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THE NORTH CAPE.

THIS cape forms the most northerly point of the continent of Europe, and may be regarded as one of the most sublime wonders of nature. It is thus described by Sir ARTHUR DE CAPELL BROOKE *, who approached it from the land, and from whose work the accompanying view is taken.

tremity, where it becomes of a circular shape, and is indented by several chasms, that form small creeks. Its surface is flat, being what sailors call table-land, rising gradually from the part adjoining the land till about a quarter of a mile from its other extremity, when it declines with a gentle slope toward the sea. In this part is its greatest breadth; being, as I conjecture, nearly three quarters of a mile across. The whole of it is almost des titute of any vegetation, and thickly strewed with small broken fragments of rocks.

At six in the evening we reached the North Cape; and, advancing to the edge of the precipice, contemplated the fearful steep between us and the ocean. Let the reader even weeks. in height that of Dover, and with

On the approach of winter, the storms of snow are often of very long duration, lasting for many days, and They are preceded by heavy fogs, which

imagine a cliff exceed description of the latter, he may drag in from the ocean in immense masses, like impe

Shakspeare's celebrated form a good idea of the North Cape, black from the polar storms, and proudly frowning upon the foaming element at its feet.

The eye vainly endeavoured to catch the fleeting sails of some vessel steering its way through these desert seas: all was one wide roaring waste of waters. On the verge of the horizon black mists hovered, driving on from the arctic regions of Spitzbergen. To the eastward, at the distance of thirteen leagues, the North Kyn protruded boldly into the waves, and seemed to vie with its gigantic rival, being separated from it by the mouths of the great Porsanger and Laxe fiords. Looking to the west, the lofty rocks of Stappen seemed still close to us; and beyond them Maasöe and Jelmsöe presented their mountains, the rugged surfaces of which were softened by the distance. Evening was now fast approaching; and the wind, which was strong and chill, warned us to prepare our tent for the night. This was a task of no small difficulty, as the bleak exposed surface of the Cape, and the hardness of the rock, which prevented our driving in the pegs, gave us good reason to fear, that not our little tent only, but all it contained, might be swept away by the blast. Having at length found a projecting part of the cliff, which screened us in some measure, we pitched it within a few yards of this, securing it as well as we could by fragments of the rock, which we rolled on the edge of the canvass, to supply the place of pegs. As we had eaten nothing since an early hour in the morning, and had walked some miles across the mountains against the keen air of Mageröe, we had by this time a pretty good appetite. Our provision was accordingly produced: and, having lighted a blazing fire with the wood we had taken care to bring, snug within our tent, we enjoyed our repast with a greater relish than the most luxurious feast would have afforded in a palace at home. When this was concluded, to drown fatigue, and celebrate our arrival at the Cape, a bowl of punch was quickly made; and, while the north wind, sweeping in howling blasts over the icy seas, whistled loudly round us, with our faces turned to the south on account of the wind, we drank "a health to those far away;" and the recollection of many an absent friend in that quarter prolonged our libations.

The hour was late before we reclined ourselves to rest, grateful for the shelter afforded us. Sleep soon overpowered all but myself; and the deep snorings of the Norwegian boatmen, and the Laplander, who was our guide, proved that they had speedily lost all sense of the fatigues of the day. Feeling no disposition to sleep, I arose softly, and, stealing out of the tent, strolled round the Cape. It was already midnight. The sun had sunk beneath the horizon about an hour, but a reddish, angry tint, still marked its progress below it. A feeble twilight diffused itself around, just sufficient to mark the gigantic outlines of the cliffs. Toward the north black masses of clouds, with threatening looks, announced an approaching storm; and the billowy ocean, that dashed against the rocks, loudly bellowed its fury. I now returned to my slumbering companions, crept into the tent, every object of which was wrapped in gloom; and was soon lulled to sleep by the murmurings of the surge below.

Our small tent stood well the rude attacks of the north wind, which blew furiously in the night; and in the morning we commenced exploring the neighbourhood of the Cape, anxious to lose no time, as our stay would necessarily depend upon the supply of wood and provisions that remained.

