ELEPHANT. to it a degree of sagacity higher than that of the dog. In a state of domestication, the E. is a delicate animal, requiring much watchfulness and care, although naturally it has a very long life, and instances are on record of extreme longevity in domestication, extending not only to more than one hundred, but almost to two hundred years. The numbers of wild elephants in some parts both of the East Indies and of Africa, are being gradually reduced as cultivation extends, and many are shot for no other reason than a desire to reduce their numbers, and put an end to their ravages on cultivated grounds. A reward of a few shillings per head was claimed for 3500 destroyed in part of the northern province alone of Ceylon, in less than three years prior to 1848. It is for the sake of ivory that the greatest slaughter of elephants takes place. A ball of hard metal, skilfully planted in the eye, base of the trunk, or behind the ear, generally ends an E.'s life in an instant; and expert sportsmen have been known to kill right and left one with each barrel. Fossil Elephants.-The E. makes its appearance in the Pleistocene strata. Its near ally, the mastodon, whose remains are found associated with it, began life earlier; it has left its traces in Miocene deposits. Ten species of fossil elephants have been described, the remains of three of which are found in Europe. The best known of these is the Elephas primigenius, or Mammoth, the tusks of which are so little altered as to supply an ivory which, though inferior to that of the living species, is still used in the arts, especially in Russia. Its tusks are, on this account, regularly searched for by ivory hunters' in Siberia, where, in the superficial deposits of sand, gravel, and loam, the remains occur in enormous abundance. They are also found in similar strata all over Europe. In Britain, the localities that have supplied these remains are very numerous. They are especially abundant in the Pleistocene deposits of the east and south-east of England. Woodward, in his Geology of Norfolk, calculates that upwards of 2000 grinders of this animal have been dredged up by the fishermen off Happisburgh in thirteen years. The bone-caves also yield remains of this gigantic animal. The mammoth truly belongs to the geological history of the world; it died out at the close of the period represented by the Pleistocene beds. It is the only fossil animal that has been preserved in a perfect condition for the examination of man. In all other remains we have to deal with the hard portions only-the bones, teeth, scales, &c., and frequently only with fragmentary portions, requiring the skill of a Cuvier or an Owen to make from them an approximation to the perfect animal. But the mammoth has been preserved so that its flesh has been eaten by dogs, bears, and wolves. In 1799, a Tungusian, named Schumachoff, while searching along the shores of Lake Oncoul for mammoth tusks, observed among the blocks of ice a shapeless mass, but did not at the time discover what it was. The heat of succeeding summers gradually melted the ice around it, and, in 1803, the mammoth fell on a bank of sand. In March of the following year, the hunter visited it, cut off, and carried away the tusks, which he sold for fifty rubles. In 1806, Mr Adams visited the locality, and examined the animal, which still remained on the sand-bank where it had fallen, but in a greatly mutilated condition. The Jakutski of the neighbourhood had cut off the flesh to feed their dogs, and the wild beasts had almost entirely cleared the bones. The skeleton was, however, entire, excepting one of the fore-legs, and some of the bones of the tail. Many of the bones were still held together by the ligaments and by parts of the shore, a distance of 150 feet; it was of a dark-gray colour, and was covered with a reddish wool, and long black hairs or bristles. The wool was short, and curled in locks; the bristles were of different lengths, varying from 1 to 18 inches. Some of this covering still remained attached to the skin, but the Mr great mass was entirely separated from it. Adams collected 36 pounds, although much of it had been destroyed from the dampness of the place where it had lain so long. The animal was a male, The entire and had a long mane on the neck. carcass was removed to St Petersburg, where it is now preserved. The tusks were repurchased, and added to the animal. It measures from the forepart of the skull to the end of the mutilated tail 16 feet 4 inches; the height to the top of the dorsal spines is 9 feet 4 inches; the