before he was appointed organist to the Octagon Chapel : on attaining this distinguished situation he resigned that of Halifax; but this accession of business only increased his propensity to study, and frequently after a fatigu ing day of fourteen or sixteen hours, occupied in his professional avocations, he would seek relaxation, if such it might be called, in extending his knowledge of the mathematics.

Having in the course of his extensive reading, made some discoveries which awakened his curiosity, he applied himself to the study of astronomy. Finding himself becoming hourly more attached to that pleasing study, he lessened his professional engagements, as also the number of his pupils. Towards the latter end of the year 1779, he commenced a regular review of the heavens, star by star; and in the course of eighteen months' observations, he fortunately remarked that a star which had been recorded by Bode as a fixed star, was progressively changing its position, and, after much attention to it he was enabled to ascertain that it was an undiscovered planet. He communicated the parti culars to the Royal Society, who elected him a fellow and decreed him their annual gold medal. This great and important discovery he made on the 13th of March, 1781, and bestowed on the planet the name of Georgium Sidus, in compliment to our late King, George the Third.

Herschel, from the splendid result of his labors, not only established his fame in the scientific world, but was enabled, by the donation of a handsome salary from his late Majesty, to relinquish his professional labors, and devote the remainder of his life wholly to astronomy.

In consequence of this munificent act of the king, which must ever be mentioned to his honor as a patron of science, he quitted Bath, and fixed his residence first at Datchet, and afterwards at Slough, near Windsor

In 1783, he announced the discovery of a volcanic mountain in the moon; and four years afterwards communicated an account of two other volcanoes in that orb, which appeared to be in a state of eruption.

In 1802, Dr. Herschel laid before the Royal Society a catalogue of five thousand new nebulae, and nebulous stars, planetary nebulae, clusters of stars, which he had

discovered. By these and other scientific labors he established his title to rank amongst the most eminent astronomers of the age, and to be placed in the roll of those whom this country produced, only second to the immortal Newton.

Dr. Herschel married Mary the widow of John Pitt, Esq.; by whom he had one son, who was some time since a member of the university of Cambridge.

Sir William did not diminish his astronomical observations until within a few years of his death, which took place on the 22d of August, 1822, at the age of S2. He expired in the fulness of years, honored with the applause of the world, and, what was far dearer to him, the veneration of his family, and the esteem and love of all who knew him. On the 7th September, his remains were interred in the church of Upton Berks, in which parish he had for many years resided.

CABINET OF NATURE.

MOUNT HECLA, IN ICELAND.
With an Engraving.

Still pressing on beneath Tornea's lake,
And Hecla flaming through a waste of snow,
And farthest Greenland to the Pole itself,
Where falling gradual, life at length goes out,
The Muse expands her solitary flight;
And hov'ring o'er the wide stupendous scene,
Beholds new scenes beneath another sky.
Throned in his palace of cerulean ice,
Here winter holds his unrejoicing court,
And through his airy hall the loud misrule
Of driving tempests is forever heard;
Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath;
Here arms his winds with all subduing frost,

Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snows.

ON proceeding along the southern coast of Iceland, and at an inconsiderable distance from Skaalholt, this mountain, with its three summits, presents itself to the view. Its height is five thousand feet, or nearly a mile above the level of the sea. It is not a promontory, but lies about four miles inland. It is neither so elevated nor so picturesque as several of the surrounding Iee

landic mountains; but has been more noticed than many other volcanoes of an equal extent, partly through the frequency of its eruptions, and partly from its situation, which exposes it to the view of many ships sailing to Greenland and North America. The surrounding terri.ory has been so devastated by these eruptions, that it has been deserted.

Vast regions dreary, bleak, and bare'
There on an icy mountain's height,
Seen only by the Moon's pale light,
Stern Winter rears his giant form,
His robe a mist, his life a storm:
His frown the shiv'ring nations fly,

And, hid for half the year, in smoky caverns lie.

