CONTENTS OF No. 188.

POETRY.-Tombs of the Constantines, 566-The Indian Summer; The Old Church, 567Punch's Vision at Stratford-on-Avon, 575; Trills for Term-Time, 576.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 189.-25 DECEMBER, 1847.

The

no longer considered hopeful subjects for research,
and even if the modern story of a tribe of pigmies
to the south of Abyssinia were better accredited
than it is likely to be, yet would this afford poor
compensation for the loss of the gigantic Patago-
nians, whom recent voyagers have reduced to little
more than the ordinary level of the species.
new animals and plants fetched from remote lands
have each their analogues, already named and reg-
istered, in our cabinets and museums; while the
huge bones and vestiges of extinct life, which in
all parts of the world have perplexed curiosity and
startled ignorance, are now submitted to technical
description, and brought under the same strict
laws of classification as the living forms that sur-
round us.

THE Volumes we have placed at the head of this article form the narrative of one of those ex- The romance of voyage and travel is therefore peditions of maritime survey in a distant region of well-nigh at an end, nor is it likely anything should the globe, by which the credit and interests of hereafter occur to revive it. Utility, in all public England, as the great maritime and colonial power undertakings of this kind, is now mainly sought of the world, are maintained and enlarged. What after-what can be gained to physical science, to we have hitherto accomplished of such research, colonization, or to commerce and the conveniences though perhaps adequate to, does not exceed, the of life. The construction of more accurate charts demand that may fairly be made from a nation-the correct fixing of latitudes and longitudescircumstanced as we are as to territory, commerce, the discovery of new harbors and rivers fitted for and the arts and improvements of social life. In navigation-the sounding of seas from depths which this matter there is an obligation distinctly due to ourselves, to other nations, and to posterity; and while deprecating, as we do, all narrow and parsimonious views in dealing with an obligation thus incurred, we may add our belief that no public expenditure can be more profitably made no public services more beneficially applied-than in forwarding those large researches and surveys by which, while nurturing officers and seamen of the highest class, we open new channels, and give fresh vigor and greater security to the undertakings of commerce over the globe.

In this age, indeed, we can no longer send adventurers forth to achieve the discovery of new lands, or shores vaguely shadowed out by the imagination of antiquity. With the exception of the ice-bound tracts which circumscribe the poles, and into which the disciplined boldness of our navigators has of late deeply penetrated—and with the further exception of those large islands which form the south-eastern boundary of the Indian Archipelago all the great outlines of the globe may be said to have been drawn and defined. No Atlantis now remains to be sought for in the Western Ocean; nor is there space or spot anywhere left for those romantic wonders of the traveller, so pleasantly pictured by Ariosto :

"Che narrandogli poi non segli crede,

E stimato bugiardo ne rimane."

barely float a ship, to the profound abysses of ocean where fathom-line of five miles will hardly touch the ground-the determination of tides and currents-observation on winds and storms-tables of magnetic variation, now so important to the exact science of navigation:-these, and other matters more purely scientific, we find appended, in one shape or other, to all relations of modern voyages, as the documents of highest interest and value. And rightly indeed so esteemed, looking to the actual condition and future prospects of the world; in which certain eminent and favored races, foremost in civilization, are rapidly diffusing themselves, with growing numbers, over regions tenanted before by savage or half-civilized tribes, the fractional remnants of an earlier peopling of the globe. The race to which we belong stands indisputably first among those thus favored, and is spreading itself with greatest vigor and energy of purpose over the face of the earth. In preparing the high roads for such migration, and giving scheme, order, and good governance to the colonies thus widely disseminated, "England must never forget her precedence in teaching nations how to live." It is, as we have already said, a debt which we owe to the existing world and to the generations coming after us.

The shores of the great southern continent of Australia have recently given ample scope and object to these expeditions of maritime survey.

The human tails of Lord Monboddo's theory are Our national interests are now indeed so deeply

