the Russians occasionally resort to it for the purpose of hunting bears. No lightning was ever seen there; nor was a single burst of thunder ever heard. Craggy mountains rise, in fantastic shapes, higher than the clouds; the glens are choaked with eternal snows; and ice is seen floating, in every direction, of a fine blue; exhibiting arches, coves, curves, cylinders, spheroids, and pyramids. Amid these scenes of desolation polar bears, seals, and walrusses, take up their abode; and along the ocean fly the larus glaucus, the larus arcticus, the alea allè, and the beautiful larus eburneus, with the sterna hirundo; the plumage of which surpasses that of all other birds in the arctic regions. But -Within the enclosure of your rocks No herds have ye to boast; nor bleating flocks; But the whistling of the winds, the collision of large masses of ice, and the roaring of the ocean, conspire to create a combination of sounds, unequalled in any other region; and form a characteristic accompaniment to the finest picture of desolate grandeur, that the world contains. II. Circassia, lying near the Caucasus, forms a striking contrast to the manners of its inhabitants. It is a country more delicious, in point of natural productions, than it is possible to imagine: but it is a paradise, peopled with human wasps and serpents. For the inhabitants are represented as going armed to their harvests; almost every man is said to be a robber; and every woman either the daughter, sister, wife, or mother of an assassin. To the climate of Circassia we may compare the elevated province of Cashmere; a district, not more celebrated for the temperature of its climate, than for the elegance of form, and beauty of countenance, which, if we except the Circassians, distinguish the Cashmerians above all the nations of the earth. Bounded by the mountains of Tartary and the Caucasus, innumerable cascades and cataracts enliven, with their music, the various vales and vallies, into which the province is divided. To be near the lov'd one what rapture is his, Who, in moonlight and music, so sweetly may glide Moore. To this spot, worthy the scene, witnessed by Huon and Sherasmin, near the city of Bagdad,' Aurenzebe was accustomed to retire, when fatigued with busi 1 Vid. Wieland, Oberon, canto iii. st. 1. ness, or disgusted with royalty. In his progress from the capital, he was attended by an immense army all the way. When, however, he came to the entrance of Cashmere, he dismissed his soldiers; separated from his retinue; and with a few select friends retired to the palace, he had erected: and, in the solitude of those enchanting valleys, contrasted the charms of content and the delights of tranquillity with the hurry and noise, the treachery and splendid anxiety, of a crowded court. This country is the paradise of India; being a garden of evergreens abounding in bees: and its woods, like those of New Zealand, resound all night in spring with the songs of innumerable birds. Thus Nature had power to charm even the greatest of Indian hypocrites. In the midst of a war this monarch would act, as high-priest, at the consecration of a temple; and, while he signed warrants for the assassination of his relatives, with one hand, says Dow,' he would point to heaven with the other! III. In Asia Minor the air is pure, soft, and serene; and in Arabia, after its periodical rain, there is a clear`unclouded sky during the year. Arabia Petræa is almost alike destitute of water and verdure: but Arabia Felix has been celebrated for its beauties and its shades in every age. Yet, like all the natives of the east, its inhabitants are remarkable for their love of finery; and their poets for hyperbole and bombast. VOL. III. 1 History of Hindostan, vol. iii. p. 335. L Persia has three separate climates, involving coldness, temperance and heat. In the south, there are but few flowers; in the Hyrcanian forest, however, they are abundant even to profuseness: and the climate of Shiraz is so agreeable and delightful, that Sadi says, it produces the most fragrant roses of all the east. In many parts of Persia and Arabia, the inhabitants, during the summer, sleep on the roofs of their houses: their beds being laid on terraces, and their only canopy the sky. It is curious to remark, that the present revenue of Persia is the same, as it was in the time of Darius Hystaspes: viz. three millions.' Caubul :-" one day's journey from Caubul," says the Emperor Bauber, in his Commentaries, “you may find, where snow never falls; and in two hours' journey a place, where the snow scarcely ever melts." The climate of Nepaul has never been ascertained with precision. This retired kingdom lies at the feet of the mountains of Thibet; four thousand feet above the level of the sea. It abounds in elephants, wandering in inexhaustible forests, containing trees, still unincluded in the botanist's vocabulary. Malabar is dry in one part of the year, and moist at another. In 1750,3 it had many towns and cities, but no villages: every house in the country standing by itself, enclosed with trees or hedges; in which lies the lady-viper; so beautiful, that no one can see it without admiration; and so harmless, that the ladies fondle it in their bosoms.*$ 1 Malcolm. 2 Kirkpatrick, p. 171. 3 Dillon's Voy., p. 108. 4 Linnæus calls it the coluber domicella; Lacepede, couleuvre des dames. |