Poetry. A BROTHER'S FAREWELL. My blessings on thee, brother, fare thee well! And with warm grasp, spoke those wild burning words And drowned its many tongues with lifted voice. To Him who walks the wave and rules the wind! Made holy with our parting one weird spot. Again we paused where two roads met and crossed, And drop'd our silent tears, and went our way Up separate hills, yet wistful looking back. Anon thy form peeped through the trees and crowned The distant hill. I raised a parting cheer, And on we trudged each on his weary way, And still I held thy hand;-like parting now- Thou goest amid peril to proclaim A Saviour's love, and ope heaven's El Dorado Go wandering 'mid their boughs; such tongues as spake Lit, like a crown, brave, Galilæan brows; Gave martyrs strength, and such as wore heaven's mail, That fill the Indian's heaven; and hurl them down To rend their lies, Veda and Purana, Kindle their hearts in flame, and melt their souls Brought heaven to sorrowing man, and man to heaven. And should thy dreaming eyes o'er brim with tears May God thy buckler be! and those great hearts Be thine exemplars; and no mother lone Questioning wind, wave, cloud, or luminous star, Or lift a louder song at his brave deeds And glorious name, than at thine own shall he Who walked youth's Eden with thee, hand in hand Like Eve with Adam, sorrowing left its dreams; And those who group around home's heavenly hearth, Loughborough. E. G. Review. OUR HOME ISLANDS: their Natural Features. 18mo., cloth, pp. 318. Religious Tract Society. MUCH useful information is collected in this volume. The British Archipelago, the subordinate inhabited islands, the seas and shores, the great geological formations, highland and lowland regions, the inland waters, the climate, general botanical features, general zoological features, and modern geological changes are made the texts for the ten several chapters of which it is composed. A few diagrams and illustrations are also given. The frontispiece shows the relative heights of the principal mountains in Great Britain, wherein Ben Macdui towers conspicuously above all his compeers. 4,390 feet seems a low elevation when compared with the peaks of the Andes or the Himalaya, and yet it is the highest point in the British Isles. If Scotland boasts of her Ben Macdui and Ben Nevis, England contains the most numerous and most important valleys. There is, chief among them, the vale of York, which extends about sixty miles from north to south, by an average breadth of sixteen miles, and includes an area of 1,000 square miles. Next stands the vale of the Severn, "Nature's garden wide, By the blue steeps of distant Malvern wall'd." This is a tract of the richest soil, through which the river sweeps with great boldness, divided by some hills into upper and lower, or the vales of Gloucester and Berkeley. The latter is a fine region of grass land lining the estuary, which has a very noble appearance at high tide, and with the beech woods on the slopes of the hills, forms a beautiful picture. The vales of Exeter, Taunton, Aylesbury, Evesham, and Belvoir, are similar tracts of great fertility, rich in grass and corn. Of the valleys, some peculiarities or rather types are mentioned; for example the valleys of denudation, or those apparently formed in soft and practicable strata by the action of water; valleys of undulation, lying between two neighbouring elevations, produced by their lifting up, without occasioning fracture, or dislocation of the strata, common in hilly districts, and clearly seen in the chalk downs; and valleys of dislocation, caused by fissures of various dimensions, some of colossal size, as in the Mendip Hills at Cheddar, and Dovedale in the Peak. "They seem as if formed by some convulsion of nature, which rent asunder what had been before a compact mass, for the opposite sides present salient and re-entering points so corresponding to each other, that, if it were possible to bring them together, but little trace would be left of their former separation. Dovedale extends about three miles in length between high and precipitous limestone rocks, which closely approximate in some places, and then retreat. Projections from these walls form sharp pinnacles and bold bluffs. The beautifully clear river pursues its winding way at their base, now still, now murmuring, and anon dashing over the blocks and stones that have fallen from the heights into its bed. Wild flowers common to the limestone copses of hazel and mountain ash-with picturesque rocks and limpid water, combine to form a scene that at once fascinates and loses nothing by repeated examination." A few words about the climate of England may be interesting. It is a wellascertained fact that our climate is milder and more equable than that of continental districts under the same parallels of latitude, whether European, Asiatic, or Transatlantic. "The annual mean temperature, or the average of heat and cold