"to give a brief account of the several na vigations and discoveries made towards the NË. and NW. viz. Nova Zembla, NE. Greenland or Spitsberg, NW. and Greenland, commonly called Groenland and Engroenland. The first discovery of these countries is owing to an accident; for in 1380, Nicholas and Anthony Zani, two brothers, and rich citizens of Venice, having set sail from the Streight of Gibralter for Flanders and England, were accidentally driven northwards by violent storms, even as far as Friesland, Iceland, and Groenland. But in 1497, John Cabot, and Sebastian, his son, of the same nation, received a commission from our king Henry VII. to undertake the like voy age, who made a draught and description of some northwest parts of America, and brought along with them four of the natives."

Hence sprung the project of discovering a northeast passage "into the Indies;" which the Dutch absurdly pretended to have made out in 88° N. lat. The first adventure was that in 1553, consisting of three vessels commanded by sir Hugh Willoughby, of whose voyage we have no memoirs,

"Except certain short and imperfect notes which were taken off from his Table after his death; wherein it is expressed, that the fleet under his command parted from Seynam, which lies in 70 deg. North lat. on the 2d day of August: that on the 14th they were above 160 leagues from the same place to the northeast, and continued sailing until Septemb. 14, when they came ashoar on a high, rocky, and desart country, from whence the cold and ice forc'd them to return more Southerly, which they did till they reach'd a river in Lapland, call'd Arzina, where, by the continuance of foul weather, they were shut up in the harbour, and the next spring were all found frozen to death in their ship."

A few years after this unfortunate attempt, in 1556, captain Stephen Burroughs, "sometime comptroller of the navy to queen Elizabeth," in a voyage of the same kind discovered Waygat's straits, "that run between the south part of Nova Zembla and the country of the Samoieds:"-the highest latitude he reached is laid down 80° 11', and it is probable he cruised on the coasts of Greenfand, "since he makes mention of the desolate country, the blew ice, and great numbers of various fowl thereabouts."

But the first name most celebrated "for endeavouring to search out a northwest passage into China, was sir Martin Frobisher, who, in several voyages, made divers new discoveries of large bays, streights, islands, capes, &c. and imposed on them different names."

His voyages, however, seem to have been principally among the islands about Hudson's straits and the coasts of Labrador, between 60 and 65° N. lat., where he established a friendly intercourse with the natives, exchanged toys for salmon and other fish,

brought away some marcasites mistaken for gold ore, discovered a silver mine (probably not more sterling,) and took possession of the south shore of the isle of Good Fortune, under the name of Meta-Incognita.

Arthur Pett and Charics Jackman, in 1580, followed Stephen Burroughs's track. passed Waygat Straits, got among the ice to the eastward, and encountered such peril and labour that they separated, and Pett was never more heard of.

In 1585-6-7, Mr. John Davis sailed to the east coast of Greenland, giving his name to the straits between that coast and James Island. At Cape Desolation

"He found many pieces of furr and wool like beaver, and exchanged some commodi. ties with the natives, who often repaired to him in their canoes, bringing stag-skins, white hares, smail cod, muscles," &c.

He reached no higher than 729 N. The Dutch about this time began to be roused to a sense of the commercial advantages which might result from these northern expeditions, hitherto exclusively pursued by the English. About 1578, they first appeared at Kola, in Lapland, and a rivalship of the Russia Company ensuing, they, in 1594, sent Barents on a voyage to discover the passage to the Indies.

"In 1596, the same Wm. Barents, accompanied with two other Dutch pilots, viz. Jacob Heemskirk and John Cornelius Ryp, first discovered Bear, or Cherry Island, and passed from thence to Greenland; but Barents being separated from them, sailed along the coasts of Nova Zembla to the 76 deg. of N. lat., until at length his ship was driven ashore, and broken in piecesby the ice, so that all the mariners were compelled to winter there, and endured the utmost extremity of cold."

Poor Barents died before they got back to Kola.

In 1608, the enterprising Hudson was "sent forth to discover the North Pole, and sailed," says our authority, “even to 82 degrees of N. latitude; but being satisfied there was no northeast passage, he was appointed to make the like trial in the nortwest seas. Therefore, in 1610, he set sail again, and proceeded 100 leagues farther than any had done before But the ice hindered him from continuing his course farther, and the sedition of his men from returning home."

Hence, however, Hudson's straits and bay, and circumjacent coasts, in these parts. In 1611, sir Thomas Button prosecuted the discoveries in the same quarter; and in 1612-5-6

"James Hall and William Baffin proceeded much farther in the northwest parts, and imposed names on divers places discovered by them."

