savage. In some places the tops are rounded, and covered with forests, but the greater part of the chain is crowned by naked needles, peaks, and flat crests of granite or porphyry, mingled with patches of snow. One of the most curious physical characters of this continent, is the existence of a coral reef on the north-eastern coast, about 1200 miles long, and from a few hundred yards to several miles wide, rising out of a fathomless sea.

Islands are generally found in the immediate neighbourhood of the coasts of the larger tracts of land. In this case, they are evidently parts of the continents, separated from them only by valleys so low, that the sea flows through them. They extend in the direction of the main land, and often exhibit the same physical structure.

Islands are also found collected into groups, and some times singly rising out of the midst of the sea, at great distances from other land. Others bear evidence of a volcanic origin; some appear to be formed by the accu mulation of the secreted limestone of the coral animal, while others seem to be indications of ancient land, now depressed below the sea-level.

The principal continental islands are the Australian group, the Philippine, and Japanese Isles, and others on the eastern coast of Asia, the British and other European Isles, and the West Indies. St. Helena, Ascension Island, Madeira, Cape de Verde, the Canaries, and Azores, are volcanic islands; while the greater number of the small islands scattered over the Pacific Ocean appear to be coral formations.

From whatever causes this diversity of form and feature on the surface of our planet has arisen, the mountains, the grassy steppes, the plains, the valleys, and even the deserts, must impress some peculiar character on the social state of its inhabitants. Continuous ridges of lofty mountains covered with snow, impede intercourse and traffic; extensive plains, narrow valleys, and table-lands

serve as the last retreat of nearly extinct tribes; while the lowlands are favourable for cultivation and for commerce, and for the intellectual progress of man.

We shall hereafter see how wonderfully and beautifully the Great Author of the Universe has adapted the vegetable and animal life of each portion of the globe to its peculiar features and conditions.

(To be continued.)

CATHEDRAL SKETCHES.

No. IX.

CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, WINCHESTER. WHERE the limpid waters of the river Itchen fertilize the vantage ground of their own green valley, contrasting with the round turf-covered chalk downs, stood one of the earliest seats of habitation and Christianity in England.

The Kaer Gwent, or White City of the Britons, was the Venta Belgarum of the Romans, and had already a church and monastery before the great persecution of Diocletian.

When rebuilt, the church was dedicated to St. Amphiballus, the priest for whom the British martyr, St. Alban, gave himself up to the persecutors. It was in these days, if in any, that the city was the Shalott of romance, and laid claim to the Round Table, and to King Arthur's last fight, which was said to have taken place on Magdalen Hill. What city which existed in British times does not profess to have contained the Table Round?

Certain it is, however, that Cerdic, king of the West Saxons, won Kaer Gwent, called it in his Saxon tongue Winchester, made it his royal city, and installed his Teuton deities in the Church of St. Amphiballus. For a century the city continued Pagan, but in 635 St. Birinus converted King Kynegils and all his people to Christianity,

and the king began the building of the present Cathedral, but dying during the work, was buried under the high Altar, and left the completion to his son Kynewald. St. Birinus consecrated the edifice in the name of the Holy Trinity, but it has subsequently been called the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, and of St. Swithun.

Some discover the history of St. Birinus in the curious carving of the old square black-marble font, unquestionably a heritage from Saxon times, with its central solid column, the lesser ones at the angles, and the wonderful doves and salamanders that occupy two sides. These are supposed to refer to the words of the Baptist, 'He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' On one of the other sides is a church, with an old man kneeling in front, a Bishop and two other figures joining hands, and receiving some gift. On the fourth side is a ship, and the Bishop again, apparently working a miracle on three victims whose heads have just been cut off.

St. Birinus's legend does not, however, afford such incidents as these, and Dr. Milner has attributed them to St. Nicholas, with whose story they better agree. The Cathedral not being a parish church, the old font is very rarely used.

The next stage in the history of the Cathedral is the episcopate of St. Swithun, the tutor of the Great Alfred, and chancellor to Ethelwolf.

'St. Swithun his bishoprick to all goodness drough,

The Toune also of Winton he amended enough.' This stanza nearly comprises his history, except for his own humble request that he might be buried outside the church, towards the west, that the sun might not shine on his grave, but that he might receive the droppings from the eaves, and be trodden down by passers by. Afterwards, when relic-seeking monks would fain have shrined him in the choir, came the forty days' rain, beginning from the 15th of July, which was supposed to evince his disap

proval. However, not only did Edgar the Peaceable remove his body into a jewelled shrine, but St. Alphege carried off his skull to Canterbury; and a gravestone is shown at the back of the high Altar where his remains are said to have been deposited after the Reformation had swept the shrine away.

It is curious that while at his head-quarters in Hampshire, rain on his day is deprecated as fortelling a dripping harvest, in other counties a shower is desired as 'the christening of the apples.'

St. Swithun left his name to a monastery on the walls of the town, whose curious little church survives over the King's Gate, and serves as the parish church to the Cathedral close, and to the college.

Dunulf, the swine-herd of Athelney, became bishop of Winchester, and during his time Alfred built the Abbey of St. Grimbald, or Hyde, to receive the remains of the royal family; and there rested several of the subsequent monarchs of the Saxon line, while the bishops were mostly buried in the cathedral.

St. Ethelwold, a friend of St. Dunstan, and urgent in bringing about his views of subjecting all chapters to the Benedictine rule, reigned here when the voice was said to have spoken from the crucifix in the chapter-house wall. His chair long remained in the cathedral, and was supposed inflict horrible dreams on any one who slumbered in it daring divine service.

Ethelwold worked at his buildings with his own hands, and being assisted with gifts from the kings Edgar and Eired, so renewed the cathedral, that he freshly conseerated it, and the concourse of prelates and nobles on the occasion was unrivalled. A contemporary Latin poet minutely celebrated the glories of the church, even up to the mighty golden cock who boldly turned his face to

every wind that blew.'

Ethelwold's work is, however, all swept away, as well as

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PART 75.

the crown that Knute hung over the high altar after his rebuke to his flatterers, and a golden beam presented to the cathedral by Stigand, who held this See before his Primacy.

The first existing work was done under William I. by Bishop Walkelyn, who made the present low, dark-browed crypt on which the fabric rests, spread out the mighty length of nave, and the two transepts, and built the round columns and the circular arches with zig-zag mouldings accordant with Norman taste. The two transepts remain nearly as he made them. For the woodwork, he obtained from the Conqueror all the timber that could be cut in four days and nights in Hempage Wood, and collecting innumerable workmen, cut down such an unexpected number of trees, that the king thought he had lost his senses when next he visited the spot and missed his fine forest. Walkelyn likewise newly built the tower, but a few years after his death the piers gave way, and the structure fell.

The ruin was attributed to the displeasure of Heaven, for close beneath the tower had newly been made the grave of the scoffing and sacrilegious William Rufus whose corpse had been dragged hither by the woodman after his untimely death in the New Forest. His coffin lid, of black marble, shaped like the roof of a house, or as it is technically called, 'dos de l'âne,' remains somewhat raised from the ground in the centre of the choir. The other son of the Conqueror who perished in the fatal for est, also lies here. His name, 'Ricardus, Dux Beornia,' is inscribed on the outer side of the southern one of the two screens, which shut in the choir.

The tower was rebuilt with piers strong enough to defy all perils, hugely ponderous and lofty, and bearing a square structure, decorated with intersecting circular arches, adorned with zig-zag and dog-tooth mouldings. These arches were perhaps once open, and the tower was un