shapes, higher than the clouds; the glens are choked with eternal snows; and ice is seen floating, in every direction, of a fine blue; exhibiting arches, cones, curves, cylinders, spheroids, and pyramids. Amid these scenes of desolation, polar bears, seals, and walrusses take up their abode; and along the ocean fly the larus glaucus, the larus arcticus, the alea allè, and the beautiful larus eburneus, with the sterna hirundo; the plumage of which surpasses that of all other birds in the arctic regions. But

Within the enclosure of your rocks

No herds have ye to boast; nor bleating flocks:
No groves have ye; no cheerful sound of bird,
Or voice of turtle in your land is heard.

Yet the whistling of the winds, the collision of large masses of ice, and the roaring of the ocean, conspire to create a combination of sounds, unequalled in any other region; and form a characteristic accompaniment to the finest picture of desolate grandeur, that the world contains.

CIRCASSIA, lying near the Caucasus, forms a striking contrast to the manners of its inhabitants. It is a country more delicious, in point of natural productions, than it is possible to imagine but it is a paradise, peopled with human wasps and serpents. For the inhabitants are represented as going armed to their harvests; almost every man is said to be a robber; and every woman either the daughter, sister, wife, or mother of an assassin.

To the climate of Circassia we may compare the elevated province of CASHMERE; a district, not more celebrated for the temperature of its climate, than for the elegance of form, and beauty of countenance, which, if we except the Circassians, distinguish the Cashmerians above all the nations of the earth. Bounded by the mountains of Tartary and the Caucasus, innumerable cascades and cataracts enliven, with their music, the various vales and valleys, into which the province is divided.

To be near the lov'd one, what rapture is his,

Who, in moonlight and music, so sweetly may glide

O'er the lake of Cashmere, with that one by his side!

If woman can make the worst wilderness dear,

Think, think, what a heaven she must make of Cashmere a!

To this spot, worthy the scene, witnessed by Huon and Sherasmin, near the city of Bagdad", and in which some men of learning have sought the terrestrial Paradise, Aurenzebe was accustomed to retire, when fatigued with business, or disgusted with royalty. In his progress from the capital, he was attended by an immense army all the way. When, however, he came to the entrance of Cashmere, he dismissed his soldiers; separated from his retinue; and with a few select friends retired to the palace he had erected: and, in the solitude of those enchanting valleys, contrasted the charms of content and the delights of tranquillity with the hurry and noise, the treachery and splendid anxiety, of a crowded court.

This country is the paradise of India; being a garden of evergreens abounding in bees: and its woods resound all night in spring with the songs of innumerable birds. Thus

Nature had power to charm even the greatest of Indian hypocrites. In the midst of a war, Aurenzebe would act as high priest at the consecration of a temple; and, while he signed warrants for the assassination of his relatives, with one hand, he would point to heaven with the other d!

In ASIA MINOR the air is pure, soft, and serene; and in ARABIA, after its periodical rain, there is a clear unclouded sky during the year. ARABIA PETREA is almost alike destitute of water and verdure: but ARABIA FELIX has been celebrated for its beauties and its shades in every age. Yet, like all the natives of the East, its inhabitants are remarkable for their love of finery; and their poets for hyperbole and bombast.

a Moore.

b Vid. Wieland, Oberon, canto iii. st. 1.
c Vid. Creuzer's Réligions de l'Antiquité.
d Dow's History of Hindostan, vol. iii. p.

335.

PERSIA has three separate climates, involving coldness, temperance, and heat. In the south, there are but few flowers; in the Hyrcanian forest, however, they are abundant even to profuseness: and the climate of Shiraz is so agreeable and delightful, that Sadi says, it produces the most fragrant roses of all the East. In many parts of Persia and Arabia, the inhabitants, during the summer, sleep on the roofs of their houses: their beds being laid on terraces, and their only canopy the sky.

CAUBUL: One day's journey from Caubul," says the Emperor Bauber, in his Commentaries, "you may find, where snow never falls; and in two hours' journey a place, where the snow scarcely ever melts." The climate of NEPAUL has never been ascertained with precision. This retired kingdom lies at the feet of the mountains of Thibet; four thousand feet above the level of the sea. It abounds in elephants, wandering in inexhaustible forests, containing trees still unincluded in the botanist's vocabulary.

