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pendulum, arising from this natural cause, will produce a
serious influence on the rate of the going of a clock. For, if
this alteration be so trifling as to cause either an increase or
decrease of the time of each vibration of only 1-1440th part of
its whole duration, it will occasion the clock to lose or gain a
minute in every twenty-four hours-a minute being the 1 140th
part of a day.
The problem, therefore, involved in the instance before us
is, How shall a timekeeper be constructed so as neither to
lose nor gain during a voyage from our temperate climate, to
the torrid or the frigid zone? The solution of this problem
was practically effected by Harrison, in his invention of the
gridiron pendulum. This pendulum takes its name from its
form, which consisted of a frame of nine parallel bars; four of
steel, and four of brass, while the centre bar of steel is fixed at
top to the cross bar connecting the two middle brass bars,
elides freely through the two lower bars, and bears the pen-
dulum bobs. The remaining bars are fastened to the cross piece
at both ends, and the uppermost cross piece is attached to the
axis of suspension. It is easy, therefore, to see that the ex-
pansion of the steel bars tends to lengthen the pendulum,
while that of the brass ones tends to shorten it; and conse-
quently, if the two expansions exactly counteract one another,
the length of the pendulum will remain unchanged. The rela-
tive lengths of the brass and steel bars are determined by the
expansions of the two metals, which are found by experiments
to be, generally, nearly as 100 to 61.

With equal ingenuity, and as the result of long-continued and careful thought, Harrison applied the compensatory principle to a watch, by the construction of the compensation balance, dependent also, on the unequal expansion of two different metals. In this instance, the circular arms of the balance is a compound bar of brass and steel, the brass being on the outside: this combination was attended with precisely the same successful result.

later than that at Greenwich; and in west longitude when it is earlier. Thus, suppose the mariner takes the meridian altitude of the sun at sea, and finds that it is noon at the ship, while it is eleven o'clock by the Greenwich chronometer, then the meridian of the place at which he has arrived must be 15 degrees east of Greenwich; while, if the chronometer tells it is one o'clock at Greenwich, the longitude of the place must be 15 degrees west of Greenwich. By the same mode of observation and comparison, the longitude of all other places where the ship may be found, is readily determined; but this mode of determining the longitude requires as the indispensable condition, the accurate-going of the chronometer.

When, therefore, after eighteen days sailing in the voyage which was to test Harrison's chronometer, the vessel was supposed by the captain to be 13 degrees 50 minutes west of Portsmouth, and the chronometer gave 15 degrees 19 minutes, or about a degree and a half more, the variation was considered to be fatal to the invention, and the instrument was condemned as useless. But the son of the maker felt that the actual error might be in the chart, and so firmly did he maintain that Portland Island would be seen on the following day, that the captain was induced to continue in the same course, and the island was actually discovered the next day at seven o'clock. The confidence in the chronometer, previously destroyed, was now restored, and it was increased by the complete fulfilment of Harrison's successive predictions of the times when the several islands would be passed during the remainder of the voyage. When the vessel arrived at Port Royal, after a voyage of 81 days, the chronometer was found to be about five seconds too slow, and on his return to Portsmouth, after a voyage of five months, it had kept time within about one minute and five seconds, which gives an error of about 16 miles a variation greatly within the limits prescribed by the act of parliament. From this experimental voyage it was rendered evident that peril and ruin would be avoided by those who trusted themselves to the guidance of an instrument like that of Harrison's, so wonderfully improved in comparison with all that were constructed before his time.

A further test was now allowed the chronometer, in a voyage undertaken by the younger Harrison to Barbadoes; and having now fully complied with the requirements of the act of parliaproposed reward of £20,000. Large as the sum appears it was only an appropriate reward for the devotion of extraordinary talents, with unwearied perseverance during a space of forty years. The success which accompanied this invention resulted in the present highly advanced state of horology, the perfection of which as a scientific art is, perhaps, only paralleled by the perfection of astronomy as an artistic science deeply indebted to it. Indeed, to the perfection of both may be ascribed in almost every respect, the present improved condition of society.

