the windows of which are never opened to receive the fresh. ness of the morning air, and for years afterwards they are smothered in flannel and woollen garments.

The ladies in Holland are very amicable, and thoroughly well bred. They are generally well educated, and speak English, French and German, and are very noble and courteous to strangers. They have, moreover, the modesty of our own country women, and infinitely excel the French ladies in every domestic duty. They are very fond of dancing, particularly of waitzing, and are much attached to English country dances.

Leyden is one of the handsomest towns in Holland, and next in size to Amsterdam. The entrance to it is through seven stone gates, at each of which is a drawbridge; the town is surrounded by a rampart, and a deep broad canal, and is adorned by beautiful hady walks. The number of bridges in this city is astonishing; they are said to exceed one hundred and forty-five of stone and railed with iron. It has also many canals, the most beautiful of which is the Rapenburg It has been compared by travellers to Oxford, but its fortifications, its buildings, streets, and canals, are peculiar to this town

2.

Amsterdam is situated on the rivers Y and Amstel, from the latter of which it derives its name. It is about ten English miles in circumference, and of a semi-circular form. It is surrounded with a fosse about eight feet wide, a rampart faced with brick, and twenty-six bastions; it has also eight noble gates of stone, and several draw-bridges. The popu lation is estimated at three hundred thousand. In the year 1204, with the exception of a small castle, not a building was to be seen upon the scite of this great city, which, from being at first a petty village of fishermen, became at length a magnificant capital, which, at length, upon the shutting up of the Scheldt, added the commerce of Antwerp to its own, and became the great emporium of the world. Canals intersect nearly the whole of the city, adorned with avenues of stately elms. Many of the houses are very splendid, particularly in the Emperor Street," as likewise in the "Lord's Street," where there are many mansions of a most princely appearance. They are shaded by fans of trees in front of them, a characteristic ornament throughout the Dutch towns. Many of the shops likewise, particularly those of the jewellers and printsellers, are very handsome.

The State-house, is a most wonderful edifice, being a stone building (in a country which does not produce stone)

on a marshy foundation, and therefore supported on nearly fourteen thousand piles. The expense of this mighty edifice amounted to two millions of pounds sterling, at a time when two millions was equivalent to five of our present money. It has seven small porticos, representative of the seven provinces. The interior of the genteel houses is very elegant; the decoration and furniture of their rooms are very much in the French style. They are fond of having a series of Landscapes, painted in oil colours, upon the sides of their rooms, instead of stuccos or paper, or of ornamenting them with pictures or engravings. The average rent of respectable houses is from a thousand to twelve hundred florins, (501. to 601. sterling. The dinner hour is about four o'clock. Immediately after dinner the whole company adjourn to coffee in the drawing, room.

The

The water in this part of Holland is so brackish and fecu lent, that it is not drunk even by the common people. There are in consequence water merchants, who are constantly employed in supplying the city with drinkable water, which they bring in boats from Utrecht in large stone bottles. price of one of these. bottles, containing about a gallon, is eight-pence English. The poor who cannot afford it drink rain water. The wines in chief use are Claret and Renish. The bread in Holland is every where excellent, and the coffee every where bad,

The Police in Holland deserves much praise. The Watchmen are young, strong, and resolute; they strike the quarter with a mallet on a board, which annoys a stranger much, Midnight tobberies and fires are very scarce; a particular species of watchmen are employed to prevent the latter. They are stationed all night in the towers and steeples of the churches; and if they discern a fire, they give the signal of the quarter in which it is, by suspending a lanthorn, and blowing a trumpet.

The debtor laws are much milder than in England. A resident, burgher, or citizen, cannot be atrested, until after three summons, which take about a month And even then, He can only be seized if found out of his own house. His house is truly his castle, and no officer can enter except for the apprehension of atrocious criminals. The bankrupt laws of Holland require the signature of all the creditors: but if one unreasonably refuse, the debtor may require that the matter be submitted to arbitration, whether such refusal is not cruel and unmerited.

B

and dancing; these arts are taught to slaves only, who prac tice them for the amusement of their owners.

The King has this right over all the women of his realm, that they must appear unveiled before him.

