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shepherd was the only one in the vicinity who saved the whole of his sheep. We may remark, in reference to weather-observations such as these, that provided they be kept within reasonable limits, they are exceedingly valuable. The persons who put undivided faith in the nonsense of "weather almanacs," and in the popular omens and prognostics which are so abundant, are liable to be duped and led into repeated errors; but those who pretend to despise the experience of humble observers, and to lay down doctrines relating to the weather from theory only, err almost as much on the other side. Cautious induction, derived from carefully observed facts, is the only mode of arriving at truth in such matters.

Perhaps the most extraordinary snow-storm with which Scotland was ever visited, was that which occurred on the 24th of January, 1794; extraordinary both in relation to the enormous depth to which the snow accumulated in a few hours, and to the devastation which it occasioned. Mr. Hogg, so well known as the "Ettrick Shepherd," was then a young man, and was involved in the consequences of this storm in a remarkable manner. In the evening of his life he wrote a graphic account of the occurrence, from which we shall borrow so much as will suffice to convey an idea of this remarkable storm.

On the evening preceding the night of this occurrence, Mr. Hogg had appointed to meet a few young friends who had formed themselves into a sort of literary society for the reading and criticism of essays and papers. They were all shepherds, and were accustomed to meet at each other's houses, where they frequently remained together all night. On the evening in question a meeting was to be held at Entertrony, a place distant twenty miles from Hogg's residence, over a wild and rugged country. He had written what he terms a "flaming bombastical essay," and set off with it in his pocket, to attend the meeting of his compeers. As he was trudging along on foot, he thought he perceived symptoms of an approaching storm, and that of no ordinary nature. There was a dead calm, accompanied by a slight fall of snow, and a very unusual appearance was presented by the distant hills. He thought of the flock of sheep which was usually under his care, but which was now consigned to the charge of another, and he began to think it would be prudent to retrace his steps. After a long contest between his inclination and his sense of duty, he turned back with a heavy heart, and wended homewards. On his road he called at the house of an elder relative, who told him that the symptoms foreboded a snow-storm during the night, and advised him to hasten homeward with all speed. The old man further stated, as a guide to Hogg, in conducting the sheep to a quarter where they would be best sheltered, that if, during his journey, he should see any opening in the rime or frost-fog, he might conclude that the storm would spring up from that quarter. Hogg, however, observed no such opening in the fog, and finally reached home, where he went to bed, intending to rise at a very early hour, and go out to find shelter for his sheep.

Just before he retired to rest, he observed a brightness in the north, and thought of his friend's advice; but thought he might postpone acting thereon. About two o'clock in the morning a storm commenced with such suddenness and fury, that he was startled from his bed, and, on putting his arm out into the open air, he found the air so completely overloaded with falling and driving snow, that, but for the force of the wind, he felt as if he had thrust his arm into a wreath of snow. He slept in a kind of outhouse, distant about fourteen yards from the dwelling-house, and, upon going down stairs, he found this place packed with snow nearly as high as the walls of his house. With great difficulty he reached the dwelling-house, and found all the inmates in a state of dismay. The state of the sheep belonging

to the farm became an object of anxiety to all; eight hundred of these poor animals being out on a very exposed hill at a considerable distance from the houses. They made a hasty breakfast, joined in a simple but earnest prayer for the safety of all, and the male inmates started on a perilous venture, having previously filled their pockets with bread and cheese, sewed their plaids around their bodies, tied on their hats, and provided themselves each with a staff.

As soon as they got out into the open air (two hours before day) the darkness was so great, that to grope their way was the only method of proceeding. Sometimes they had to wade through masses of snow, at others to roll or clamber over them; while the wind and drift were so violent, that the travellers were forced, every three or four minutes, to hold down their heads to recover breath; so perplexing were the difficulties which they had to encounter in the utter darkness, that they were two hours reaching a distance of three hundred yards from the house. As day dawned, they were able to advance a little faster, one taking the lead, and the others following close in the rear. This leadership could only be maintained three or four minutes at a time, on account of the piercing wind which blew uninterruptedly in their faces. In a short time one of the party, who, as leader, had been unconsciously leading them out of the way, was found nearly insensible, and was with some difficulty recovered; shortly afterwards Mr. Hogg fell down a precipice, and was nearly buried in the snow.

