by winter's torrents, a few meadows thinly scattered among vast tracts of naked mountains.

In this sequestered isle, magic flourished during the pagan æras; and we learn, from the Edda, that Odin was the great magician of the north. The Runic character contained their incantations, which were diversified in their forms and their objects; of which the modern, or rather the comparatively modern, dæmonology was a descending branch. The most ancient laws of Iceland forbid the 'black art' of enchanting absent persons by songs and incantations; and even Odin is said to have disapproved of what must be obnoxious to any deity. The offender, when convicted, was confined in a sack, stoned to death, and then burnt.

We may properly compare the use of the Runic characters, in their origin, to that of our printed and written letters. In reality, these were letters only; but the novelty of the invention, in Germany and the north, rendered them so wonderful, that common people considered them as symbols of an occult science.'

Invention took advantage of this misapprehension, involved these characters in mystery, inscribed them on weapons and amulets, and, at last, suspicions became certainties, and the means of acquiring knowledge bound the strongest chains on the uncultivated mind-chains to confine it in the most gloomy, the most uncomfortable state of ignorance and terror. In 1690, every condemnation was subjected to the revision of the king; and, since that time, the crime and the punishment are become gradually less common.

The northern part of the island is described in the fourth volume, and includes some of the adjacent islands, but offers nothing very interesting. The thermal springs first occur in the north-eastern quarter; and we here begin to trace the volcanoes which blaze so conspicuously in the east and the south. The description of the eastern side of the island occurs in the same volume.

The south, however, affords objects of the greatest interest. Here Mount Hecla blazes with inexhaustible fires; islands form under the eyes of the spectator; and the magnificent Geyser bursts with a rapidity equalled only by the headlong stream, which escapes with violence from au unusually resisting vessel, and returns to a basin of flint of its own formation. This, indeed, is the part of the island generally visited, and often described. To copy from this part of the travels before us would be to repeat a well-known tale; but the authors seem to have observed with judgement, and to have delineated the various appearances with fidelity. Their representations of some singular aurora boreales are peculiarly interesting; and we might have transcribed some passages, but that our article has already exceeded its destined limits.

ART. VI.-Beitrage zur chemischen Kenntniss der mineral Kærper. Posen.

Memoirs subservient to the chemical Knowledge of mineral Bodies. By M. H. Klaproth. Vol. III. 800. Imported by De Boffe.

The two first volumes were published in our own language in 1801, and noticed in our thirty-fifth volume, New Series. We there apologised for the dryness of chemical analysis; and, as we felt that the subject was as incapable of ornament as of general interest, some reason should be assigned for allotting it a place in this part of our work, where space is peculiarly valuable. In fact, some of the first analyses were so much connected with the question at present disputed-the value of Dr. Hutton's Theory of the Earth,-that we thought it of importance to bring the several facts together, in this place.

We mean not, however, to lessen the merit of M. Klaproth's labours. Each new volume adds to the progress of mineralogy, and introduces some reformation in a science now emerging above conjecture and suspicion. The results have been already communicated to the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, and are brought together in the mincralogical tables of Karsten. But neither work can reach the English mineralogist, unless he be eager in the search of knowledge, and active in the acquisition of new publications in his own science. We are sorry to be obliged to remark that few are distinguished by such energy.

Were we to point out, in this volume, the most interesting discoveries, we should fix on the essay on tellurium, the yttria, the discovery of a vegetable acid in the mellite, as well as the existence of natron in many fossils, particularly in the chrysolite, the schistous porphyry, basaltes, and asphaltes. The present volume contains thirty-eight articles, many of which may be styled, in the language of natural historians, an abridged monography, containing the history, the description of the external forms, the chemical properties, the geognostic and geographical circumstances respecting each fossil. The specific gravity, and Karsten's characters, are added. We shall subjoin a few of these analyses in the present article, and pursue the subject, if in our power, in another Appendix. Perhaps, indeed, we may be superseded by an English translation.