length of the tusks along the curve is 9 feet 6 inches. Portions of the hairy covering have been brought to this country, and may be seen in the British Museum. difference in the recent species, the mammoth is Taking the teeth as exhibiting clearly a marked easily separated from both by its broader grinders, which have narrower, and more numerous, and close-set plates and ridges. The existence of the E. and other genera, whose representatives are now found only in the warmer regions of the earth, in the north of Europe and Asia, led to the belief, that at the recent period in the world's history when they were its living inhabitants, a tropical temperature existed in the temperate zone, and stretched further north towards the pole; but the discovery of this perfect animal shewed that these huge elephants were adapted by their clothing to endure a cold climate, and by the structure of their teeth were able to employ as food the branches and foliage of the northern pines, birches, willows, &c. There are few generalisations more plausible at first sight than to predicate of an unknown species of a genus what is ascertained regarding the known members of the same genus. It required a striking case, such as that supplied by the discovery of the mammoth, to shew clearly the fallacy of deductions which were almost universally received by scientific men not many years ago, which still occasionally mislead, and which may even now be met with in some popular hand-books of science. ELEPHANT. An order of the elephant was instituted in Denmark, by King Frederick II. The badge was a collar of elephants towered, supporting the king's arms, and having at the end the picture of the Virgin Mary. ELEPHANTA-ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. ELEPHANTA, an island of six miles in circuit, stands in the harbour of Bombay (q. v.), about seven miles to the east of that city, and about five miles to the west of the mainland. It takes this its European name from a huge figure of an elephant near its principal landing-place, which, however, appears to have gradually crumbled away. This colossal animal has been cut out of a detached rock, which is apparently of basaltic origin. Further towards the interior, three temples, dug out of the living mountain, present themselves the roofs being supported by curiously wrought pillars of various forms and magnitudes, and the walls being thickly sculptured into all the varieties of Hindu mythology. The largest of the three excavations is nearly square, measuring 133 feet by 130 feet; and immediately fronting its main entrance stands a bust or third-length of a three-headed deity, with a height of 18 feet, and a breadth of 23. These monuments of superstition, like the quadruped which guards, as it were, the approaches to them, are said to be rapidly decaying a state of things which, besides in some measure accounting for the execution of such works, seems to be inconsistent with any very high antiquity. The island is in lat. 18° 57' Ñ., and long. 73° E. ELEPHANTI'NÉ, a small island of the Nile, lying opposite to Assouan (q. v.), the ancient Syene, on the confines of Egypt and Nubia, in 24° 5' N. lat., and 32° 34' E. long. From this island, the Greek mercenaries were sent by Psammitichus I. to recall the Egyptian deserters, and it was garrisoned in the time of the Pharaohs, Persians, and Romans. The island was anciently called Abu, or the ivory island,' from its having been the entrepôt of the trade in that precious material. The most important ruins are a gateway of the time of Alexander, and a small temple dedicated to Khnum, the god of the waters, and his contemplar deities, Anucis and Sate. This temple was founded by Amenophis III., and embellished by Rameses III. Another remarkable edifice is the ancient Nilometer, formerly mentioned by Strabo, and which appears to have been built in the time of the Cæsars; and several remaining inscriptions record the heights of inundation from the time of Augustus to Severus. This island had the honour of giving a dynasty (the 5th) to Egypt, and was evidently an important place, the inscriptions on the rocks attesting the adoration paid by Sethos I., Psammitichus II., and other monarchs, to the local deities. Other interesting monuments have been found on this island; amongst which may be cited part of a calendar recording the rise of the Dog-star in the reign of Thothmes III. (1445 B. C.), and numerous fragments of pottery-principally receipts in the Greek language-given by the farmers of the taxes in the reign of the Antonines. The island is at present inhabited by Nubians.-Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes, p. 460; Champollion, Notice Descriptive, p. 215; Champollion, Lettres Ecrites, pp. 111, 157, 171, 382. ELEPHANT'S FOOT, or HOTTENTOT'S BREAD (Testudinaria elephantipes), a plant of the natural order Dioscoreacea, of which the root-stock forms a large fleshy mass, curiously truncate, or abruptly cut off at the end, so as somewhat to resemble an elephant's foot, and covered with a soft, corky, rough, and cracked bark. From this springs a climbing stem, which bears the leaves and flowers. The root-stock is used as food by the Hottentots. The plant is not unfrequently to be seen in hothouses in Britain. The name ELEPHANT'S FOOT (Elephantopus) is also given, on account of the form of the root leaves, to a genus of plants of the natural order Composita, sub-order Corymbiferæ, one species of which (E. scaber) is common in elevated dry situations in all parts of India, and is used in Indian medicine in affections of the urinary organs. ELETTA'RIA. See CARDAMOM. ELETZ. See IELETZ. ELEUSINE, a genus of Grasses, chiefly natives of India and other warm climates, several of which are cultivated as grains. This is especially the case with E. corocana, an Indian species, called Natchnee and Nagla Ragee, also Mand and Murwa, which has aggregated digitate spikes finally incurved. The Tibetans make a weak sort of beer, much in E. stricta is use amongst them, from this grain. cultivated as a grain-crop in the same parts of the world, and is, like the former, extremely productive. The grain called Tocusso in Abyssinia is also a species of this genus, E. Tocusso.-A decoction of E. Egyptiaca is used in Egypt for cleansing ulcers; and a drink made from the seeds is regarded as useful in diseases of the kidneys and bladder. A decoction of E. Indica is also administered to infants in Demerara, to prevent or cure convulsions. ELEUSI'NIAN MY'STERIES, the sacred rites with which the annual festival of Ceres was celebrated at Eleusis. Many traditions were afloat in ancient times as to the origin of this festival. Of these, the most generally accepted was to the effect that Ceres, wandering over the earth in quest of her daughter Proserpine, arrived at Eleusis, where she took rest on the sorrowful stone beside the well Callichorus. In return for some small acts of kindness, and to commemorate her visit, she taught Triptolemus the use of corn on the Rharian plain liarly known as hers. The outward method of the near the city, and instituted the mystic rites pecucelebration of these mysteries is known with considerable accuracy of detail. Their esoteric significance is very variously interpreted. The ancients revealed to the initiated gave them better hopes themselves generally believed that the doctrines than other men enjoyed, both as to the present life and as to a future state of existence. Modern speculation has run wild in the attempt satisfactorily to explain these mysteries. As reasonable a solution as any other seems to be that of Bishop Thirlwall, who finds in them the remains of a worship which preceded the rise of the Hellenic mythology and its attendant rites, grounded on a view of nature, less fanciful, more earnest, and better fitted to awaken both philosophical thought and religious feeling.' The festival itself consisted of two parts, the greater and the lesser mysteries. The less important feast, serving as a sort of preparation for the greater, was the great mysteries began at Eleusis on the 15th held at Agræ, on the Ilissus. day of Boëdromion, the third month of the Attic year, and lasted over nine days. On the first day already initiated at the preparatory festival, met, (called agurmos, the assembling), the neophytes, The celebration of and were instructed in their sacred duties. On the second day (called Haladé, mystæ, To the sea, ye initiated!), they purified themselves by washing in the sea. On the third day, sacrifices, comprising, among other things, the mullet-fish, and cakes made of barley from the Rharian plain, were offered with special rites. The fourth day was devoted to the procession of the sacred basket of Ceres (the Kalathion). This basket, containing pomegranates, salt, poppy-seeds, &c., and followed by bands of women carrying smaller baskets similarly filled, was drawn in a consecrated cart through the streets, amid shouts of 'Hail, Ceres!' from the onlookers. The fifth day was known as the 'day of the torches,' and ELEUSIS-ELF-ARROW-HEADS. was thought to symbolise the wanderings of Ceres in quest of her daughter. On it