Part 2

At the Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, held on the 28th ult., considerable interest was excited by an extract from a letter of Mr. Alexander Loudon, communicated to the Society by John Barrow, Esq. The letter contains the account of a visit to a small valley in the island of Java, which is particularly remarkable for its power of destroying, in a very short space of time the life of man, or any animal exposed to its atmosphere. It is distant only three miles from Batur, in Java; and on the 4th of July, Mr. Loudon, with a party of friends, set out on a visit to it. It is known by the name of Guevo Upas, or Poisoned Valley; and, following a path which had been made for the purpose, the party shortly reached it, with a couple of dogs and some fowls, for the purpose of making experiments.--On arriving at the mountain the party dismounted, and scrambled up the side of a hill, a distance of a quarter of a mile, with the assistance of the branches of trees and projecting roots. In consequence of the heavy rain that had fallen in the night, this was rendered more difficult, and occasioned much fatigue. When a few yards from the valley, a strong nauseous and suffocating smell was experienced, but on approaching the margin the inconvenience was no longer found. The scene that now presented itself is described as of the most appalling nature. The valley is about half a mile in circumference, of an oval shape, about 30 or 35 feet in depth. The bottom of it appeared to be flat, without any vegetation, and a few large stones scattered here and there.--The attention of the party was immediately attracted to the number of skeletons of human beings, tigers, boars, deer, and all sorts of birds and wild animals, which lay about in profusion. The ground on which they lay at the bottom of the valley, appeared to be a hard sandy substance, and no vapour was perceived issuing from it, nor any opening through which it might escape, and the sides were covered with vegetation. It was now proposed to enter it, and each of the party, having lit a cigar, managed to get within twenty feet of the bottom, where a sickening nauseous smell was experienced, without any difficulty in breathing. A dog was now fastened at the end of a bamboo and thrust to the bottom of the valley, while some of the party, with their watches in their hands, observed the effects. At the expiration of fourteen seconds the dog fell off his legs without moving or looking round, and continued alive only eighteen minutes. The other dog now left the party and went to his companion; on reaching him he was observed to stand quite motionless, and at the end of ten seconds fell down; he never moved his limbs after, and lived only seven minutes. A fowl was now thrown in, which died in a minute and a half, and another which was thrown after it died in the space of a minute and a half. A heavy shower of rain fell during the time that these experiments were going forward, which, from the interesting nature of the experiments, was quite disregarded. On the opposite side of the valley to that which was visited, lay a human skeleton, the head resting on the right arm. The effects of the weather had bleached the bones as white as ivory. Two hours were passed in this valley of death, and the party had some difficulty in getting out of it, owing to the rain that had fallen. The human skeletons are supposed to be those of rebels, who have been pursued from the main road, and taken refuge in the valley without a knowledge of the danger to which they were thus exposing themselves.--(The effects, as here described, are identical with those at the Grotto del Cane, at Naples, and no doubt arise from the same cause. These seem more strange in an open valley; but the mephitic air at the Grotto is so heavy that you may stand upright without inconvenience, as it rises but a few inches above the surface.)--_Morning Chronicle_.

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CHOLERA.--VAPOUR BATH.

(_To the Editor_.)

As you know that a variety of remedies are put forth for the Cholera Morbus, and as the external application of heat, either by friction, or water or vapour baths, is among the most effectual means of arresting the fatal termination of that dreadful malady, perhaps the following description of a vapour bath may claim a place in the _Mirror_:--

It is not generally known in England, that the settlers in the remote parts of North America make use of the following simple mode of procuring a vapour bath.

The patient is enveloped in blankets, which are closely fastened about the neck, leaving the head exposed. He sits on a chair (under the chair is placed a basin, or deep dish, with half a pint of either alcohol or whisky, which is ignited)--the blankets lap over each other, enveloping the whole, and are closed to the floor, by other blankets, &c., as much as possible. In a very few minutes the patient is in a profuse perspiration; he is then immediately put to bed between warm blankets.

The simplicity and easy application of the above bath render it invaluable, as the most ignorant persons may use it with safety; and in such a disorder as the cholera morbus it may be found of excellent effect, before the possible arrival of a medical practitioner.

G.I.B.

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THE THREE KINGS' ISLANDS, OFF NEW ZEALAND.

