magnificent scenery amid which they dwell. Of these I shall endeavour to give you a slight sketch; being all, indeed, that our quick progress through the principality allows me to attempt. On considering the character of the North-Wallians, we find that little variation has taken place in it, during the lapse of 18 centuries; and if we allow for that polish which the progress of society naturally produces on individuals, we shall see the present inhabitant of Merioneth and Caernarvonshire, as well pourtrayed by Diodorus, Cæsar, Strabo, and Livy, as if they had taken the likeness in these days. The modern, like the ancient Celt, is in person large and robust: his countenance sincere and open, his skin and complexion fair and florid †, his eyes blue ‡, and his hair of a yellowish tinge §. As he thus nearly resembles his great ancestor in person, he is also equally like him in mind and disposition. Openness and candour are prominent features in the Welsh character of the present day; they were full as strikingly displayed by the ancient Celtic nations . Their hospitality you are enabled to judge of, from the examples of it which I have mentioned in the preceding letters; amongst the ancients they were highly extolled for the same amiable quality q That quickness of feeling, so apparent in the Welsh, which frequently displays itself in fierce, but transient fits of passion, and as often produces quarrels and bloodshed, perpetually embroiled the Celts in war and slaughter **. National pride, a venial defect in the character of a people, since it arises only from the excess of lau dable affections, is proverbial amongst the inhabitants of the princi pality, and they seem to have it by hereditary descent from their Celtic forefathers, who thought more highly of themselves, than the polished nations around them conceived they had a right to do tt. I have before observed, that a religious spirit prevails amongst the lower orders of the Welsh, which produces a characteristic decency of manners in that description of people. It is, however, much tinged with superstition, and the belief in spirits and apparitions is very general. The names of many mountains and rocks evince, that they are considered as the residences of subordinate in Οι δε ανδρες ευμηκέτεροι των Κελτών εισι.—Strabo, lib. iv. men (Britons) are the tallest of the Celts." !sect. 4. 1 "The Fusa et candida corpora.-Tit. Liv. lib. xxxviii. • § Ταις δε κόμαις εκφύσεως ξανθοι. Diod. Sic. lib. v. covered with yellow hair." "Profusely • ] Τοις δε ήθεσιν άπλους είναι, καὶ πολυ κεχωρισμένους της των νυν ανθρώπων arxining Horngras.-Diod. Sic. lib. v. They are simple in their manners, and very distant from the cunning and wickedness of modern days." q Mortalium omnium erga hospites humanissimi.Procop. σε ό Εισι δε μαχιμωτατοι.Herodian, l. iii. "They are most prone to battle." ++ Celtæ magna de seipsis sentiunt." telligences; telligences; and this is accounted for, not so much, perhaps, from the credulity natural to ignorant people, as from the circumstances of the scenery wherein they reside, the gloom and desolation of which, added to its being liable to singular and striking variations in appearance, have a strong tendency to affect the human mind (naturally timid) with superstitious fears and whimsical notions. Similar situations will produce similar manners; and hence it happens that their brethren of the Scotch Highlands entertain the same opinions, in this respect, with the inhabitants of Wales. The ghosts of the departed, and the spirits of the mountains, rocks, and winds, make a conspicuous figure in the poetry of the North; and some of the sublimest passages of Ossian have their origin in these popular prejudices.' ‹ The Welsh females still retain that beauty of face, which drew encomiums on their Celtic mothers, from the writers of antiquity †. They are middle-sized and well shaped, strikingly modelled according to the taste of Anacreon. Their eyes are dark and sparkling, and their complexion and teeth fair and white. Though their persons display proper degree of symmetry, yet they are obviously stouter than the women of South-England, and inherit a great portion of that strength which Diodorus mentions as characterizing the Celtic females.-The dress of the Welsh women is exactly similar throughout the principality, and consists of these particulars: a petticoat of flannel, the manufacture of the country, either blue or striped; a kind of bed-gown with loose sleeves, of the same stuff, but generally of a brown colour; a broad handkerchief over the neck and shoulders; a neat mob-cap, and a man's beaver hat. In dirty, or cold weather, the person is wrapped in a long blue cloak, which descends below the knee. Except when particularly dressed, they go without shoe or stocking; and even if they have these luxuries, the latter in general has no foot to it. The man's attire is a jacket, waistcoat, and breeches, of their country flannel, the last of which are open at the knees, and the stockings (for the men generally wear them) are bound under the knees with red garters. Both men and women are vivacious, cheerful, and intelligent, not exhibiting that appearance of torpor and dejection which characterize the labouring poor of our own country; their wants being few, are easily supplied; a little milk, which their own mountain goat, or the benevolence of a neighbouring farmer, affords them, an oaten cake, and a few potatoes, furnish the only meal which they desire. Unvitiated by communi Similar superstitions were found amongst the ancient Celts. Complures genios colunt. Aereos, terrestres, et alia minora dæmonia, quæ in aquis fontiûm et fluminûm versari dicuntur." Procop. de Goth. lib. ii. * + Γυναίκας εχεσιν ευειδεις.—Diod. Sic. l. v. "They have beau tiful women, or wives." G.2. cation with polished life, they continue to think and act as nature dictates. Confined to their own mountains, they witness no scenes of profusion and extravagance to excite envy or malignity, by a comparison between their own penury and the abundance of others. They look round and see nothing but active industry and unrepining poverty, and are content.' A fingle acquatinta view of the superb monastic ruin of Tintern accompanies this volume, as a frontispiece; besides which, each letter is prefaced by the exact route of the travellers neatly engraven on wood. Our readers will, doubtless, take some interest in being told that these pedestrian tourists, to whom we are indebted for this entertaining detail, travelled by the way of Llangollen; where,' says Mr. Warner, we took a passing view of the simple, elegant, and picturesque residence of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Ponsonby; who had the courage to retire, when in the meridian of youth and beauty, from the flowery but fatal paths of fashionable dissipation, and to dwell with virtue, innocence, and peace, in the retired shades of Llangollen Vale.'