After having given himself, for a long time, exclusively to the construction of timepieces, Harrison came to London in 1728, at the age of thirty-five, bringing with him descriptive drawings of a machine for determining the longitude at sea, in expectation of being engaged to make one for the Board of Longitude. His invention was examined by Graham, the celebrated mathematical instrument maker, who advised Har-ment, the first chronometer-maker applied for, and received the rison, instead of presenting merely his drawings, first to complete the machine, and then to apply to the Board of Longitude. He therefore went home, and seven years after, returned to London, with the first chronometer; in fact, a large watch, by which he considered the longitude at sea might be correctly determined; its variations during several years, not exceeding a second in a month; thus incomparably surpassing all timemeasurers previously constructed, in this or any other country. In 1736 its accuracy was fully brought to the test in a voyage to and from Lisbon, during which it corrected an error of a degree and a half in the computation of the ship's reckoning. Public encouragement was now given to him, and, by the year 1761, he had completed three chronometers-the last being the most accurate. So satisfied was he with this one, that he applied to the commissioners of longitude for leave to make an experiment with it in a voyage to the West Indies, in compliance with the act of parliament. The solicited permission was granted; but, in consideration of Harrison's advancing years, his son was allowed to proceed to Jamaica instead of himself.

In order that our readers may understand the utility of this machine, we may just glance at its application. When a chronometer is set to the time of Greenwich, which is that of our first meridian-now the invariable practice with all captains sailing to a great distance-and is carried abroad in a vessel sailing from this meridian, a chronometer affords the means of ascertaining the longitude of any place, by simply observing the instant that the sun reaches the meridian of that place, that is, when it is midday there, or twelve o'clock at noon, and then observing the difference between this time and that shown by the Greenwich chronometer, which must necessarily be different, if the meridian of the place be different from that of Greenwich; for this difference at once gives the mariner his longitude, by allowing 15 degrees east or west for each hour of time, or 15 minutes of a degree for each minute of time; the place being in east longitude, when the time at the place is

Harrison employed the latter part of his life in constructing a fifth chronometer, which he executed so well that after a ten weeks' trial in the king's private observatory at Richmond, it was found to have erred only four-and-a-half seconds. He died at his house in Red Lion-square, London, March 24th, 1776; leaving behind him an impressive lesson of arduous, and successful perseverance.

How accurately chronometers have since been made to go, and with what utility to navigation, will be evident from the statement of the following facts by Dr. Arnott :-" After several months spent at sea, in a long passage from South America to Asia, my pocket chronometer and others on board announced one morning that a certain point of land was then bearing north from the ship, at a distance of fifty miles; in an hour afterwards, when a mist had cleared away, the looker-out on the mast gave the joyous call of Land ahead!' verifying the reports of the chronometers almost to one mile, after a voyage of thousands of miles. It is allowable at such a moment, with the dangers and uncertainties of ancient navigation before the mind, to exult in contemplating what man has now achieved. Had the rate of the wonderful little instrument, in all that time, been quickened or slackened ever so slightly, its announcement would have been useless, or even worse; but in the night and in the day, in storm and in calm, in heat and in cold, its steady beat went on, keeping exact account of the rolling of the earth and of the stars; and, in the midst of the trackless

waves which retain no mark, it was always ready to tell its magic tale, indicating the very spot of the globe over which it had arrived." To this may be added the words of Dr. Carpenter: "Not unfrequently must it occur," says he, "that the knowledge of the exact position of the ship, which may be obtained by the chronometer, produces a great saving of time, as well as contributes to the avoidance of danger. A remarkable instance of this was mentioned to the writer a few years since, as having just then occurred. Two ships were returning to London about the same time, after long voyages, one of them provided with chronometers, the other destitute of them. The weather was hazy, and the winds baffling; so that no ship, whose position was uncertain, could be safely carried up the British Channel. Confident of his position, however, the captain of the first ship stood boldly onwards, and arrived safely in the Thames; whilst the other ship was still beating about in uncertainty near the entrance to the Channel. The first ship discharged her cargo, took in another, set sail on a fresh voyage, and actually, in running down the Channel, encountered the second ship still toilsomely making her way to her port."

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"And every one threw forth reproaches rife,
Of his mischievous deedes, and sayd that hee
Was the disturber of all civill life,

The enemy of peace, and authour of all strife."