the mystæ, led by the daduchus,' the torch-bearer, walked two by two to the temple of the goddess, and seem to have spent the night there. The sixth day, called Iacchus, in honour of the son of Ceres, was the great day of the feast. On that day the statue of Iacchus was borne in pomp along the sacred way from the Ceramicus at Athens to Eleusis, where the votaries spent the night, and were initiated in the last mysteries. Till this stage of the proceedings, they had been only myste; but on the night of the sixth day they were admitted into the innermost sanctuary of the temple, and, from being allowed to behold the sacred things, became entitled to be called 'epoptæ,' or 'ephori; i. e., spectators, or contemplators. They were once more purified, and repeated their original oath of secrecy with an imposing and awful ceremonial, somewhat resembling, it is believed, the forms of modern free-masonry. On the seventh day, the votaries returned to Athens with mirth and music, halting for a while on the bridge over the Cephisus, and exercising their wit and satire against the spectators. The eighth day was called Epidauria, and was believed to have been added to the original number of the days for the convenience of those who had been unable to attend the grand ceremonial of the sixth day. It was named in honour of Esculapius, who arrived on one occasion from his native city of Epidaurus too late for the solemn rites, and the Athenians, unwilling to disappoint so distinguished a benefactor of mankind, added a supplementary day. On the ninth day took place the ceremony of the Plemochoæ,' in which two earthen vessels filled with wine were turned one towards the east, and the other towards the west. The attendant priests, uttering some mystic words, then upset both vessels, and the wine so spilt was offered as a libation. Initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries was compulsory on every freeborn Athenian; but slaves, prostitutes, and persons who had forfeited their citizenship were excluded from the rites. During the period of the festival, none of those taking part in it could be seized or arrested for any offence. Lycurgus, with a view to destroying distinctions of class, forbade any woman to ride to the Eleusinia in a chariot, under a penalty of 6000 drachmæ. The mysteries were celebrated with the most scrupulous secrecy. No initiated person might reveal what he had seen under pain of death, and no uninitiated person could take part in the ceremonies under the same penalty. The priests were chosen from the sacred family of the Eumolpida, whose ancestor, Eumolpus, had been the special favourite of Ceres. The chief priest was called the 'Hierophant,' or 'Mystagogue;' next in rank to him was the Daduchus, or Torch-bearer; after whom came the Hiero-Ceryx,' or Sacred Herald, and the priest at the altar. Besides these leading ministers, there was a multitude of inferior priests and servants. ELEU'SIS, a celebrated town in ancient Attica, stood near the northern shore of the Gulf of Salamis, and not far from the confines of Megaris. It was famous as the chief seat of the worship of Ceres, whose mystic rites were here performed with great pomp and solemnity from the earliest authentic times till the era of Alaric. See ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. The temple of the goddess, designed by Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon, was the largest sacred edifice in Greece. The site of the old Eleusis is now occupied by the little village of Lefsina or Lepsina. in the whole chain. Including its dependent cayos or keys, E., in 1851, contained 4610 inhabitants. It is more fertile than most of its neighbours, more especially surpassing all of them in the growth of fruit, such as the pine-apple, the orange, and the lemon. ELEUTHE'RIA BARK, a name not unfrequently given to the bark of the Croton Eleutheria, also known as Cascarilla Bark. See CASCARILLA. It is called Eleutheria (or Eleuthera) Bark, because it is chiefly gathered on the island of Eleuthera. E'LEVATED. Wings turned upwards are described in heraldry as elevated. ELEVATION, in Architectural Drawing, is a representation of the flat side of a building, drawn with mathematical accuracy, but without the slightest attention to effect. In Art, again, elevation is a raising of the subject beyond its ordinary character in real life. A very good instance of elevation in this sense is given by Fairholt in his Dictionary of Terms in Art, in Rembrandt's Adoration of the Shepherds.' The whole of the objects and surroundings of the