Which struck where the white and fleecy waves But the cruel rocks, they gored their sides, Then Cape Horn was found to terminate the You will best understand the peculiar nature of this corner of the earth, by following us from Cape Virgins to Cape Pillar. The first day was spent in painfully beating up to the first anchorage in Possession Bay, against violent gusts of wind, which lifted the tops from those deep green furrows, and drenched us with showers of inexpressible saltness. We anchored with our consort, the Sea Witch of Mystic, the pilot-boat Anonyma, seventy-two days from Boston, and the clipper Eclipse, eighty days from Baltimore. Though thousands of miles from home, at a distance where the distinction between States should be lost, and all viewed as a single nation, I was never more forcibly struck with sectional peculiarities, than when contrasting the slow, drawling reply of the Baltimorean, with the hearty down-running around thirty or forty cells in four large styes, between which are gutters for streets, little stone islands for a sidewalk, and eighteen inches of mud for a pavement. I thought of New York! In each of these six-by-eight boxes, windowless and chimneyless, exists a family of convicts. About seventy from the fleet went ashore one evening, and saw a fandango. In Spain the dance may be graceful. Here, no wonder that the wretches pay one dollar a pound for soap, and make a good bargain at that! Most vessels stop here needlessly for wood and water. Both can be procured as well, if not better, in most harbors further on, and time spent here is lost; for there is always a fair wind in this portion of the Straits, and many days must be spent at anchor before the Pacific is reached. Yet the water at Port Famine cannot be surpassed. Men of experience say that months at sea do not alter its taste. At San Nicholas' Bay we saw a fair specimen of the Patagonians. This is that singular race of men which have so inexplicably lost half their stature in the last two hundred years! Magalhaen affirmed them to be nearly twelve feet high, Cor shout of the Bostonian, and the bluff, independent dova and Sarmiento at least nine, Anson about hail of the Yankee smackman. The little fleet eight, and our own school geography full seven. which had thus gathered in a single day, determined In truth, they measure about six feet, and are to sail in company through the Straits, and it may very strongly built. Whether time tears down safely be said that four swifter vessels were never yet seen together in these waters. tallness from men or from fables, is a point for conjecture. These Horse Indians, as they are commonly called, from their equestrian life, are friendly and very stupid. The Tierra del Fuegian, or Canoe Indians, are of the ordinary height, magpies in tongue, baboons in countenance, and imps in treachery. Many conflicts have taken place between them and sealing vessels. They are best seen at a distance. At the second trial we succeeded in passing the first and second Narrows. These are each about ten miles in length and nearly two in width, the tide running through them full ten or twelve miles an hour. By seizing it at the favorable time, no danger need be apprehended, except from the heavy ripplings in which many vessels have been lost. In three days we had passed the first of the three great divisions which nature has marked in the Straits. The region of sand hills and granite cliffs yields to one which appears almost delightful in comparison with what precedes and follows it. Here the coast suddenly tends southward, and the Strait expands into a broad sheet of water, thirty miles in width and three hundred fathoms in depth. The hills are thickly clothed with trees to the water's edge, and were it not for the hunid climate and boggy soil, man could gain his livelihood from the earth. As it is, the Chilian colonies of convicts at Sandy Point and Port Famine are supported from home. Rain fell Here the navigation assumes a new character. every day while we were there, and in a continual Nine days in ten, gales of westerly wind prevail, flood for a full third of the time. In this kind of and beat fiercely upon the adventurous vessel experience we can fully equal even our brother which dares to struggle with their power. Rain hunters for gold who trudged across to Panama. falls several times each day, and when that fails, showers of thick snow or stinging hail suppy its At Cape Howard the main channel turns sharply to the north-west. Here end the two first sections of the Straits, and all plain sailing. The whole body of water is here divided into a thousand little channels to the Pacific, of which the best known are the Cockburn, Barbara, Gabriel, and Main Channels. The labyrinth of islands and sounds is so perfect, that a good chart is indispensable. Unfortunate, indeed, is the vessel in Crooked Reach, which has saved an unlucky sixpence in not providing several stout anchors and the best of cables, at home or at the half-supplied depot in Port Famine. Port Famine, the capital of semi-civilization in this quarter of the globe, consists of a few houses, place. There is a certain singular gust of wind inclosing a wooden fort, in which lie unmounted very prevalent here, which the sailors have termed two honey-combed twelve-pounders and a brass "woolliewaws." When a vessel is caught at field-piece, tightly spiked! Buenos Ayres also night out of the harbor by rain, snow, hail, gales, claims this country, and Chili thus arms herself