The NORTH CAPE, which is in latitude 71° 10' 15", is a long extended headland, or tongue of rock, narrowest near its root, and enlarging itself towards its other exTravels to the North Cape.

netrable walls, or moving bodies of water. This, however, is the case only with westerly winds; the weather being fine and clear when it blows from the eastward. The climate, with all its seeming disadvantages, is notwithstanding healthy; and dreary and dismal as it may appear to the inhabitants of more temperate zones, it holds out even its pleasures and enjoyments to the few settlers that reside there. It is fortunate that disease is so rare, as there is no medical person within 150 miles: the scurvy is the only disorder known, and this not to any great degree. months in the year; but, in return for this privation, it is The sun disappears to the inhabitants for more than two for the same period above the horizon constantly day and night, and for the space of about three months there is an uninterrupted continuance of daylight. During the long winter-night, the aurora borealis, which shines with uncommon brilliancy at the North Cape, compensates for the loss of the sun; and its light is so great, that the fishermen are enabled to carry on their ordinary occupations as well as by the usual daylight.

No part of the North certainly conveys to the traveller so perfect an idea of desolation as Mageroe, or Lean Island; a name highly appropriate, destitute as it is of every thing but rocks, piled one upon the other in an extraordinary manner. The circumference of Mageröe, I was informed, is about seventy miles. It is very narrow, being intersected by long and extensive fiords, which run very deep into the land between the mountains, and nearly approach each other from the opposite sides of the land. On the mountains there are about two hundred rein-deer, belonging to some Field Laplanders, who remain with them the whole of the year, the Mageröe sound being too broad and turbulent, to allow of their crossing it to the continent. On some parts of Mageröe, where there is a little brushwood, hares, we were told, are found in sufficient plenty. These with the ermine and lemming, constitute the quadrupeds of the island.

Dr. Henderson, in his work on Iceland, mentions a curious circumstance respecting the foxes at the North Cape. "In the vicinity of the North Cape," he says, "where the precipices are almost entirely covered with various species of sea-fowl, the foxes proceed on their predatory expeditions in company; and previous to the commencement of their operations, they hold a kind of mock fight upon the rocks, in order to determine their relative strength. When this has been fairly ascertained, they advance to the brink of the precipice; and, taking each other by the tail, the weakest descends first, while the strongest, forming the last in the row, suspends the whole number, till the foremost has reached their prey. A signal is then given, on which the uppermost fox pulls with all his might, and the rest assist him as well as they can with from rock to rock, until they have provided themselves their feet against the rocks; in this manner they proceed with a sufficient supply." Nothing, I confess, would have better repaid me for a long journey to the North Cape, than to have witnessed these curious proceedings, and to have beheld this very extraordinary link of foxes, suspended from the tremendous cliffs, and dangling mid-way between the ocean and their summits. There appeared a great scarcity of sea-fowl, and I observed very few even of the gull-tribe, which abounded most at the low rocks of Giesvær.

coast within the last fifty years. This is also the case The sea has decreased considerably on the Mageröe with the other parts of Finmark; and it has been continuing so to do probably for some centuries. Even on the top of the North Cape, the action of water can be traced, at an elevation which is so considerably above the present level of the ocean. This decrease of it has not failed to have been observed by the inhabitants of these coasts, who

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upon my asking the question, uniformly agreeed as to the
Our curiosity at the Cape having been thoroughly satis-
fied, the state of our affairs imperiously urged us to depart;
our provision being consumed, our firewood burnt, and our
water exhausted. Accordingly there was no time to
Previous to
lose, and we prepared for our departure.
this, having collected large fragments of rock, we piled
them together, forming a kind of pedestal about ten
feet in height, in order to point out more clearly the
situation of the North Cape to other travellers, and being
erected close to the cliff, it would also, at a short distance,
be visible at sea. This we placed in a part where it would
be discerned with the greater facility, by those who should
arrive at the summit of the slope, which gently declines
toward the cliff; and about a quarter of a mile to the west-
ward of it we judged to be the most northern point.

Another traveller who visited the Cape from the sea, gives the following account of this extraordinary

promontory.

In approaching the cape a little before midnight, the rocks at first appeared to be nearly of an equal height, until they terminated in a perpendicular peak; but on a nearer view, those within were found to be much higher than those of the extreme peak. Their general appearance was highly picturesque. The sea breaking against this immovable rampart, which had withstood its fury from the remotest ages, bellowed, and formed a thick border of white froth. This spectacle, equally beautiful and terrific, was illumined by the midnight sun, and the shade which covered the western side of the rocks, rendered their aspect still more tremendous. The height of these rocks could not be ascertained, but here every thing was on so grand a scale, that a point of comparison could not be afforded by any ordinary known objects. On landing, the party discovered a grotto, formed of rocks, the surface of which had been washed smooth by the waves, and having within it a spring of fresh water. The only accessible spot in the vicinity was a hill, some hundred paces in circumference, surrounded by enormous crags. From the summit of this hill, turning towards the sea, they perceived to the right, a prodigious mountain attached to the cape, and rearing its sterile mass to the skies. To the left, a neck of land covered with less-elevated rocks, against which the surges dashed with violence, closed the bay, and admitted but a limited view of the ocean.