-We have the pleasure of concluding, from this passage, that the amiable ladies here mentioned are still happy in the pleasant seclusion, to which their choice of the spot has given celebrity. Dall! G.2. ART. III. Transactions of the Linnean Society. Vol. III. 4to. T HE collective zeal and success of the members of the Lin- The insects described are Sphinx apiformis, S: Crabroniformis, II. A curious Fact in the Natural History of the common Mole, Talpa Europea. By Arthur Bruce, Esq. Secretary to the Natural History Society of Edinburgh. That the mole does, in common with other quadrupeds and man, possess that spirit of curiosity which prompts to emigration and and even to transmarine expeditions, I found out last summer from the best authenticated facts. • In visiting the Loch of Clunie, which I often did, I observed in it a small island at the distance of 180 yards from the nearest land, measured to be so upon the ice. Upon the island, Lord Airly, the proprietor, has a castle and small shrubbery. I observed frequently the appearance of fresh mole-casts, or hills. I for some time took it to be the water-mouse, and one day asked the gardener if it was so. No, he said, it was the mole; and that he had caught one or two lately. But that five or six years ago he had caught two in traps; and for two years after this he had observed none. But about four years ago, coming ashore in a summer's evening in the dusk, the 4th or 5th of June, 10 o'clock P. M. he and another respectable person, Lord Airly's butler, saw at a small distance upon the smooth water some animal paddling to, and not far distant from the island. They soon, too soon! closed with this feeble passenger, and found it to be our common mole, led by a most astonishing instinct from the nearest point of land (the castle hill) to take possession of this desert island. It was at this time for about the space of two years quite free from any subterraneous inhabitant; but the mole has for more than a year past made its appearance again, and its operations I was witness to. In the history of this animal I do not at present recollect any fact so striking; especially when we consider the great depth of the water, both in summer and winter-from six to ten, fifteen, and some places as deep as thirty or forty feet, all round the island.' III. A History of three Species of Cassida. By the Rev. William Kirby, of Barham. These insects, viz. Cassida Liriophora, C. viridis, C. maculata, are described in the three states of larva, pupa, and imago, in a concise but characteristic manner. IV. Observations relating to the Migration of Birds. By Edmund Lambert, Esq. of Boyton near Heytesbury, Wilts. This paper consists of a few short notices respecting some of the most remarkable birds of passage: They are manifestly the result of actual personal observation, and therefore, though mere detached facts, have their value. It may also be added that they are perfectly consistent with the very accurate remarks of the late Mr. White of Selborne on this subject. V. Account of the Canis Graius Hibernicus, or Irish Wolf Dog. By A. B. Lambert, Esq. F. R. and F. L. S. Accompanied with an outline engraving. This large and gentle species of dog is, it seems, almost extinct in Ireland, the only remaining dogs being in the possession of Lord Altamont; the figure and description, therefore, are well worthy of being preserved in these public records of the Society. VI. The Botanical History of Mntha exigua. By James Edward Smith, M. D. P. L.S. REY. MAY, 1798. 느 From this memoir of the President, which is an ingenious specimen of botanical criticism, it appears that the plant in question has hitherto been erroneously ranked among the indigenous vegetables of Great Britain. ! VII. Observations on the Oeconomy of the Ichneumon Manifestator. By Thomas Marsham, Esq Sec. L. S. (With a coloured plate.) This piece is not of high consequence, the observations which it contains being in an imperfect state. VIII. Description of a new Species of Opercularia. By Mr. Thomas Young, F. L.S. (With a plate.) This plant is a native of New Holland, and made its appearance in Mr. Curtis's garden in the year 1793, springing spontaneously out of some earth brought from Botany Bay. IX. Description of eight new Fishes from Sumatra. By Mr. Mungo Park, A. L S. (With a coloured plate.) These fish are two of the genus Chaetodon, three of Perca, one Scomber, and two Balistes. X. Lindsæa, a new Genus of Ferns. By Jonas Dryander, F.L.S (With five plates.) The nine species of this genus which have usually been reckoned Adiantums, but which rather belong to the Pteris of Linné, are here erected into a new genus: the essential characters are, fructifications, forming a line parallel with the margin of the frond; in some species close to it, in others more or less remote from it; but in all, the covering membrane is attached to the disk within the line of fructifications, and opens towards the margin of the frond.' Thus differing in its linear fructification from Adiantum; and from Pteris in the covering membrane opening towards the margin of the frond, instead of towards the disk. The species mentioned are natives of the East and West Indies and South America. XI. On a Species of Tellina, not described by Linnæus. By William George Maton, F. L.'S. XV. The specific Characters of some minute Shells discovered on the Coast of Pembrokeshire, with an Account of a new marine Animal. By John Adams, Esq. F. L. S. XXIV. Descriptions of Actinia crassicornis and some British Shells. By John Adams, Esq. F. L. S. XII. Observations upon the Generic Character of Ulva; with Descriptions of some new Species. By Thomas Jenkinson Woodward, Esq. F. L. S. The numerous exceptions to the Linnean character of this genus have induced Mr. W. to give a new generic character, and a synoptical arrangement of the species. There are also three new species, two of them natives of the Norfolk Coast, and one of the Mediterranean. XIII. Account |