After innumerable disasters, they at length reached one of the flocks of sheep. The sheep were standing in a close body, one-half of the number being covered with snow to the depth of ten feet, and the other half being forced up against a brae. The outer ones being with some difficulty extricated, the rest were, to the agreeable surprise of the shepherds, able to walk out from beneath the superincumbent load of snow, which had consolidated into a mass. Mr. Hogg, quitting the other shepherds, proceeded onward to a spot where another flock had been left. He was able to extricate about half of these, and to procure them a place of safety; after which he made the best of his way home again, groping along as well as he could, for although day-time, it was impossible to see twenty yards around. party succeeded in reaching home in safety, after a very exhausting day's labour. On the next morning they started, with a somewhat clearer sky, to the rescue of the remaining sheep, and found the snow to have been so unprecedentedly deep as to conceal every vestige of the lofty trees in some of the glens. Day after day the party sallied forth, until they had found and brought home, either dead or alive, nearly the whole of the sheep, most of which were found buried to the depth of from six to ten feet in snow. All were alive when found, but a large number died shortly afterwards from the effects of the hardships the poor animals had undergone.

All the

By this one night's snow-storm, seventeen shepherds in the south of Scotland lost their lives, while upwards of thirty more were carried home insensible. One farmer lost seventy-two scores of sheep, and many others from twenty to thirty scores each. In some cases whole flocks were overwhelmed with snow, and no one knew where they were till the dissolving snow exposed the dead bodies. In one instance twelve scores of excellent ewes, all nearly of one age, were missing the whole time that the snow lay upon the ground; but when the snow was melted, the sheep were discovered all lying dead, with their heads turned one way. Many hundreds were, by the violence of the storm, driven into waters, burns, and lakes, where they were buried or frozen up, and these the flood carried away, so that they were never again seen or found by the owners. At one place, where several streams flow into the Solway Frith, there is a

a kind of shoal, called the Beds of Esk, where the tide throws out and leaves whatever is carried into it by these streams. At this spot, when the flood after the storm had subsided, were found the dead bodies of two men, one woman, forty-five dogs, three horses, nine black cattle, one hundred and eighty hares, and one thousand eight hundred and forty sheep.

Scotland has been, and indeed now is, frequently visited by snow-storms of considerable severity, though not comparable to those just described; and Mr. Hogg gives a pleasing account of the manner in which these visitations are borne by the inhabitants. "The daily feeling naturally impressed on the shepherd's mind,' says he, "that all his comforts are so entirely in the hand of Him that rules the elements, contributes not a little to that firm spirit of devotion for which the Scottish shepherd is so distinguished. I know of no scene so impressive as that of a family sequestered in a lone glen during the time of a winter storm; and where is the glen in the kingdom that wants such a habitation? There they are left to the protection of heaven; and they know and feel it. Throughout all the wild vicissitudes of nature, they have no hope of assistance from man, but expect to receive it from the Almighty alone. Before retiring to rest, the shepherd uniformly goes out to examine the state of the weather, and make his report to the little dependent group within; nothing is to be seen but the conflict of the elements, nor heard but the raving of the storm: then they all kneel around him, while he recommends them to the protection of heaven; and though their little hymn of praise can scarcely be heard even by themselves, as it mixes with the roar of the tempest, they never fail to rise from their devotions with their spirits cheered, and their confidence restored, and go to sleep with an exaltation of mind, of which kings and conquerors have no share.”

In a second paper on this subject we shall relate some remarkable instances of human endurance, consequent on snow-storms.