thick darkness and woolliewaws, there will be little against her rival in imbecility. There is a rickety sleep on board. We were twice trapped in this apology for a fence-a stout cat might paw it manner, and always afterwards saved time and labor by seeking a harbor at three o'clock in the hail. Sometimes we are sailing along in rare afternoon. Strangely enough, the temperature of these high latitudes is equable, and not very cold. The thermometer ranges from 40° to 50° Fahr. throughout the year. Decreased strength of winds alone marks the winter season. In one day we sailed from San Nicholas' Bay to Borja Bay; leaving the region of thick verdure, passing grim Mount Sarmiento seven thousand feet above us, and struggling through a narrow island-spotted ribbon of water, with gigantic walls of granite overshadowing us from their immovable resting places. Cordova said that the mountains west of Cape Quod gave to this portion of the Straits a "most horrible appearance." They do indeed seem very desolate and uninviting, almost all terminating in sharply serrated peaks, or slightly rounding knobs of bare granite, but there is a savage grandeur, a wild glory, upon their lofty summits, which far excels the smiles of the softest landscapes. At Borja Bay we found the brig Saltillo, which had sailed from Boston some time last year, and had already spent five Sundays in the Straits. We also received New York papers to February 17th, from the steamer Panama. She reported several vessels at the entrance of the Straits, and among them the well-known New York pilot boat, Wm. G. Hackstaff, which sailed one day before us. At Swallow Harbor lay the Velasco, of Groton, and Iowa, of Sagharbor. Thus our fleet was increased to six schooners. Both harbors are most secure and picturesque, locked in, as they are, by lofty mountains. Right at the bottom of each, a magnificent cascade rustles down the sides of a broad, brown mountain, With the foamy sheaf of fountains, falling through the painted air. sunshine, when a woolliewaw whirls a storm of sharp diamond hail into our faces, or a column of spray-beads to the very truck; forces our little craft down into the water, till a rushing flood swashes along her decks, then moves leeward in a brown and distinct whirlwind, till it hides one end of a lustrous rainbow, whose other extremity is splendidly defined against some rough mountain. Meanwhile the glorious sunlight is over all. From Port Famine to the Harbor of Mercy, near Cape Pillar, they continually increased in fury. The day before we left this latter harbor, there was a grand display of their impotent rage. Our passage consumed twenty days, thirteen of which found us closely shut up in harbors. We overtook and passed square-rigged vessels, which had been weeks in the Straits, unwilling to return and unable to proceed. Few square-riggers can hope for a short passage; the difficulties in managing them in a channel, barely a mile wide in some places, are too great. The passage from the Atlantic is thus mostly confined to small vessels. From the Pacific, passages are often made by ships in two or three days, and the only wonder is why more do not save the distance around Cape Horn. There are scarcely any dangers which are not visible, so bold is the coast and deep the soundings throughout the Strait. Few portions of the earth can surpass this, so wonderful in the grandeur of its scenery. Here let the painter come-the poet too-all who love nature in her wildest moods, and can discern a mystic loveliness behind her frowns. Only the monomaniac gold-hunter views it with indifferent eye. We have left the Straits of Magalhaen. Cape Pillar grows dim; Westminster Hall towers Few things can be more lovely than these harbors, faintly afar; the sea-beaten Evangelists begin to inclosed by bare cliffs like gems set in granite. The weary sailor, who looks for no beauty, can never deny their comfort. The only objection to them is from the terrific woolliewaws that rush from the surrounding heights without a second's warning, and pounce upon the waters, gathering them into a narrow but boiling circle of foam, then skurry around, fan-shaped, in every direction, and with resistless fury. "These woollies are queer things!" exclaimed our skipper. See how they tie the water all up in a little heap, and then throw it every-which way!" Even at anchor, the whole fleet rolls down in abject submission before them. Once, the Anonyma's clinker boat was torn from her stern, whirled over in the air, and sunk in a single second. It is fortunate that they last little longer. It was only by a very painful beating that we passed English Reach, Crooked Reach, Long Reach, and Sea Reach. The gale was diversified only with woolliewaws, the rain with snow and loom in the evening sky, and Cape Victory, like a grim old warder, watches our departure in silence. On one side of us is the mighty group of Tierra del Fuego; on the other begins an immense continent, whose other extremity is near the North Pole. Before us lies the great Pacific. PHIL. BRENGLE. [MYSTICAL THEOLOGY-GROUND OF ITS INFLUENCE.] THE most obscure theology of the German mystics hath a dialect peculiarly suited to it, which makes it intelligible to those whom a plainer system would disgust. There is a certain perversion of intellect which can relish nothing but what is dark and enigmatical; and though many of the speculations of visionary enthusiasts are, when accurately sifted to the bottom, nothing but plain and common truths, yet the moment they are brought out of the obscurity into which a wild and irregular imagination had thrown them, they lose all their efficacy, and that which is thoroughly comprehended ceases to effect.