expired at his favourite game of humbug-Double Dumby-not being permitted by inexorable death even to play out his four by honours and mark the game. It seems likely, however, that the history of the Four Kings, like that of monarchy itself, will never be extended to the New World; for Mr Andrew Chatto, to whose Facts and Speculations upon the Origin and History of Playing-cards we are mainly indebted for this paper, assures us that the court-cards of a republican pack recently (1848) manufactured at New York, and now in his possession, have no kings at all the president of hearts being Washington; of diamonds, John Adams; of clubs, Franklin; and of spades, Lafayette. One of the queens is Venusmodestly concealing her charms after the American notions of delicacy-and the others are Fortune, Ceres, and Minerva; while the knaves are aptly represented by four Indian chiefs. SOCIAL PROGRESS AT THE ANTIPODES. CONCLUDING ARTICLE. the Northern Island, have been discovered fine plains covered with good natural grasses, combined with the temperate climate due to the fortieth parallel of latitude. Many squatters have already settled on extensive sheep-runs on the upland Rua-Taniwha plains, and these pastoral colonists will doubtless be followed by agriculturists as soon as government succeeds in purchasing the extensive alluvial plain at Ahuriri. Those who have read the numerous glowing descrip tions of New Zealand, published under the auspices of single land-sharks, or combined land-sharking companies, will be surprised to learn that the quantity of land available for agriculture is extremely small. Fully nine-tenths of the surface of the country consists of steep razor-backed hills of white clay, covered with an impenetrable tangle of rough fern, from three to fifteen feet high, which will not be replaced by useful grasses for many ages to come. Small patches of level holm-land are sparsely scattered along the clayey banks of the rivers; but the only lands of any extent adapted for cultivation are the large alluvial plains at the mouths of the rivers, and to these the shrewd Maoris adhere with provoking pertinacity. Where land has changed hands several times within the memory of man, the last possessors readily consent to sell that which they hold only by a usurped and disputed claim. Thus the extensive Wairarapa Valley, near Wellington, and the Wairau plains, near Nelson, were easily acquired. But all the persuasive powers of the government commissioners fail to effect a purchase where the title to land has been undisturbed for many generations. In this category is the largest and finest plain in New Zealand, rich, fertile, and level as a billiard-table, yet miscalled Poverty Bay by Cook, because he was not allowed to get supplies of wood and water here by the warlike Ngatikahungunus. THE Country which Tasman took the liberty of naming New Zealand, without daring to land and take possession, consists of a comparatively narrow range of lofty mountains, extending about eight hundred miles in length from north to south, and is so placed as to comprise all the most desirable climates of the earth in rapid gradation, from the almost tropical temperature of the Bay of Islands and Auckland, to the cold and stormy latitudes of Otago and Stewart's Island towards the south. This highly picturesque chain of sharp wedge-like ridges, and high volcanic peaks, is intersected by Cook Strait and Foveaux Strait; and thus divided into three islands, of which the Northern and Middle Islands, separated by Cook Strait, are of considerable extent. It is said that the entire surface The maritime alluvial plains of New Zealand have of New Zealand is equal to that of England and some remarkable peculiarities. They are not valleys Scotland; but this must be a very rough approxima- sloping continuously down from the flanks of the tion, based on the marine survey of Captain Cook, for adjacent hills, but almost perfectly level plains, abutno general trigonometrical survey has been undertaken ting against the steep hillsides as abruptly as the yet, although the local government would seem to surface of a deep lake. They are, in fact, most probhave both a strong motive and sufficient means for ably the level bottoms of large lagoons, elevated by doing so, seeing that their principal function is to buy some general upheaval of the country. Some very large blocks of land from the Maoris at about three- perfect examples of raised beaches on the east coast pence per acre, to be retailed to emigrants at five and shew that such upheavals have taken place. Enormous ten shillings, according as it is hilly or level. Among lagoons are still often formed at the mouths of almost the European settlements here, commercial enterprise all New Zealand rivers. The heavy rains of winter, and success seem to increase with the mean tempera- flowing rapidly over the impermeable clay of the preture. More business is transacted in Auckland than cipitous hills and ravines, cause sudden and powerful in all the other settlements together. One Auckland floods, which rush straight to seaward, and make the store alone, that of Mr Grahame, built of honeycombed mouth of the river in a line with its course near the black lava, from the adjacent volcano, Mount