concerned in this vast and most singular country, | task, yet, generally speaking, we prefer a narraand in the rapid progress our colonies there are tive coming from the hands of the commander making in population, agriculture, mining, com- himself, as having more of natural vigor and earmerce, and all that constitutes the germ of impor- nestness, and a more determined appreciation of tant communities, that there could be no excuse the objects of inquiry, than we usually meet with in for indifference or inertness as to researches thus subordinate officers, even though perchance more directed. In former articles we have sought to largely provided with scientific knowledge. In the draw the attention of our readers to this subject, instance before us, Captain Blackwood waived his and to do justice to the labors of the zealous and right of publication in favor of Mr. Jukes, natuadventurous men who have braved toil, and every ralist to the expedition, who, in a modest prefatory shape and excess of physical privation, in the pros- letter, acknowledges this kindness, and apologizes ecution of discovery along the coasts and in the for the deficiencies of his work. It is doing no interior of New Holland. Since the date of the wrong to Mr. Jukes to say that he ranks in a last of these articles, an expedition under the con- very different class of writers from Mr. Darwin, duct of Dr. Leichardt, long hidden in the solitudes to whose eminent merits, as the scientific narrator of north-east Australia, and of the safety of which of Captain Fitzroy's voyage in the Beagle, we all hope had been well-nigh abandoned, suddenly sought to render justice in a former number of this emerged from the interior at Port Essington on the Review. Exclusively of other causes of inferiornorthern coast, having accomplished a longer and ity, we must admit that the subject-matter here is deeper section of the continent than had been at- of narrower scope and inferior interest; and pertained by any previous effort-through a region plexing to the narrator as well as the reader, by wholly unexplored before, and yielding, in many the details of a survey, carried on in successive parts, the fairest promise to future explorers. The steps at different periods of time, on the same details of this remarkable journey are yet only partially known to us here, but we trust no long time may elapse before they are brought forward in fuller and more satisfactory form. It is a direction of discovery which is sure to be speedily followed by other adventurers, and probably with colonization soon treading after, in the tracks thus recently disclosed by these intrepid pioneers.

shores and amidst the same group of coral reefs. The second volume, indeed, carries us over Torres Strait to the southern coast of New Guinea, and the eastern parts of Java and the neighboring isles; but as a whole the work wants salient points of interest; and the real and permanent value of the voyage must not be looked for in this narrative, but in the charts and other aids it has afforded to the navigation of these remote seas; and in certain documents, connected with the natural history and languages of the Australian continent, to which we shall have occasion afterwards to refer.

Mr. Jukes shows himself aware of some of the difficulties and deficiencies we have stated. Had he been more of an artist in narrative-one of those who "work by a sort of felicity, and not by rule"-he might to some extent have obviated them, without any departure from the truth of relation, or affectation of fine writing. By better selection and grouping of his materials he might have done more to aid the imagination of the reader; and to furnish him with livelier pictures, not only of the scenery of shore and reef, but of the acts and events of a maritime life, thus peculiar in kind. The operations of surveying and sounding on new coasts must often be tedious enough to those concerned in them; but they call into action all the higher qualities of seamanship—the zeal,

The voyage of Captain Blackwood, narrated in the volumes before us, was undertaken by direction of the Board of Admiralty, and extended over a period of more than four years-the principal part of this time occupied in a silent, laborious, and oftentimes dangerous survey of one of the most singular channels of navigation in the world. The quarter to which his operations were directed is the north-east coast of New Holland, of which the line of discovery pursued by Leichardt may be said to form the interior chord. These two expeditions therefore have been in some sort supplemental to each other, and to the survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria by Captain Stokes in the years immediately preceding. But the more definite object assigned to Captain Blackwood was the completion of the survey of the channel or channels before mentioned, through which a hardy and prosperous traffic is already beginning to flow, and which are likely hereafter to become one of the great passages for the commerce of the Indian steadiness, intelligence, and boldness of this noble Archipelago and southern hemisphere. We have every reason to infer from these volumes, as well as from other information which has reached us, that this officer fulfilled excellently the arduous duties intrusted to him, proving himself a worthy successor of Flinders, Bligh, King, Stokes, and other eminent navigators who have labored in the work of discovery on the same shores.

service; and, continued thus over a period of months, or even years, it is impossible that they should have been wanting in incidents to excite and gratify curiosity among those ignorant of such operations, and desirous to obtain information. Much more too of personal interest might have been given to the narrative. It is not enough to know that H. M. ship Fly and the Bramble cutter were employed on the expedition; or to be told in the preface that "the officers were uniformly kind, and the ships' companies well conducted."

It will be seen from the title of the volumes that Captain Blackwood is not the historian of his own voyages. Though there have been some cases where we could not regret this transference of the These convenanted courtesies are all proper and

pleasing; but, as readers, we desire to know

The survey of the exterior or eastern edge of that vast chain of reefs, which extend almost continuously from Break-sea Spit to the shore of New Guinea.

