tro, Xeriz, Burgos, Birviesca, Calzada, Pancorvo, and Buradon. The Anales Compostelanos, and many other ancient writings, record this phenomenon, which Morales* calls strange and monstrous, and difficult to believe. Berganza† thus quotes the original passage from the Memorias de Cardena: Era 987. Kal Jun. dia de Sabado, a la hora de nona, salio flama del mar, è encendio muchas villas è cibdades, è omes, è bestias, è en esto mismo mar encendio penas, è en Zamora un barrio, è en Carrion, è en Castro Xeriz, è en Burgos, е en Birbiesca, è en la Calçada, è en Pancorvo, è en Buradon, è en otras muchas villas. A similar phenomenon is said to have occurred in our own island at a much later age. "In the year 1694, the country about Harlech in Merionethshire, was annoyed about eight months by a fiery exhalation, that was seen only in the night, and consisted of a livid vapour, which rose from the sea, or seemed to come from Carnarvonshire, across a bay of the sea eight or nine miles broad on the west side. It spread from this bay over the land, and set fire to all the barns, stacks of hay and corn on its way. It also infected the air, and blasted the grass and herbage in such a manner that a great mortality of cattle, sheep, and horses ensued. It proceeded constantly to and from the same place, in stormy as well as in calm nights; but more fre quently in the winter than in the following summer. It never fired anything but in the night, and the flames, which were weak and of a bluish colour, did no injury to human creatures; for the in L. 16, c. 18, § 9. + Antiguidades de Espana, 1. 3, c. 10. § 104. habitants did frequently rush into the middle of them, unhurt, to save their hay and corn. This vapour was at length extinguished by ringing bells, firing guns, blowing horns, and otherwise putting the air into motion whenever it was seen to approach the shore."-Entick's present State of the British Empire. A man of science as well as of philosophic mind, would employ himself well in examining those accounts of prodigies in the early annalists and chroniclers, which of late years have been indiscriminately regarded as only worthy of contempt. The most superficial age of intellectual history is that which commenced with Mr Locke's philosophy, and I fear cannot yet be said to have terminated with the French Revolution. CX. GROUND-FIRES. Jacob Bryant refers to the Saxon Chronicles, to Roger de Hoveden, Brompton, and Simon Dunelmensis for various accounts of fires breaking out from the earth in this country during various earthquakes, which occurred from the year 1032 to 1135, when' the last eruption was recorded. "Fires," says Ho`linshed, "burst out of certain riffes of the earth, in so huge flames that neither by water nor other wise it could be quenched." Bryant would fain prove the impossible authenticity of Rowley's poem by these phenomena, insisting that they are the gronfers which Chatterton interprets fires exhaled from a fen. The ground-fire of 1048 is said to have burnt towns as well as fields of corn; villas et segetes mul- · tas ustulavit. Sim. Dun. This broke out in Derbyshire and the adjoining counties; but it is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive how any volcanic flames should have extended to towns, there being no mountain in eruption. The fiery vapour, whatever it may have been, seems more analogous to the sea-fire which extended so far into Spain. In turning over a most worthless volume, entitled Reflexions sur le Désastre de Lisbonne, an extract from Mezerai reminds me of what I have read in many old historians, that the pestilence which in the 14th century spread from the East over the whole of Europe, was believed to have been produced by a fiery vapour, horriblement puante, which issued from the earth in the province of Catag, in China, and consumed everything within a circuit of two hundred leagues. I do not know to what authority this news from China is to be traced. In 1802, a gentleman, who is a native of Llantrisant, in the county of Glamorganshire, was shooting upon the hills near that town; he had occasion to pass what appeared to him a patch of red mire, over which one step would have carried him; but having set his foot on it, it sunk; he fell, and found his leg burnt through the boot so severely, that he was confined many weeks by the wound. The place is remote from any path, but it was found upon inquiry, that a few old persons knew that such a ground-fire existed there, where it had been burning time out of mind. This is not related upon any doubtful authority. I heard the fact from the person to whom it happened. Some scientific traveller will do well to find out this singular spot, over which, if it were in their country, the Parsees would build a temple. CXI. FRENCH-ENGLISH. It is curious to observe how the English Catholics of the 17th century wrote English like men who habitually spoke French. Corps is sometimes used for the living body; and when they attempt to versify, their rhymes are only rhymes according to a French pronunciation. This path most faire I walking winde By shadow of my pilgrimage, Wherein at every step I find An heavenly draught and image But the finest specimen of French-English verse is certainly the inscription which M. Girardin placed at Ermenonville to the memory of Shenstone. This plain stone, To William Shenstone. In his writings he display'd At Leasowes he laid Arcadian greens rural. Shenstone used to thank God that his name was not liable to a pun. He little thought it was liable to such a rhyme as this. CXII. LONGEVITY. There is nothing in the system of nature which, in our present state of knowledge, appears so unintelligible as the scale of longevity. It must be admitted, indeed, that our knowledge upon this. subject is very imperfect; but all that is known of domesticated animals, and the accidental facts which have been preserved concerning others, tend to the strange result, that longevity bears no relation either to strength, size, complexity of organization, or intellectual power. True it is, that birds, which seem to rank higher than beasts in the scale of be ing, are also much longer lived. Thirty is a great age for a horse; dogs usually live only from fourteen years to twenty; but it is known that the goose and the hawk exceed a century. But fish, evidently a lower rank in creation than either, are longer lived than birds: it has been said of some species, and of certain snakes also, that they grow as long as they live, and, as far as we know, live till some accident puts an end to their indefinite term of life. And the toad! it cannot indeed be said that the toad lives for ever, but many of these animals who were cased up at the general deluge, are likely to live till they are baked in their cells at the general conflagration. I have said that birds seem to rank higher than beasts in the scale of being, because the sogyn, which in beasts is confined to the female, extends in birds to both sexes; and because they have the connubial affection, to which there seems no nearer approach among beasts than the Turk-like polygamy of some of the gregarious species. : CXIII. MODE OF VENTILATING A TOWN. The town of Montalvan, in Arragon, is ventilated in a very simple manner. It stands in a deep valley, surrounded with mountains, and is exposed to excessive heat. Much wine is made in the neighbourhood, and every house has its cellar underneath, dug to a great and unusual depth, because of the hot situation. Every cellar has its vent-hole to the street, and from each of them a stream of cold air continually issues out, and cools the town. There is no doubt that this advantagewas not foreseen. Might it not be usefully imitated in all hot countries? |