Eden, sea. But when the river is low in summer, the heavy contains more goods than all the stores of Wellington. surf of the great Southern Ocean, especially during In the language of the turf, Auckland takes southerly gales, combined with the prevailing current the lead; Wellington makes a bad second; and along the coast, drives up the movable shingle, and the rest are nowhere. This is partly due to the often causes the mouth of the river to travel along the favourable position of Auckland with respect to the beach two or three miles, as at the Wairoa in Hawke's Australian colonies, and partly also to the peculiar Bay, and at Awa-puni in Poverty Bay; the river character of the inhabitants of each settlement. The meanwhile running along a channel at the back of the leaders of those who founded Wellington, and its off- beach. After a long drought, a heavy gale in March shoots Nelson and New Plymouth, were chiefly the or April often blocks up the mouth of the river younger sons of the English aristocracy, with a strong entirely. Such awa-punis, or closed rivers, are comhankering after picnics, balls, and champagne suppers, mon all along the east coast. The waters accumulate and no great aptitude for business; while Auckland behind, and much alluvial matter is deposited in the is distinguished by a certain Yankee-like go-ahead lagoon thus formed, before an opening is effected, spirit, chiefly imported from Sydney and Tasmania. either by another great flood, or cut by the natives to The settlements of the Middle Island appear to prevent the overflowing of their kumara grounds, and have fallen into a state of permanent commercial to allow the entrance of kahawai, patiki, and other paralysis. A few years ago, some wealthy Port Phillip fish from the sea. In consequence of this unceasing squatters endeavoured to grow wool on the Canterbury struggle between the sudden floods from the mounplains, which produce a kind of coarse wiry tussock-tains and the powerful swell of the ocean, most of the grass, but were obliged to abandon the attempt on account of the cold wintry winds and the scarcity of pasturage. At Ahuriri, in Hawke's Bay, on the east coast of rivers of New Zealand terminate in a large swampy lagoon, bounded to seaward by a long shingly beach, through which a narrow opening carries off the waters from the interior. Where these lagoons have been 174 CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL. silted up, plains have been formed, level and fertile as The Ahuriri plain is a good type of its kind, and In order to keep my appointment with Karaitiana, The influx of settlers into this favoured district has (pu-taugi-taugi) is derived. These fine birds are said Karaitiana was to meet me at Pukenau, the kaigna Next morning, a large canoe, about forty feet long, well laden with provisions, several hundreds of sharpended stakes and poles, and a mallet, for our survey, together with a plough and other farming utensils, was despatched up the river under the active superintendence of Mrs Karaitiana, assisted by a stout boy, and accompanied by her adopted tamaiti (little son). In shallow water, the canoe is always propelled by a long manuka pole, but in deep water by the paddle. The Maori women do every kind of work that the men do, except fighting. They are gentle, patient, and industrious, with soft voices of a silvery sweetness. The old crones are excessively ugly, especially on great occasions when en grande tenue, with their hair frizzed out into a frightful shock. The younger women are seldom remarkable for beauty, and seem very deficient in the art of feminine adornment. Their dress is a cotton gown tied only at the neck, with a silk handkerchief on the head; or with the jet-black hair uncovered, plaited neatly, and forming a large knot behind, or projecting in front, like a penthouse, as if combed over something. They have, however, without exception, fine regular white teeth, in spite of the frequent use of the cutty-pipe, and large, full, lustrous, dark eyes; and realise fully the somewhat coarse description of a certain English rustic beauty in Gay's third pastoral: Her blubbered lip by smutty pipe is worn, Of all the Maori kotiros (girls), the daughter of Noah was certainly the prettiest and the most graceful. A rich vermilion glowed through the brown beauty' of her cheeks. She was, of course, the cynosure of neighbouring eyes at Ahuriri; and was not the less interesting to a home-sick wandering Pakeha for rejoicing in the euphonious name of Wikitoria! The weather assuming a threatening appearance, Karaitiana, with the ever-ready Maori taihoa, which may be rendered by and by,' 'wait a little,' deferred our departure until the next day. In the meantime, a coloured ground-plan of the new town, shewing equal allotments of land for 104 families, disposed in two parallel lines along the banks of the river, each allotment separated from the rest by a wide roadway; and the plans and elevations of the proposed new houses, were inspected and studied with general interest. The new town is to be called Ko Rauru, which is the name of the traditional Solomon of the Maori people-a man who seems to have been distinguished as much by his conscientious truthfulness and faithful adherence to his