Spenser," Faerie Queene." Misgive is used in the derivative sense of yielding, weakly yielding, and as yielding weakly, so improperly, the notion of impropriety lying in the mis.

"Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, so long delayed;
Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill,
Misgave him."

Milton, "Paradise Lost."

Mod, of Latin origin (modus, manner, limit), appears in modify; (facio, Lat. Imake), to state with some restriction or qualification; to alter slightly; also in modest, moderate, commodious, commodity, &c.

Molli, of Latin origin (mollis, 80ft), appears in mollify, to make soft; to appease, render gentle; mollifier, mollification, mollifi. able, &c.

While the vocal flute,

Or number'd verse, by female voice endear'd

Crowns his delight and mollifies the scene." Shenstone. Mono, mon, of Greek origin (monos, alone), gives rise to monachos, a monk, one who lives alone; monachism, the society of monks; monas, a monad, a single object, a unit; monarch (arché, Gr. government), one who rules alone; monogamy (gamos, Gr. marriage); monopolise (poleo, Gr. I sell), to have the sole power of selling; monotheism (theos, Gr. God), the belief in one God; monosyllable, a word of one syllable.

• Conjunction, preposition, adverb join
To stamp new vigour on the nervous line;
In monosyllables his thunders roll,

He, she, it, and we, ye, they, fright the soul."

Churchill, "Rosciad."

Mert, of Latin origin (mors, death, genitive mortis), forms the basis of mortal, and immortal; mortgage, is a dead gage or pledge,-that is to say, something so pledged, as what are called deeds or writings, so that it cannot be used for raising money. Mortinam vadiem, a dead pledge, mortgage, is when a man borrows of another a specific sum-e. g., £200, and grants him an estate in fee, on condition that if he, the mortgager, shall repay the mortgagee the said sum of £200 on a certain day mentioned in the deed, then the mortgager may re-enter on the estate granted in pledge.-Blackstone, "ComMortmain (mortuâ manu, Lat. in a dead hand), is explained thus: "All purchases made by corporate bodies were said to be purchasee in mortmain; for this reason, those purchases were usually made by ecclesiastical bodies, the members of which being professed (in orders, were reckoned dead persons in law; land, therefore, holden by them might, with great propriety, be said to be held in mortud manu.— Blackstone," Commentaries."

mentaries.”

Multi, of Latin origin (multus, much), appears in multifarious, of many sorts; multiform, of many shapes; multiply (plica, Lat. a fold), to take many folds, &c.

-The beauteous lake
The pines wide-branching, falls of water clear,
The multifarious glow on Flora's lap
Lose all attraction."

Glover," Leonidas."

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Non, of Latin origin, not, stands before words of historical im. portance, as, non-conformist, non-juror.

"By that act (the Five Mile Act), passed in the parliament held at Oxford, October 9, 1865, and entitled, An Act for restraining Non-conformists (to the Established Church) from inhabiting Corporations,' the pounds for every offence, to come, unless only in passing upon the road, non-conforming ministers were prohibited, upon a penalty, of forty within five miles of any city, corporation, &c."-Locke. Non-juror is a term usually applied to those persons who refused to take the oaths of allegiance to William III, at the Revolution. Lloyd, Thomas, and Frampton."-Smollett," History of England." "The nonjuring prelates were Sancroft, Turner, Lake, Ken, White,

05, of Latin origin (as a preposition, on account of), has the general meaning of towards, and hence at, near, and varies with the word with which it is connected, the meaning of which it sometimes merely strengthens. In object (jacio, Lat. I throw), to throw before or against, it conveys the idea of obstruction, an idea which it expresses more fully in obstruction (struo, Lat. I build) itself, which, according to its constituents, signifies a building or blocking up. In obliterate (litura, Lat. an erasure), to blot out, it has an augmentive force. Passing into the first letter of its principal, ob becomes oc as in occasion (cado, Lat. I fall), a suitable fall, a fall before you so as to suit your purpose, something seasonable and convenient, by which you may profit. Ob passes also into of, as in offer (fero, Lat. I bear). This of must not be confounded with of or off signifying from, and found in off-scouring, and offspring.

"Our prayer hath

Donne.