infant Saviour are of the most homely description; and still the light which is represented as issuing from his person gives an elevation to the scene which takes off from it entirely the character of being commonplace or vulgar. ELEVATION, in Astronomy and Geography, means generally the height above the horizon of an object on the sphere, measured by the arc of a vertical circle through it and the zenith. Thus, the elevation of the equator is the arc of a meridian intercepted between the equator and the horizon of the place. The elevation of the pole is the complement of that of the equator, and is always equal to the latitude of the place. The elevation of a star, or any other point, is similarly its height above the horizon, and is a maximum when the star is on the meridian. octave above the fourth. ELF, a fairy, pl. ELVES. See FAIRIES. ELF-ARROW-HEADS, ELFIN-ARROWS, ELF-BOLTS, ELF-DARTS, ELF-SHOT, and ELF-STONES, names popularly given in the British Islands to the arrow-heads of flint which were in use at an early period among the barbarous tribes of this country and of Europe generally, as they are still in use among the American Indians, the Esquimaux of the Arctic regions, and the inhabitants of some of the islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was believed that elves or fairies, hovering in the air, shot these barbs of flint at cattle, and occasionally even at men. Thus, Robert Gordon of Straloch, an accomplished country gentleman of the north of Scotland, writing in 1654, tells how one of his friends, travelling on horseback, found an elf-arrow-head in the top of his boot, and how a gentlewoman of his acquaintance, when out riding, discovered one in the breast of her they are got by chance in the habit. He remarks that, although fields and on the highways, one who goes to look for them on purpose will search in vain. He adds that they are most com- Elf-Arrow-Head. circumstance which probably helped them in monly met with after showers-a Germany to their names of thunder-bolts' and ELEUTHERA, one of the Bahamas (q. v.), is, thunder-stones,' and is easily enough explained. next to New Providence, the most populous island | The rain, by washing away the earth in which they ELGIN ELGIN AND KINCARDINE. The Earl of Buchan); in 1402, by Alexander, the son of have been imbedded, makes them more readily notorious Wolf of Badenoch (Alexander Stewart, perceptible to the eye, especially if the sunshine happens to fall upon them. Cattle dying suddenly in the fields were believed to have been struck by elf-arrows-a belief which yet lingers in Ireland, and perhaps in some secluded parts of Scotland. Thus, when cattle are sick,' writes Mr W. R. Wilde, in his Catalogue of the Antiquities in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy (Dub. 1857), and the cattle doctor, or fairy doctor, is sent for, he says the beast has been "elf-shot," or stricken by fairy or elfin darts; and he forthwith proceeds to feel the animal all over; and, by some legerdemain, contrives to find in its skin one or more poisonous weapons, which, with some coins, are then placed in the water which is given it to drink; and so a cure is said to be effected.' The elf-arrow-head was occasionally set in silver, so as to be worn on the person as a talisman, or had a hole drilled through it, so that it might be dipped in water, which, being thus endowed with healing virtue, was used sometimes as a wash, more commonly as a draught. As a talisman, the elf-arrow-head was believed to be most efficacious as a preservative from poison and witchcraft. The ascription of the flint arrow-head to the elves or fairies, is but one of several instances of the disposition of a people to elevate or degrade the earlier races whom they vanquished or dispossessed into mythical beings, better or worse than mankind. Thus, in Greece and Italy, the remains of the rude strongholds built by the Pelasgi came to be regarded as works of the fabled Cyclops, or one-eyed giants. So also, in Scotland, the sepulchral mounds of the aboriginal inhabitants were called 'elf-hillocks;' and the vestiges of ancient ploughshares which may be traced on heaths and hill-tops were called 'elfinfurrows.' Examples of 'elf-arrow-heads' may be seen in most museums of antiquities. They fall to be more particularly described in a following page, under the head of FLINT IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS. E'LGIN, a royal burgh, the county town of Elgin or Morayshire, and a station on the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway, situated on the