The natives asserted that it was impossible to ascend the mountain, on account of the great number of dangerous bogs, which according to them, are constantly emitting sulphureous flames, and exhaling smoke; while the more elevated summit in the centre is covered with boiling springs and large craters, which continually prope! fire and smoke. To the south and west the environs present the most aflicting results of frequent eruptions, the finest part of the territory being covered with torrents of melted stone, sand, ashes, and other volcanic matter, notwithstanding which, between the sinuosities of the lava in different parts, some portion of meadows, walls, and broken hedges may be observed. The devastation is still greater on the north and east sides, which present dreadful traces of the ruin of the country and its habitations. Neither plants nor grass are to be met with to the extent of two leagues round the mountain, in consequence of the soil being covered with stones and lava; and in some parts, where the subterraneous fire has broken out a second time, or where the matter which was not entirely consumed has again become ignited, the fire has contributed to form small red and black hillocks and eminences, from scoriæ, pumice-stones, and ashes. The nearer the mountain the larger are these hillocks, and there are some of them, the summits of which form a circular hollow, whence the subterraneus fire ejects the matter. On approaching Hecla the ground becomes almost impassable, particularly near the

higher branches of lava thrown from the volcano Round the latter is a mountain of lava, consisting of large fused stones, from forty to seventy feet high, and in the form of a rampart or wall. These stones are detached, and chiefly covered with moss; while between them are very deep holes, so that the ascent on the western side requires great circumspection. The rocks are completely reduced to pumice, dispersed in thin horizontal layers, and fractured in every direction, from which some idea may be formed of the intensity of the fire that has acted on them.

There Winter, armed with terrors here unknown,
Sits absolute on his unshaken throne;

Piles up his stores amidst the frozen waste,
And bids the mountains he has built stand fast,
Beckons the legions of his storms away
From happier scenes to make the land a prey:
Proclaims the soil a conquest he has won,
And scorns to share it with the distant sun.

Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, Dr. James Lind, of Edinburgh, and Dr. Van Troil, a Swede, were the earliest adventurous travellers who ascended to the summit of Mount Hecla, This was in 1772; and the attempt was facilitated by a preceding eruption in 1766, which had greatly diminished the steepness and difficulty of the ascent. On their first landing, they found a tract of land sixty or seventy miles in extent, entirely ruined by lava, which appeared to have been in a state of complete liquefaction. To accomplish their undertaking, they had to travel from three hundred to three hundred and sixty miles over uninterrupted tracts of lava. In ascending, they were obliged to quit their horses at the first opening from which the fire had burst:-a spot, which they describe as presenting lofty glazed walls and high glazed cliffs, differing from any thing they had ever seen before. At another opening above, they fancied they discerned the effects of boiling water; and not far from thence, the mountain, with the exception of some bare spots, was covered with snow. This difference of aspect they soon perceived to be occasioned by the hot vapor ascending from the mountain. The higher they proceeded, the larger these spots became; and, about

two hundred yards below the summit, a hole about a yard and a half in diameter, was observed, whence issued so hot a stream, that they could not measure the degree of heat with a thermometer. The cold now began to be very intense. Fahrenheit's thermometer, which at the foot of the mountain was at 54, fell to 24; while the wind became so violent, that they were sometimes obliged to lie down, from the dread of being blown into the most dreadful precipices. On the summit itself they experienced at one and the same time, a high degree of heat and cold; for, in the air, Fahrenheit's thermometer constantly stood at 24, but when placed on the ground, it rose to 153.

Messrs. Olafsen and Povelsen, two naturalists, whose travels in Iceland were undertaken by order of his Danish Majesty, after a fatiguing journey up several small slopes, which occurred at intervals, and seven of which they had to pass, at length reached the summit of Mount Hecla at midnight. It was as light as at noon day, so that they had a view of an immense extent, but could perceive nothing but ice: neither fissures, streams of water, boiling springs, smoke, nor fire, were apparent. They surveyed the glaciers in the eastern part, and in the distance saw the high and square mountain of Hærdabreid, an ancient volcano, which appeared like a large castle.

Sir G. S. Mackenzie, in his recent travels in Iceland, ascended Mount Hecla; and from his account we extract the following interesting particulars. In proceeding to the southern extremity of the mountain, he descended, by a dangerous path, into a valley, having a small lake in one corner, and the opposite extremity bounded by a perpendicular face of rock, resembling, in its broken and rugged appearance, a stream of lava. While advancing, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds, and the brilliant reflection of his beams, from different parts of the supposed lava, as if from a surface of glass, delighted our traveller by the instantaneous conviction that he had now attained one of the principal objects connected with the plan of his expedition to Iceland. He hastened to the spot, and all his wishes were fully accomplished in the examination of an object which greatly exceeded the expectations which he had formed.