To see as far as possible into the interior, our navigators climbed almost to the summit of the mountain, where a most singular mountain presented itself to the view. A

lake in the foreground, had an elevation of at least ninety
feet above the level of the sea, and on the top of an adja-
The
cent, but less-lofty mountain, was another lake.
view was terminated by peaked rocks, chequered with
patches of snow. At midnight, the sun still remained
several degrees above the horizon, and continued to ascend
higher and higher till noon, when having again descended,
it passed the North without dipping. This phenomenon, so
extraordinary to the inhabitants of the torrid and temperate
zones, could not be viewed without great interest.

During the two months of daylight, when the sun is per-
petually above the horizon, the inhabitants rise at ten in the
morning, dine at five or six in the evening, and go to bed at
one. But during winter, when from the beginning of De-
cember to the end of January, the sun never rises, they sleep
above half of the twenty-four hours, and employ the other
half in sitting over the fire, all business being suspended
during the darkness. The cause of this phenomenon is
easily explained. The sun always illumines half the
world at once, and shines on every side, 90 degrees from
the place where he is vertical. When he is vertical over
the equator, and equidistant from the poles, he shines as
far as each pole: this happens in spring and autumn. But
when declining to the North in summer, the sun shines
beyond the North Pole, and all the countries near that
pole, turn round in constant sunshine: he at the same time
leaves the South Pole an equal number of degrees, and
those parts turn round in darkness. The effect is contrary
at each pole in our winter, the sun then declining south
ward of the equator. About three miles from North Cape,
lies Maso, the northernmost port of Norwegian Lapland.
It is formed of a very fine bay, in which ships may winter
with great security.

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UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

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THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS. AMIENS is a populous town in France, the capital of the ancient province of Picardy, and of the modern. department of the Somme, on the river of which name it stands. It is a place of great antiquity; in the time of Cæsar, it opposed a formidable resistance to the progress of the Roman arms, and is mentioned as one of the places in Gaul in which good weapons were made. It is now regarded as a strong town of the third class; and the inhabitants carry on a considerable trade in linens, cottons, and velvets, which are manufactured in the neighbourhood. It is tolerably well built, having several regular squares, and some public buildings of interest; but the chief attraction of which it boasts, is its celebrated Gothic Cathedral.

The first church which has any claims to the title of the Cathedral of Amiens, is one erected about the middle of the fourth century, in the reign of the Roman Emperor Gratian, by Saint Firmin, the third bishop of that see. The spot on which it stood was a space of ground, set apart by the piety of the family, as a burial-place for those who had fallen victims to their profession of the Christian faith; and among others was the body of St. Firmin the martyr, first Bishop of Amiens, who was put to death in the year 303.

It appears that, in the process of time, all recollection became lost of the place where the bones of this venerable martyr were deposited; for early in the seventh century, a search was instituted for them by the then bishop of the see. The fact of their discovery is preserved in a legend, and according to the popish inventions of those days, the event was signalized by a rapid succession of astounding miracles. It was alleged, that a supernatural ray of light conducted the zealous inquirers to the spot which they so anxiously sought; a sweet odour spread itself gently through the air, the sick became healed, the snow which covered the ground was quickly dissolved, and its place supplied by the smiling verdure of summer! The rumour of these prodigies soon reached the neighbouring people; and their influence was such as might naturally be expected in so superstitious an age. They flocked to the town to render homage to the saint, and testified their zeal, by the liberality of their offerings, which at length became so valuable, that it was determined to apply them to the erection of a new church, which should be dedicated to St. Firmin, and built over the spot where he had suffered death.

The second Cathedral, which was chiefly constructed of wood, was not of long duration; it was burnt by the Normans in 881, and subsequently rebuilt and repaired several times. At length, in 1218, it was wholly destroyed by lightning, and with it perished the archives of the bishopric. Two years elapsed before any attempt was made to supply its place; and then the necessity of providing a suitable depository for the body of St. Firmin, and for a relic to which equal interest was attached, the supposed head of St. John the Baptist, which had been recently brought from Constantinople by a gentleman of Picardy, who had been engaged in the assault made by the Crusaders upon that city in 1204, induced the reigning bishop, Everard, to call upon his people for the means of accomplishing that object. The appeal was successful; contributions poured in quickly, and the architect, Robert de Lusarches, was enabled to lay the first stone in the same year. But neither he nor the bishop lived to see the completion of the work which they had begun; and sixty-eight years elapsed before the building was quite finished. With

a few alterations, it is the same which exists at the present day.