No power to pass; and thou hast made us fall, As refuse and off-scouring to them all." "Whence it follows that these were nations not descending from us, but born with us; not our off-spring, but our brethren."-South.

Octo, also octa, of Latin origin (octo, eight), appears in octagon, eight-angled; octosyllable, of eight syllables; octoteuch (teuché, Gr. a fold or volume), the first eight books of the Old Testament. Olig, of Greek origin (oligos, a few), is the first part of oligarchy (arché, Gr. government), government by a few; oligarch, one of a small number of rulers.

Omni, of Latin origin (omnis, all), is seen in omniscient (scio, Lat. I know), all knowing; omnipotent (potens, Lat. powerful), all-powerful; omnipresent, existing everywhere; omnivorous, alldevouring.

Ortho, of Greek origin (orthos, straight, right), as in orthodoxy, right opinion; orthogonal, right-angled; orthopedic, right-footed,

&c. .

"Athanasius is commonly accounted the very rule of orthodoxality in this point."-Cudworth," Intellectual System.”

This prefix forms part also of orthography (graphè, Gr. writing), right writing, that is, in the spelling of words; as orthoepy (epos, Gr. a word) is right pronunciation.

LESSONS IN BOTANY.-No. XIII.

CLASS XVI.-MONADELPHIA. Plants bearing flowers, the filaments of whose Stamens are joined together in one set. PENTANDRIA.

Over, of Saxon origin, as in overarch, overbalance, overbear, overcharge, overboard, over-boil, over-bounteous, frequently denoting too much, as orer-careful, that is, careful to excess. Overcome has two significations, to conquer, and to come over or upon. THE hemlock stork's-bill is a hairy and somewhat clammy "He found the means to subdue both the one and the other, compell-plant, with a disagreeable smell. It grows in sandy places,

ing as well the overcomers as the overcome to be his tributaries."»Brende," Quinctus Curtius."

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Over when employed for above as "over two hundred" is to be avoided as an Americanism. To overtake is to come up with in walking or running.

"And had he not in his extremest need

Been helped through the swiftness of his steed,
He had him overtaken in his flight."

Spenser.

In the passive the verb overtake seems to denote the being suddenly surprised into an action; surprise is from the Fr. surprendre (consisting of sur, above or over, and prendre, to take), whence surprise is the same as overtake in both derivation and meaning.

"Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault,”—Gal, vi. 1.

It is not difficult to see how to overtake may mean to get over, overcome, surprise, but how it means to come up with is less easy to conceive. The notion of over, or of superiority may, however, lie in the act by which you succeed in coming up to the person you wish to overtake; thus by walking more quickly than he, you overtake your friend, you take a step over his, and get beyond him. Out, of Saxon origin, beyond a certain limit, is a very common prefix, as in outbid, outdo, outface, outlaw, outlive, outstrip, &c. Outrage has nothing to do with out. Outrage comes from the medieval Latin word ultragium, through the French oultraige, outrage. Ultragium, from ultra, beyond, denoted a surplusage paid to the lord by his subject on failure of paying his dues in proper time, whence outrage came to signify something in excess and to have an offensive meaning. Richardson shows himself ignorant of the origin of the word.

Pan, of Greek origin (pas, m. pasa, f. pan, n. all), is found in panacea (akeomai, Gr. I heal), all-heal, a universal remedy; in pancreas (kreas, Gr. flesh), all-flesh,—that is, the sweetbread; and in pandects (dekomai, Gr. I receive), receive-alls, a common title of the Greek miscellanies. The term is known in history in its application to a digest of the civil law published by the emperor Justinian. Again, pan occurs in pantheism (theos, Gr. God), allgodness, that is, the system which regards God and the universe as the same. Pan forms the first part of pantomime (mimos, Gr. a mimic; and the word mimic is from mimos), all-mimicry, because the performance consisted solely of imitation.

"The pantomimes who maintained their reputation from the age of Augustus to the sixth century, expressed, without the use of words, the various fables of the gods and heroes of antiquity; and the perfection of their art, which sometimes disarmed the gravity of the philosopher, always excited the applause and wonder of the people."-Gibbon, "Roman Empire."

