that is at present known. How would it have astonished the learned sages of Greece and Rome, had they been told, that the brilliant diamond which adorned the beauties of ancient days, and which still adorns our modern belles, was nothing but charcoal deprived of its oxygen! The combinations of carbon with the earth, &c., are called earbonates. Thus chalk and marble are carbonates of lime; and pearl ash is a carbonate of pot-ash. By the action of fire and other chemical processes, carbon can be disen

gaged from these substances, when it assumes the aeriel form, and then it is called fixed air, or carbonic acid gas. Thus by burning lime stone in a kiln, the carbon is driven out, in the form of air, or carbonic acid gas, and then the lime stone is converted into what we commonly call lime, So that lime stone and pure lime, with which we make mortar, differ in nothing but only by the former losing its carbon, and the latter, probably acquiring a larger portion of oxygen. J. GETTY.

may not be unacceptable. Although it is a bird not uncommon on our shores, it seems to me that many highly interesting particulars of the wonderful manner in which it is fitted by the hand of nature for its singular habits and mode of life, have, notwithstanding, been either whol. ly passed over, or too slightly touched on by most naturalists whose works have fallen in my way. The construction of its head and throat is most astonishingly adapted to permitting the bird to swallow, whole, the fish on which it preys, of such amazing size, that this, united with the appetite necessarily resulting from its rapidity of digestion, has caused the name of the bird to pass into the well-known and familiar epithet commonly applied to voracious persons.

While writing the following lines, I have had before me a remarkably fine specimen of this bird, lately shot in the vicinity of the Bay of Dublin, and from which an accurate drawing has been made for your Journal, by a very talented gentleman; and the bird is now in the collections of Thomas Bewley, Esq. Its length is two feet ten inches; the extent of its wings, four feet seven inches ; and it weighed five pounds and three quarters. The bill, which is four inches in length, is surrounded by a naked skin, of a yellow colour, part of which deepens to an orange shade underneath and in front of the eye. This skin beneath the under mandible, forms part of the great pouch of the bird; it is met by a large crescent shaped patch of white feathers upon the throat, about an inch wide, coming from behind the eyes, and running up in an angle into the skin just mentioned. Two glossy blue black patches extend backwards on each side of the head, from the eye to the auricle; the top of the head and halfway down the neck is beautifully dotted, or rather studded with snow-white feathers, which being much longer than the black feathers of the neck, project over them. From the back of the skull, to about four inches down the neck, there extends a row of long black glossy feathers which form a beautiful mane, the absence of which, at a particular season of the year, has led most naturalists into the mistake of dividing the one bird into two-denominating it at one time Pelicanus Carbo, and at another, Pelicanus Cristatus. The iris of the eye is of a beautiful emerald green. The entire body, wings, and tail, are of the same glossy black colour, but beautifully shaded, the scapulars and greater and lesser wing-covers being of a greenish bronze hue, and the feathers of the latter are fringed, especially at the outer edge, with jet black. The quills and bastard wings are rather of a sooty black; so, also, is' the tail, which is fan-shaped, and consists of fourteen feathers, each about six inches in length, and one in breadth; when closed, the tail is but about three inches in width, but it is capable of being expanded to ten inches, evidently to assist the animal in guiding its motions when swimming or diving, as with a rudder.

Such is the winter dress of this bird; but in the pairing season, which begins about the month of February, it, in common with almost all other sea birds, undergoes a striking change of plumage; one of the most remarkable circumstances in which is, that both the male and female, and not the former only, as some have said, display a large patch of snow-white feathers, about an inch and a half in diameter, on the outer surface of each thigh, which is, however, partly covered by the wing. This change of dress is retained for some time, till the young ones are reared.

