terially injured as to display, in summer, a very different appearance from that of my Berne friend's plants, which attracted my attention, in his garden, by their remarkably vigorous and healthy aspect. Both during the present and last summer, which was much drier, I have seen nothing in Switzerland of that clearness of the atmosphere, of which some tourists speak; the same haziness being in a greater or less degree observable, which is usually complained of in England. The distinctness with which the Alps may be often seen at the distance of 40 or 50 miles proves little, as they may be sometimes plainly seen even when the atmospheric haze is so great that the sun can scarcely pierce it. This I have more than once observed, and I have no doubt that mountains of as great height, and similarly covered with snow, would be as distinctly seen, at the same distance, through an English atmosphere. Whether the Alps can be seen or not, from distant points of view which command them, depends wholly on their being themselves free from clouds, or enveloped in them; which last so often happens, that a traveller may remain at Geneva for a week, or longer, without ever obtaining a glimpse of Mont Blanc, or at Berne of the Jungfrau and they are often thus invisible in bright clear weather, and become disclosed when a dull hazy atmosphere prevails.

Progress of Vegetation. -On the 1st of May, vegetation at Geneva was about as far advanced as we had left it at Pisa in the beginning of April, the leaves of oaks and ashes being but half-expanded, and only here and there hawthorn and apple blossoms out. Cherries, in small quantities, appeared in the markets about the 20th of May, and gooseberries the 25th. Most of the species of rose in the Botanic Garden in flower, June 9. Wheat in bloom, June 11., and haymaking general. Some wheat cut, July 11., in the neighbourhood of Geneva; but at Berne (which is 1708 Paris ft. above the level of the sea, while Geneva is but 1135 ft.) the wheat was not generally got in till the beginning of August, and the second crop of hay not till the middle and end of the month.

General Character of the Summer. This has been unusually wet, cool, and variable. The Jura chain of mountains did not wholly lose their snow till the end of June. Early in August, at Berne, the evenings began to have a cool autumnal feel; and, from the 17th to the 25th of the month the thermometer was never higher than from 53° to 57° at 8 A.M., and on the 19th, after heavy rain, was as low as 51°, with very thick fogs, in the mornings, till 7 o'clock. What, for

tunately, counterbalances, in Switzerland, the effects of both wet days and cold nights, as autumn approaches, is the great power of the sun when it does shine; so that, notwithstanding these drawbacks, and that the elevation of Berne above the sea is full one half that of Snowdon in Wales, fine crops of wheat, even in this peculiarly wet summer, have been here housed as early as the 5th of August.

WEATHER AT ROME.

SIR, I now enclose you a summary of my notes on the weather at Rome for the past four months, which, with the similar one that I have before sent you from Florence and Pisa, may enable your meteorological readers to compare, as far as can be done from such imperfect notices, the last three Italian and English winters. I am, Sir, Yours, &c.

Naples, March 10. 1832.

W. SPENCE.

General Remarks-The winter, even for Rome, has been remarkably mild, without snow, except a slight fall, of an inch, on the morning of February 16., which was all dissolved before noon; or frost, other than hoar-frosts on the 4th and 19th of December, from the 21st to the 25th of January, and from the 13th to the 24th of February; and with little of violent and continued rains, which, too, when occurring, almost constantly took place in the night, so that there were not above three or four days when it was necessary to keep house, on account of the weather, the whole winter; by far its larger portion resembling the finest parts of an English April; the thermometer being seldom below 40° at 8 in the morning, and up to 55° and 60° in the middle of the day. The most wintry days were from the 13th to the 18th of February, which were cold and rainy, with one slight shower of snow,

and a good deal resembled the raw days of an English November. A very high wind from the south, on the 2d and 3d of February. Lightning and thunder on the 18th of November, and 15th and 27th of January. A slight shock of the earthquake which totally destroyed the city of Fuligno, &c., on the 13th of January, was felt at Rome, the same day, by some individuals, but not generally.

Though the season has been thus mild, it has not been proportionally healthy nearly one fourth of the population having been attacked in December with the influenza, which was often severe, and not seldom fatal. It may deserve remarking, that the regular progress of this disease (known in France under the name of la grippe), during the summer and autumn, through great part of Europe, from the month of June, when it was prevalent in England, to January, when it had reached Palermo in Sicily (having passed step by step through France, Savoy, Switzerland, and the west side of Italy, to Rome and Naples), does not seem easily explained on any theory of atmospheric influence, which could scarcely have migrated so regularly from place to place during so long a period; and rather confirms the opinions of those Italian physicians who refer it to contagion, and assert that the same disease ran a similar course through several parts of Europe and Italy in 1782.