Para, of Greek origin, by the side of, as in parallels (i. e., parallel lines), has in English various acceptations. In parable (ballo, Gr. I throw), something put by the side of another thing, a comparison, a similitude. In Scripture, the parables of the Old Testament are short, pithy, and weighty sayings: the parables of the New Testament are short tales, setting forth religious truth under similitudes: the former are apothegms; the latter allegories. Para appears in paraclete (kalein, Gr. to call), the advocate or comforter (John xiv. 16).

Paradise is a Persian word, denoting a park, and has no connexion with the Greek para; in Hebrew, pardes, a garden.

Par, of Latin origin (pars, partis, a part), appears in participate (capio, Lat. I take)—that is, to partake. This word partake is a hybrid, being formed of an English and a Latin word; it is therefore a cross in the breed between Latin and English.

Pent, or penta, of Greek origin, as in pentagon, a figure having five sides; pentateuch (five-fold), the name given to what are called "the five books of Moses,"-namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.,

especially near the sea. Its rose-coloured, but frequently white petals, are observable from June to September.

The musky stork's-bill is so called from the peculiar smell it exhales, and the plant is more hairy and clammy than the preceding. It grows in hilly pastures, and flowers in June and July, with rose-coloured petals.

The petals of the sea stork's-bill, appearing from May to September are minute, and of a pale red. This plant grows on the sandy coasts of the south of England, and in Ireland. DECANDRIA.

fragments of rocks, a very beautiful little flower is observable In waste ground, in woods, by walls, among stones and from the beginning of May to the end of October; it is the herb Robert, or Poor Robin. It has a red stem, sending out numerous branches at the base; leaves tinged with red, and lance-shaped; petals twice the length of the calyx, oblong, bright rose-red, with three white veins. When the plant grows on exposed situations, the stems and leaves are of a rich crimson colour, and when autumn has come on, and they long survive the blossoms, they are scarcely less beautiful than the flowers themselves. Its stems are brittle; and the whole of the plant is very hairy.

A peculiar resinous substance is secreted by this plant, as well as by several others of the same species. Its odour is threfore disagreeable, particularly when the plant has been long gathered. So abundant is the resin in some foreign species, that if a light be applied to their stems, they will burn like torches, and yield a very agreeable perfume during their

combustion.

How numerous these plants are in our own land may be seen at a rapid glance. The dusky crane's-bill grows in woods and thickets, and flowers in May and June; the wood crane'sbill flowers in June and July, and grows in woods and thickets by rivers; the spots in which to find the meadow crane's-bill, may be gathered from its name; it flowers in the two lastmentioned months. The dove's-foot crane's-bill appears early in April, and continues in bloom till August, and is observable on every bank or waste place, and in every pasture: it has long spreading stems, and broad roundish leaves, deeply cut into segments, of a pale gray-green, and downy as colour. And, besides these, there are six other species of velvet; while the flowers are small, and of a purplish-red

crane's-bill.

Among these plants are found those universal favourites the geraniums. How often may one of them be observed in circumstances reminding us of Cowper's words when he says,— "That man immured in cities, still retains His inborn, inextinguishable thirst Of rural scenes, compensating his loss By supplemental shifts as best he may.

The most unfurnish'd with the means of life,
And they that never pass the brick-wall bounds,
To range the fields, and treat their lungs with air,
Yet feel the burning instinct; overhead
Suspend the crazy boxes, planted thick,
And watered duly. There the pitcher stands,
A fragment, and the spoutless teapot there:
Sad witnesses how close-pent man regrets
The country, with what ardour he contrives
A peep at nature, when he can no more."

Of the real geraniums some species or other may be found growing wild almost everywhere. Several flower-stalks very commonly diverge from one centre, forming what is called an umbel, but in most of the British plants of this tribe each principal stalk bears but two flowers. The petals are five in number, except in a few instances, in which one is undeveloped; their veins are unusually prominent, and they give to the petals a streaked or pencilled appearance. These veins consist

almost exclusively of air-vessels, and they serve as beautiful objects for microscopic inspection.