The external appearance of this Cathedral is not so striking as that of some others; its western or principal front, accurately represented in our engraving, is, however, very rich, and has a considerable resemblance to that of the Church of Notre Dame at Paris. The towers, which are of unequal height, the northern being of greater elevation than the southern, are said to have been added about a century after the body of the edifice was built, and to have been made of different altitude, in conformity with a regulation which prescribed that Cathedrals attached to the seat of an archbishop, and those belonging to certain collegiate establishments, and to abbeys of royal foundation alone, should be allowed to have two equal towers. In Turkey, the privilege of more than one tower is still restricted to the royal mosques; but whether any similar regulation existed with respect to the forms of Christian churches, is much doubted by those best qualified to judge.

The interior of this Cathedral is extremely magnificent; there are few churches which exhibit an appearance at once of so much vastness and beauty. It not only far surpassed my expectations," says a writer, whose opinion we have before had occasion to cite in our descriptions of the French Churches, the author of Letters of an Architect, "but possessed a character and expression quite new to me. In our English Cathedrals, the eye is confined to one avenue, and the sublime effect is nearly limited to the view along it. Here the sight seems to penetrate in all directions, and to obtain a number of views, all, indeed, subordinate to the principal one, but all beautiful, and offering, by the different position of the parts with regard to the spectator, the greatest variety. I sat down for some time to enjoy this sublime scene, and then paced slowly up the nave, as far as the intersection of the cross, where my attention was arrested by a beautiful rose window at each end of the transept. Without seeing them, one can form no idea of how much beauty a rose window is capable; the splendid colouring of the glass, glowing among the rich tracery, has a brilliancy and magnificence for which I can cite to you no parallel in England." The western rose here mentioned, has become internally the dial of the clock; the figures which denote the hours are more than seven feet apart, and the hour hand moves nearly an inch and a half in a minute.

The plan of the building is a Latin cross; the whole length being 442 feet, and the greatest breadth 104 feet. The transept is 194 feet long; and the height of the nave to the summit of the vaulting 140 feet. One of the most remarkable features of the nave is the beautiful range of side-chapels which run along its whole length, corresponding with the divisions of the side-aisles. Their date is subsequent to that of the building itself; and they are said to have originated in a singular manner.

In the year 1244, Geoffroi de Milly, great bailiff of Amiens, caused five clerks, or scholars, who were vaguely accused of some crime, in which that functionary felt a personal interest, to be hanged without any legal process. The bishop, indignant at so wanton an abuse of power, subjected the bailiff to a sentence of severe penance, and issued a decree against the mayor and aldermen (as we must call them,) of Amiens, for having permitted the bailiff so to outstretch his authority, condemning them under the penalty of 1000 marks of silver, to found six chapels, and to devote to each a rent of 20 Parisian livres.

This Cathedral has been visited by many celebrated

personages, and has been the scene of some interesting events. Charles VII., Louis XI., Charles VIII., Louis XII., Francis I., Henry II., Charles IX., Henry IV., Louis XIII., Louis XIV. of France, our own kings, Henry V. and the unfortunate James II., and the Czar Paul I. of Russia, have all left at the Cathedral of Amiens, memorials of their liberality and their devotion.

It was within the walls of this church that the marriage of the renowned Philip Augustus, of France, with Ingelberga, who was crowned queen in the same year, was celebrated; and also that of Charles VI. with Isabel of Bavaria. Several treaties were here concluded between England and France at different periods; and it was in this Cathedral that our own king, Edward the First, did homage to Philip of Valois, as a feudatory of the French crown, in respect of the possessions which he held in the territory of France.

ANCIENT MODE OF WRITING. STYLE-PAPER-LEAVES-VOLUME-BOOKVELLUM-PARCHMENT.

THE ancients used tables covered with a coat of wax, on which they wrote with a style, a piece of iron pointed at the end, with which they made the letters, and blunt or flat at the other end, which they used for rubbing out what they had written, either when they wished to make any alteration, or to use the table for other writings. By a good or bad style, therefore, they meant at first, simply to denote the quality of the instrument with which they wrote. The term was afterwards applied metaphorically to the language; in which sense it is now used.

