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CHESNEY'S EUPHRATES. The Expedition for ...
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goodsir's arctic voyage. An Arctic Voyag...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Clark's Summer In Spain. Gazpacho; Or, S...
a travelled man . He quietly decided the matter in the affirmative ; * for / said he , ' when I was in London I saw Baron Rothschild , who is a Jew of a very high caste , and he had a tail as long as my arm . ' So the sceptics were silenced , and smoked the cigar of acquiescence .
A NIGHT IN SPAIN . " On returning to the posada I was shown into a kind of loft with a square aperture for window , which seemed by its appearance to have been in quiet possession of the hens from time immem orial , and was , besides , insufferably close . I tried to convince the good hostess that eaas and chickens were the logical sequence of hens , but in vain : so I was obliged to content myself with bread and fruit , and wine , as aforesaid . I had a table and chair set out upon the flat roof , which commanded a grand view of the whole wild district , ridge upon ridge ,
and valley beyond valley . Here and tnere , high up in the lap of some great , grim , brown and grey mountain , was perched a white hamlet , with its own green fringe of orchard , —and through a gap in the ridge towards the south-east , I could seethe deep blue Mediterranean , and I could even make out some sails upon it , as they glittered against the rising moon . Meanwhile I was rather pestered with three old women , who surrounded the table , taking huge delight in seeing me eat , and asking various questions—such as , whether England was in France ? and what I had done to my hair to make it
brown ? " About an hour after nightfall the various members of the family disposed themselves to sleep upon the roof , and I , thinking mens' company better than hens ' , followed their example , and lay down close to the table , on which remained some relics of supper . In the middle of the night I was awakened by a stealthy step close by me , and , looking up , I saw a strange wild figure of a man , all in rags . He was walking to and fro beside the table , evidently hankering after the viands thereon . At last
he pounced upon them , and began coolly to break the bread and dip it in the wine . Before devouring each morsel , he held it up towards the moon at arm ' s length , and , waviag it to and fro , muttered , ' Thanks be unto thee , O Madonna , most holy . ' I was amused at his thus breaking two commandments , and thanking the " Virgin Mary or the moon , whichever it might be , by whose countenance he was stealing ; but as he looked very lean and poor , I did not interrupt his feast by any sign of wakefulness . "
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Chesney's Euphrates. The Expedition For ...
CHESNEY ' S EUPHRATES . The Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris , carried on by Order of the British Government , and Commanded by Colonel Chesney , with numerous Maps , Charts . Mates , and tVoodculs . In 4 vols . Vols . 1 . II ., large 8 vo . Longman and Co . Modern Europe has of late years produced a class of men who possess and unite the rare qualities of the soldier , the traveller , and the scholar—men distinguished alike by a thirst for knowledge , a sterling common sense , a high-toned self-respect , and a most
indomitable spirit of enterprise , by the gentleman s hatred of pedantry and cant blended with a noble ambition of being useful to their country , whilst promoting the progress of science . Colonel Chesney has at once taken a place in the foremost rank among men of this stamp . He has proved himself , by a steady perseverance during many long years of labour , by his generous self-devotion , by his decision and tact , to be equal to the most critical emergencies , and , by his gracefully modest but manly and able narrative , to the more delicate and difficult trial of recording his own
innumerable observations and astonishing success . Colonel Chesney commanded the expedition sent by Government destined to survey the comparative advantages of the proposed lines to India by the Euphrates and by the Red Sea , and his object is to give a full account of this expedition . But his devotedness to science and rare comprehensive view of his subject have induced him to fill the two first inugnificcnt volumes now published with the complete geography and history of the countries with which the rivers Euphrates and Tigris have been
intimately connected from the earliest times , lhe first volume , therefore , is purely geographical . But geography , in its advanced state , as it is studied and understood by Colonel Chesney , requires a double knowledge of our globe ; either in its primitive , natural , and permanent state , or in its state , as it wore , artificial and changing , with reference to nations and governments ; it is , therefore , physical or political . The colonel , assisted by the labours of the ancients , and all the treasures of
modern science , has given in his first volume , a complete geography , at once general and comparative , of Asia ; but ho has not , like Danville formerly , prepared in his library all his arrangements and details on a country never seen by the author ; ho has had the advantage , by his long personal observations , of correcting and verifying the assertions of others and his own conjecturrs , and then ho has more legitimate claims than any of his predecessors or cotemporaries to j . ' ive tho public fin historical jrcojjiMphy of As ' ui ,