The sonorous porphyry' is a singular substance. It resembles the other porphyries, and consists of flint and alum, sprinkled with minute laminæ of feltspar, and a few grains of amphibole. The trivial name is given from its metallic sound when struck. It is found in Germany, and yields little to time and inclement seasons. Its masses are isolated, not in chains, and generally in the neighbourhood of basaltes. Its colour is grey, inclining to green: it splits into thick lamine, whose edges are transparent: its specific gravity is 2.375. It is

chiefly composed of flint and alumine, with about 0.08 of soda, 0.03 of oxyd of iron, and nearly 0.03 of lime. Soda thus forms one-twelfth nearly of this stone, which often rises in masses of a vast height and bulk. It is useless, therefore, to recur for its origin to the decomposition of sea-salt. Yet we must add, that this mountain is evidently of a secondary formation, though soda certainly exists in the primary ones, and as the basis of sea-salt seems one of the primeval productions. The great object which led us to introduce the present work, was the analysis of the prismatic basaltes of HasenbergIn this analysis, M. Klaproth confirms that of Dr. Kennedy, who found soda in the lavas of Ætna, and in the basaltic hills of Scotland. The basalt, exposed to the heat of a porcelain furnace, in a crucible of clay, is converted into a brown black glass, transparent at its edges. The flint is nearly in the proportion of one half; the alumine nearly 0.17; the lime more than 0.09; the magnesia and soda each more than 0.02. Dr. Kennedy found some muriatic acid; but, though M. Klaproth discovered a small proportion, yet it was so inconsiderable as not to amount to the one-hundredth part of a grain. It is greatly to be regretted, that scarcely, in any instance, are the aerial contents examined.

6

Analysis of the gold mines of Transylvania.' It was from the analysis of these mines that M. Klaproth discovered the tellurium, which is in so great a proportion, that they have been since styled the auriferous mines of Tellurium. The first is the mine of paradoxal or problematic gold, which contains, in 1000 parts, 923.5 of tellurium, 72 of oxyd of iron, and only 2.5 of gold. The graphic mine of gold contains 0.60 of the new metal, half as much gold, and 0.10 of silver. That of Nagyac contains nearly 0.27 of gold, with tellurium, a large proportion of lead, and 0.08 of silver. The foliated mine of Nagyac is poor in gold, and chiefly rich in lead. Mercury is but feebly attracted by tellurium. Water precipitates tellurium from its solution in muriatic acid; but a larger quantity re-dissolves it. Alcohol precipitates it completely, but not in the form of an oxyd, since it is joined with a small proportion of muriatic acid. When the acid predominates a little, the solutions are not rendered turbid, nor precipitated by prussiat of potash-a circumstance common to it, to platina, and antimony. Phosphorus, added to the solution, is soon covered with metallic leavesGall nuts produce a very slight change only.

Analysis of the mines of tungstein of Schlackenwald." This mineral has been lately styled scheelin, from Scheele. It contains tungstein and calcareous earth; but the proportions appeared different in the analyses of Scheele, d'Elluyar, and our author. The Cornish ore of tungstein is not so rich in the metal as that of Schlackenwald.

M. Klaproth found the gadalonite contain nearly one half of yttria, with some fiint, and a little oxyd of iron. The black mine of Szekeremb, in the Seven Mountains, is of a colour between brown and black, compact, sometimes veined, sometimes forming alternate strata with a red ore of manganese. Its aspect is semi-metallic; its fracture unequal; grained and foliated in every direction. The fragments, in'o which it splits, are irregularly angular, but the angles are seldom obtuse. When scratched, it is yellow, verging on green, moderately hard, smooth to the touch, its a specific gravity 3.95. It consists chiefly of manganese, oxydulated by an excess of carbonic acid.

We shall conclude our article at present with the account of the cryolite, one of the newest and most interesting discoveries. of mineralogy, and of umber, a substance little known, though much employed by painters. The eryolite was found in Greenland, and received from Copenhagen, some time since, in a small quantity. Professor Abilgard undertook to analyse it, and found it composed of fluoric acid and alumine-an unexpected combination, of which nature furnished hitherto no example.