Moisture. Some travellers have spoken of the climate of Rome as very damp, from having observed the stone staircases and passages sometimes dripping with wet; but this is only an accidental occurrence, such as happens elsewhere, owing to the change of the wind to the south from a quarter previously colder, and the consequent condensation of the atmospheric moisture on the stonework of the interior of buildings, before they have had time to acquire the warmer temperature of the recent wind. Generally speaking, to judge from ordinary appearances, there has been no ground to complain of the moisture of the climate at Rome during the winter. It should be mentioned, however, that I never recollect to have before noticed so copious a deposition of dew as was often to be seen, in the mornings, upon the surface of the pavement of some of the open squares and roads outside of the town; while the pavement of the streets in the interior of the city, owing, I suppose, to the adjoining houses counteracting the effect of terrestrial radiation, was perfectly dry. It may also deserve notice, in reference to that mysterious pest Malaria, but for which Rome and its vicinity would be a paradise, that all the Romans agree in regarding the hour just after sunset as that when it is most essential to guard against exposure to the

sudden change of temperature and copious deposition of moisture, which then seem to give effect to the miasmata, whatever they are, that cause the Roman fever; which, both from its intensity and so much more violently affecting the head, differs considerably from the intermittent fevers of more northern climates. They say, that after the lapse of this hour, or hour and a half, the air has no longer that chill feel which is experienced even in hot weather; and that there is little or no danger from subsequent exposure to the night air, at least in Rome.

Fogs.-Fogs occurred only on six days during the whole winter; namely, on five days in December, and on one in January; and then only in the night and morning; being always occasioned by a north or north-west wind succeeding one from the south or south-west, and being always dispelled by the sun before noon. The atmosphere, however, though not foggy, was occasionally, even when the sun shone, as hazy as in England; and, from what I have observed during upwards of two years' residence in Italy (except in the hot summer months), the accounts in books of the extraordinary general clearness of the Italian sky must be taken with many grains of allowance; the same haziness and consequent indistinctness of distant objects, which are so usual in England, prevailing on a considerable proportion of days in the year. Progress of Vegetation.-Many elms, acacias, poplars, &c., retained their leaves still green till the latter end of November, when a cold night stripped nearly all except weeping willows, which still kept theirs till the middle of December; and as these last had their leaves one third expanded on Feb. 14., they were without leaves only two months. Daisies, shepherd's purse, wild marigold (Caléndula arvénsis), and other common wild plants, were in flower the whole winter. Violets in flower in great profusion, the last week of January; and almond trees in blossom about the same time. Butterflies and other insects on the wing on fine days, the whole winter. Hive bees busy in flowers, January 28.

It may make this account of the vegetation more complete, to state that we did not find, on our arrival at Naples, that it was at all more advanced there than at Rome, though so much farther south; and that, on the road, we observed in flower, Euphorbia dendröìdes, Echium itálicum, Vibúrnum Tinus and Laúrus nóbilis (in the hedges in great abundance), Erica arbòrea, blackthorn, Asphodelus ramosus? &c. &c. Hawthorn, and some distant willows (not the weeping) with leaves one third expanded.

360

REVIEWS.

ART. I. Fauna Boreali-Americana, or the Zoology of the Northern Parts of British America. Part II., containing the Birds. By W. Swainson, Esq. F.R.S., and John Richardson, Esq. M.D. F.R.S. &c. 4to, 523 pages, with fifty coloured plates, and forty illustrative woodcuts. London, Murray, 1832.

THE appearance of the first zoological work ever published under the sanction and by the assistance of the British Government, is more particularly a matter of congratulation to our numerous readers; and the volume before us will justify our warmest and most sincere recommendation.

The objects of natural history collected during the last over-land expedition to the Polar Sea, under the command of Captain Sir John Franklin, to which Dr. Richardson was attached as surgeon and naturalist, being too numerous for a detailed account of them to be comprised within the ordinary limits of an Appendix to the narrative of the proceedings of the journey, as had been the case on previous expeditions of discovery, it was considered desirable, from their great number and value, that they should be made known to the world in a separate form. As it was necessary, however, in order to render such a publication useful, that many of the subjects, particularly in the ornithological and botanical parts, should be illustrated by figures, the expense would have been an insurmountable difficulty, had not His Majesty's government, actuated by a laudable desire to encourage science, most liberally assisted the undertaking. At the recommendation of the Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, the Treasury granted one thousand pounds to be applied solely towards defraying the expense of the engravings. The first part this national work has appeared, with 28 spirited representations of Mammàlia, from drawings by Landseer. Part II, the Birds, with 50 illustrations, admirably drawn by Mr. Swainson, and as beautifully coloured, with 40 woodcuts in addition, is now before the public. The entomological part, by the Rev. Mr. Kirby; and the botany, by Dr. Hooker, both equally embellished with numerous plates, also by first-rate artists, are in a forward state. The whole work may be con

of