After appointing the particular vessels to the somewhat more of those whom we thus accompany service, and directing that they should be refitted, through their labors on the sea—both the “fortem provisions recruited, and all possible information Gyan fortemque Cloanthum," who walk the quar- as to the Barrier Reef obtained at Sydney, the ter-deck, and the gallant men underneath them, principal instructions given under these orders are who toiled for years together in this arduous ser- the following :— vice of surveying. And we should gladly have been made more familiar with the vessels themselves their tonnage, equipment, sailing qualities, and other similar details, which impart life to the story, and interest to events otherwise barren. It The thorough examination of all the channels may be that such particularities as these, well befitting the history of an American whaler or a Californian trader from Boston, are not considered seemly as applied to her majesty's ships of war. Nevertheless, we are sure that, without any breach of professional etiquette, much might have been done to take off an air of baldness from the book, and to vivify it into a more popular and instructive form. Were it not rather an untoward comparison for a book of travels, we might liken it in this matter to a novel or play, where the interest in events and places mainly depends on the feeling we have already acquired in the persons who act, prosper, or suffer in the progress of the story.

We have especially to complain that Mr. Jukes has not prefixed to his narrative some distinct statement of the objects of the voyage, nor even adverted to the place in his volumes where such might be found, The reader is left to infer these objects from detached passages, very imperfectly designating the motives and peculiarities of the survey, until near the close of the first volume, where there is introduced a valuable chapter on the structure and extent of the Great Barrier Reef, and its relation to the navigation of these seas.

In the appendix, moreover, we find a copy of the Admiralty orders under which Captain Blackwood sailed; a perspicuous document, and excellent not only in the explicit nature of the naval instructions, but also in its humane and judicious inculcation of rules for intercourse with the natives. We quote what may suffice to show the main purposes of the expedition :

"Whereas a large proportion of the vessels trad

through the barrier chain, with detailed plans of those which offer a secure passage, and the device of some practical means of marking them by beacons of wood, stone, or iron.

The ascertainment of the safest channels by which vessels coming from the eastward may pass through the intricate reefs and islands occupying the mouth of Torres Strait; and, in particular, a complete survey, including tides, soundings, and sailing directions, of the passage called Endeavor Strait: these being regarded as among the most important objects of the expedition.

Authority also is given to examine certain parts of the coast-line of New Holland, as well as the southern shore of New Guinea, and the adjacent islands; the following salutary injunction being added, which is applicable to many other cases in life as well as to the circumstances of a maritime survey:

"But, wherever you go, we expect you to produce full and faithful surveys of the places you visit. And we especially desire you not to waste your time and means in what are called running surveys, in which much work is apparently executed, but no accurate knowledge obtained, useful either to the mariner or geographer. Whatever you do is to be done effectually."

We must carry our readers somewhat further into the description of this Great Barrier Reef, not merely as forming the main object of the present expedition, but from its being marked as the most singular and gigantic example of its kind on the surface of the globe. Among the various phenomena of physical geography, few in truth ing to the South Sea and to Australia are obliged mations, which, under different shapes and desigare more extraordinary than those great coral forto return to Europe or proceed to India by way of Torres Strait-many of which vessels, when weak- nations, meet the navigator in his passage through handed, in order to avoid the frequent anchorage the tropical seas; rarely passing far beyond these necessary in the in-shore passage by which is called King's Rout, stand out to sea till an opportunity offers for making one of the narrow gaps in the Barrier Reefs, through which they steer for the lost, there being no other guide to these openings than the casual observation of latitude, which is often incorrect, there being no land to be seen till entangled within the reefs, and no chart on which the dangers are correctly placed :

strait-and whereas several vessels have thus been

66

We have therefore thought fit, for the above reasons, to have the Great Barrier Reef explored, and these gaps surveyed, in order that some means may be devised for so marking the most eligible of these openings that they may be recognized in due time, and passed through in comparative safety."

limits of latitude, but, within the wide belt of ocean thus included, rising up from unknown depths, in stranger forms than imagination could devise, and alike perplexing to the naturalist from their multitudinous occurrence in some tracts of sea, and their absence in others. Here we find the circular lagoon islets, (or atolls, as they are now termed, by adoption of a native word,) circles of coral rock, often barely emerging from the wilderness of waters around; yet resisting the heaviest storms, and sheltering small central lakes, the placid surface of whose blue water strangely contrasts with the tumult of waves without. Elsewhere, as in various parts of the Indian, Pacific

