author rectifies, in some measure, the geography of the Black Sea, it is singular that he has added no map of it. One may probably be designed to illustrate his subsequent travels on its

coasts.

The marriage-ceremonies of the moslems are described more minutely than by former authors, and particularly a kind of marriage styled kapin, not much employed.

The second manner of a man marrying one or several wives, distinguished by the name of kapin, consists in his presenting himself before the cadi, and binding himself to feed and maintain till a certain period, such a woman whom he designates and whose consent he has obtained: which is attested by her father or her nearest relation, and two witnesses; to take care of the children that she shall bear, and to give up to her besides, at the time of repudiation or at the expiration of the term agreed on, a sum of money or clothes, effects and property stipulated and expressed. The children that proceed from these marriages, enjoy the same rights as the others, and remain at the charge of the father when he has repudiated or put away his wife.

It seldom happens that mussulmans marry in this manner, be cause women of a certain rank would never consent to be united to a man on such conditions, and because the latter generally prefers to purchase slaves, rather than marry in the kapin manner with mussulman women born of poor parents.' Vol. i. P. 155.

Our author considers at some length the disadvantages of polygamy, but several of these are greatly exaggerated. He does not advert to a known fact, that, in countries where polygamy is allowed, the proportion of females is greater than that of males in other countries the proportion of the latter exceeds that of the former.

M. Olivier was present when the Turkish army filed off on the expedition against Paswan Oglou; and gives a more satisfactory account of this famous rebel, and the cause of his revolt, than we have yet seen. It shows the independent power of the pachas, and the little" firmness and potency of the sultan. The whole is too long. for an extract, and incapable of abridge

ment.

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The climate of Constantinople is delightful; yet the stove and pelisse are necessaries in the colder months, where fires cannot be procured. Dogs and vultures are almost equally requisite in a country where offal and ordure are constantly accumulating the latter are in the most emaciated state, and though partly supported by charity and compassion, yet find a very precarious and scanty subsistence. Our author's account of the plague is, on the whole, correct, though with some minute errors; and the political situation of the empire, in the more confined circle of politics, is well described. We have already given a sketch of this kind, though the intelligent reader

will probably seek, in the work itself, for more ample details. The account of the trade of Constantinople is also more full than any we had before seen.

From this city, our author passes the Dardanelles, visits the gulf of Mundania, the Troad, Lesbos, Scio, Cimolis, and some of the adjacent islands of the Cyclades. He proceeds to Milo, returns to Cimolis, and afterwards visits Crete. His account of this last island is very copious. The gulf of Mundania is the dock-yard of the Turks, where their largest ship's are built, in consequence of the vicinity of the forests: and the two kinds of oak which the Turkish workmen employ are particularly described, as well as two different sorts of fir. Prince's Islands, at the entrance of the Propontis, had engaged his attention in a separate excursion, and been the objects of a sufficiently minute examination. Should the Turks ever wish to guard against the plague-for M. Olivier has shown that it is not an endemic disease-these islands are admirably adapted for the establishment of lazarettoes. The country and the neighbouring islands are more particularly described by our author than in any other work that we have seen.

The passage of the Dardanelles is the next object of importance; and indeed the whole country, on each side of the Hellespont, is interesting ;-it is classic ground.

The Hellespont, at first sight, resembles a majestic river quietly carrying its waters to the ocean; but, confined within its bed, it is never known to pass the limits which nature has traced for it. Here are not seen those devastating overflowings to which countries crossed by great rivers are top frequently exposed. Neither are there to be met with, in the environs, those infectious marshes, those stagnant waters, so common towards the mouth of rivers: here the lands are cultivated, or are naturally covered with verdure even close to the water. And if the shores of the Hellespont are not fecundified by canals of irrigation, if the waters deposit not on the lands a fertilising mud, the communications which it establishes between the Propontis and the Black Sea on the one side, the Mediterranean and the Ocean on the other, the advantages which agriculture and industry can derive from the facility of conveyance, are benefits greater, perhaps, than those which would result, to these countries, from the vicinity of a great river.