with all its characteristic relations , in reference to the history of nature and of humanity . The work commences by a minute description of the four principal rivers of Western Asia . The importance attached to such a subject must be , in our time , obvious to all ; not only all great rivers have a poetical character in civilization , but they are , above all , like the pulsations of the arteries of the globe ; they formed , in the origin , the powerful impulse which caused humanity to emerge from a confused ,
massive state , and raised it to the individuality of a nation and a state . The expedition for the survey of the Euphrates and the Tigris , had a great civilizing object . Many novel details are given on the soundings , the boarings , and the course , especially , of the Euphrates and the Tigris ; afterwards the full description of Tran and its several provinces is replete with singularly interesting researches on the many circumstances which tend to ascertain the primeval seat of the human race . Then follow the
descriptions of Syria , Phoenicia , Palestine , Arabia , & c , with valuable dissertations on the connection , at different periods , between Asia and Europe , with respect to literature and science , and also on their productions and social state ; in truth , everything that can characterize the fertility and peculiarities of that beautiful land , along with the nature of its inhabitants . In short , this first volume is a most complete and perfect geographical encyclopaedia of the countries lying between the rivers Nile and Indus .
In the multitude of facts it relates , one especially must be noticed by the Leader ; it is that , whilst the Christians of Europe so proud of their civilization and of their religion of love and forbearance , nevertheless brand each other with the epithets of idolaters or heretics , the Turks evince an enlightened toleration , to which Colonel Chesney bears an honourable testimony . Toleration is in the
spirit of the religion of the Mahommedans , and it is one of the many instances of their strict , faithful adherence to the principles of their tenets . The Christian nations profess a religion replete with unparalleled principles of love , meekness , and toleration ; but such traits are so little manifested in their practical life , that their intolerant bitterness impairs and checks , even in our time , the progress of both societies and individuals—the material state of
nations and the education of the human feelings . The second volume is exclusively historical . It is a valuable narrative of the great events of which Asia has been the theatre since the cradle of humanity to the nineteenth century . It is a golden mine for the scholar , the lover of history , and the inquirer into the vicissitudes of humanity . After an account of all the nations that flourished previous to Alexander the Great , Colonel Chesney devotes four chapters to the history of the Macedonian hero . We believe them to be the most finished ensemble that can be read on the
subject . He does not only show us the conqueror , but also the great civilizcr , as Montesquieu called him—the surpassing genius who entertained many of the prominent ideas of our age on the unity of nations and the paramount advantages of an extended commercial intercourse . After the history of the succession of Alexander , the author gives a glance at the Parthian and lloman wars , followed by an account of Arabian history during the reign of the earlier Khalifs , and the biographical as well as martial portion of tho work terminates with a history of the principal events connected with Western Asia from the twelfth to the
nineteenth century . The remaining iive chapters of tho work are taken up by the intellectual and commercial , as well as industrial history of Asia ; they relate—tho intercourse between Europe and Asia ; the history of the literature and science of the East ; the history of ancient and modern commerce , and they give an account of architccturo , sculpture , as well as of tho hydraulic works of tho East . Such a mass of information and details offer a source of deep interest and reflections to the British public ; for , whatever may be the indifference to the public
generally to geographical and historical pursuits , the future destinies of Asia are closely linked to those of Great Britain : her arms , civilization , and religion have already implanted their sway in those vast regions ; her material interests arc intimately connected with the propagation of Christian civilization ; and tho thrice fertile bosom of Asia may probably be destined to become the abode of a better race , and a refuge at once pure and happy for tho wretched multitudes pining in the smoking cities and sterile
plains of Europe . We regret that our limited space does not permit us to give any extracts from this valuable , although , perhaps , too voluminous work ; could we do so , the selection of such extracts would be a subject of no small difficulty to us , because of the great number of passages both novel and of peculiar interest : we should hesitate between the * ¦ n in TTT _ —__ __ i . . 1—A * . — . _ - _ . 15 __ - _ . ?¦
retreat of the Ten Thousand , the character of Alexander , the battles of Issus and Arbela , his great commercial projects with reference to India , the account of Baghdad and its fabulous splendour , or the character of Salah-ed-din , the influence of the Arabs in Spain , passages from the history of the intercourse between Europe and Asia , and others touching the commerce and manufactures of the latter .