right bank of the river Lossie, about five miles from the sea. Pop. (1861) 7543. E. joins with Banff, Peterhead, Inverury, Cullen, and Kintore, in returning a member to parliament. It was prob. ably a royal burgh so early as the reign of King David I. (1124-1153), and had its privileges confirmed by several of his successors. Its trade is now almost wholly retail. E. has 12 yearly fairs, and a weekly grain market. It has a parish church, which is collegiate, 2 Free Churches, 2 United Presbyterian Churches, 1 Baptist Church, 1 Original Secession, 1 Independent, I Episcopal, and 1 Roman Catholic; with 10 schools. Gray's Hospital for the sick poor, built and endowed from a bequest of £20,000 by the late Dr Alexander Gray of Bengal, and opened in 1819, with a small pauper lunatic asylum since attached by public subscription; and the Elgin or Anderson's Institution for the support of old age and the education of youth, built and opened 1831-1833, on the foundation of £70,000 bequeathed by the late Major-general Anderson, H.E.I.C.S.-are the principal of many public and private charities. E. is chiefly remarkable for the beauty of its situation, lying placidly in a gentle curve of the Lossie, for the salubrity of its climate, and for its history as the see of the Bishop of Moray. Its appearance, about fifty years ago, was that of a little cathedral city with an antique fashion of building, and with a certain solemn drowsy air about the town and its inhabitants.' That appearance is fast giving way to that of a gay modern county town, surrounded by elegant villas. The old town was partially burned in 1390 by the A peti ELGIN AND KINCA'RDINE, EARL OF, Governor-general of India. James Bruce, eighth Earl of E., was born in Park Lane, London, in 1811. He was educated at his father's seat in Fifeshire, and afterwards went to Christ Church, Oxford, where he was first-class in classics, 1832; became Fellow of Merton, and graduated M.A. 1835. He entered public life in 1841, when, as Lord Bruce, he was returned at the general election on the Conservative interest for Southampton. tion was presented against the return, and the election was declared void. Before, however, a new writ could issue, Lord Bruce had succeeded his father (who enriched the British Museum by the invaluable collection of sculpture known as the Elgin Marbles,' q.v.) as Earl of Elgin. Those who remember his early parliamentary and precolonial career, state that he gave early promise of oratorical distinction, and assert that if he had thrown himself into the politics of the day, he would have taken a high position as a parliamentary debater. By succeeding to a Scotch peerage, however, he was, in his own words, expelled from the House of Commons without being admitted into the House of Peers.' Being offered the governorship of Jamaica, in March 1842, by the Earl of Derby-then Lord Stanley-he went to Jamaica, where he administered the affairs of the island with so much ability and success, that in August 1846, the Governor-generalship of Canada was tendered to him by Earl Grey, then Secretary of State for the Colonies in the administration of Lord J. Russell. Lord E., still finding himself in the same position as a Scottish peer, accepted the office, and went to Canada. His administration of the government of Canada will ever be a bright spot in our colonial history, and a model to future governors of English dependencies. He found Canada governed by cliques, and torn by intestine feuds. With admirable tact and entire success, he inaugurated a system of self-government, which has rendered the provinces of British America a support to the British throne, in place of being a source of weakness. Under his government, Canada made such ELGIN AND KINCARDINE-ELGIN MARBLES. strides in importance and prosperity, that between of several of the statues that were placed in the 1847 (in the beginning of which year he entered east and west tympana or pediments, the most upon his government) and 1855, when he returned important of which are the Theseus or Hercules, to England, the revenue of that great British possession quadrupled itself. During his administration, he successfully negotiated a treaty for reciprocity of trade between British America and the United States, which admitted the whole produce of British North America to be brought into competition with the products of the United States in their own markets. This treaty likewise put an end to the risk of collision on the subject of the fisheries between this country and America, which Lord E. has described as the most