-Monthly Review, vol. 64, p. 206. SCIENTIFIC MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. We were not so fortunate as to be able to listen to the proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at its late meeting at Cambridge, but are glad to be able to adduce undoubted authority for its respectability and success. On 21 Aug., the last day, at dinner, Mr. Edward Everett spoke as follows: In my humble opinion, the transactions of the Association, at its present meeting, have been highly creditable to its members and to the science of the country. I had an opportunity in 1841 of attending the annual meeting of a similar association at Florence, consisting of between nine hun which the memoirs are subjected, an opportunity for the friendly collision of intellect and the instructive comparison of opinions, which nothing but oral discussion can yield. These topics might be easily expanded, but I think I should undertake a very superfluous office should I endeavor more in detail, on the present occasion, to set forth the usefulness of institutions of this kind. I am aware that it has been objected to them at home and abroad, that they do not lead to the discovery of truth. The question is frequently asked, in reference to the great European associations of this kind, what discoveries have been made by dred and a thousand of the men of science of Italy them? Well, sir, in this demand for discoveries and the neighboring countries; and in the years as a test of usefulness on the part of associated or 1842, 1844, and 1845, I enjoyed a similar opportunity in reference to the meetings of the British Association for the Promotion of Science. It appears to me, that, in the scientific character of its proceedings at the present meeting, the American Association will compare advantageously with those of Europe. The number of men of science in attendance is much less; but I think the volume of this year's transactions when published will show proportionably as large a number of communications, on interesting and important topics, in most individual effort, there is no little vagueness and a good deal of injustice. It appears to me quite unreasonable, as an exclusive test of utility, to demand, either of scientific bodies or of single votaries of science, that they should make discoveries. If by "discoveries" we mean matters of fact before unknown, such as the discovery of the existence of the American continent, or of the planets Uranus or Neptune, or of the effect of vaccination, it would be shutting up the domain of science within very narrow limits to exclude from it all of the departments of science, and exhibiting as but a very few, who, to the greatest sagacity and much original research and sound speculation, as generally also the greatest diligence, have united the annual reports of any of the European associa- the greatest good fortune. If we set up this tions. I make this remark with the less hesitation, standard we should strike at the root not merely because I have myself borne no other part in the of this Association, but of almost every other spescientific labors of the Association than that of a cific form of scientific action. Discoveries such gratified and instructed listener; and also because as I mention are, necessarily, more or less casual of science is ripe for the grand result; the full-seemed to me so full of wisdom as to impress ness of time is come; the gifted genius destined itself upon my memory. Cowley addresses among the circumstances which have enabled the Association to present such fair ground of comparison with its European contemporaries, no one can forget that European talent of the highest order is to be found in our ranks.* I think no one, sir, could have attended any considerable number of the meetings of the Association, and witnessed its course of operations, but must have been satisfied, if he had doubts before, of the utility of such an institution. A meeting of scientific men from every part of the Union, with the opportunity thus afforded for entering into friendly personal relations, is itself an object of no mean importance; especially in a country so large as this, and destitute of any one great metropolis. It cannot have escaped any one's observation, that much time, labor, and skilful research must have been devoted to the preparation of inany of the memoirs, which it is highly probable would not have been bestowed upon scienvific pursuits, under other circumstances. Much is gained, at all times, by the actual presence of the instructor, and the animation of the living voice. An impression is made by them, which is rarely produced by the lifeless page of the printed volume. I do not of course mean that lecturing can ever take the place of study; but it is an admirable assistant. Then, too, the meetings of the Association possess the advantage of affording, in the discussions to * Among the activemembers of the Association at the present meeting were Professors Agassiz and Guyot of Neuchatel. in their immediate origin; or, rather, there is a happy inspiration-an unexplained, inexplicable kindling of mind-which no logic can teach, no discipline certainly produce. That the globe was spherical, was not first conceived by Columbus; how happened it that he first formed the practical conception