NATURAL PHENOMENA.

NO. 37.-THE SEVEN ICEBERGS.

THE Seven Icebergs )in Spitzbergen) are each, says Mr. Scoresby, on an average about a mile in length, and perhaps near two hundred feet in height at the sea edge; but some of those to the southward are much greater. A little to the northward of Horn Sound is the largest iceberg I have seen; it occupies eleven miles in length of the sea coast. The highest part of the precipitous front adjoining the sea is, by measure. ment, 403 feet, and it extends backward towards the summit of the mountain to about four times that elevation. Its surface forms a beautiful inclined plane of smooth snow; the edge is uneven and perpendicu lar. At the distance of fifteen miles, the front edge subtended an angle of ten minutes of a degree. Near the South Cape lies another iceberg, nearly as exten sive as this. It occupies the space between two lateral ridges of hills, and reaches the very summit of the monntain, in the back ground, on which it rests.

It is not easy to form an adequate conception of these truly wonderful productions of Nature. Their magnitude, their beauty, and the contrast they form with the gloomy_rocks around, produce sensations of lively interest. Their upper surfaces are generally concave: the higher parts are always covered with snow, and have a beautiful appearance; but the lower parts, in the latter end of every summer, present a bare surface of ice. The front of each, which varies in height from the level of the ocean to 400 or 500 feet above it, lies parallel with the shore, and is generally washed by the sea. This part, resting on the strand, is undermined to such an extent by the sea, when in any way turbulent, that immense masses, loosened by the freezing of water lodged in the recesses in winter, or by the effect of streams of water running over its sur face and through its chasms in summer, break asunder, and with thundering noise fall into the sea; but, as the water is in most places shallow in front of these

icebergs, the masses which are dislodged are commonly reduced into fragments before they can be floated away into the main sea. This fact seems to account for the rarity of icebergs in the Spitzbergen sea.

The front surface of icebergs is glistening and uneven. Wherever a part has been recently broken off, the colour of the fresh fracture is a beautiful greenish blue, approaching to emerald green; but such parts as have been long exposed to the air are of a greenish grey colour, and at a distance sometimes exhibit the appearance of cliffs of whitish marble. In all cases, the effect of the iceberg is to form a pleasing variety in prospect, with the magnificence of the encompassing snow clad mountains, which, as they recede from the eye, seein to rise crag above crag,' in endless perspective.

In an excursion to one of the Seven Icebergs, in' July 1818, I was particularly fortunate in witnessing one of the grandest effects which these Polar glaciers ever present. A strong north-westerly swell having for several hours been beating on the shore, had loosened a number of fragments attached to the iceberg, and various heaps of broken ice denoted recent shoots of the seaward edge. As we rowed towards it, with a view of proceeding close to its base, I observed a few little pieces fall from the top, and, while my eye was fixed on the place, an immense column, probably of fifty feet square, and one hundred and fifty feet high,' began to leave the parent ice at the top, and, bearing majestically forward, with an accelerated velocity, fell with an awful crash into the sea. The water into which it plunged was converted into an appearance of vapour or smoke, like that from a furious cannouading. The noise was equal to that of thunder, which it nearly resembled. The column which fell was nearly square, and in magnitude resembled a church. It broke into thousands of pieces. This circumstance was a happy caution, for we might inadvertently have gone to the very base of the icy eliff, from whence masses of considerable magnitude were continually breaking. This iceberg was full of rents, as high as any of our people ascended upon it, extending in a direction perpendicularly downward, and dividing

it into innumerable columns. The surface was very uneven, being furrowed and cracked all over. The roughness appeared to be occasioned by the melting of the snow, some streams of water being seen running over the surface; and others, having worn away the superficial ice, could still be heard pursuing their course through subglacial channels to the front of the iceberg, where, in transparent streams, or in small cascades, they fell into the sea. In some places, chasms of several yards in width were seen, in others they were only a few inches or feet across. One of the sai lors, who attempted to walk across the iceberg, imprudently stept into a narrow chasm filled with snow to the general level. He instantly plunged up to his shoulders, and might, but for the sudden extension of his arms, have been buried in the gulf.