GOD OMNIPRESENT.

THE Lord, the high and holy One,
Is present everywhere;

Go to the regions of the sun,

And thou wilt find Him there!

Go to the secret ocean caves,
Where man hath never trod,
And there, beneath the flashing waves,
Will be thy Maker, GOD.

Fly swiftly, on the morning's wing,.
To distant realms away,
Where birds in jewelled plumage sing
The advent of the day;

And where the lion seeks his lair,
And reindeer bounds alone-
God's presence makes the desert fair,
And cheers the frozen zone.

All Nature speaks of Him who made
The land, the sea, and sky;

The fruits that fall, the leaves that fade,
The flowers that bloom to die;

The lofty mount, and lowly vale

The lasting forest trees,
The rocks that battle with the gale,
The ever-rolling seas.

All tell the Omnipresent Lord,
The God of boundless might-
In every age and clime adored,
Whose dwelling is the light!

P. B.

THE most common aberrations of ignorance, consisting in the false references of cause and effect, are imputable to superstition and credulity-SIR GILBERT BLANE,

SKETCHES OF IRISH MANNERS AND
CUSTOMS.
I.

So much has been written, and so well written, about Ireland, that it may appear presumptuous to suppose a few little anecdotes worthy of recording: but I have been so much amused and interested, by the things that are daily said and done before me, that I think a simple relation may amuse others, and perhaps increase the kindliness of feeling and interest for the Irish peasantry, which are so desirable in the minds of my countrymen; and as the efforts of the tiny mouse in the fable were not in vain, so these little stories may, in their unvarnished truth, add their mite to the great cause of real union between the countries.

I had made a short tour in Ireland some years ago, and on returning to the country probably for a residence of some length, I was most agreeably struck with the great improvement ten years had made in the houses, the roads, the tillage, and the people. It was the same part of the country, the sea-coast of the county Antrim, and at the same time of year. Numbers of new, neat, thatched, or slated houses, with little sashed windows, had sprung up and replaced, or closed in and hid the ancient cabin, scarcely higher than the manure heap by its side, and its window holes stuffed with such fragments as even Irish beggar ingenuity could no longer attach to any part of the family wardrobe. The roads full of great stones, no longer went straight up the mountain side, as if determined to show that impossible was a word unknown to the road-makers or the road-goers, and certainly exhibiting to the tourists the wild mountains, the deep glens, the broad ocean, and the dim peaks and crags of the distant Scotch coast in the greatest perfection. Now excellent roads wind amongst the little hills and rocks, which are as an advanced guard to the mountains, with an ingenuity most creditable to the engineer, and satisfactory to the wheels: but the traveller loses much in the view, and does not always gain much in safety. The road is in some parts so close to the cliff, that vast fragments overhang it: and a party in the winter had a most narrow escape-frost and rain had loosened a great block which fell down just as their car had passed; there was scarcely a foot between them and destruction, and such accidents are not rare after bad weather.

There was a great increase of land under cultivation, and greater variety of crops, and an improvement in the neatness of their farming operations; though still many a field, all yellow with the "gowans fine," disgraced their husbandry. The tint is so pretty in the landscape that one is sorry in the poet's flower to recognise the farmer's pest. All the people were busy with the potatoes, &c. Perhaps no other season would have brought such numbers under our observation in so short a time, and I was surprised to see a much larger proportion of perfectly clean whole, white shirts than I should have seen on the same number of English peasantry in any of the counties I have known well; and I think the appreciation and use of good linen prevails to an extent quite unsuspected in England.

I have often seen a good clean shirt covered with a mass, or heap, or string of rags, which seemed only an incumbrance; warmth there could be none, as the breeze scattered them at its pleasure, till the man looked like the doll's wig under a stream of electricity, coat and waistcoat whisking round horizontally. The quantity of shoes and stockings are greatly increased, particularly amongst the men; indeed except the very lowest of the beggars, I have hardly seen a barefooted man. English beggars present their tatters to Ireland, the Irish just above mendicity surely send their half-worn shoes and stockings to England. I have not yet seen any of the holes and slipshod slovenliness to which bare

If the

feet is infinitely preferable; if they do wear them, they are well shod.