Its external form, viz. its crystal, is hitherto unknown: colour grey, or a clear white; fracture longitudinal, parallel to its axis, less brilliant. In each direction the brilliancy is glassy. The fractures are foliated, and divided at right angles, but unequal in other directions. The cryolite is splendid, in cubic pieces, semi-transparent, tender, and sufficiently soft to the touch, very brittle, and of a specific gravity about 2.95. Exposed to the blow-pipe, it forms an opaque white bubble, and then loses its fusibility, and resembles an earth strongly calcined. Cryolite is not, therefore, its proper appellation. One hundred parts were found to contain forty of fluoric acid, with the water of crystallisation; thirty-six of soda, and twenty-six of alumine : 0.08 are lost.

The ancient mineralogists gave the name of umber to a brown earthy powder. It consisted of a brown coaly earth, capable of being converted to cinders. For this reason, Cronstedt called it mumia vegetalis, and Wallerius, humus umbra. The true umber is, however, incombustible, and is an ore of iron. Santi found it to contain 0.53 of iron, with 0.24 of alumine, 0.19 of Aint, and 0.04 of magnesia. This analysis is, however, evidently erroneous; and M. Klaproth examined the umber of Cyprus, which externally resembles that which is known in commerce by the name of fine Turkey umber, and is equally useful for the painter. Its external characters are, therefore, sufficiently known. He found 100 parts to contain forty eight of oxyd of iron; twenty of oxyd of manganese; thirteen of flint; five of alumine; and fourteen of water.

ART. VII.-Heliogabale, ou Esquisse morale de la Dissolution Romaine, &c. Paris.

Heliogabalus, or a moral Sketch of the Dissolution of Rome under the Emperors. 8vo. Imported by De Boffe.

'PAINTERS,' says the writer of this publication, willingly place a monster of Ethiopia by the side of a beautiful woman: it is thus the hideous' features of Heliogabalus become a foil to the pure form of Alexander Severus. In the picture we here present as a moral drama, vice is punished and virtue triumphs.' This moral drama is given in a series of letters, supposed to have been written by the chief characters who are introduced into it; and, in general, these characters are fairly preserved. In reality, the writer had little occasion for violating them in any instance, the outrageous and unrivalled eriminality of Heliogabalus, on the one hand, and the benevolence and virtue of Alexander Severus on the other, affording him from nature alone a sufficiency of materials to answer every purpose, without having recourse to the contributions of his own fancy. With the history of these princes most of our readers must necessarily be acquainted; yet a short reference to it may refresh their memories, and enable them to enter more satisfactorily into the novel before us. The brief outline we thus present, we shall select from Herodian and Dio Cassius. Upon the death of the emperor Caracalla, Macrinus, who succeeded him, banished from the Roman court the princesses Julia and Mæsa-the mother and aunt of the former-as persons dangerous to his authority, from their insinuating and popular talents. Mocsa retired to Emesa in Phonicia, with her two daughters, Julia Soœmis, and Julia Mamæa. Of these daughters, each had a son-that of the former, who was the elder by about four years, was named Varius Avitus Bassianus, and that of the latter, Alexianus. Both these grandchildren Masa consecrated to the Sun, the chief deity of the inhabitants of Emesa; and to whom, under the title of Eleagabalus, they had erected a magnificent temple. Thus consecrated, Bassianus, the elder, when at the age of about fourteen, was appointed pontiff of the solar deity, and was hence, himself, denominated Eleagabalus, or more generally Heliogabalus. This temple being at one time situated but at a short distance from the camp of Macrinus, his soldiers were in the habit of paying frequent visits to it; and Moesa, perceiving that the graceful person and elegant demeanour of her grandson had captivated the Roman army, improved the opportunity that was presented, boasted of his near relation to the late emperor Caracalla, of her own immense wealth, and added, that she would amply enrich every one who would espouse his cause. The stratagem succeeded; the standard of revolt was erected.