throughout the year, is from ten to twenty, and even in some instances twenty-five degrees of the thermometer higher with us than at several continental sites, though the latitudes closely correspond and the elevations above the sea are not materially different. In the east of North America, at a distance from the equator the same as that of the vale of York, the soil is perpetually frozen at a certain depth, and only thaws at the surface in the summer; and in Asia this occurs in a latitude corresponding to that of the basin of the Thames." Not only is it warmer in England taking the mean temperature, but the seasons do In not differ so widely as in continental regions. The summers are not so hot, nor the winters so cold. If grapes ripen at Quebec in summer in the open air, in the winter the mercury is frozen. The chief causes of the higher mean temperature of England than the same parallels of latitude on the continent are the Gulf Stream, and the predominating winds. The Gulf Stream is an outflow of heated water from the caldron of the Gulf of Mexico, which, after rushing through the Strait of Florida, and proceeding along the coast of the United States in a narrow volume, turns eastward, and sweeps across the whole of the Atlantic, gradually expanding in breadth, slackening in speed, and diminishing in temperature. Its influence extends to the shores of Ireland, Scotland, and Norway. addition to the increase in the temperature that this stream gives to our islands, it acts as a shield for them against the floating masses that have broken off from the vast fields of polar ice, which annually descend into the Atlantic. This stream, and the wind which helps to bring it, make our climate twenty degrees warmer than it would be if there were land between us and the Gulf of Mexico. The winds are notoriously fickle in the British Isles; but atmospheric changes are rarely very sudden or very great. We have none of those chilling blasts that rush down from the Alps in Southern Europe, nor those fearful winds whose breath is as the mouth of a furnace, known in Africa as the sirocco. Sir William Temple says that the "Merry Monarch" formed a correct estimate of the climate of his kingdom, and he was no stranger to the continent. "He said he thought that was the best climate where he could be abroad in the air with pleasure, or at least without trouble and inconvenience, the most days in the year, and the most hours in the day; and this he thought he could be in England, more than in any other country in Europe." In the chapter on "General Botanical Features," the following summar of cryptogams is given : "Lichens are distributed from the loftiest summits of the Highlands to the stones by the sea-shore, and the gloomy depths of the deserted mines. These patches of variouslycoloured, heathery vegetation, yellow, crimson, grey, brown, and of more sombre hues, which paint the weather-beaten rocks, the walls of old castles and churches, the trunks and branches of trees, are curious and interesting objects. The singular lichen called the lungs of the Oak remarkably resembles the lobulated appearance of the human lungs. Another, well known as the old man's beard, is so named from its general hue and aspect, drooping from the branches of the trees in thick beard-like tufts. The goblet lichen, found upon many of our heaths; the crabs'-eye lichen, common upon stones, and the hair-like lichen, clothing oak-trees with a shaggy mantle, exhibit other varieties of form. These humble plants have no inconsiderable economic value. A species known as cudbear, (Lecanora tartarea) yields a purple dye, and grows abundantly on the limestone of Derbyshire and the rocks in the north of Scotland, where it is collected by the peasantry and sold to the dyers. But the importation of another lichen from the Canaries, the archil, yielding a more brilliant colour, has abridged the use and lowered the value of the native product. The archil, (Rocella tinctoria,) from which the chemical test called litmus is prepared, occurs in the Scilly islands, which are its northerly limit, but so scantily as not to be worth gathering. The rounded spots of white powdery substance frequent upon the trunks of the ash, intensely bitter to the taste, produce oxalic acid. The lichen called Tripe de Roche, the food of the Canadian hunters, when deprived of other resources, and the Iceland moss or lichen, sold in our shops as medicine, are also British, as is the rein-deer lichen, which forms the only diet of that valuable animal during the prolonged northern winters. "The Moss family, less susceptible of useful applications than the preceding tribe, but far more beautiful, is represented with us by upwards of 300 species, which attract attention from flourishing most when flowers have faded, trees have lost their foliage, and vegetable nature has a generally dreary aspect. (?) They differ widely in hue, from the freshest and deepest green