The King never pardons theft, and orders à convicted thief to be execured instantly." The mode is as follows: two young trees are by rain strength, brought together at their summits, and there fastened with cords together. The cul prit is then brought out, and his legs are tied with ropes, tire which are again cafried up and fixed to the top of the trees. The cords that force the trees together are then cut, and, in elasticity and power of this spring, the body of the thi is torn asunder, and lett thus to hang divided on each separate tree. The inflexibility of the King if this point has giv given to the roads a security, which, in former times," was little Enown.

H

opera

a

the Persians shave all the head except a tuft of hair just on the crown, and two locks behind the ears, but they suffer their beards to grow, and to a much larger size than the Turks, and to spread more about the cars and temples. They almost universally dye them black, by an operation not very pleasant, and necessary to be repeted generally once a fortnight. is always performed in the hot Bath, where the hair being well saturated likes the colour better. It is Srst made of a very strong orange colour, bordering upon that of brick dust. After this, a thick paste is made of the leat of the indigo, (which previously has been pounded to fine powder) and of this a deep layer is put upon the beard, The process requires two full hours. During all this op tion, the patient hes quietly fit upon his back, whilst the dye contracts the features of his face in a very mournful manner, and causes all the lower part of the visage to smart and burn When the ind go is at last was ed off, the beard wasted is of a very dark bottle green, and becomes a jet black only a a when it has met the air for twenty-four hours. Some, indeed, are content with the orange colour; others, more fastidious, prefer a beard quite blue. The people of Bokhara are famous for their blue beards It is inconceivable how careful the Persians are of this ornament; all the young men sigh ́ för it, and grease their chins to hasten the growth of the hairs; because, until they have there a respectable covering, they are supposed not fit to enjoy any place of trust.

If the Persians had possessed as much communication with Europeans, as the Tarks have had, they would at this

day not only have adopted many of our customs, but, with their natural quickness, would have rivalled us in our own arts and sciences. Unlike the Turks, they never scruple to acknowledge our superiority, always however reserving to themselves the second place after the English in the list of nations, whereas the 'lurk, too proud, too obstinate, and too ignorant to contess his own interiority, sparris at the introduction tion of any improvement with equal disdain from any vinovɛɔ ɔdi to l or sdi mail quo

Givididas sim150112 706570i veda peisės rai Stu26 yd estanque doidw consilistynɔ beislqen, a bad pada ti 26 buGROTTO OF ANTIPAROS, 1097892mtime Pesɔorq baunirng & le be

G

2

The Grotto of Antiparos mays possibly have been a very ancient mine, ora marble quarry, from the oblique direction oforhel cavity, and the parallel inclination of its sides. The rock immediately above it consists of the following substances, The upper surface or summit of the mountain is a stratum of limestone, inclined neath this very considerable from the horizon; beneath this is a layer of schistus The mode of descent is by ropes, which on the different dechyities are either held by the natives, or they are joined to a cable which is fastened at the entrance around a stalactite, pillar, In this manner, we were conducted, first down one, declivity, and then down then another, until we entered the spacious chambers of this truly enchanted grottomi 1997 of a whole The Bousted roof, the floor, the sides of series of magnificent caverns, were entirely invested with a caverns Columns, dazzling incrustation as white as snow Columns, some of esting & which were five and twenty feet in length, pended in fine icicle forms above our heads; fortunately some of them are so far above the reach of the numerous travellers, who, durAny many ages, have visited this plate, that no one has been ble to injure or to remove themills Oilters extended from the roof to the floor, with chameters equal to that of the mast Of a first rate ship of the line the incrustations of the floor, caused by falling drops from the stalactites above, had grown 2up into pendritic and vegetable forms. The substance itself which is thus deposited is purely alabaster, that is to say, it 18'a' concretion of carbonated time which was employed by he Amdients in the manufacture of their unguentary vases; and it is distinguished by its chemical constituents from the * alabaster of modern times, or gypsum; which is a sulphat of Time: Nothing is more common than the presence of car bonic acid in water, and when a superabundance of this acid is present, the fluid is capable of sustaining, in solution, a