The thighs and legs are short, strong, and muscular. The tarsus is covered with numerous rows of small scales, which are very regular on the toes, the divisions between which assume a dirty white shade; the toes are four in number, and are connected by a strong web; the outer toe, which is the longest, consists of five joints; the second of four, the third of three, and the last or inner one has but two. The claws are half an inch long, strong and hooked, in order to give the bird a secure footing on the rocks where it perches; the second claw is serrated on the inside edge.

The legs are placed so far back on the body, that the sole of the foot alone would afford but an insufficient sup

port for this heavy bird, and accordingly nature has provided it with a strong, yet soft and elastic muscle, which, running down the back of the leg, enables the creature to rest its weight on the whole length of the tarsus. Yet even this would hardly be adequate to assist in preserving its equilibrium, if it were not for a seemingly awkward elongation of its body underneath, towards the vent, upon which the bird securely props himself when using the exertion sometimes necessary to swallow its food. There is another singular circumstance which, if I might hazard a conjecture, I should say is probably instrumental in effecting the same purpose, namely, in preserving the bird's balance when straining its throat to swallow a larger fish than usual; this is the occurrence of a remarkable bayonet-shaped bone which projects from the back of the skull, where the vertebræ join it, but totally separate and distinct from them; it is enclosed in a strong muscle, which is inserted in two grooves, or hollows, in the hinder part of the skull; this bone is about an inch and a quarter long, and descends over two of the vertebræ ; the only imaginable purpose to which this can serve, as I conceive, is to act as a fulcrum or prop to the head, to prevent its being thrown too far back in any extraordinary exertion, and perhaps at the same time to assist, by pressure, in enabling the bird to expand his jaws to their utmost ex

tent.

This bird has often to seek his food at a great depth beneath the surface of the ocean. The late Sir Charles Giesecke informed me, that one day fishing on the coast of Greenland, he caught one of them on a hook baited with the shellfish called Buccinum Undatum, or Waved Whelk, at a depth of forty German fathoms. Their skins are much used by the natives of Greenland for making shirts, the feathers being worn inside for warmth.

The apparatus for breathing with which the Corvorant is provided, is particularly worthy of attention. It has been long since observed, that it has no external nostrils, or, as some have said, no nostrils at all. The fact is, as I think I have satisfactorily ascertained, that the nostrils are situated inside, in the palate or roof of the mouth; the air taken in by these is conveyed through the bones of the skull by means of a small tube composed of a tough substance, compressible by two strong fleshy muscles, and thus it passes into the windpipe. This is situate at the root of the tongue, and instead of being close to the vertebræ, as in other birds, is quite separate from them, and is attached to the under jaw by means of the tongue bones; the object of this arrangement being, I suppose, to prevent the choking which would result from the compression of the windpipe, if it were in its usual position, by the swallowing of food in large masses, and which would compel the bird, as it were, to cough up his food again. It might at first appear that the necessary consequence of the bird's opening its bill in order to inhale the air through the internal nostrils we have mentioned, would be that the water would rush into its throat at the same time, but this

difficulty is provided for by a hinge or joint a little below the eye, at the place where the upper mandible unites with the skull, by means of which the bird, by throwing it up, can open its bill without disturbing the under jaw, or unclosing its throat. This mandible is provided with a long projecting tooth, not unlike the long callosity in the beak of the Emberiza Milliaria, or common Bunting, which is received in a hollow in the under mandible; by means of this tooth the bird retains its prey, which might otherwise slip from its grasp.

The under mandible is admirably constructed, so as to admit of a most astonishing degree of expansion laterally. It consists of five separate pieces, or bones, viz. the tip or socket in which the two long side bones play, those two side bones and two other shorter ones which connect these with the skull, just beneath the eyes. It is difficult to explain exactly the mechanical operation of this construction; perhaps I shall best convey an idea of it by saying, that when I placed the bird on its back, and pressed my finger strongly against the tip I have mentioned, the lower jaw expanded to a considerable width, the bones I have attempted to describe assumed very much the shape of the gable of a house; and the entrance to the pouch

opened in such a manner as to have enabled the bird to swallow a fish apparently much broader than its own head; this, in fact, is necessary, as the bird preys much on flat fish. It is said that, in China, the natives train this bird, or one of a corresponding species, to fish for them, permitting it to dive to a considerable depth, and, when it rises again, compelling it to disgorge from its pouch the fish it had swallowed.