When the fruit is ripe it strikingly resembles the bill of certain birds; whence the British geraniums are known by the name of cranesbill. These plants are extensively diffused over the globe. What are commonly termed geraniums by horticulturists are not really such, but belong to the allied genus pelargonium. The chief residence of the pelargoniums is at the Cape of Good Hope, from whence these ornaments of our gardens and windows have been derived. These have been greatly improved by cultivation, and many more varieties have sprung up. Among the old favourites is the horseshoe pelargonium, known from the brown circle on the leaves in the form of a horseshoe, and the parent of many of the finest hybrid scarlet-flowered varieties introduced by crossing. The flowers of the original plant are small, and not now esteemed. The oak-leaved and the gooseberry-leaved are rapidly disappearing.

POLYANDRIA.

The leaves of the marsh-mallow are simple, and very soft and downy; and so are the stems, which are erect, and three feet high. The petals are of a pale rose-colour. The plant grows in salt marshes, and flowers from July to September. The common mallow, though very rare in Scotland, is abundant in England. It has an erect stem, leaves with five or seven somewhat acute lobes; leaf-stalks and flower-stalks hairy. Its petals, which are numerous, of a purplish-red, and deeply-notched, appear about hedges and road-sides, from June to September. The recollections of some of our readers accord, very probably, with those of our rural poet Clare, when, looking back to past times, he describes himself and other children, as

"Sitting down when school was o'er,
Upon the threshold of the door,
Picking from mallows, sport to please,
The crumpled seed we call a cheese."

The name thus given to the circular fruit of the plant, leads
to its being called "cheese-flower," in some country places.
This play is not peculiar to the English child; it amuses also
French children, who call the seeds of the mallow by the
same name les petits fromageons.

The wild and cultivated mallows of our country are used in medicine for the mucilage they contain. Country people apply the leaves when boiled to wounds and bruises; and, in Paris, mallow-tea is considered a specific for many diseases. The mallows do not possess, however, any active properties.

The musk-mallow has an erect stem, about two feet high, little branched, and rough; its flowers, which grow on long, simple stalks, with large rose-cloured petals, appear in July and August. The plant grows in pastures, and by way-sides. The dwarf-mallow has a prostrate stem; roundish heartshaped leaves; stems numerous, lying flat on the ground; flowers pale-lilac, growing from June to September, and fruitstalks bent downwards. It grows in waste ground, and by way-sides.

Besides these plants, there is the sea tree-mallow: the stem woody; the leaves downy, and plaited, with seven angles; the petals purplish rose-colour, and darker on the base; growing on rocks along the sea-shore, and flowering from July to October. It is, however, between the tropics, that the most remarkable species of mallow abound.

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In a wild state, the corollas of the hollyhock are generally single, and of a red, white, or yellow colour; but by transference to a more favourable situation, and to more fertile soil, their flowers can be doubled to any extent, and, by care on the part of the cultivator, brought into almost every hue. Oh, the hollyhock!" says a modern writer, "no garden should be without a hollyhock, whether it belong to a prince or a peasant. Stately and aspiring, and requiring space, it yet wisely accommodates itself to its circumstances, adorning alike the gay parterre and the cottage door. Whether puce, crimson, scarlet, yellow, or white, it is always elegant, and never forgets that it is a hollyhock.'

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Dr. Turner speaks of hollyhocks as familiar plants in 1564; and Gerard, in 1597, observes that they were then seen in gardens almost everywhere. There can be no doubt that they were very early cultivated, their majestic height and splendid

flowers rendering them special objects of attention. The English name is derived from the Saxon holyoak or holihoc, the meaning of which is not very perceptible. Besides their floral beauty, hollyhocks are of great utility to bees, as they flower at a season when most other blossoms have faded. The fibrous bark of the flower-stalks furnishes no mean substitute for hemp; and a blue dye, little inferior to indigo, can be obtained from the whole plant.

LESSONS IN GEOGRAPHY.-No. VIII. DISCOVERIES OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.