During the first half of this century a number of expeditions were fitted out from Denmark, but did little towards extending the geographical knowledge of the Poluž

seas. Our own investigation seem to have languished from Baffin's trip in 1616, till that of captain Luke Fox, in 1630:

"He traced Frobisher, Hudson, Davis, Button, and Baffin, meeting with whales, much ice and fowls," &c.

In 1631, near Port Nelson, he met captain James, whose very interesting narrative was published by the special command of Charles I. in 1633. Wood's Voyage, in 1676, proceeded no further than 76° N. lat., where he lost his ship on the coast of Nova Zembla, and returned home in the Prosperous Pink, which accompanied him.

Such were the chief expeditions at the close of the sixteenth and during the seventeenth centuries; and when we consider the state of the appointments and the frail nature of the ships employed, we shall not only be surprised at the extent of their investigations, but be led to entertain sanguine hopes of much further progress from such vessels as have now sailed on a similar mission, with all the aids of science attached to them.

Of Greenland (Groenland, Groenlandia, or Grainland) we are told that the eastern and western sides are encompassed with two

vast oceans.

"This land is supposed to have been first discovered by a Norwegian gentleman, named Eric Rotcop, or Red-head, who having committed a murder in Island (Iceland,) to save his life attempted to make his escape into another country, whereof he had only heard some obscure flying reports. This gentleman was so fortunate as to get safe to the harbour of Sandsbasin, lying between two mountainous promontories, one on an isle over against Greenland, which he called Huudserken or White-Shirt, by reason of its being covered with snow; the other on the continent bearing the name of Huarf Eric. He wintered in the island, and afterward passing into the continent, imposed on it the name of Groenland or Greenland, from its flourishing verdeur. His son being sent to Olaus Trugger, king of Norway, to procure a pardon, easily obtained it upon information of the new discovery. Thus, in process of time, a plantation was settled there, and two cities were built, viz. Garde and Albe; the latter was honoured with a bishop's see, and the residence of the Norwegian viceroy, the cathedral church being dedicated to St. Antony. However, these new inhabitants having been long since destroyed, either by the natives, the rage of the epidemical disease called the black plague, or otherwise, very little intelligence concerning Groenland has come to us since the year 1349. Nevertheless, in 1389, (as they say,) the king of Denmark determining to re-establish his dominion in those parts, sent a fleet thither; which having suffered shipwreck, he was discouraged from any farther enterprise, until of late that navigation was somewhat renewed by Christian IV. who was wont to call this country his

Philosopher's Stone; in regard that it was SOMETIMES not to be found when his ships took a voyage thither; and because a certain Dane, in 1626, brought some sand from thence which was of the same colour and weight with gold."

The hardships endured by many of the early adventurers, and the miserable deaths of many others, would fill volumes in the recital. It may well, therefore, be considered fortunate for commerce and the interests of nations, that there is implanted in man's nature a desire of novelty, which no present gratification can satisfy; that, having visited one region of the earth, he is eager to explore another; that having escaped one danger in his progress, he is no less resolute to encounter others, which may chance to obstruct him in the course of his pursuits. If the history of former hardships could have deterred men from engaging in new adventures, the voyage of discovery, which has just left the British shores, would not have been undertaken. The dreary regions that surround the Poles are so little accustomed to feel the kindly influences of the enlivening sun, and are so destitute of the ordinary productions of the earth in happier climates, that little less than one whole quarter of the globe is by its sterility rendered uninhabitable by human beings, and but thinly occupied by a very inconsiderable number of the brute creation.

The many and almost insuperable difficulties that must therefore be expected in traversing these forlorn deserts, where no relief is to be expected, but from the favourable interposition of that Power, whose providence extends to the remotest corners of the earth, is, upon reflection, enough to cool the ardour of the most enterprising minds.

In our present statement we have passed over the claims made by the Icelanders in 1001, under Biarn,* and of the Germans, in 1484, under Martin Bebens,t of Nuremberg, to this discovery, because they are unsupported by any later writer; and have confined ourselves to such attempts only as are well authenticated, and their results sufficiently known.

From the whole it appears certain that though Spitzbergen was also called Northeast Greenland, there was undoubtedly a colony once, settled on the east side of Old Greenland, which was sometimes approacha ble and oftentimes blocked up within an icy barrier. Whether this land may be again visited, and what remains of its former condition, are problems which the enterprise of our bold sailors will probably solve within a few months, and in the interim, we trust this brief retrospect at the long past exploits of their predecessors will not be read without adding to that strong feeling of interest which accompanies their adventure.

