deg. W. longitude. Several experiments have been made at other points, and some with success; bottom being attained in apparent mid-ocean in between 12,000 and 18,000 feet [from two miles and nearly a third, to about three and two-thirds]. The ocean has been penetrated in too few places to afford any satisfactory or decisive results upon so interesting a subject; and, considering the vast space of our globe occupied by the great ocean, it cannot but strike every one what a wide field is open for investigation and experiment, and how many interesting geological results may be elicited and are connected with these experiments. Sufficient facts have been developed to prove that the inequalities of the level of the ocean's bed are much more remarkable than those of the land.

Capt. Wilkes proceeds to many interesting statements, but we can only give a brief summary. He remarks that, although the actual depth of the ocean has not yet been successfully determined, the numerous trials have resulted in determining satisfactorily its mean temperature and density. Its mean temperature is 39 deg. 5m., though often placed-among others, by M. Lenz-down to 36 deg. and 37 deg., which is reported as the temperature in the tropics at 1,000 fathoms, though without doubt navigators have here fallen into an error. Capt. W. expresses himself well satisfied that so low a temperature will not be obtained within the tropics at any depth, unless through the agency of sub-marine currents. According to Captain Ross's experiments, the zone of mean temperature lies between the parallels of 54 deg. and 60 deg. of south latitude; not only at the surface, but to as great a depth as the ocean has been penetrated. Future trials will in all probability reduce it to narrow limits; its position in the northern hemisphere remains yet to be ascertained. This mean temperature is met with both in the polar circles and in proceeding toward the equator. In the higher latitudes above 60 deg., the ocean in descending increases in temperature until it arrives at its mean point; while proceeding toward the equator it decreases from the surface downward-this decrease beyond the tropical circle, is about twenty-three fathoms for every degree of latitude; within the tropics it is 1 deg. for every thirteen fathoms of depth, until 400 fathoms, after which it requires a descent of from 200 to 300 fathoms to effect a like change.

From the observations of Admiral D'Urville, it would appear that the waters of the Mediterranean do not follow the rate of descent of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He estimated the mean temperature of that sea below 200 fathoms, at 558, and this from the fact of his having obtained that temperature at the depth of 1,000 fathoms. If this be so, it leads to an interesting inquiry whether it may not be in consequence of the vast internal fires that are known to prevail in the countries that surround it.

The saltness and specific gravity of the sea have been frequently subjects of inquiry. The results of the Exploring Expedition will throw much light on this subject. The specimens of sea-water obtained in different latitudes were, on the return of the Expedition, placed in the hands of Dr. C. T. Jackson, of Boston-whose ability as a chemist is well known to the country; he has analyzed them, and, as it will yet be some time before the full result can be published in the volumes of the Expedition, Capt. Wilkes laid before. the Association a sketch of Dr. Jackson's mode of analyzation of these specimens, together with a few of the results.

The curious will find these given at some length in the latest issue of Silliman's Journal.

Subsequently, at the same meeting, Professor Agassiz took occasion to express his opinion of the Expedition, and spoke of the results in the highest terms. He bore testimony to the beauty as well as accuracy of the engravings, acknowledging that they were not surpassed by any that had hitherto appeared in Europe. This, from so high an authority, is very complimentary to the various artistic corps attached to the Expedition.-Tribune.

THE BIBLE.

The following account of early English and Saxon versions of the sacred volume, will be found exceedingly interesting:-"That the gospel was preached in Britain so early as the close of the first century, is asserted by many learned historians. But there is no evidence of the existence of any ancient Briton version of the Bible: this, however, is accounted for by the fact that the Latin language was generally understood and spoken. Tacitus mentions, in his life of Agricola, that the Latin grammar was a necessary branch of a liberal education; and Gildas, the earliest British historian, observes that the Latin language was so generally used, that Britain might rather be called a Roman, than a British Island.

"The Saxons, at the time of their invasion of the island, were ignorant and bloody idolaters; but by degrees the religion of Christ, though not in its purest form, gained ground among them, bringing with it learning and the peaceful arts. In the 7th century, Cadmon, a monk, made a poetical version of some of the more remarkable passages of the Old Testament history. He sang,' says Bede, 'of the creation of the world, of the origin of the human race, the whole book of Genesis, Israel's egress from Egypt and entrance into Canaan, and many other parts of sacred story.' In the 8th century, Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherburn, and Guthlac, an anchoret, are reputed

to have made each of them a literal version of the Psalter; the former of these versions, according to Spelman, was lost before the times of Alfred the Great. Among the Cotton MSS., there is a very ancient Psalter in Latin and Saxon which Mr. Baber thinks was one of the books brought by Augustin into England; the Latin text bears the marks of Italian origin, but the author of the Saxon interlinear translation is unknown, though all agree in assigning to it a high antiquity.

"Venerable Bede gives an account of Aidan (A. D. 635), a Scottish Bishop, who fixed his see in Holy Island, and took care that all who traveled with him, whether clergy or laity, should spend a considerable part of their time in reading the Holy Scriptures; and the Saxon homilies exhort the people with great earnestness to the performance of the same duty, and enforce the advice by the great benefit resulting from the exercise. These facts clearly imply the existence of some versions at this early day, in the vulgar tongue, though most of them have perished-a circumstance no way surprising, when we consider the inevitable effects of those two memorable invasions of England by the Danes and the Normans.