promise, as by his general wisdom, for he is always referred to as Rauru-ki-tahi'-('one-worded Rauru'). It is certainly significant of the moral change that has taken place among these descendants of warlike kidnappers and cannibals, that they should spontaneously choose to live under the shadow of the name of this Maori Confucius, rather than of that of some of their most noted warriors of the olden time. The civilised Pakehas, on the contrary, honour warriors more than moral philosophers, as is testified by the Nelson and Wellington that vegetate on the opposite shores of Cook Strait. At length we started for the head-quarters of our survey, Tane-nui-o-rangi, a sort of country-house of Karaitiana's, on the side of the river opposite to the new town. The house was half filled with sacks of wheat, potatoes, spades, &c., apparently doing duty as a barn when the family were in town. Here the commissariat department was managed by Madame Karaitiana, who had brought a fine ham for my special entertainment, an expensive luxury in which the frugal Maoris rarely indulge, their usual food being potatoes, kumaras, rice, melons, and fish. Karaitiana indicated the site of the town, and ranged the long poles in straight lines. An intelligent young Maori assisted me in the actual survey, and the canoe-boy drove in the stakes that defined the limits of each allotment. We had to force our way through a tangled mass of harsh fern, a yard high on the plain, and four or five feet high wherever the good soil had lodged in the hollows. My assistants worked with good will, and soon shewed a perfect comprehension of the nature of the business in hand. Indeed, the Maori intellect is decidedly of the mathematical order, as is shewn by their universal fondness for arithmetic, draughts, &c. On the day after the completion of our labours, Karaitiana conducted me home on horseback across the plain, by a route which lay through the pahs of his friends, Tarehah and Paoro. In both places, the people were busy thrashing wheat, men and women manipulating light flails, in strokes regulated with mathematical precision by the stanzas of a song chanted by a single leader, as on board ship, and the refrain taken up joyously by the whole body. These people are sober, intelligent, frugal, and industrious, and as farmers, are evidently formidable competitors of the European emigrant. They have all the elements of permanence in greater abundance than any other native race, and appear destined to form a brilliant exception to the general decay of the aboriginal races, wherever the white man plants his foot. Should the Ahuriri tribes continue to co-operate harmoniously in founding their town, they will insert the thin end of the wedge of social amelioration; for emulation is largely developed in the Maori character. When one Maori gets a horse, every other Maori in the district tries to compass the purchase of a horse likewise. If one tribe succeeds, perhaps with the judicious aid of a small loan from government, in obtaining a joint-stock schooner, or a water-mill, other tribes become restless and dissatisfied until they can do the same. In consequence of this strong spirit of emulation, the success of the new town of Ko Rauru would be a powerful incentive, and a sure prelude to the construction of similar towns all over the country. SUB-AQUEOUS RAILWAYS. A RAILWAY system, to be complete, must embrace the means of a continuous passage between the termini of each individual line. Mountains, if need be, must be bored through, and rivers bridged over; hills levelled, and hollows filled up; and these objects are in general attained at present most effectually. There is, however, an obstacle which may and does occur, in the shape of navigable rivers or estuaries lying between low banks, and for the overcoming of which, none of the means above enumerated can be employed. The only principle on which this can be done is by passing beneath the water; and the great tunnel under the Thames suggests the means of effecting this. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, as the case may be, that great experiment does more than shew how possible it is to tunnel under tidal and navigable rivers: it also proves that this can only be done at an enormous expense, and at such a depth below the surface of the soil composing the actual bed of the river, as to render the work practically inapplicable, even for ordinary traffic of wheeled vehicles, by reason of the difficulty of approach; and worst of all for railways, the very nature of which precludes the possibility of their deviating, except very slightly, from the surface-level. It might appear as if the depth of a tunnel would signify little to a railway approaching the river at right angles, as the gradient might begin at a considerable distance at either side. This is certainly true in theory; but when we consider that rivers necessarily flow on the lowest levels, and that the course of a railway approaching a tidal river at right angles, would be chiefly along the plateaux which rise above the river-valley on either side, it is evident that, in a general way, the depression of the line to a raised causeway and bridge-were this latter allow able in the case-would be quite as much as