There is a good deal of the Welsh plan of putting on shoes and stockings at the entrance of the town or village, and taking them off again when the ceremony of shop or market is over. And here, as in Wales, the strong firm step of the women and girls is very remarkable. Some of the girls are good steady knitters, walk, talk, and scramble with their needles in full activity, and might add considerably to their comforts if they pursued it steadily. A stout wild girl, our guide to some waterfalls, told us she could knit a full-size pair of very strong socks in a day; two pair were bespoke, and a prospect of a larger order held out to her if she did them well. Ten days passed and we heard nothing of Campbell and the socks; at last we spied her in holyday trim in the village. She told us the socks were nearly done; when they would be quite done appeared very doubtful.

This girl was a very amusing specimen of a real, wild, Irish girl, hardy, shrewd, and simple, with a sharpness of observation peculiar to her country; her hearty laugh at seeing me lifted over the stream made us laugh also. I asked her, "If I was not well taken care of?" "Faith and troth, an he's not bad to ye," was her comical reply. We were gathering the wild veronica, and speaking of the legend, to which she listened with great attention, and made many efforts to pronounce the saint's name. We presently came to the great brawling stream after its fall, swollen by several days of such rain as people in England know nothing about, and the passage over lumps of rock, at jumping distances, with the black, boiling, roaring torrent, rushing along, looked rather too much for me, and I proposed waiting whilst my companion went on to the fall: the surprise and derision on her face was capital, and away she went over to show me the safety of the measure. I certainly thought her broad bare feet had much the advantage of mine on the wet slippery rocks; however, I screwed up my courage she grasped her half-knit sock in one hand, and clutched tight hold of me with the other, and I do not think many girls of sixteen could have given such man-like support to uncertain steps,-over we went safely, but it was disagreeable enough.

The water-fall was worth some trouble: it was fifty or sixty feet high, perhaps more; the water dashed, in two very strong parallel streams, perpendicularly to the bottom, quite unchecked, till it met the fragments below with a noble roar, scattering clouds of spray, which fell like a heavy shower where we stood, a hundred yards off, with a chill that was very disagreeable. The sun was trying to shine through, without much success, but the trees and rocks beyond were glowing in brightness, and the whole scene was one of exquisite beauty. Campbell thought it very odd that I should not have seen before what she saw every day, and assured me that the preceding day the fall was so furious it would have feared me to look at it.

She took us to a fall of another stream, much higher and blacker: there were two falls of sixty or more feet deep each, with a short inclined plane, like a Welsh cataract, combining them; the rock rose like black walls crested with trees, and wherever a morsel of soil could rest a tree shot out; but the fall is merely a cleft in the rock, too narrow for much beauty, and very difficult to see, as it makes an angle from its first to its second fall, and the whole height can hardly be seen from any point; the path to it is very narrow, steep, and slippery; and Campbell said few ladies would venture; but I suspect that was said to restore my self-respect after my fears at crossing the stream; for there was nothing beyond fatigue to apprehend at the path; a false step would have been checked immediately by the trees and bushes on the steep bank.