"Bede, himself, amidst his numerous employments, was largely occupied in promoting the study and the reading of the Bible. Besides writing commentaries on most of the books of the Old and New Testaments, he translated a considerable portion of them into the Anglo-Saxon. Fox says he translated the whole Bible; according to others, his labors in this way were confined to the Psalms and the Gospel of John. He died in a most devout and pious manner, May 26th, 735. One of the best acts of his life was the translation of the Gospel of John into Saxon. Having been confined for some weeks by sickness, during which he had been employed on the translation, and death now seizing him, his amanuensis said, 'My beloved master, there is but one sentence unwritten.' 'Write it, then, quickly,' replied the dying Bede, and summoning up all his energies, he indited it, and-expired.

"Eadfrid, Bishop of Lindisfarm, and cotemporary of Bede, is supposed by some writers to have made a Saxon version of the gospel; but Mr. Bulwer says this is a mistake, which has probably arisen from his having translated the gospels into Latin, to which a Saxon interlinear translation was added by a later hand. This book is known as the Durham Book, and is one of the finest specimens of Saxon caligraphy and decoration extant.

"The Anglo-Saxon version of the gospels, which lay the next claim to antiquity, is called the Rushworth Glow; and, like the one just mentioned, contains both Latin and Saxon versions; it is assigned to the 10th century. At the end of Matthew's Gospel, we are told that 'Farmen Presbyter thas hue thus gleosode;' and at the end

of the volume, 'the min burche gibidde for Own the thas boe gleosode Farmen thaem piæost aet Harawada.' Besides the above, there are a few other Saxon versions of the Gospels, whose ages and authors are unknown. We shall only observe respecting these versions, that they appear to have been made, not from the Vulgate, but the Old Italic.

"It has been often said that Alfred the Great translated the whole Bible; he prefixed to his body of laws a translation of a few chapters of Exodus, and in his age began a version of the Psalms, which he did not live to finish; according to Mr. Baber, there is no evidence of his having done more.

"Of the early Saxon scholars, the first one who attempted to give his countrymen the Old Testament in their own tongue, was Elfric, a monk of the 10th century. This version, which embraced only the historical books, was published in 1698. In consequence of the disturbed state of the kingdom, produced by incursions of the Danes, and the conquest by the Normans, Saxon literature gradually declined, and we may date its fall to about one hundred years after the conquest, when the language had become so far changed as to have assumed that form which entitles it to the appellation of English. The following extract from the oldest English Psalter, will serve to show the state of our language in the 11th century: it is from Psalm 100.

"Mirthes to God al erthe that es
Sowes to louerd in faines
In go yhe ai in his siht

In gladnes that is so bright.

"Whites that louerd God is he thus
He us made and ourself noht us
Ais folk and shep of his fode,
In gos his yhates that are gode."

"The first literal English translation of any part of Holy Writ was made towards the middle of the 14th century, by Richard Rolle, who, however, translated only the Psalter; the versio princeps of the Psalms in English. In the preface, the author says, 'in this work seke no stranger Ynglis, but lightest and communest, and swilk that is most like unto the Latyne, so that thai that knows not the Latyne be the Ynglys may come to many Latyne words.'

"But to John Wiclif, the morning star of the Reformation,' belongs the honor of having made the first complete English version of the Holy Bible. This translation was made from the vulgar Latin, about the year 1380. We shall conclude this article with brief specimen of Wiclif's version of the Lord's Prayer. "Our fader that art in heavenys; halewid be thi namv; thy kyngdom come to, be thy wil done in erthe as in hevene. Give us this day

our breed ovir other substance. And forgive to us our dettis as we forgiven to our dettouris. And lede us not into temptation; but delyvere us from yvil, amen."

Extract from a letter of John Quincy Adams to his son, on the Bible and its teachings.

"I have already observed that the great immovable and eternal foundation of the superiority of Scripture morals to all other morality, was the idea of God disclosed in them, and only in them; the unity of God, his omnipotence, his righteousness, his mercy, and the infinity of his attributes, are marked in every line of the Old Testament in characters which nothing less than blindness can fail to discern, and nothing less than fraud can misrepresent. This conception of God serving as a basis for the piety of his worshipers, was of course incomparably more rational and more profound, than it was possible that sentiment could be which adored devils for deities, or even that of philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Cicero, who, with purer and more exalted ideas of the divine nature than the rabble of the poets, still considered the existence of any God at all as a question upon which they could form no decided opinion. You have seen that even Cicero believed the only solid foundation of all human virtue to be piety; and it was impossible that a piety so far transcending that of all other nations, should not contain, in its consequences, a system of moral virtue equally transcendent.The first of the Ten Commandments was, that the Jewish people should never admit the idea of any other God-the object of the second, third and fourth was merely to impress with greater force the obligation of the first, and to obviate the tendencies and temptations which might arise from its being neglected or disregarded. Through out the whole law the same injunctions are continually renewed; all the rites and ceremonies were adapted to root deeper into the hearts and souls of the chosen people, that the Lord Jehovah was to be forever the sole and exclusive object of love. Reverence and adoration, unbounded as his own nature, was the principle; every letter of the law, and the whole Bible, is but a commentary upon it, and a corollary from it. The law was given not merely in the form of a commandment from God, but in that of a covenant or compact between the Supreme Creator and the Jewish people; it was sanctioned by the blessing and the curse pronounced upon Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, in the presence of the whole Jewish people and strangers, and by the solemn acceptance of the whole people, responding amen to every one of the curses denounced for violation on their part of the covenant. From that day until the birth of Christ, (a period of about 1,500 years,) the historical books of the Old Testa