and Atlantic oceans, we see these coral islands | masking to common observation the vitality which occurring in closer groups, with innumerable chan- once pervaded the whole. Looking forwards, we nels between, covering often a wide area of sea, see the earth and seas still teeming with the same and so numerous as almost to defy all reckoning profusion of life in its simpler forms, and cannot and survey. England, which plants its flag on but infer that these may hereafter undergo the same every various surface of the earth, possesses in the changes and minister to the same great results. Bermudas one of these coral clusters, further Science stands here, as in so many other instances, remarkable as the most distant point from the between the past and future time; casting upon equator at which coral rocks are known to occur. the latter the light, more or less distinct, which it Elsewhere, again, we find these extraordinary derives from reflection of the former. creations of the deep forming barrier reefs to Recurring to the subject more immediately before islands or portions of continent; encircling some, us, we would beg the reader to take up the map bordering or fringing others, through lines of of New Holland, and to fix his eye on Sandy enormous extent; and in certain places, as between Cape, in S. lat. 24° 30′, about 600 miles north of the north-eastern coast of Australia and New Cal-Sydney, and the most salient point on the eastern edonia, so largely developed in the form of detached coast of the Australian continent. From Breakreefs as to have obtained from Flinders the name sea Spit, a narrow sand-bank which runs twenty of the Coral Sea. miles northwards from this cape, begins the Great Barrier Reef; the gigantic dimensions of which will be understood by carrying the eye northwards along the Australian coast to Torres Strait and the shores of New Guinea, and learning that this coral reef forms a continuous barrier, separating an inner and shallow coast channel from the deep sea without, and stretching throughout the whole length of the line just described. A mere inspection of degrees of latitude will show that this length exceeds 1200 miles; and the term continuous is justified by the fact that, except towards the southern extremity of the line, it is broken only by narrow channels or gaps. Still, in strictness, the chain must be considered as a series of individual coral banks, of greater or less extent, assuming this definite rectilinear direction parallel to the line of coast, the channel between the barrier thus formed and the mainland containing some scattered reefs;-the outer, or ocean side, dipping down precipitously to depths yet unfathomed, and leaving a clear sea to the east of from 60 to 100 miles in width; beyond which, in the direction of New Caledonia, coral islands or reefs again appear, in unknown number and variety of form, scattered over what we have already noticed under the name of the Coral Sea.

To almost all our readers it must be known that these vast works, as fitly they may be called, are due to the labors of certain species of zoophytes; ranking among the most minute and slightly organized forms of animal life, yet having a common instinct of existence which renders them the artificers of mineral masses and new lands amidst the ocean, fitted eventually to become the abode of man. The soft pulp of the coral animal secretes, or otherwise forms, a stony nucleus; the aggregation of which matter, by the conjoint working of myriads of these little creatures, and the accumulated and superimposed labors of different species and successive generations, produces these wonderful results:-" admiranda levium spectacula rerum," as they may well be termed, looking at the relation between the agent and the magnitude of the work accomplished.

In a later part of this article we shall have to refer again to this topic, as connected with the theory of coral formations and their relation to other great physical phenomena of the globe. Meanwhile we will merely remark that the whole course of modern science tends to disclose facts analogous to those just mentioned, and to show the influence of living organic causes in forming the material and determining the structure of many of the great masses which compose the crust of the earth, as also in producing other phenomena, apparently the most alien from such origin. Where formerly brute matter alone was seen or suspected, the eye of the microscope now shows the innumerable relics of living beings, the artificers of the mass which thus entombs them. The flint nodules of chalk rocks, the hard Tripoli slate, even certain varieties of the noble opal, are composed wholly, or in part, of the silicious cases of fossil infusoria. The sand which sometimes falls on ships far distant from the coast-the mud which lies in the estuaries of rivers-even the layers of ashes and pumice which cover the edifices of Pompeii-give the same remarkable result. We look backwards through ages of organic life on the surface of the earth; and in the very minuteness of form and species we find reason why they should have been easily aggregated into large and dense masses,

Our author, in the chapter of his volume before alluded to, well describes the general aspect and character of this vast boundary-reef:—

a

"The Great Barrier reefs are thus found to form

long submarine buttress, or curtain, along the N. E. coast of Australia; rising in general precipitous

*We may mention, as it is not generally known, that Ehrenberg has actually succeeded ir producing Tripoli and polishing slate from living infusoria. We may further add that he found in a peaty argillaceous deposit, twenty feet below the pavement of Berlin, masses of infusoria still living, and in some places deposits of ova reaching to much greater depth. In the public gardens at Berlin workmen were occupied many days in removing masses wholly composed of fossil infusoria. In the moors of Leinburg there occur similar accumulations alone wanting to multiply indefinitely facts of similar twenty-eight feet in thickness. Observation probably is kind; and the inferences which these, and other wonders of the fossil world, have already furnished to exact science may well justify the old sentence of Aristotle, Aiã yaọ το θαυμάζειν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, και νυν και το πρώτον, ηρξ [arto piñooogeir.—Metaph., i., cap. 2.