MALABAR is dry in one part of the year, and moist at another. In 1750, it had many towns and cities, but no villages every house in the country standing by itself, enclosed with trees or hedges; in which lies the lady-viper; so beautiful, that no one can see it without admiration; and so harmless, that the ladies fondle it in their bosoms ".

SIAM has a winter of two months, a spring of three months, and a summer of seven; its winter is dry, and its summer moist :-autumn is unknown. Independent TARTARY has a temperature exceedingly healthy and agreeable. In some parts of CHINESE TARTARY winter is immediately succeeded by spring, when flowers of every kind shoot up, by myriads,- in a week. In WESTERN TARTARY there are wild mules, horses, and dromedaries; deer, wild boars, two species of the elk,

a

Kirkpatrick, p. 171.

b Dillon's Voy. p. 108.

c Linnæus calls it the Coluber domicella; Lacepede, Couleuvre-des-dames.

marmots, and goats with yellow hair: among the birds is the shoukar, having a white body, with red beak, tail, and wings. Not a tree is to be seen from one end of the country to the other; though there are a few shrubs of the dwarf kind. The Tartars, from all antiquity, have lived by hunting and fishing, and the milk of their flocks; they despise husbandry, and detest cities. In 1769 there was not one house in all Mongalia. The inhabitants lived in tents; even the prince and the chief Lama: and, having no knowledge of agriculture, their time and industry were wholly directed to the care of their flocks. During the summer, autumn, and winter, these flocks live in abundance; and, to ensure an early rising of grass in spring, the Tartars set fire to detached portions in autumn. The flames soon spread before the wind; and a space of twenty or thirty miles is, in a short time, cleared. This fire, not descending so low as the root, the grass, which is consumed, mellows into the earth, when the snow melts; and becomes a rich and effectual manure.

Little or no change has ever been observable in the manners and habits of this people. They seem to be stationary, in the midst of their wanderings; hospitable without a house; and addicted to poetry without a single book. The OCCIDENTAL TURKMAUNS, who in winter occupy the finest plains along the banks of the Euphrates, dwell also in tents. In summer, they are clad in vests of calico; and in winter, in long gowns, made of sheep skins. In summer, they encamp between the springs of the Tigris and Euphrates, among valleys, formed by the mountains of Armenia. Sometimes the Arabs invade these temporary settlements, break the horns and legs of their cattle, and rob them of their wives and daughters. In consequence of this they, not unfrequently, march in bodies, consisting of two hundred families: and, being accompanied by their sheep, goats, and camels, they are esteemed the richest shepherds of the Othmân empire.

There are many parts of Siberia, which well reward the enthusiasm and fatigue of a traveller ". The general scenery, however, and the manners of its inhabitants, are well described by Virgil, and Thomson, and the picture is far from being attractive. JAPAN is excessively cold in winter, and equally hot in summer; with great falls of rain at midsummer. In KAMTSCHATKA, occupying the north-eastern part of Asia, trees bud in June, and their leaves fall in September. The air of FORMOSA, on the contrary, is so pure and serene, that almost every description of fruit grows in the island; and, in the rice season, it resembles a vast garden. As to gold,—the inhabitants were, at one time, so ignorant of its value, that large ingots were used in cottages for domestic purposes. The pleasure of their mornings and evenings is not to be imagined by those, residing in more northern latitudes.

In CEYLON, the harvest continues, in one part or other of the island, all the year long: nothing, therefore, can surpass the variety of its scenery; rich as it is in every beautiful and sublime accompaniment. Its fertility almost equals that of Madagascar. Its bolder landscapes exhibit hills rising over hills; some rich in verdure; and others frowning with rocks, resembling castles, battlements, and pyramids. "Nature," says a recent traveller, “breathes there an eternal spring; flowers, blossoms, and fruits, adorning the valleys at all seasons. A vast wilderness of noble plants rises in ten thousand beautiful forms, raising emotions of admiration, which cannot easily be described." In fact, when viewed from the sea on

So much was Captain Cochrane pleased with the wild and beautiful scenery on the banks of the Irtish, that he followed up the stream to the borders of China, enraptured at every step; nor was he satisfied, till he had contemplated, by moonlight, the deep solitudes and lofty granite mountains, that constitute the bulwark of this northern boundary of the Celestial Empire.-Life and Travels of Ledyard, p. 259. b Georg. iii. 349, &c. c Thomson extends the scene to Lapland.