left a profound impression on my memory. All the guests, and they were numerous, were in military uniforms; only one black coat contrasted with the splendor of the other costumes. The person who thus appeared in plain clothes was, nevertheless, entitled to wear one of the most distinguished of military uniforms-that of a marshal of France. But, had he worn it, he must also have worn the tri-colored cockade; and Marshal Marmont wished to avoid that necessity. I am aware that there are persons who believe that the marshal took the oath of fidelity to the government of July, and that he is in receipt of his marshal's pay; but if the Duke de Ragusa accepts his pay from the present government of France, is it likely that he would be ashamed to wear the tri-colored cockade in the presence of foreign officers ?

During one of the Czar's visits to Toeplitz, a curious incident occurred. It is the custom of the absolute monarchs of Europe to exchange one with another presents of regiments, precisely as they would make gifts of inanimate objects. There is in the Austrian army a regiment of hussars, which is a gift from the Emperor of Austria to the Emperor Nicholas, and which bears the name of the latter. At Toeplitz the colonel of this regiment consigned its command to the august owner, and it was reviewed by the Czar in a plain about two leagues from the town. In the command of military manœuvres every country has some peculiarities of its own. For example, when, after a rapid gallop, the Austrian hussars are ordered to dismount, the first thing they do, after springing from their saddles, is to loosen the saddle-girths, so as to allow the horses to breathe freely. The commanding officer then gives the word "buckle," and the girths are restored, almost by a touch, to the requisite degree of tightness. The next word of command is "saddles," and the hussars are instantaneously mounted. The Emperor Nicholas was not aware of this practice of loosening the saddle-girths, which is not observed in Russia. He gave the word "dismount," and every man was instantly on his feet, and the saddle-girths unbuckled. The hussars next heard the word "mount," but without being prefaced by the usual order, "buckle." The men obeyed mechanically, and the next instant, all being mounted on their unbuckled saddles, the Czar gave the word of command, "gallop." The scene of confusion that ensued can scarcely be conceived. The men were rolling about, some to the right, others to the left-some forward, some backward. Several fell from their horses, and were trampled on by those behind them. Two or three were killed, and several severely hurt. The Austrian spectators who witnessed this scene of confusion and disaster, expressed their disapproval in a very marked way. Every precaution was adopted for keeping the circumstance as secret as possible, lest it should find its way into the journals, where it would doubtless have drawn forth severe comments. Thanks to the police and the censorship, the affair was carefully hushed up.

At each station between Moscow and St. Petersburgh a commodious inn is established. These inns have all been built at the Emperor's expense; they are on a uniform plan, and are all kept by Germans.

have styled these inns commodious, and they are so in all respects, excepting the very essential article of beds. A sofa covered with leather is the resting place assigned to the traveller, whose servant has no alternative but to stretch himself on the ground, wrapped in a cloak. Fifty years hence it is possible that gentlemen may aspire to the comfort of beds, and valets raise their ambition to the leather sofas.

I once more entered St. Petersburgh, and again admired its magnificent streets, its still more magnificent quays, its spacious squares, and princely mansions. The first person I called upon was M. Onvaroff, the minister for public education. I found him preparing a report to the Emperor on the number of schools recently founded in each provincial government, and showing that the eagerness of the people to enjoy the benefits of education had rendered necessary a considerable increase in the number of these schools. He stepped up to me, smiling, and holding the statistical tables in his hand. "Civilized man," said he, can you guess in which of our provinces it is proved, by facts and figures, that the people are most desirous of acquiring education?""I cannot, indeed," replied I.-" Then I will tell you," resumed M. Onvaroff; "It is Siberia. In that desolate region the schools are found to be too few in number to receive all the children desirous of attending them. Accordingly, we must establish additional schools in Siberia."

I left St. Petersburgh in the month of January; consequently it was not the season for steamboats. I therefore determined to proceed to Riga by the diligence. I engaged the whole of the conveyance, and having installed in the inside my little caravan, consisting of my wife, my child, myself, and two servants (a man and woman), we set out on our journey. We travelled both day and night over a very desert tract of country, frequently through thick forests, where we met numerous bands of poor and wandering peasants; but the idea of danger never occurred to our minds. We knew enough of the habits of the people to feel assured there was no ground for alarm. Every night the vehicle was surrounded by troops of wolves; in the morning we saw their footmarks on the snow; but our horses' belts kept them at bay. Whilst crossing the precipices of Narva, I could not but admire the security of the traveller, which in those deserts could not be guaranteed by the most vigilant police, were it not for the moral habits of the people, among whom great crimes are almost unknown.