These islands have a barren aspect, are of moderate height, and may be seen on a clear day at a distance of twenty-five miles. They lie in an angular position, in a north, south, and east direction. The eastern island is the longest, and may be a mile in length; the other two are about equal, both in size and height, and may be about a quarter of a mile in length. At the south-east end of the western island, adjoining are several high rocks, which at a distance of seven or eight miles have the appearance of separate islets: these rocks extend five or six miles to the E.N.E., with the sea breaking a little without them.

On the east side of the largest of these islands there is reported to be a small, sandy bay, where a boat could land in fine weather. In it there is a good spring of fresh water, some goats, and abundance of wild celery. These islands do not appear to occupy more space than eight miles from north to south, and nearly the same distance from east to west. There is no danger to be apprehended at the distance of two miles on the south side, as we passed them at that distance.[3]--_Mr. G.B.'s Journ. of New Zealand, March 28, 1829_.

[3] A current was experienced off these islands, setting S.S.W. at the rate of three miles an hour. The day previous to making the land, a strong current appeared to set from the N.W.

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EFFECTS OF FRIGHT.

Amongst the various afflictions which have been produced on nervous persons and young children, by being suddenly frightened, it is probably not generally known that loss of hearing is not one of the least unfrequent. In Mr. Curtis's new work on the Diseases of the Ear, two cases are related in which children were alarmed: in the one instance, by being put into a dark cellar by a servant, and in the other by being frightened by an elder sister; and in both of these cases the effect was such that total deafness ensued. The former case was attended with the loss of speech. These cases are mentioned to show the danger and impropriety of children being frightened by servants or others, as it is an evil the effects of which remain a long time, sometimes until death--not unfrequently producing fits, and a long train of diseases.--_From a Correspondent_.

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AFRICAN EXPEDITION.

The literary and scientific world will hear with much interest that two enterprising individuals, of the name of Colthurst and Tyrwhitt, gentlemen by birth and education, are about to proceed immediately to Africa at their own expense, with a view of exploring the interior of that country. Their intention is to proceed from Benin, on the western coast, through to Egypt, their object being to solve the problem of the mighty Nile. They have our best wishes for the success of so noble and spirited an enterprise.--_Times_.

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RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS.

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ANCIENT NAVY OF ENGLAND.

History mentions a great fleet of Julius Caesar; a fleet of King Edgar, consisting of 3,600 sail; a fleet of Lewis, son to Philip King of France, of 600 sail, that arrived at Sandwich, to assist the English Barons against King John;--but those, doubtless, were but as so many cottages to castles, in respect of the present ships of war.

Henry the Eighth, in the fifth year of his reign, built a ship, then accounted the greatest that had ever been seen in England, and named it Henry Grace de Dieu, or the Great Henry: it was of a thousand tons.

In the eighth year of King James was built, by the Londoners, a ship of 1,200 tons, and called the Trades Increase; which being lost in the East Indies, King James caused another to be built, of 1,400 tons; which being given to Prince Henry, was by him named The Prince.

King Charles the Martyr, perceiving the great increase of shipping in our neighbour nations, and that the sovereignty of these seas was like to be disputed, amongst other great ships of war, built one greater than any ship of war either in England or in any other country of Europe, and named it the Royal Sovereign, which, for its size, etc., shall be more particularly described. The Royal Sovereign, being a ship of the first rate or rank, built in the year 1637, is in length, by the keel, 127 feet; in breadth, by the beam, 47 feet; in depth, 49 feet; her draught of water, 21 feet; of burden, in all, 2,072 tons; and 1,492 tons, besides guns, tackle, etc. This mighty moving castle has six anchors: whereof the biggest weighs 6,000 lbs., and the least 4,300. It hath 14 cables: whereof the greatest is 21 inches in compass, and weighs 9,000 lbs., her least cable being eight inches in compass, weighing near 1,300 lbs. To the Royal Sovereign belong eighteen masts and yards: whereof the greatest, called the mainmast, is 113 feet long, and 38 inches diameter; her main yard 102 feet long, and 23 inches diameter; and her main top, 15 feet diameter. She hath ten several sorts of sails of several names (as every ship of every one of the sixth rate has): whereof her greatest sail, called her maincourse (together with her bonnet) contains 1,640 yards of canvass, Ipswich double; and the least sail, called fore-top-gallant-sail, contains 130 yards of canvass. The charge of one complete suit of sails for the Sovereign is 404l. Stirling money; the weight of the sea store, in point of ground tackle and other cordage, is sixty tons, eight hundred and odd pounds. She carries a long-boat of fifty feet, a pinnacle of thirty-six feet, and a skiff of twenty-seven feet long. The weight of her rigging, three and thirty tons.