Lon. Lil. Gaz.

* Journal de la Belgique, Dec. 5, 1816. Torsæus and Angrim Jonas, two Icelandie writers of good repute.

JEU D'ESPRIT.

To the Editor of the Quotidienne. SIR,-From a late article in your journal, I observe that Madame Krudener, and her principal secretary, M. Keller, announce that the world will soon be at an end, and that the day of judgment is rapidly approach ing. Allow me likewise, en passant, to express my satisfaction at finding that my sex now enjoy the privilege of saying and doing the most extraordinary things imaginable. This, together with my own inclination, has induced me to note down such signs as appear to me to presage the grand and awful catastrophe in question. I know not, I confess, whether the planets have deviated from their wonted path, whether the ices have diminished at the poles, whether corn now contains less nutritive substance than formerly, &c. &c.; but, Sir, I think I have discovered many other symptoms of the termination of a world, which, having existed (according to philosophical suppositions) about fifteen thousand years, may certainly be resigned to its fate, and cannot in reason complain of being cut off in the flower of its age.

Within my sphere of observation, I have remarked many things which cannot be natural, and which, I assure you, give rise to the most serious reflections.

To begin then with what concerns myself, I must inform you that my husband is so changed, that I scarcely know him. Would you believe it, Sir? he absolutely refuses to buy me a new Cochemire, or to pay my milliner's last bill, under pretence that he cannot afford it! He declares his determination to be master in his own house! in a word, Sir, his whole conduct towards me proves that he has not a vestige of common sense remaining. However, this is nothing, and even under such a state of things the world might possibly last some little time longer. But a poet of my acquaintance evinced a singular instance of modesty last week: he confessed to me, that there were perhaps a few instances of negligence to be found in his hemistichs; and that he was only the second poet in the world!

But I have something yet more wonderful to tell. The most liberal philosopher I know, who has saved the universe thirty times within the last thirty years, by means of his primordial truths and fundamental principles, this philosopher acknowledged the other day that the world was not yet saved, and that much remained to be done ere that object could be accomplished; that several of his truths were in reality untrue, that one or two of his principles could not possibly be applied, and for that reason appeared somewhat ridiculous. He moreover confessed that several intelligent gentlemen of his acquaintance have not yet attained that degree of perfectibility which they wished to make us believe they had, and that among the perfections of the age a few momentous errors bad accidentally intruded themselves.

To judge from these confessions, Sir, one

could scarcely answer for the world's lasting three weeks longer. I may add, that whilst sitting before my looking-glass the other day, I observed several spots on my forehead, which has always been whiter than the finest satin, (you will be pleased to recollect that this perfectly coincides with the spots on the sun's disk.) Besides, Sir. you cannot fail to have noticed, that almost every day appointed for the promenades at Longchamp has proved rainy, and worse than all, I have every reason to fear that no one so much as noticed my elegant carriage and superb harness, or the new hat which I wore ornamented with a bouquet of polyanthus and lilac. When, in addition to all this, it is recollected that America and Africa repel the lights of this age, and that Potier is going to the Porte Saint-Martin, the best thing we can do is to be speedy in obtaining passports for the chaos which must necessarily follow the end of the world, of which indeed I am heartily tired whenever there is no perform. ance at the opera, or a new piece is repeated night after night at the theatres.

CAROLINE.

We some time ago notified the invention of a self-moving carriage in Germany. This machine has been named a Draisienne, and one of the Paris journals of last week contains the following account of its exhibition in that capital :

"An immense concourse of spectators assembled yesterday at noon, at Luxemburg, to witness the experiments with Draisiennes (a species of carriage moved by machinery without horses.) The crowd was so great that the experiments were but imperfectly made. The machine, however, went quicker than a man running at speed, and the conductors did not appear fatigued. About three, a lady appeared in a Draisienne, conducted by the chasseur of the Baron de Drais, who made with it several turns in the alleys, in the midst of the crowd. The machine, although charged with a double weight, had the same rapidity, and the efforts of the conductor did not seem to be increased. The machine ascended with facility the hillocks which are placed in some parts of the garden. The Draisiennes appear to be convenient for the country, and, for short journeys on good roads."

Lon. Lit. Gaz.

TOUR OF THE CROWN PRINCE OF BAVARIA.