Campbell was very communicative about her affairs, and seemed to think it hard that she was sixteen and had

not a bachelor. A girl of her acquaintance had married at fifteen; she thought that rather early, but at sixteen it was quite time to begin house-keeping. "Let me see," said I, "if you are fit to be married,— can you make a shirt?" "That can I." "Can you milk a Cow?" " Rightly, if there were twenty of them." "Can you cook a dinner?" "Aye." "Could you keep your temper if your husband was cross?" "Eh, fegs! may be I'd be the crassist o' the two." The laughter so honest and unexpected an answer occasioned put an end to the matter; it is a good sample of the spirit and originality of an Irish talk; and it is curious how peculiarly straight forward and precise they are in their replies on common matters, contrasted with their clever evasions and subterfuges in the witness-box, or if they apprehend any advantage will be taken of them. In speaking to an English person one can quite anticipate the style and tone of the replies; but in Ireland there is perpetually something strange and quaint, which "like unexpected light surprises,"

Campbell had probably only her knitting needles for dowry, and will marry some boy with only a spade for his fortune. We received a note indited by the public letter-writer of the village for a man we had employed, begging our "Honour would be pleased to setile the small bill, being in great want of the same❞—the amount was 8d. We heard afterwards that it was his wedding. day, and that the eight-pence was the income upon which the happy pair were to begin housekeeping.

We encountered rather an odd wedding party lately; there were fifteen or sixteen persons, young and old, men and women; the procession headed by the bridegroom pretty considerably tipsy; the bride in her blue cloak and white cap, with the usual redundant borders, and a very red face, and another man and woman, all arm in arm. They had been three miles to Paddy Mae Ghie's, a public-house, a convenient distance, midway between the two chapels where the clergy met and married them; and they were returning to finish the day at another public-house at the expense of the new couple. On the ensuing Sunday the whole party reassembled to "make an appearance," that is, go in a body to mass, and then to a public-house, where the jovialities of the wedding-day were repeated at the expense of the friends. The bridegroom's brother was with difficulty persuaded to join the "appearance;" he absolutely refused going to the wedding because his leave had not been asked, and it was not to his “plasement." The party were returning home at half-past eleven, some very steady, some rather excited, and two men in the most ludicrous degree of drink; singing, crying, fighting, embracing each other with an uproar only practicable to Irish throats, till the police captured them, and their "appearance" ended in their appearing before the magistrate: but this is very uncommon.

ON MOSAIC-WORK. I.

ONE of the most ingenious modes of disposing materials in an ornamental form is that which is known by the name of mosaic-work, which consists in the admixture of small pieces of differently-coloured substances so disposed as to produce a picture or device,

Critics are divided in opinion as to the origin and meaning of the word mosaic, some deriving it from mʊsaicum, a corruption of musaicum, which in its turn was 2 corruption of musivum, the name by which it was known to the Romans. Scaliger derives the name from the Greek μovoa, and imagines that the name was given to this sort of work, as being very fine and ingenious.

The materials thus inlaid, or joined in small pieces, are very various, comprising precious stones, marble, stone of inferior quality, plaster, enamel, wood, &c.; and there is evidence that the art of working such fragments into an ornamental device was known in high

antiquity, for the tesselated pavements of the ancients are clearly examples of mosaic-work. We are told in the book of Esther, that in the palace of Ahasuerus was "a pavement of red, and blue, and black marble." Athenæus speaks of the rich pavements in the palace of Demetrius Phalereus (B.c. 312), and Hiero, king of Syracuse (B.C. 270), is said by the same author to have had an extraordinary ship constructed, in which the tesselated pavements of the cabins represented the whole fable of the Iliad.

The mosaic pavements discovered in Britain, which was long a Roman province, are so numerous that we cannot afford space to enumerate them. It must suffice to say that the generality of such mosaics represent the circus-games, theatrical scenes, marine deities, tritons, and nereids, together with various ornamental devices. Not only pavements, but other portions of large buildings also, were decorated in this manner, particularly at later periods than those to which the production of such objects as those just described must be referred. Justi nian decorated the church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, during the sixth century, with mosaic-work, formed with a coloured foil interposed. Some of the earlier popes decorated the churches of Italy with mosaic, but the art declined there in about the fifth or sixth century, and appears to have been almost totally lost, until Andrea Taffi learned it from a Greek artist, named Apollonius, who was employed on the church of St. Mark, at Venice, in the thirteenth century. From that time the art of working in mosaic became much practised, and many eminent Italians distinguished themselves by their skill therein, among whom were Giotto, Tucca, Mancini, Calandra, Lafranco, Cristofi, Brughi, Calendrelli, and Camussi.