Goodsir's Arctic Voyage. An Arctic Voyag...
goodsir's arctic voyage . An Arctic Voyage to Baffin ' s Bay and Lancaster Sound in Search of Friends with Sir John Franklin . By Bobert Anstruther Goodsir . Van Voorst . A delightful volume , unpretending in form and purpose , but full of interesting matter . Mr . Goodsir was anxious about his brother , who had embarked with Sir John Franklin , and in hopes of gaining some earlier t idings , and perhaps of rendering some assistance , he set forth as surgeon of the Advice . The present volume is compiled from the rough notes of his journal His professional studies do not give any special interest to these pages ; but the freshness of a landsman ' s observations gives a vividness to his pictures which the narratives of sailors usually want .
The following graphic account of the ice-floes will be read with interest : — " Pushing our way slowly northward , we now began to see immense fields of ice , of a dead unbroken level , often as far as the eye could reach , sometimes sparkling with a bright and blinding glare in the sun , but as often lying outstretched beneath rolling volumes of thick mist . We would be now progressing rapidly under a press of sail in almost open water , in a short time afterwards closely beset by ice , without a pool within sight for miles around . The rapidity with which the scene thus sometimes changed was sometimes very extraordinary . To an inexperienced eye there would be no appearance of an immediate stoppage ; but soon the water about us could be
seen to be rapidly narrowing , and frequently we were scarcely secure in a dock ere the concussion would take place , and the floes were grinding and crushing against one another with the most irresistible force . It was a strange feeling to stand beside the place where such forces were in operation . It seemed like a trial of strength between the opposing floes , the hollow grinding noise under one ' s feet booming lower and lower in the distance . It was as if one was standing over the site of au earthquake . The ponderous ice , trembling and slowly rising , would rend and rift with a sullen roar , and huge masses , hundreds of tons in weight , would be heaved up , one above the other , until , where it was before a level , an immense rampart of angular blocks became piled .
• And , hark ! the lengtheningroar runs Athwart the rifted deep : at once it bursts , And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds / " One might almost think that the poet of the * Seasons ' had witnessed such a scene . Great misshapen columns , like those of Stonehenge , are not unfrequently seen reared on end , on the top of these ramparts , poised so delicatelj that a slight touch will send them thunderthe is
ing down on either side . When pressure lessening and ' taking off , ' the hollow grinding noise becomes sharper and shriller , and the smaller fragments are seen slipping down between the larger ; then the topmost heavy blocks are , one by one , launched into the chasm , which slowly widens and opens up , showing a long lane of water , edged on each side by a wall of ice , formed of the pieces which have been upheaved on to the floe during the pressure . "
Here is a description of their progress through the ice : — " During the whole of the month of June were we thus tediously working our way through this tiresome barrier of ice , now lying for days together fast bound in a dock , now advancing perhaps for a few miles , by dint of laboriously heaving with windlass and capstans on warps and ice-claws taken out ahead . Some days we could get on briskly enough , alternately tracking and towing , according to the state of the ice ; the former being done by all forwards b
the men on the floe , dragging the ship y a rope attached to the foremast , and the latter by all the boats towing ahead . Every slack of the ice was taken advantage of , and no opportunity was lost of getting forwards for however short a distance . I thought it was desperately hard work for the men , but was informed that it was trifling to what it is some years when they have to track and tow often for days and nights together , frequently dragging their ship after them in this way for five or six hundred miles , and that when sinking over the instep into the snow , which covers the rugged surface of the floe . "
Wo must give a passage describing AN AliCTIC MIDNIGHT . " I suspected it was again night , but I could scarcely think it possible , the time seemed to have passed so rapidly . But there was a stillness about the air that must have struck every one as peculiar to the dead hour of the night , and , although I have noticed it in fur different situations , it never struck me so forcibly as it did here .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 25, 1850, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25051850/page/16/
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