of reaching the Indies by sailing to the west? The perturbations of Uranus have been studied by astronomers for a quarter of a century; what inspired Leverrier and Adams alone, with the happy thought of deducing from them the existence of an undiscovered planet? If we use the term "discovery," in reference to great general laws of nature, such as the Copernican System, the attraction of gravitation, the relations of electricity and magnetism, then the unreasonableness of objecting to scientific associations, that they have not produced and are not likely to produce such results, is still more apparent. Discoveries of this kind, even though apparently referable to single authors, to particular periods of time, and to distinct courses of research, are so only in a limited degree. They are the product of the whole condition of science at the time;-they are its consummate flower-its ripened fruit. Such discoveries strike their roots far into the past-they are not made; they have grown. The preparation of centuries has gradually opened the way for them; -hundreds of minds have taken part in the discovery, hundreds of years before it is made. At length the world to put the last hand to the work is born, and the Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night - This certainly is very happily said, by way of epigrammatic eulogy ;-but it would not bear scientific examination. The illustrious philosopher, as just and modest as he was great, did not so deem of himself. Were the laws of nature wholly hidden in darkness before the time of Newton! Had Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, Galileo thrown no light upon them? So, too, and perhaps this is a still more important reflection, after the discovery of some such general law is made, the work of science is by no means exhausted. Even if it were true that scientific associations had no tendency to promote dis ors. ages. Hobbes as "The great Columbus of the golden lands of new philosophies." Few persons, at the present day, would be disposed to admit the claim of the philosopher of Malmesbury to this magnificent title. But the strain in which Cowley proceeds, however uncouth in point of versification, is singularly acute and discriminating:— Thou great Columbus of the golden land of new philoso phies! Thy task is harder much than his, The verse is rude, but the lesson is significant. Columbus may set foot on a continent before unseen by civilized man; Copernicus may sweep away the cycles and epicycles of the Ptolemaic theory, and establish the sun on his central throne; and Newton may demonstrate the wondrous law which binds every member of the system-forever attracted and forever repelled to that mysterious phers must rise to unfold the consequences of these primordial truths;-to plant and people these scientific continents (if I may be allowed to carry on Cowley's metaphor) with new experiments and observations; to build them up with harmonious systems; to civilize them into a refined adaptation to the wants and service of moral beings. covery, in either sense of the word, it might still centre. But after all these great discoveries have be a matter of great importance, that they furnish been made, there is not only room, there is a cryoccasions and facilities for illustrating and dif-ing demand, a great intellectual necessity, for furfusing more widely the knowledge of the great ther progress. Other discoverers, other philosolaws of nature. This is a point on which, if time permitted, and I were addressing an audience of young men who needed encouragements to engage with ardor in the pursuit of science, I would gladly enlarge. I would say to them, fear not that the masters who have gone before you, have reaped the field of science so thoroughly, as to leave neither harvest nor gleaning for their successTrue, indeed, the Newtons have lived and taught; not to supersede and render superfluous, but to prepare the way for disciples and followers, not unworthy to be called the Newtons of after The discovery of a great law is an enlargement, not an exhaustion, of the domain of science. Each new truth is a lever for the discovery of further truth. It may never be given again to the human intellect, (but who shall say that it never will be given ?) to attain another generalization at once of such divine simplicity and stupendous magnitude as the law of gravitation. But I think it may with truth be said, that the system of the universe resting on that law has been more fully developed by the successors of Newton than by himself. It was believed in 1729 that the maximum of telescopic power had been attained; and the solar system, as then understood, comprised six primary planets and ten secondaries! There are now discovered nineteen planetary bodies which revolve round the sun, and (if we allow two satellites for Neptune,) twentyone secondaries! This important truth, that a great discovery not only leads to, but stands in need of, further researches, is most happily expressed in a fine apos This is the work left to the mass of the scientific community, and no one can reasonably deny that an association like ours is an approved and effective part of that system of concerted action, by which men advantageously unite themselves to accomplish desirable ends. And it is most cheering to learn from the example of the great discoverers that the materials for carrying on their work, the elements of further discovery-surround us on every side. There is no error more gross than that