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The most curious specimens of mosaic are those which, from the small size of the pieces composing them, enable the artists to produce tolerable representations of pictures, in which all the differentlycoloured portions are given by appropriately-coloured pieces of enamel. Many specimens of this kind have been preserved. On the roof of the baptistery of the Church of St. John at Ravenna, the baptism of Jesus Christ is represented in mosaic, ascribed to the fifth century. The ceremony is represented as being performed partly by sprinkling and partly by immersion. A circular compartment in the centre is occupied by Christ standing upright in the river, while John, holding a mis-shapen cross in one hand, pours water from a shell or some vessel on his head. It likewise contains a human figure, inscribed Jordann, rising out of the water, which is probably a personification of the sacred river. This compartment is environed by full-length figures of the twelve apostles, and the whole is surrounded by a border, consisting of pulpits, altars, and other sacred emblems.

The Romans carried the art of constructing such pavements to the greatest extent, since in all parts of Europe once included within the Roman Empire, speci-partly by doublets, or pieces of glass united horizontally mens of them are from time to time discovered. One of the finest extant was discovered at a village near Seville, in the year 1799, at the depth of three feet and a half from the surface. It extends about forty feet in length, by nearly thirty in breadth, and contains a representation of the circus-games, in a parallelogram in the centre, three sides of which are surrounded by circular compartments, containing portraits of the Muses, interspersed with the figures of animals, and some imaginary subjects. In the race-course are seen a chariot overturned, the charioteer thrown out of his seat, and horsemen dismounted. The charioteer, having been injured by his fall, is supported by two men belonging to a different faction or party, as may be ascertained by their costume, which in all the figures is well represented. The horses are of a deep brown colour; their tails are ent as in the modern fashion, and they have a generally spirited appearance. Various persons interested in the games appear in other portions of the course, and beyond it; but part of the pavement has been destroyed by time, and by the rough usage of the workmen by whom it was discovered. A double row of circular compartments bound the sides of the course, some of which are entire. Each is about three feet and a half in diameter, ornamented by a broad circular border as a frame. The whole plan is finished by an exterior border, highly embellished. Nine of these compartments are occupied by busts of the Muses, arranged after the manner prescribed by Hesiod, and in the order of the books of Herodotus, but alternately, so that a compartment containing a mask or an animal, or some other subject, is always interposed between two of the Muses. The name of each Muse is inscribed in her respective compartment, and several have their attributes, concerning which antiquaries have been frequently at variance. The countenances of the Muses are handsome, deep brown, as if belonging to a southern climate, with regular features, and fine large animated eyes. All have auburn hair, artificially disposed in different fashions, and in some instances ornamented. The other compartments which bound the circus are occupied variously; a centaur, children in differently-coloured tunics, animals, birds, fruit, flowers, &c., being among the objects represented. This elaborate specimen is supposed to have belonged to the hall of the baths of a palace, and to have been constructed prior to the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81). Another beautiful mosaic pavement was discovered at Lyons, in the year 1806, and is supposed to be about 1500 years old. It is composed of small marble cubes, sometimes interspersed with pastes of different colours, and extends fifteen feet and a half in length, by nine and a half in breadth, exclusive of an ornamental border. The whole details of the games of the circus are represented here, from which it appears that no less than eight chariots started at a time: some of the chariots are represented as broken, and the horses and charioteers fallen, as in the mosaic at Seville, for it was a point of address among the ancients to overthrow their competitors in the course. Some of their horses are white, gray, or pale bay, and their figures are elegant and animated. A number of persons, in peculiar costumes, seem to have a share in the ganes, and those presiding are mostly clothed in blue.