serious risk which had presented itself during the whole time he had been a public servant. His popularity was great, not only in Canada but the adjacent states, the citizens of which offered him ovations. He was now a peer of the United Kingdom (having been summoned to the House of Lords in 1849), and was appointed lord-lieutenant of Fifeshire. In 1857, the affair of the lorcha Arrow, and the bombardment of Canton by Sir John Bowring, led Lord Palmerston to invite Lord E. to go to China as Plenipotentiary Extraordinary. An army was equipped to carry out the policy prescribed by the British government, and he started on his mission. But before he could approach his destination, and when he had barely left England a month, the Indian mutiny broke out. Lord E. did not hesitate a moment in preferring the safety of India to the success of his Chinese negotiations. He despatched the Chinese expedition to Lord Canning's assistance, and the English in India were thus enabled to hold their ground until further reinforcements arrived. After thus consigning himself to an inaction of several months, Lord E. proceeded to China, and in 1858, in conjunction with Baron Gros, the French plenipotentiary, he negotiated the treaty of Tientsin, which promised to give Great Britain a freer access to China than she had ever enjoyed before. He found time, before his return, to negotiate a treaty with Japan, under which English manufactures are admitted at low rates of duty, and a British minister is permitted to reside at Jeddo. On his return home, he was appointed Postmaster-general. He had scarcely time to become acquainted with his duties, before the treachery of the Chinese, in firing upon the British squadron from the Taku forts, led to the organisation of another Chinese expedition, and to Lord E.'s second mission to China. A combined English and French force penetrated to the capital, and enabled Lord E. and Baron Gros to dictate a peace under the walls of Pekin. On the expiration of Viscount Canning's term of service, the governor-generalship of India was offered by Lord Palmerston to Lord E. (1861), and accepted by him. He died in India, November 1863. Lord E. (who was the representative in the male line of the great Scottish House of Bruce) was twice married: in 1841, to the daughter of Mr Cumming Bruce, M.P. (she died 1843); and in 1846, to the daughter of the first Earl of Durham, by whom he had a son, Victor Alexander Lord Bruce, born 1849, and other issue. Lord E. was K.T. (1847), privy councillor (1857), G.C.B. (civil, extra) 1858. ELGIN MARBLES, a celebrated collection of ancient sculptures, brought from Greece by Thomas, seventh Earl of Elgin, and acquired from him by the nation for the British Museum in 1816, at the sum of £35,000. These sculptures adorned certain buildings on the Acropolis of Athens; the chief portions, which are from the Parthenon or Temple of Minerva, were designed by Phidias, and executed by him, or under his superintendence. They consist of-1. Portions Theseus. Ilissus or river-god, upper portions of the torsos of Neptune and Minerva, Iris, torso of Cecrops, Ceres, and Proserpine, the Fates, heads of the horses of Hyperion, and one of the horses of Night. Of all these, the Theseus, and the head of the horse of Night, are the most perfect, the former wanting only the hands and feet and part of the nose, while even the surface of the latter is very little injured. But however mutilated, the greatness in style of these magnificent works is clearly manifest, and from the merest fragment valuable instruction in art may be obtained. 2. Fifteen metopes, executed in high relief, representing the battle of the Centaurs and Lapitha. A metope is the interval between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze-in the Parthenon, there were ninety-two, fourteen on each front, and thirtytwo on each flank of the temple-and on every Metope: From the Parthenon. metope, a Centaur engaged in conflict with one of the Lapitha is represented in a style of the highest excellence in point of spirit and truthfulness. 3. A large portion of the frieze of the outer walls of the cella. This remarkable work represents the solemn procession to the Temple of Minerva during the Panathenaic festival, and has never been equalled for elegance of composition and the variety and gracefulness of the figures. It is executed in low relief, in order to adapt it to the light, for placed within the colonnade, it received its light between the columns, and by reflection, from the pavement below. This exquisite frieze occupied, |