The Rhodius takes its source to the north-east of Mount Ida: it receives a few rivulets which flow from the neighbouring mountains, and, after having traversed a space of twelve or fifteen miles, it discharges itself into the Hellespont, by the side of the castle of the Dardanelles. Its waters, by no means abundant in summer, are kept back and employed in the irrigation of the lands; but in winter, swelled by the rains which are frequent in that season, it occupies a bed sufficiently large to deserve the name of river. The inhabitants of the Dardanelles have constructed a wooden bridge at some distance from its mouth, in order to be able to cross at all times to the left

bank, and repair to the fields that they cultivate beyond it.' Vol. ii. P. 28.

We find nothing to detain us till we arrive at the Troad; and, with Chevalier in his hand, M. Olivier finds every thing correct which that writer has advanced :-we believe that in general it will be found so. But our author was on the site of Troy without discovering any vestiges of it; for, long since, periere ruina. The remains of its namesake, founded by Alexander in honour or in remembrance of it, are still to be seen, and display traces of former magnificence. Indeed, the situation at the entrance of the Euxine was peculiarly favourable for commerce; but this will be only understood more completely when the commerce of the Euxine has been illustrated with greater depth of erudition, and more comprehensive views, than by M. Huet. Clerke, in his connexion of the Roman and Saxon coins, gives an admirable abstract of it. We forgot to observe that the Black Sea, in different seasons, is said to deserve its opposite titles of Euevos and Awos (hospitable and inhospi table). The oak which bears the gall-nut is carefully described; and we find that the dyers of this country employ also the acorn-cup. This particular species of quercus was not accurately known to former naturalists.

The description of the Grecian islands furnishes few remarks of importance. Scio, however, presents a bright spot in the gloom of Turkish ignorance and despotism. This island, as an appanage of the sultana, has numerous privileges, and is exempt from the oppressions which burden the other inhabi tants of the Archipelago. This it owes to the cause just mentioned, and perhaps, in some measure, to its furnishing the finest mastich, esteemed so valuable in Turkey for preserving the teeth.

Our author catches, on every side, views of volcanoes; but he leads us to doubt of his accuracy, when we find the surrounding country often described as quartzose or granitic. We do not deny the existence of extinguished volcanoes in the Archipelago, but do not think them numerous. Delos and Naxos are confessedly schistose and granitic, It might, however, have suited ancient fable to find the latter appear suddenly, as though from fire, In the description of Delos there is too much affectation of sentiment; and it has escaped travelers or antiquarians, that the sacred character of Delos was the cause or con sequence of its being a commercial dépôt.

Naxos has never been conquered, and enjoys a comparative share of liberty; but commerce does not flourish as at Scio, owing, perhaps, to the haughty independent spirit of its nobility, which despises trade. Cimolis contains the peculiar earth, which has all the properties of fuller's earth. The best sort is,

however, brought from the bottom of the sea, in the harbour. It affords a very large proportion of silex, with a little soda and alumine in the better kind, the proportions of the two latter are much greater. Cimolis contains some catacombs and remains, in the Etruscan taste, probably the work of the ancestors of the Tuscans. The earth is supposed by M. Olivier to be decomposed porphyry.

Milo, the ancient Melos, is certainly volcanic; and our author gives a very particular account of this island, which was once flourishing and independent. He thinks he has discovered the traces of the ancient town, which was situated on a promontory near the road. The remains of marble and gra- nitic columns show that it was once splendid; and the nume rous catacombs, like those at Alexandria, that it must have been populous. It is now poor and scantily inhabited."

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Of Santorin, our author's account is full and' seemingly correct. It is also certainly volcanic, and the various changes it has undergone are described at length, and supported by good authorities. We shall transcribe the summary view.