Rome has been celebrated for the production of mosaic pictures. We are told of a portrait of Pope Paul the Fifth, in which the face alone consists of one million seven hundred thousand pieces, each no larger than a grain of millet! The enamel or other substances prepared for this singular kind of portrait-painting, is tinted of a vast variety of different shades, in order to obtain the required gradations of colour in the picture. The present number of tints in mosaic is said to amount to no less than sixteen or seventeen thousand, proceeding by a nicety of gradation almost inconceivable. seventy years ago the tints were said to be about five thousand in number, so that a considerable increase has taken place since that time.

About

There is a large establishment at Rome, belonging to the Pope, where mosaic painting is conducted on a large scale. The different materials are arranged in numerous apartments, from which they are removed by the artists when wanted. Besides this establishment there are many artists at Rome occupied in smaller works, such as pictures; full-length figures, whose (imensions do not exceed two or three inches; birds, insects, and baskets of flowers,-all in miniature, and exquisitely finished. A very elaborate mosaic picture was completed at Milan, about twenty years ago, after Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper, preserved in a convent of that city. This mosaic was about 24 feet in length, by 12 in breadth, imbedded in 12 slabs of marble. It was the production of Rafaelli, an artist of the Roman school, by whom eight or ten men were employed on it daily

during eight years. This work, valued at 7500l., was ordered by Bonaparte, whose downfall caused it to remain in the possession of the artist, from whom, however, it was subsequently purchased by the Emperor of Austria. Other specimens of mosaic painting have cost from five to six thousand pounds each. In the church of St. Peter's at Rome are many large specimens, after paintings by Raphael, Guido, Carlo Maratti, Guercino, and other eminent painters.

Caylus and Winkelmann, in the last century, described two curious specimens of mosaic, made of glass, consisting of coloured glass fibres fitted with the utmost exactness, so that a section across the fibres represented the object to be delineated. The fibres, when properly joined together, were cemented by fusion into a solid mass. Of these two specimens, each of which was about an inch long, and one third of an inch broad, one exhibited, on a dark ground of variegated colours, a duck of various lively colours. The outlines were decided and sharp, the colours beautiful and pure, and the effect very striking, from the artist having used in some parts opaque, and in others transparent glass. The most delicate pencil of the miniature painter could not have traced more accurately and distinctly, either the circle of the pupil of the eye, or the apparently scaly feathers on the breast and wings. The other specimen was about the same size, and exhibited an ornamental device of green, white, and yellow colours, which were traced on a blue ground, and represented volutes, beads, and flowers resting on pyramidally-converging lines. On whichever side these specimens were viewed, a similar object was perceived, for the pictures were formed of very slender fibres of glass, laid side by side, according to their colours, and afterwards exposed to a heat just sufficient to fuse the whole into a connected mass, without disturbing or injuring the tints of any one fibre.

Having thus given a brief description of the most remarkable specimens of mosaic, we will in another article describe the operations by which they are produced.

COMMERCIAL TELEGRAPHS AND THE PENNY POSTAGE.

IMPROVEMENTS generate improvements oftentimes in most unexpected directions. It seems almost absurd to say that the reduction of the duty on salt has cheapened literature-it is so, nevertheless. The reduction of this duty led to the manufacture of a very cheap bleaching liquid, which, acting upon coloured rags, rendered them suitable for white paper, the manufacture of which before this discovery was limited to white rags. The consequence has been that paper is much cheapened.