the knowledge of the great truths which form the glory of modern science must be directly sought from the depths of the heavens above or of the abyss below. Or if philosophical analysis enables us, in some degree, to penetrate to the mysteries of the earth we inhabit or of the mighty universe of which it forms so small a part, it is by virtue of laws and principles exemplified as clearly in the motes that cheaply people the sunbeam-as in the mighty spheres that are held in their orbits by the sun. The law of gravitation was suggested to Newton, not by the magnificent spectacle of a comet drawn down to the sun from the outskirts of the solar system, but by an apple falling from a tree to the earth. The glass which I hold in my hand, with the water it contains, is trophe of the poet Cowley to the philosopher of itself a richly stored cabinet of scientific truth. Hobbes, which attracted my notice as I happened -By the ancients, the water, believed to be a into the bookseller's the day before yesterday, and simple substance, was no doubt regarded chiefly as the element designed to moisten and fertilize ( scientific transactions, that they have been anima the earth, to quench the thirst of man, to separate Greece from the lands of the barbarians. By a great progress of art, it came to serve for the construction of a clepsydra. Modern science early took note of the expansive powers of steam. The Marquis of Worcester, Savery, and Newcomen attempted, and Bolton and Watt perfected, the machinery which has made the vapor of boiling water the life-spring of modern industry, and in the hands of our own Fulton converted it into the great means of commerce and communication around the globe. Questioned by chemical science, the same limpid element is made to yield to Cavendish and Priestley the secret of its gaseous composition, and thus becomes the starting point of no inconsiderable portion of our modern chemistry; teaching us at the outset the somewhat startling fact, that aqua fortis and the common air we breathe consist of precisely the same ingredients, in proportions a little varied. Physiology here takes her turn: and my friend opposite, who favors me with an approving smile, (Prof. Agassiz,) is ready to subject the contents of the glass to the creative focus of his microscope, and to demonstrate the organization, circulation, and whole animal economy of orders of beings, whose existence is apparent only under the higher powers. Not content with the harvest of science to be reaped from the water, our worthy president (Prof. Henry) is thinking of the glass. To his eye it is a tolerable cylinder. His mind runs upon electricity, induction, and the relations of galvanism and magnetism, to the illustration of which he has himself so materially contributed. Here we reach the magnetic telegraph-the electric clock-and their application to the measurement of differences of longitude, and the observation and record of celestial phenomena;-an apparatus so wonderful that, as we have heard in the sections, a child of twelve years old, who sees it for the first time, can observe and record the passage of a star over the wires of the micrometer, more correctly than it could be done by the most skilful observer in the ordinary way. Thus we are carried back to a more accurate observation of the heavens, by that electric spark which Franklin first drew from the clouds. But it is time, sir, to think of performing the duty for which I originally rose to address you. It is one of the most pleasing incidents of the present meetings of the Association that they have been attended by so many ladies. Many of the members of the Association from a distance have been accompanied with their wives and daughters who, together with the ladies of Cambridge, have not only from day to day honored our social table with their company, but have given their diligent attention in the sections. The Association has, I understand, been favored in this way for the first time at the present meeting. I am sure I speak for all those who have taken part in the ted and encouraged by this unusual presence; and the persevering attendance of our fair friends to the close of the session authorizes the hope that they have been gratified listeners. How much our social meetings in this hall have been enlivened by their presence I need not say. I trust the example which they have set, the present year, will be followed at the future meetings of the Association. When we recall the names of Caroline Herschell, of Mary Somerville, and may I not add of our own Maria Mitchell, we need no arguments to show that the cultivation of science is by no means the exclusive mission of man. The time may come perhaps when my successor in the duty I now perform will be called upon to return the acknowledgments of the Association not only to the ladies who have honored the meetings by their presence, but to those who have contributed to their scientific transactions. I beg leave, sir, to submit the following motion : Resolved, that the thanks of the American Association for the Advancement of Science be given to the ladies who have honored the meetings of the Association with their attendance. O'ER THE HILL. ONE morning as he wended Through a path bedight with flowers, And these fair fruits decay. If the voice were good or ill, Again, high noon was glowing Than the morning's rosy youth, But stranger, rest till even, The shades of night were creeping By a dim and silent shore; O'er the hill there, o'er the hill! |