AN AIR VOLCANO.

THE Europeans who are not seasoned to the climate are accustomed to leave Carthagena (in South Ameri ca) during the heats of the summer, and to spend that seas on at Turbaco, an Indian inland village, delightfully situated on the top of a hill. M. de Humboldt, and his fellow traveller M. Bonpland, spent the month of April, 1801, in this village. During their herbalizations, they were informed by their Indian guides, that there existed a country not far off, in the mids of a forest of palms, to which the name of volcanitos (little volcanos) was given, that its surface had formerly been covered with fire; that a priest had extinguished the combustion with holy water; and that now it emitted nothing but water. In going to the spot, our travellers found in the middle of a vast plain, eighteen or twenty small cones, about twenty feet in height. These cones are formed of a blackish grey clay, and have an opening at their summits filled with water. On approaching these small craters, a hollow but very distinct sound is heard at intervals, fifteen or eighteen seconds previous to the disengagement of a great quantity of air. The force with which this air rises above the surface of the water, may lead us to suppose that

it undergoes a great pressure in the bowels of the earth, Five explosions generally take place in two minutes and this phenomenon is often attended with a muddy ejection. According to the Indians, the form of the cones undergoes no visible change in a great number of years; but the ascending force of the gas, and the frequency of the explosions, appear to vary according

to the seasons.

M. de Humboldt examined this gas, and found that it was azote mixed with less than one thousandth of its bulk of oxygen gas. Here is a phenomenon well worth the attention both of geologists and chemists. Whence comes this azotic gas? How is it produced? Does there exist in this place an immense magazine of ammonium, which by means of water is converted into azote? We are far indeed from being able to philosophize in the present state of our knowledge, respecting the changes that take place under the surface of the earth.

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHAMBURG.

No. 4.

Extract from a Discourse read before the University of Gothamburg,

1

BY PAPIRIUS MOTHWORM,

Professor af Ancient Literature.

Mr. President and Gentlemen,

IT is with infinite satisfaction that I rise this day, to communicate to the University a discovery, fraught with important benefit to history, and reflecting a degree of honour upon this mast illustrious Society of Gothamburg, which other bodies of learned men must henceforth regard with inestimable admiration, and with the conviction that we alone are in possession of

For an account of similar phenomena, in the Peninsula of Kertesch, and the island of Java, see Pocket Magazine, Vol. 1. p. 199, and Vol. II, p. 10.

a pure fountain of literature, which has till now, lain hid amidst the deepest groves of the Muses. In announcing this most singular circumstance, I cannot but observe, that the want of this source of information has been hitherto deeply lamented by the votaries of learning, and their sorrow has not been a little embittered by an opinion, adopted by some, that the method of conveying intelligence by means of newspapers was partially known to the ancients.

That it was not a secret to them can now no longer be matter of doubt; and I cannot but congratulate you, gentlemen, that it was reserved for a member of this university to find those documents which have been so long hidden from the whole body of the learn ed. In what depository of antiquarian lore these invaluable treasures have until now remained concealed, it were at present needless to relate: suffice it to say, that, from what I have hitherto been able to discover, it appears that I am in possession of a complete series of manuscript gazettes, from the day on which Romulus laid the first stone of Rome, till the utter abolition of the empire, by the irruption of the northern barbarians. Of the infinite importance of these records it would be presumptuous in me to speak, before an assembly so well skilled in knowledge of every description. The learned will now no longer have to lament the hiatus in Livy's history, nor to cast their eyes towards the library of the Grand Signior, in expectation of recovering his lost decades; nor will the narrow limits to which Paterculus, Eutropius, and many other writers of abridgments, have confined themselves, be any more lamented. We shall behold the commencement and progress of innumerable facts, which have hitherto been enveloped in obscurity, or buried in total oblivion.-In reality, gentlemen, I have not the least doubt that, by means of these invaluable papers, we shall be enabled to throw new light upon the history, manners, principles, and practices of the Romans. In my haste to display my treasure to the world, I have not waited till 1 could arrange the sheets consecutively; and I shall now read a few extracts, drawn at random from any on which I first laid my hands-separating only those relating to the republic No. 38.

H