A somewhat analogous instance is afforded by the extension of mercantile telegraphs along the chief headlands of the coast, which may be attributed to the existence of the penny postage. The establishment of these telegraphs is a private enterprise, quite unconnected with government, and mainly established for the purposes of rapid communication on subjects connected with mercantile shipping. Great must be the commerce, and deep its interests, to support a system of telegraphs for its own use. Public attention has been recently called to the subject by the completion of a line of telegraphs between London and Dover, being a part of the general system. The system began some years ago, by Lieutenant Watson (of the Royal Navy), who formed a line of telegraphs at the port of Liverpool, and subsequently at Hull, and projected the establishment of telegraphs at the chief headlands along the whole coast. Their advantages in communicating with vessels at sea, and procuring timely assistance in cases where the want of it has led to serious losses of life and property, were felt to be very valuable. But the cost of the necessary correspondence between the telegraphic stations and the central office, with the owners and other parties interested, was found to be so great under the

old rate of postage, that the extension of the system to the headlands was abandoned. No sooner, however, did the penny postage loosen the bonds which fettered correspondence, than Lieutenant Watson appears to have commenced the extension of his telegraphs.

The reduction of postage, (he states,) offered such facilities for transmitting intelligence to all parts of the kingdom, that it was determined to extend the system to the principal headlands round the coast. Telegraph stations are now at work at Flamborough Head and the North Foreland; at the Needles, Isle of Wight, to Southampton, whence by the railroad commmunications are received six times a day in London; at Skirra Head, Pentland Firth, Peter Head, Aberdeenshire; and others are in progress from the Start to Dartmouth, and other principal headlands, including the Bristol Channel, the Clyde, and the south-west coast of Ireland. Cutters as floating telegraphs, will be constantly cruising in the Downs, and off the Isle of Wight, for the purpose of communicating with vessels as they pass.

Such telegraphs when established, will enable vessels from every quarter of the globe, to report themselves, or forward intelligence immediately on making the British shores. They may communicate to their owners, consignees, or others interested, in cases of accident or distress; if out of time, or detained by adverse winds; if in want of stores or provisions; the state of foreign markets; notices of arrivals out, &c; and they may frequently save pilotage, port charges, and loss of time, by calling off any of the telegraph stations for orders.

where the service of these telegraphs has been very It may not be uninteresting to adduce some instances

apparent.

ist. The ship Consbrook, from Bombay, unable to save her tide into Liverpool, came to an anchor off the floating light. She had but one anchor on board: at low water a gale commenced from the westward, and as the flood made, she dragged towards the banks; she could not slip and claw off against wind and tide, nor could she run into port for want of water; she therefore telegraphed as follows:

1545. In want of an anchor and cable.
1531. Weight of anchor, 16 cwt.

The

These were supplied, and brought the vessel up within 150 yards of that fatal spot, the North Spit Bank. vessel and cargo were estimated at about 65,0007., and were underwritten in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow.

6th. In a snow storm, a brigantine, 68 tons register, with a cargo on board estimated at about twelve thousand pounds value, having sailed from Hull the previous day, was driven ashore on that dangerous point, the Binks, nounced the fact of A brigantine being ashore," but as off Spurn. Early in the morning, the telegraph anthe vessel had not been provided with the necessary flags for signals, her name could not then be announced. At eleven o'clock, however, some means of communication having been effected between the vessel and the telegraph on board the Humber float, intelligence was instantly forwarded that she was the Mary, Captain Lancaster, bound to Dunkirk, which information might have been received several hours earlier had the vessel possessed the signals. On its being communicated to the parties interested, they secured the means of rendering efficient assistance, by sending down a steamer, and hiring lighters, which succeeded in discharging and transhipping this valuable cargo during the night; and thus, in consequence of the rapid intelligence conveyed by the telegraph, placing the cargo in safetybefore the time the accident could have been known in Hult through the ordinary means. Indeed the telegraph may fairly lay claim to the merit of having saved both vessel and cargo, as at the time it was blowing a fresh gale, and a heavy sea running.

There seems but little relationship between a penny post letter and the safety of a ship's cargo of several thousand pounds in value, yet that such is the fact, these telegraphs seem to prove; and we doubt not that as post office improvement becomes more and more deve loped, beneficial results, not less remarkable, will be

traced to its existence.

LONDON:

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

Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the Kingdom.

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