If the reader reflect on the considerable changes which the island of Santorin has experienced through the effects of a volcano that acts on it from a very remote period, he will remark in them four principal periods, very distinct from each other. At the first period the island was limited to Mounts St. Stephen and St. Elias, as far as the environs of Pirgos and of Messaria, the only places that are not volcanised. The second was the formation of the rest of the island as far as Therasia and Aspronisi. The roadstead then did not exist, and the island was as large again, of a rounded or oblong form: the ground rose in the form of a calotte more or less irregular at its summit, commanded at one of the extremities by Mounts St. Stephen and St. Elias. The third period was the sudden and extraordinary depression which took place in the middle of the island, whence has resulted the roadstead. The fourth and last period, is the formation of three islands which have successively issued from the bottom of the sea. Perhaps, there will one day be formed others; perhaps, all these islands will be united to each other, and all the space which the roadstead occupies, will again be filled up. It is impossible to foresee all the changes that may take place as long as the volcano which exists at Santorin, shall be in activity.

We say that there was a period when this island was less considerable than it has been in the sequel. In fact, if we consider that the three islands which form the road, are entirely composed of substances vomited forth by a volcano, disposed in strata and in banks, corresponding to each other, we shall be inclined to believe that all these substances thrown out from the bottom of the sea, have formed an island nearly circular. And then if we remark around the roadstead the coast which is perpendicular a great way into the sea, is it not evident that there has been in the sequel a sudden depression of a great part of the island which went to occupy the voids that the anterior explosions must have formed? This depression by occa

sioning the circular rending which is to be remarked all round the roadstead, formed of a single one, these islands known in antiquity by the names of Thera, Therasia, and Automate. Even though the ancient authors had not transmitted nearly the period at which the island Hiera issued from the bottom of the sea, even though we had not known the exact period of the sudden appearance of the Little and the New Kammeni, inspection alone would indicate that these three islands are of a formation very posterior to that of the other three; for, independently of their not presenting the same organisation, they are not covered with that thick stratum of white pumicestone which is to be remarked in the islands of Thera, Therasia, and Aspronisi. This stratum appears evidently to have been produced before the appearance of Thera, and even before the forma tion of the roadstead, since no traces of it are to be seen on that island, and since it does not shew itself on any of the advanced parts of the coast.' Vol. ii. P. 246.

Santorin, our author thinks, was once a populous, rich, and healthy island. The volcanoes have greatly changed its character in each respect.

The history of Crete is very full; but we find nothing either sufficiently new or interesting to detain us. Some account of the climate we shall transcribe. The rise and fall of the sea depend on the winds alone.

From the time of our arrival in Crete till the approaches of the autunmal equinox, Reaumur's thermometer, with spirits of wine, was constantly during the day at 25, 26, and seldom at 27 degrees, in a room with a north-east aspect. We had at most had 25 degrees at Santorin and at Milo; 22, and 23 at Naxia. True it is that the season was somewhat less advanced when we visited those islands.

• During the three summer months, the excessive heat of the sun is constantly tempered every day, from eight or nine o'clock in the morning till the evening, by the rather rapid current of air which prevails from north to south in the islands of the Archipelago and on the northern coast of Crete. This refreshing wind, called embat, takes its course and is modified throughout the Levant, according to the direction of the coasts and the extent of sea which lies before them. We shall remark, by the way, that it is south-west on the southern coast of Crete, of Cyprus, and of Caramania; nearly northwest at Smyrna, and Alexandria; west at Tyre, Sidon, and on all the coast of Syria. It comes to Athens, from the west or from the gulf of Lepante; and this it is which the Greeks designated under the name of Zephyr. During the night, the wind takes a contrary direction; it comes from the land to the sea; it is more faint than during the day, and never extends beyond three or four leagues.

The winds are variable in the other seasons, especially towards the equinoxes: at the end of Fructidor, we experienced, with a southerly wind which lasted two days, a heat of from 30 to 32 degrees. The horizon was then charged with smoke, and the rays of the sun were reddish and faint, as is remarked in Egypt, when the same wind is felt. Citizen Peyron, a ship-captain, told us that being