Those who know the extent of police protection required in constitutional countries, will be astonished to learn that the whole amount of police force, employed in the great despotic state of European Russia is two thousand men. Incredible as this fact may appear, its accuracy cannot be questioned, as it has been verified by government estimates. Count Benkendorf, who, in his capacity of police minister, has the superintendence of all regulations for the maintenance of public order, is at the same time director-general of the imperial gendarmerie. The count, as minister of police, adopts certain measures, and as director of the gendarmerie, he enforces that executive. The force at the disposal of Count Benkendorf is two thousand men, neither more nor less.

ARTICLE IV.

THE ICE-PERIOD.

A Period of the History of our Globe. Translated from the Deutsche Vierteljahrs Schrift.

BY THE JUNIOR EDITOR.

(Continued.)

In the course of the history, we have now come to that point whence we were obliged to set out in our investigations, to the glaciers of our Alps, the cradles of the principal streams of Europe, to those glaciers, gazed on by so many, studied by few, and alas! understood and comprehended by the smallest number. May the time be not far distant, when geologists shall have perceived the importance of their study, and the splendid value of the conclusions to which that study will lead, if engaged in with courage, perseverance and good will.

In the course which we have hitherto pursued, it was impossible not to make affirmations, for which the reader found no sufficient reasons; and in order to avoid repetition, only the results could be given, to which the concatenation of the facts leads, and for the development of which all the several links of the chain were wanting. In what follows, I hope the reader will be convinced, that my conclusions are founded on accurately observed and rightly apprehended facts, with which I have become acquainted by years of study, frequent journeys into the Alps, even an uninterrupted sojourn on the Aar-glacier for eight days and nights, and finally a visit in the severity of winter.

If we ascend our Alps to a certain height, which varies, within pretty wide limits, according to the situation, form and structure of the mountains, we see the vegetation gradually becoming stunted, heterogeneous, and finally entirely wanting. Bare, naked rocks, here and there perhaps covered with a vegetation almost shrivelled up to nothing, stare us in the face, whilst the dazzling whiteness of the everlasting snow shines out from their midst in striking contrast. Nor let us be alarmed by the fearful solitude around, or by the dangers which may threaten us from the frequent storms, the heavy clouds, and tremendous snow-drifts of those lofty regions; but attentively observe those wideextended plains, on whose snow-white covering we so timidly step. For here it is, that the solution of many riddles awaits us; here must we seek the explanations of the formation, motion and supply of the glacier, which science demands of us.

The high valleys of our Alpine chains, of whose existence the dweller in the low vales has scarcely a presage, are filled with a particular species of fine granular snow, called by the German inhabitant of the Alps, Firn. The declivities of the ridges, where not too steep, are covered with it, the deep ravines between are more nearly levelled by the masses VOL. III. No. III.

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with which they are filled, so that, nowhere in the firn-regions do we find so deep and narrow chasms between the summits, as in the lower parts of the mountains. The valleys of the elevated regions, filled to the brim with this firn, form rather a continuous mass, like a frozen sea, out of which the lofty heads of the several peaks are protruded like so many islands. These widely extended firn-fields of the higher regions have, therefore, not incorrectly been denominated Firnseas, (Mers de Glace,) out of which, like streams, the several glaciers move down the defiles and valleys of the mountains. In Western Switzerland, three such firn-seas are especially distinguishable, that of the Bernese Alps, enclosed by the peaks of the Wetterhorn, Finsteraarhorn, Schrekhorn, of the Mönch, Eiger and Jungfrau, with their branches; that of Mount Rosa, bounded by the numerous knobs of this majestic stock of mountains, the Matterhorne and the Dentblanche; and that of Mont Blanc, to which this giant of the European mountains serves as a centre. From the firn-seas of Berne spring the numerous glaciers of the Oberland, which disgorge themselves into the Wallis, partly, as the Grindelwald, Aar and Rosenlani, so well known to travellers, towards the north, partly, as the Viesch, Aletsch and Lötsch towards the south. The Mount Rosasea supplies, on the one side, the mighty glaciers of Zermatt, Finelen and Zmutt, towards Italy those of Macugnaga and Lys; Mont Blanc, finally, those beautiful, romantically wild ice-streams of the glaciers of Tours, of Bois, of Bosson, etc., which the tourist in Switzerland can no more miss seeing, than he can the Pope at Rome. Everywhere in these ice, or rather firn-seas, the firn is found in a like state: a loosely accumulated granular mass, without a trace of the flaky structure exhibited by our usual snow, mostly dry, incapable of being made into balls, and only occasionally moistened and made tenuous by a powerful sun and mild summer temperature. Even in our low vales we sometimes see firn formed, where the snow lies a long time, and frequent thawing and freezing reduce the crystalized forms of its flakes to simple globules. The same causes principally operate, without doubt, in forming the firm of the Alps, although it is true, that the snow falling on those heights seldom exhibits those distinct flakes which it assumes in the inferior vales.