to bright yellow, brown, red, or rose-colour, and also in size and form; but all are remarkable for beautiful symmetrical shapes, with extreme minuteness yet perfect finish in their details. The horse-tail,' 'ostrich-plume,' and 'crested feather' mosses are so called from their resemblance to the objects named. Though yielding no perfumes, dyes, or textile materials, and not used as food by men or animals, the feathered race, and smaller quadrupeds, as the dormouse and squirrel, are not negligent of the soft mosses in building their nests and winter habitations. "The Ferns, distinguished by a gracefulness of air and delicate symmetry of form scarcely known to any other tribe, commonly wave their verdant fronds far from the haunts of man, among dripping rocks, or in the depths of shady woods. 'Where the copse wood is greenest, But members of this family occupy a great variety of situations. The filmy ferns flourish within the reach of the spray of waterfalls, where they are constantly kept in a moist condition; but the little wall rue, on the other hand, establishes itself in crevices of some old castle or ruined building. The Alpine shield fern ascends the mountains, and belongs to the true Alpine flora; and the marine spleenwort takes up its abode in the wildest parts of the sea-coast. The lovely maiden-hair fern grows from the sides of moist rocks and caves; while the brachen or brake of the poets, is very generally distributed over the country. "The wild buck's bells from the ferny brake.' In sheltered hollows of the Highlands, it grows in great luxuriance, often attains the height of five or six feet, and forms a convenient covert for the red-deer.' When treating of "Modern Geological Changes," a section of the chapter is devoted to "peat-mosses," in which occurs the following, that may be novel to some who live in what our Lincolnshire friends call "the high country:" "A vast tract of low country in south Yorkshire, embracing part of north Lincolnshire, the property of the crown, was a spongy moss in the reign of Charles I., abandoned to red-deer, but soaked with water through an extensive area for a considerable portion of the year. Sir Cornelius Vermuiden, a Dutchman, purchased this desolate waste, known as Hatfield Chase, including nearly 200,000 acres, with a view of reducing it to arable and pasture ground by drainage. In the course of this operation, which was successful, though at an immense cost, evidence was obtained of the former existence of a forest on the site, which had flourished for generations. Multitudes of roots and trunks of trees of all sizes were found, and of almost every species common to our islands-oaks, pines, birch, beech, yew, willow, and ash. The roots of the greater part were standing in the soil in their natural position; and the trunks were lying by the roots to which they belonged. The smaller trees were disposed in all directions; but the larger were stretched to the north-east. The greater number were pines, some of which were more than thiry yards long, and in such condition as to be sold for masts and keels of ships. One specimen measured thirtysix yards, and was estimated to be deficient at least fifteen yards, making in the whole fifty-one yards, or 153 feet. Mr. Phillips states, that the highest tree of this kind that ever fell under his notice was a spruce fir, growing near Fountain's Abbey, which was 118 feet above the grass. Oaks were found black as ebony, capable of use, some of which were of larger dimensions than those of any tree now existing in the kingdom. One had a diameter of four yards at the base, three and a half yards in the middle, and two yards at the top, which was broken off; and the remainder of the trunk was forty yards long. Acorns, hazel-nuts, and bushels of fir cones were met with. Many of the trees, especially the pines, bore marks of having been burned; others, of having been chopped or split, for large wooden wedges and broken axe-heads, somewhat like sacrificing axes in shape, were found sticking in them. Near a large root in the parish of Hatfield, several coins of the Roman emperors were discovered, corroded and defaced by time; and in other places, coins of Vespasian, axes, and links of chains. It is perfectly clear that the Romans destroyed in this district a grand primeval forest, partly by the axe, and partly by fire, availing themselves of a south-west wind, the strongest and most prevalent that blows in our islands, to spread the conflagration; and hence the general direction of the larger trees that were felled to the north-east. In the natural order of events, the realm of the pine and oak became a morass overgrown with aquatic vegetation, increasing in thickness in the course of centuries; and the region once sustaining timber sufficient to supply the navies of Europe remained sterile, till drainage was applied, when the vegetable soil was turned by the husbandmen into pasture and corn land." |