could consist with the maintenance of a proper level for railway purposes; while the additional dip into a tunnel, far below not only the level of a bridge, but of the bottom of the water itself, would be either altogether impracticable, or practicable at a cost and labour quite prohibitory. Granting, then, that the ordinary tunnel is inadmissible in such cases, and that the low level of the banks renders the example of the magnificent Britannia Bridge equally inapplicable, the great problem appears to be, whether any other mode of passing a train, either over or under navigable rivers, is to be found in the resources of modern engineering. The answer to this question is given by a Mr Holcomb, an engineer of experience and reputation; and it is our purpose now to introduce to our readers the plan which he proposes to adopt, and which seems highly creditable to his ingenuity and skill. Mr Holcomb of course proposes a tunnel, but such a one as, while it affords all the requisite qualities, will be free from the objections which we have alluded to above as fatal to the adoption of the boring principle. It strikes us that the simplest way of explaining the matter to ordinary readers, is to say, that it is now proposed to place a tube, like the Britannia Bridge, under the water, and pass the trains through it as if it was suspended above. The advantages of this plan are manifest. The iron sides of the tube will afford fully as ample protection to the traveller as the native rock or the cemented brick lining of a tunnel; it may therefore be placed in the water, if deep, or slightly beneath it, if shallow; and it may be made with a certain slope from either side towards the middle, which arrangement will have the advantage of allowing a deep passage in midchannel for the shipping, as well as affording vastly increased facilities for the entrance of the railway; every foot gained in this matter of level at the entrance, necessarily representing a vast economy of cutting in the approaches. Thus, with only a trifling depression of the line, the train may glide into the archway -removed one hundred feet from the river-which constitutes the mouth of the tunnel. Such are the principal features of Mr Holcomb's plan. The tube is to be made of a square form, and the sides of corrugated iron. The vast and almost miraculous increase of power given to sheet-metal by this form, seems to insure two essential points: one, strength in resisting pressure; and the other, economy in labour and material. In future, there will be no use whatever in employing heavy flat plates of metal to sustain a certain strain, where much lighter ones will do at least as well, if corrugated. The tube itself is to rest on a row of piles, driven firmly into the bottom, and afterwards cut off to the required length by machinery of Mr Holcomb's invention. Thus, the railway will be rendered independent of the inequalities of the ground, whether as to strength or level. Upon these piles, the tube must be ballasted down; for, notwithstanding the weight of the metal employed, it will still displace so much water as to possess considerable buoyancy. We are very far from being sanguine enough to suppose that this system can ever be applied on a grand scale; and it has little or nothing in common, speaking in an engineering sense, with those wild projects with which the public have been amused from time to time, and which speak of a submarine tube from Calais to Dover as a mere trifle; while a submarine tunnel, although a heavy job' in itself, is talked of as only an ordinary and legitimate development of our present railway system. There can be little doubt that there are many situations in which the plan proposed by Mr Holcomb will be found to be both practicable and highly advantageous. ZEROTE S. ZEROTES is a man of stone, Yet fain Zerotes loved would be. No gentle commentator he, Self-love, oh, what a witch thou art, To one small piece of wisdom blind; In cheerless life, day after day, The unloving ne'er beloved can be! E. Hickey. Amidst the host of the followers of Tennyson and [From an elegant volume, entitled Poetic Trifles, by Thomas Longfellow, we hail with much pleasure one who appears more inclined to cultivate the common-sense muse, now too much neglected.-ED.] THE CAT-TRADE. The cat-trade is becoming quite a branch of commerce in New York. Recently, a cat-merchant in New York sent for a cargo of cats to the island of Malta. On the returnvoyage, a violent storm sprung up, and an old salt swore that the cats were devils, and would send the schooner and all to Davy Jones's locker. This was enough for the superstitious crew; and the cats were immediately demanded of the captain, given up, and drowned. By a singular coincidence, the storm abated. The owner of the cats has now sued the owners of the vessel for damages, laying the value of the cats at 50 dollars apiece, or 2560 dollars.-Canadian Free Press. Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH. Also sold by WILLIAM ROBERTSON, 23 Upper Sackville Street, DUBLIN, and all Booksellers. No. 194. POPULAR LITERATURE Science and ris. CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1857. PRICE 1d. PICTURES IN STONE. Thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. Merchant of Venice. THE art of working in mosaic is the almost exclusive property of modern Italy, having descended to the skilful artists of Rome and Florence from their ancestors, who adorned in classic time the palaces of the Cæsars, and devoted themselves during the era of early Christian art to the decoration of the cathedral of St Mark. With an amazing patience mastering his passionate southern blood-with a conscientious fidelity that perpetuates to this day the earnest spirit of Giotto and Masaccio-with a steady progressiveness of execution that has come in time to rival the very touches of the flexile brush, the Italian mosaicist has gone on from century to century translating painting into marbles and precious stones, piling up the labour of his unrecorded life upon imperishable tablets, and transmitting with his work and his improvements an inheritance of fresh patience, fresh love, and fresh ambition to his successors. It has been our good-fortune of late to follow the development of this admirable art throughout all the stages of its progress, from the tesselated pavements and fallen ceilings of the imperial ruins, down to the marvellous reproductions of Titian and Correggio in the papal workshops at the Vatican. Briefly to detail the results of these observations, and to convey at the same time some notion of the laborious method by which pictures in stone are pieced and perfected, is therefore the object of the present paper. Of Mosaic art naturally divides itself into three periods -the antique, the medieval, and the modern. these, the antique is the boldest and least mannered; the medieval, the most defective and meagre; the modern, both for elaboration of colour and workmanship, the best. The early Roman mosaics are formed of coloured marbles, with an occasional intermingling of burnt clay for the warmest reds. These pieces, or tessela, consist of small cubic blocks about the size of dice, and are now and then found to vary in magnitude as the delicacy or vastness of the design may require. Thus the ingenious patterns in giallo, rosso, and verde antico, and the gigantic dragons in black and white marble which are lying open to the air and sun, but still undefaced, amid the ruins of the baths of Caracalla, are but roughly shapen, and exhibit gaping interstices filled up with cement. The famous pavement of the Battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ, preserved in the circular hall at the Vatican, and the exquisite mosaic of gladiators and animals found at Vermicino, and now laid down in the great hall of the princely Borghese villa, manifest, on the other hand, a degree of artistic merit, carefulness, and finish, which might almost challenge comparison with some of the modern works at St Peter's, or the medallions that decorate with 'riches fineless' the magnificent aisles of the new basilica of St Paul's beyond the Walls. The heads are full of spirit, the grouping admirable, and the anatomy surprisingly accurate. The latter specimen is especially valuable on account of the costumes introduced, and the particulars of the combat there represented. Lions, tigers, buffaloes, oxen, and even ostriches, are seen to have been the victims of the arena, and some of the men are designated by name in rude mosaic lettering. This work is supposed to date from the third century, and, together with the Battle of Centaurs, and the great pavement of the Athletæ now laid down in a large hall near the Christian Museum at the Lateran, is perhaps the finest and least injured of old Roman mosaics now extant. With the revival of art in the middle ages, a new sort of mosaic came into fashion, whereof the material was a species of composition, variously coloured, and glazed, to represent enamel. In imitation of the religious pictures of the period, these medieval mosaics were generally relieved by a gilded background, and, being necessarily and at all times harder than painting, exaggerated the defects without exhibiting much of the excellence of the contemporary pictorial art. The famous Navicella, representing St Peter walking on the sea, executed by Giotto in 1293, is probably the finest medieval work of this kind in existence. The mosaics of Cavallini and his contemporaries, as well as those which decorate the vestibules and baptistery of the cathedral of St Mark, are, on the contrary, more curious than beautiful; and, being treated after the stiff and literal manner which has latterly obtained the name of pre-Raphaellesque, occasionally provoke a smile where they are intended to awake devotion. Thus, in an exterior mosaic over one of the doors facing the piazza, we are shewn how the body of St Mark was passed, concealed in a hamper, through the custom-house of Alexandria. The ludicrous anxiety of the Venetian conspirators, and the unmistakable expression of a Mussulman inspector who turns away from the obnoxious basket, with his nose between his thumb and forefinger, tell a tale partaking less of tragedy than comedy, and testifying, at all events, that the smuggled saint had not only died in the odour of sanctity,' but continued to exhale it for nearly eight hundred years after his decease. The more modern mosaics, and, above all, that fine one of St Mark, in pontifical robes, |