She hath three tier of guns, all of brass: whereof there are forty-four upon her upper tier, and twenty-two in her lower tier--in all, one hundred guns. She carries, in all, of officers, soldiers, and mariners, eight hundred and fifty men. Finally, her whole charges for wages, victuals, ammunition, wear and tear, for every month at sea, costs the king 3,500l. stirling, as hath been computed by a very skilful person.

The charges of building a ship of the first rate, together with guns, tackle, and rigging (besides victualling), doth ordinarily amount to about 62,432l. Those of lower rates proportionably.--_Angliæ Notitia_.

G.K.

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OLD POETS.

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CHILDREN.

Riches of children pass a prince's throne Which touch the father's heart with secret joy, When without shame he saith, "These be mine own."

SIR P. SIDNEY

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FAME.

Then came they to the foul and loathsome lake. Dark, deep, and miry, of a dreadful hue, Where was the aged man that never stinted To carry bundles of the names imprinted. This was the man, whom (as I told before) Nature and custom so swift of foot had made, He never rested, but ran evermore. And with his coming he did use his trade; A heap of names within his cloak he bare, And in the river did them all unlade; Or, to say truth, away he cast them all Into this stream, which Lethe we do call. This prodigal old wretch no sooner came Unto this cursed river's barren bank, But desperately, without all fear of blame, Or caring to deserve reward or thank, He hurl'd therein full many a precious name Where millions soon unto the bottom sank: Hardly in every thousand one was found That was not in the gulf quite lost and drown'd; Yet all about great store of birds there flew, As vultures, carrion crows, and chattering pies, And many more of sundry kinds and hue, Making lewd harmony with their loud cries: These, when the careless wretch the treasure threw Into the stream, did all they could devise, What with their talons some, and some with beak, To save these names, but found themselves too weak. For ever as they thought themselves to raise, To bear away those names of good renown, The weight of them so heavy downward weighs, They in the stream were driven to cast them down, Only two swans sustained so great a prize, In spite of him who sought them all to drown: These two did still take up whose names they list, And bare them safe away, and never miss'd. Sometime all under the foul lake they dived, And took up some that were with water cover'd, And those that seem'd condemned they reprived. And often as about the bank they hovered, They caught them, ere they to the stream arrived, Then went they with the names they had recovered, Up to a hill that stood the water nigh, On which a stately church was built on high. This place is sacred to immortal fame, And evermore a nymph stands at the gate, And took the names wherewith the two swans came, Whether they early come, or whether late. Then all about the church she hang'd the same, Before that sacred image in such rate As they might then be well assured for ever, Spite of that wretch, in safety to persever.

SIR J. HARRINGTON.

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CARE OF CHILDREN.

All as the painful ploughman plies his toil With shear and coulter shearing through the soil, That costs him dear and ditches it about, Or crops his hedge to make it undersprout, And never stays to ward it from the weed, But most respects to sow therein good seed; To th' end when summer decks the meadows plain, He may have recompense of costs and pain. Or like the maid who careful is to keep The budding flower, that first begins to peep Out of the knop and waters it full oft, To make it seemly show the head aloft, That it may (when she draws it from the stocks) Adorn her gorget white and golden locks. So wise Merari all his study styl'd To fashion well the manners of his child.

HUDSON.

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GOD.

----How soever things in likelihood dissent In birth, life, death, our God is first, the middle, and event. And not what he can do he will, but what he will be can, And that he do or do it not, behoves us not to to scan.

WARNER.

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NIGHT.

Now from the fresh, the soft, and tender bed, Of her still mother gentle Night outflew The fleeting balm on hills and dales she shed, With honey drops of pure and precious dew, And on the verdure of green forests spread, The virgin primrose and the violet blue; And sweet breath Zephyr on his spreading wings Sleep, ease, repose, rest, peace and quiet brings. The thoughts and troubles of broad waking day They softly dip in mild oblivion's lake.

FAIRFAX.

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Now the world's comforter with weary gait, His day's hot task hath ended in the west; The owl (Night's herald) shrieks; 'tis very late, The sheep are gone to fold, the birds to nest, The cool black clouds that shadow heaven's light Do summon us to part and bid good night.

SHAKSPEARE.

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WIT.