The eyes of all the lovers of antiquity and the fine arts are, with reason, turned upon the remarkable journey which his royal highness the crown prince of Bavaria has undertaken to the classic ground of Greece. This august patron aud enlightened judge of the arts, having first visited all the most remarkable places in Sicily, and its noblest ruins of antiquity returned to Rome, where he has dedicated some time to profound study, pre

paratory to his intended tour. It is his royal highness's intention to depart from Rome to Greece in the beginning of the present month of April. The prince has sent for M. Klenze, architect to the court of Bavaria, to accompany him in this tour. He goes first through the Peloponnesus, and all Ionia, to Athens, perhaps to Asia Minor, and probably by way of Constantinople back to Bavaria.

ANECDOTE.

The following anecdete of Professor Jahn, in Berlin, whose system for making youth perfect in gymnastic exercises, has given rise to endless disputes in Germany, is highly characteristic. When the French were in Berlin, Jahn went with his scholars to exercise on the heath out of the city. On his return, he took it into his head, to ask a boy who loitered under the Brandenberg gate, "What used to stand upon this gate?" "The Victory." "What is become of her?" "The French have carried her to France!" "What do you think of it?" "Nothing at all." Upon this Jahn gave him a hearty box on the ear, with the serious admonition, "She was there, and may be fetched back again, if every one help!" The school never forget it, though the citizens of Berlin thought the Professor mad, because he required that a boy should think something at seeing the gate without the victory, while thousands passed through it every day without think ig any thing.

ANTIQUITIES.

On the 5th of February, a mile and a half from Chiusi, in Tuscany, a countryman digging in the field, found a sepulchral chamber in very good preservation. It is of a rectangular form, six or seven fathoms long and five broad. The entrance is by two folding doors, which move easily on their hinges. In the inside were found eight funeral urns in very good condition: they are adorned with human heads and foliage. On the lids are engraved several Etruscan inscriptions, six of which are very legible. Five of these urns are of different sizes, and smaller than the others; in all of them were fou. ashes and pieces of burnt bones. The whole sepulchre is now carefully guarded, and all proper measures are taken to preserve uninjured a monument of antiquity which is so interesting and perhaps unique in its kind.

During the last summer we had occasion to notice an excavation made in a Roman tumulus near the old Roman road which oc eurs immediately after passing Lord's Bridge, on the left hand of the road leading to Wimpole. Some remains, then discovered, have been deposited in the University Library. On Wednesday last, as some labourers were digging gravel near the same tumulus, at the same distance from the Roman road, they discovered, fourteen inches below the surface

of the soil, a stone slab covering the mouth of a large amphora. Upon raising the stone, there were found within the amphora, which was full of water, a black vase of terra-cotta, of very elegant form, half filled with human bones; also two small vessels of red terra-cotta, with handles. This discovery of the amphora having been actually used by the Romans instead of a sepulchre, remarkably illustrates its meaning, as a symbol upon the gems and medals of the ancients; among the Greeks especially, the figure of an amphora was used as a type of Hades; whence it became also one of the symbols of the Diva triformis.

ANECDOTE OF FOUCHE.

The well known poet Raynouard once read his tragedy of Charles I. to a large company, in which Fouche was present. All eyes were fixed on him, yet his features remained unchanged. The reading began; still he remained unmoved, though at many allusions the scrutinizing eyes of the hearers were turned upon him. When at last the minister of Charles I. defending his master, exclaims, "Le jugement d'un Roi n'est qu'un assassinat," the company were going to express their approbation aloud, but they were prevented by the presence of the minister. This did not escape him, and seemed to embarrass him for a moment. When the reading was finished, every one went away except Fouche. After some general remarks upon the plan and the characters of the piece, he added, "in respect to that verse, I utterly despise it." Raynaurd did not answer, but Fouche walked up and down with long strides, and said, after a pause, "the political part of your tragedy is very weak, you stand upon the tower of Notre Dame instead of penetrating into the interior. In politics every thing has a different point of view. Circumstances-you do not know the effect of circumstaces."-Raynouard interrupted him by repeating the

verse:

"le jugement d'un Roi n'est qu'un assassinat," and Fouche left the room.

A NEW KIND OF GAS.

Mr. George Liebig, in Darmstdadt, announces, that he has made a discovery respecting gas light, from which he promises himself various advantages. His gas yields light and warmth, and the material of which it is made, is of more value when it comes out of the retort where it is burnt than when it is put in. We will leave," says he, "coals and charcoal to the manufactories; my gas is derived from a finer material, which we have in abundance in our country."

Some one said to Dufresny, "Poverty is no crime.”—“ It is a great deal worse," said he.