Among the different substances that were employed for writing upon, before the art of making paper from linen-rags was discovered, we find the earliest to have been these tables of wood, made smooth, and covered with wax. But as what was written on wax might easily be defaced, leaves of the papyrus*, a kind of flag, which grew in great abundance in the marshes of Egypt, were dried, and by a particular process prepared for writing. Sheets were also separated for the same purpose from the stem of the plant. On these, the letters were engraved with an instrument similar to that used for writing on wax. The substance so prepared, was called charta, from a city of Tyre of that name, near which the plant was also found. The words folia, leaves, and charta, paper, thus derived, are well known among ourselves. As in writing a treatise, a great number of these leaves or sheets was required, they were joined together by making a hole and passing a string through each of them. With the same string, passed several times round them, they were confined, to prevent their separating, and being injured or lost when no one was reading them; whence it is supposed, that a roll or bundle of them, obtained the name of a volumen, or volume. Those who have seen specimens of the Burmese writing on leaves thus collected, may form an accurate notion of an ancient papyrus volume.

Another article used for writing, was the inner bark of certain trees. This was prepared by beating it, and then cementing it together by a solution of gum. As the inner bark of trees is called liber, the volumes of books were thence called libri, a name they still retain. Vellum, the last substance to be mentioned, is said to owe its origin to the following circumstance. Eumenes, King of Pergamus, being desirous of forming a library that should equal, or * See the Saturday Magazine, Vol. IV., p. 208.

| exceed in number the far-famed library of Alex andria, Ptolemy, King of Egypt, with a view of frustrating his design, prohibited the exportation of the papyrus. This excited the industry of some artists in the court of Eumenes: they contrived a method of preparing the skins of sheep, and it was called vellum from vellus, a fleece or skin; and parchment from Pergamus, the place where the art of preparing it was discovered: or if not discovered, it was there improved, and first brought into general

use.

MEXICAN BEES.

FROM the Plaza we went to a house where a bee-hive of

the country was opened in our presence. The bees, the Europe. The hive is generally made out of a log of wood, honeycomb, and the hive, differ essentially from those of from two to three feet long, and eight or ten inches in diameter, hollowed out, and closed at the ends with circular doors, cemented closely to the wood, but capable of being removed at pleasure. Some persons use cylindrical hives, made of earthenware, instead of the clumsy apparatus of wood; these are relieved by raised figures and and circular rings, so as to form rather handsome ornaments in the verandah of a house, where they are suspended by cords from the roof, in the same manner that the wooden ones in the villages are hung to the eaves of the cottages. On one side of the hive, half-way between the ends, there is a small hole made, just large enough for a loaded bee to enter, and shaded by a projection, to representing the mouth of a man, or some monster, the prevent the rain from trickling in. In this hole, generally head of which is moulded in the clay of the hive, a bee is constantly stationed, whose office is no sinecure; for the hole is so small, he has to draw back every time a bee wishes to enter or leave the hive. A gentleman told me, that the experiment was made by marking the centinel, post a whole day. when it was observed, that the same bee continued at his

When it is ascertained by the weight that the hive is full, the end-pieces are removed, and the honey withdrawn. The hive we saw opened was only partly filled, which enabled us to see the economy of the interior to more advantage. The honey is not contained in the elegant hexagonal cells of our hives, but in wax bags, not quite so large as an egg; these bags, or bladders, are hung round the sides of the hives, and appear about halffull, the quantity being, probably, just as great as the strength of the wax will bear without tearing. Those nearest the bottom, being better supported, are more filled than the upper ones. In the centre, or the lower part of the hive, we observed an irregular-shaped mass of comb furnished with cells, like those of our bees, all containing young ones, in such an advanced state, that when we broke the comb and let them out, they flew merrily away. During this examination of the hive, the comb and the honey were taken out, and the bees disturbed in every way, but they never stung us, though our faces and hands were covered with them. It is said, however, that there is a bee in the country which does not sting; but the kind we saw seem to have neither the power nor the inclination, for they certainly did not hurt us, and our friends said they were always muy manso, (very tame,) and never stung any one. The honey gave out a rich aromatic perfume, and tasted differently from ours, but possessed an agreeable flavour.

[BASIL HALL'S Travels in South America.]

WHETHER I am praised or blamed, says a Chinese sage, I make it of use to my advancement in virtue. Those who commend me, I conceive to point out the way I ought to go; those who blame me, as telling me the dangers I have run. I AM beholden to calumny that she hath so endeavoured and taken pains to belie me; it shall make me set a surer guard upon myself, and keep a better watch upon my actions.-BEN JONSON.

NONE are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets, as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation.-C.

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