The wit the pupil of the soul's clear eye, And in man's world the only shining star, Looks in the mirror of the phantasy, Where all the gathering of the senses are, From thence this power the shape of things abstracts, And them within her passive part receives, Which are enlightened by that part which acts, And so the form of single things receives; But after by discoursing to and fro, Anticipating and comparing things, She doth all universal natures know And all effects into their causes bring. Our wit is given Almighty God to know, Our will is given to love him being known, But God could not be known to us below But by his works, which through the sense are known.

DAVIS.

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THE SELECTOR; AND LITERARY NOTICES OF _NEW WORKS._

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HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.

_Effects of the Dissolution._

The progress of the Reformation was attended (as all great national convulsions are) with many and sad excesses. The work of destruction, when long continued, is in itself a thing which hardens the heart; and the Reformation was full of it. Monk and nun turned out of house and home, pensioned indeed, but (except in the case of superiors, who were treated with more lenity) pensioned with a miserable equivalent; their dwelling-places, beautiful as many of them were, laid low, that all hope of return might be cut off; their cells surrendered to the bats and owls; their chapels made a portion for foxes, the mosaic pavements torn up, the painted windows dashed in pieces, the bells gambled for, or sold into Russia and other countries,[4] though often before they reached their destination buried in the ocean--all and utterly dismantled, save where, happening to be parish churches also, as was the case at St. Alban's, Tewkesbury, Malvern, and elsewhere, they were rescued in whole, or in part, from Henry's harpies, by the petitions or the pecuniary contributions of the pious inhabitants;[5] libraries, of which most monasteries contained one, treated by their new possessors with barbaric contempt; "some books reserved for their jakes, some to scour their candlesticks, some to rub their boots, some sold to the grocers and soap-boilers, and some sent over sea to book-binders, not in small numbers, but at times whole shipsful, to the wondering of foreign nations; a single merchant purchasing at forty shillings a piece two noble libraries to be used as grey-paper, and such as having already sufficed for ten years were abundantly enough (says the eye-witness whose words are here quoted) for many years more;"[6] these were some of the coarser features of those times; howbeit there were many besides these. For the churches were now treated with gross irreverence; horses and mules were led through them; they were profaned by dogs and hawks, by doves and owls, by stares and choughs;[7] they were plundered of their plate by churchwardens, or other powerful parishioners,[8] who might argue, that if they spared, others would spoil; or who might wish ill to the cause of the Reformation, and take such means to scandalize it. London, says Latimer, was never so full of ill; charity was waxen cold in it. "Oh, London, London," cries this earnest old man, "repent! repent! for I think God more displeased with London, than he ever was with the city of Nebo."[9] Such was the profligacy of its youth, that he marvels the earth gaped not to swallow it up. There were many that denied the immortality of the soul, and the existence of a heaven or a hell.[10] Manly sports and pastimes had been exchanged for the gaming-table. Divorces, even amongst the inferior classes of society, were become common; for marriage being declared no sacrament, probably many chose to interpret the declaration to mean that it was no bond.[11] The elementary bread of the eucharist was expressed by base and indecent nicknames.[12] The alehouses were filled with profane disputants upon the mysteries of our faith, and the dissolute scoffers made songs upon them:[13] "Green Sleeves," "Maggy Lauder," and "John Anderson my Jo," with numbers more, were all of this class of compositions; and psalms (in this instance, perhaps, without any intentional levity) were set to hornpipes. To crown all, a multitude of disaffected persons were at large in the country, speaking evil of dignities, and exciting the idle, the hungry, and the aggrieved, to riot and rebellion; bearding the government with audacious demands of changes, both civil and ecclesiastical, to be made at their pleasure, couched in language the most imperative and insolent; "such," Cranmer observes in his answer to them, "as was not at any time used of subjects to their prince since the beginning of the world."[14]

[4] Some Account of Shrewsbury, p. 128.

[5] See the Petition of the Inhabitants of Holm Cultram, in Cumberland, to Cromwell, praying for the preservation of the abbey church there A.D. 1538. Ellis's Original Letters, ii. 89.

[6] Spelman, Hist. and Fate of Sacrilege, p. 202. The extract is from a letter of John Bale to Leland.

[7] Homily on keeping clean of Churches.

[8] Strype's Cranmer, 177.

[9] Latimer's Sermons, i.60, 61.--Id. i. 176.

[10] Id. i. 167.

[11] Latimer's Sermons, i; 176, 220.

[12] Strype's Cranmer, 175.

[13] Fox, 1048. Percy's Reliques of English Poetry, ii 291. Shakspeare's Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 2.

[14] Strype, Append, 88.

_Fox's Book of Martyrs_.