FRANCE, desirous of taking her share in the progress of maritime discovery, fitted out, in 1786, a new expedition under the command of La Perouse, an able and intrepid officer. The principal theatre of the explorations of this little French squadron was the north-west coast of America, and the shores of Tartary and Japan. Their vessels La Boussole and L'Astrolabe latitude 59° N. on the north-west coast of America. The exvisited Easter Island, then the Sandwich Isles, and reached pedition explored with great care a great part of this line of coast. During their hydrographical operations, a sad accident befell them, which cost twenty-one persons their lives, while making an attempt to land. These operations being finished, they traversed the Pacific, determined, on their way, the position of the Ladrone Islands, and arrived at Macao on the 2nd Jan. 1787. At the outset of his second expedition, La Perouse went along the coast of Corea, and discovered Cape Nota on the coast of Japan. The officers of the expedition applied themselves particularly to the determination of the latitudes and longitudes of the places which they visited. In latitude 45°, they discovered an harbour which they called the bay of Ternay. They next discovered the strait which separates the island of Jesso from Tchoka or Sagalien, and which is called the Straits of La Perouse. The expedition then sailed for Kamtschatka, where it was hospitably received. At this point M. Lesseps, who had accompanied La Perouse as interpreter of the Russian languages, was sent overland to France. This intrepid young man, to whom had been intrusted the journals and charts of the voyage, traversed the old continent through its whole extent from east to west, and happily arrived at Paris with the valuable observations which had been made during the expedition. La Perouse returned to Oceanica, to meet severe trials. At Maouna, one of the Navigators' Islands, his companion De Langle, captain of L'Astrolabe, and twenty of his attendants, were cruelly murdered by the natives. Lamanon, the naturalist of the expedition, perished in this attack. After a short stay at Botany Bay, New Holland (now Australia), La Perouse prepared for his third expedition. He purposed to explore the Tonga Isles, the south part of New Caledonia, the Louisiade Islands, New Guinea and other islands, the gulf of Carpentaria, and the coast of Australia from this gulf to Van Diemen's Land. He left the shores of New Holland full of hope and enterprise; but his task, so courageously self-imposed, was left unfinished; his career came to a close. From that moment he was never more heard of; for two years, expectation was kept on the stretch looking for news of the expedition. La Perouse and his companions were lost to their country. The cruel uncertainty which remained in France regarding the fate of the expedition, caused the national assembly to pass a decree in February 1791, by which it entreated the king, Louis XVI., to solicit the assistance of the other sovereigns of Europe in the search for the lost expedition. This decree also directed the organisation of an expedition, which had the double object of endeavouring to find some trace of the unfortunate navigator, and of completing the discoveries which had been left unachieved. This expedition took place under the command of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, but without success. It was almost as unfortunate as that of La Perouse, although it was useful in making those coasts better known which had been carefully explored in search of him. The place of his shipwreck, in fact, was not discovered till 1827, by Captain Dillon, who ascertained that he and his unfortunate companions were lost on the rocks of one of the Feejee Islands, and found the