Two circumstances especially contribute to this formation of the firn, the frequent change of temperature, during the summer months, in the vicinity of the freezing point, and the rarity of the atmosphere at that high elevation. As soon as the sun sinks beneath the horizon, the thermometer falls below zero, even in the finest weather. Seldom does it rise more than from five to ten degrees above the ice-point in those elevated regions. Then the firn begins to melt; but as its limit extends down, on the most northernly declivity of the Bernese Alps, at most only to the depth of 7000 feet, on the Pennine Alps mostly to over 10,000, so, in consequence of the great rarity of the air in those lofty heights, the immediate change of the firm into vapor and its gascous escape into the atmosphere are much more considerable, than the melting into liquid water. Therefore, on beautiful days--and generally only on such is

the difficult journey to the firn-seas undertaken-we find the firn most easily adhesive, and capable of being worked into balls, and only when rain is threatened and the atmosphere is already full of vapor, so melted, as that its superficial layers are thawed through, and yield under the pressure of the foot. Most generally, on the contrary, is it dry or covered with a thin crust of ice, which facilitates walking over it; often so uncommonly fine and light, that even gentle winds whirl up immense masses into the air, which fall into the inferior regions, and lead the inhabitants to think they see mists and clouds on the lofty mountains, when, in fact, they see only the whirling of the moving volume of

snow.

The deeper, however, one presses into the firn, the more compact is its mass found to be, the smaller the spaces between the several grains. Easily accessible fissures have, here and there, opened to the observer a view into the abysses, which conceal from him the immensity of the firn-layers, and, in such cases, has he been convinced, in the clearest manner, that the greater the depth, the more compact the firn-grains, the narrower the intervening spaces, the more solid the mass, the greater its similarity to ice. The dazzling whiteness gradually assumes, at a greater depth, a bluish tint, an evidence that the mass is approaching to the peculiar nature of the glacier-ice, of which this is the color. The depth of many such chasms accessible to the observer has been measured, but, as was to be anticipated, with various results; for the easily movable mass is collected, in immense quantity, in the deep beds of the high valleys, often to the depth of several hundred feet, whilst on the more or less precipitous declivities of the peaks, it is sometimes found to lie very thinly. The inspection, however, has always shown that the magnitude of the firn-seas is much greater than that of the glaciers in the lower districts of country.

The firn-seas are the birth-places of the glaciers, the firm is the body of material, out of which their ice is formed by a succession of various phases of development. Every single glacier, therefore, necessarily requires a firn-mass to feed it, and supply the waste effected by the warm air of the lower valleys. The formation of the glacier-ice out of the body of firn consequently demands a more intimate consideration.

I have just exhibited to the reader the fact, that the superficial layers of the firn are very loosely heaped together, but that the nearer we approach to the inferior layers, the more does the density of the mass increase, and the number of air-chambers contained in it decrease. This is very simply explained by the pressure which the mass exerts on itself by its own weight-a pressure, of course, increasing with the depth. But however great the pressure may be which such a mass-often several hundred feet thick-makes on the lowest layers, yet it follows, from a consideration of the highest regions, where, notwithstanding the piling up of the immense masses of firn, no ice exists, that this pressure alone is not sufficient to effect the change of the firn: flowing water is additionally necessary. The upper strata of the firn, in a somewhat less altitude, are exposed to all the influences of the atmosphere, but