remains of the vessel and part of the articles that belonged latitude 70° N. the expedition returned and explored the coasts to him. The singular voyage of Captain Bligh, who, owing to as far as Cape Walsingham, in Cumberland Island, whence it the mutiny of his crew, was obliged to traverse an immense sailed for England. The other expedition to the north was extent of ocean in an open boat, led to the discovery, in 1789, undertaken by Captain Buchan and Lieutenant Franklin; but of Waitoutaki, one of the Manaian group, or Harvey Islands. it was productive of no new discovery, as they were compelled The surprising explorations, also, of Captain Flinders and to return when they had reached Spitzbergen, glad to escape the Surgeon Bass, who attempted to effect the periplus of New alarming dangers of sailing in the midst of floating icebergs. Cap Holland, in a sorry boat, ended in the discovery of the strait tain Parry continued the exploration begun by Captain Ross, which separates that continent from Tasmania (Van Diemen's In a new expedition, he discovered the passage called Prince Land), and which still retains the name of Bass; and, at the Regent's inlet, south of Lancaster Sound, Wellington's inlet same time, in the delineation of an immense line of coast on farther north in the same sound, and the islands of Cornwallis, the same continent. Flinders, especially, has a right to the Griffith, Bathurst, Byam Martin, Melville, and others, all inremembrance of geographers, for the steadiness with which he cluded, under the name of the North Georgian Islands. He pursued during many years, his difficult and dangerous also discovered Banks's Land, south of Melville Island, and labours, almost always in an open boat or frail skiff which North Somerset, which forms the north-west point of Prince the smallest storm would have foundered in a moment. To Regent's inlet, and wintered in 1819-1820, in Melville Bay, him we owe the discovery of Kangaroo Island, the hydro-where, during the long months, from the 4th of November till graphy of Van Diemen's Land, the exploration of the southern the 3rd of February following, they lived in continued darkand eastern coasts of New Holland, and the determination of ness, and in an atmosphere, whose temperature was below the numerous points in Torres' Straits and the Gulf of Carpen-freezing point. In a second voyage executed in 1821-1822, taria. The expedition to the same coasts under the French Captain Parry discovered Melville Peninsula, north of Southcaptain, Baudin, was productive of little utility in a geo-ampton Island, in the northern part of Hudson's Bay. He graphical point of view, after the labours of Flinders. passed through the strait which he named after his two vesThe voyage of Vancouver preceded the French expedition sels, the Fury and Hecla, and which separates Melville Penabove mentioned, and added to the knowledge of the Aus-insula from Cockburn Island, on the north. Captain Scoresby, tralian continent. He discovered the harbour of King George at the same period, explored a part of the east coast of Greenin the south-western extremity of New Holland, and com- land. Parry made a third voyage in 1823, to the same regions pleted the labours of Cook at New Zealand. To the east of he had formerly visited; but the Fury was shipwrecked, and the latter, Captain Broughton, commander of the tender, dis- the expedition failed. During the period from 1823 to 1826, covered Chatham Island, and the expedition proceeded to Lieutenant Beechy sought for the passage between the two Tahiti to prepare for exploring the north-western coast of oceans by Behring's Straits, and reached latitude 71° 23′ N., and America. Vancouver, in company with a Spanish expedition longitude 154° 3′ W. The indefatigable Parry attempted a which he met, under the command of Captain Quadra, dis- fourth expedition to the north in search of the same passage, covered the island which now bears the name of both; he then but it entirely failed, because he disregarded the experience of explored the river Colombia as far as the expedition could as- former navigators, as well as his own in preceding voyages. cend its streams. A rest at the Sandwich Islands, and new expeditions on the American coasts detained Vancouver till the winter of 1794, when he returned to the same archipelago. Having, in a new hydrographical expedition, explored another part of the coast of the new world, including Cook's inlet, Vancouver returned to England, laden with geographical information, and signalised by not a few discoveries. These regions were scarcely revisited until the voyage of Kotzebue, which took place in 1815-1818. This Russian navigator discovered to the north of Behring's Straits, between latitudes 679 and 68° N., and in longitude 163° 37′ W., a great bay or sound to which he gave his name. His object was to find a passage to the Atlantic, and to ascertain first whether Icy Cape was an island; but illness prevented him from carrying his designs into execution. He discovered several unimportant islands in the Pacific, particularly the eastern part of the Caroline group.

As to the northern passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific, it seemed to elude all the skill and vigilance of navigators. Captain Phipps, in 1773, had reached latitude 80° 37′ N. from the Atlantic side; Captain Cook, as we have seen, attempted it from the Pacific side; Pickersgill and Young succeeded no better by sailing through Baffin's Bay; and Lowenorn, Egede, and Rothe, in 1786-1787, attempted, but without success, to explore the eastern shores of Greenland, which is said to be unapproachable in consequence of the accumulation of ice since the beginning of the fifteenth century. At the beginning of the present century, northern expeditions were revived; and they have been pursued with more or less ardour till the present day. In 1818 two expeditions were £tted out for the north. The one was placed under the command of Captain Ross, who sailed from England towards the end of April of that year, accompanied by Lieutenant Parry, who commanded under his direction the ship Alexander. Between latitudes 76° and 77° 40' N. they discovered land which they called the Arctic Highlands. This country occupied a space of 120 miles in the north-east corner of Baffin's Bay. On the 30th of August they reached the entrance of Lancaster Sound, ard as it was 50 miles broad from north to south, and as the soundings were 750 fathoms, they fancied they had discovered the north-west passage; but they soon perceived their mistake by observing land in their course at a distance of 30 miles from the entrance of the sound. Having reached

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