Several years ago, I took a pair of these birds from a nest among the rocks of Howth, and kept them for nearly two years, by which time they had attained their full growth. They were pleasant pets enough, unless when pressed by hunger, but then they became quite outrageous, and screamed most violently; when satisfied with food they slept, roosting on a large stone trough placed for holding water. But woe to the man or beast who attempted to approach them when hungry. It happened once that a gentleman's servant went in to look at them while in this state; he wore a pair of red plush livery breeches, which immediately caught the attention of the birds, I having been in the habit of feeding them with livers and lights; the consequence was, they made such a furious charge that I had to run to his assistance with a stick, and, even so, did not beat them off without difficulty. Their attack on dogs, cats, and poultry, if unprotected, was always fatal. They fought at once with their bills, wings, and claws, screaming frightfully all the time. In fact, the cause of my parting with them was their having destroyed a fine Spanish pointer; he had incautiously strayed into the place where I kept them, and they immediately flew at him, and attacked him in front and rear; his loud howlings brought me to his aid. I was astonished to find they had got him down; and, before I could rescue him from their fury, they had greatly injured him in one of his shoulders, so much so that he afterward died of the wound. This so grieved me that I gave them away to an English gentleman.

I hope you will consider the above worthy of a place in the columns of your truly national publication, in the welldoing of which, I assure you, I feel much interested. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, RICHARD GLENNON.

Suffolk-street.

ANTIQUITY OF IRISH MUSIC.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUBLIN PENNY JOURNAL.

SIR-I have been perusing your Journal, here, with much pleasure, and particularly those portions of it devoted to the subject of Ireland's music. That the antiquity of Irish music has been much underrated by Mr. Moore, as represented in your Journal, I have been long conviuced, but that this, my humble, though sincere opinion, may not be considered as at all intended to take from the fame and character of that eminent genius, permit me to declare that next to the honour of being a native of the country where first such exquisite music was breathed, do I estimate the pride of being born in the same isle with our talented and accomplished bard.

But, in truth, I am persuaded Mr. Moore can scarcely now retain the opinion on that subject which unluckily, and, perhaps, inadvertently, found a place in his "prefatory letter" to the Melodies. The late Dr. Spray, though an Englishman, was a decided maintainer of the antiquity of Irish music; and he frequently told me of his having communicated his sentiments to Mr. Moore, and especially with reference to one air, he offered to shew him by internal evidence to be found in the composition or notations of the air itself, that it was, at least, upwards of twelve hundred years old! These facts, also, as to other extremely ancient airs lately brought forward in your Journal, he, by this time, at least, if not heretofore, must have got some traces of. Surely the esteemed poet cannot but have read Cambrensis, who was sent over into Ireland by Henry' the Second, with his son, Prince John, in 1185. So numerous are Cambrensis' misrepresentations and libels on the Irish character, that it detracts from the high name of Randulph de Glanvilla, the venerable compiler of British Common Law, then principal adviser of his Sovereign, to' have permitted such a man to accompany the Prince : still

this very Cambrensis on his arrival in Ireland six hundred and forty-eight years ago, was so astonished, yet so charmed, with the Irish music, that in this instance his malignity ceased, and a large space in his work is devoted to an attempt to describe the accomplishments of Irish minstrels, and the irresistible effect of their fascinating science. This was six hundred and forty-eight years ago! and yet Mr. Moore assigned some two hundred and fifty years as the age of our civilized" music. I remember, as a boy, seeing the harp of Brian Boroihme, which exists in Dublin, and the fact that such a thing was made and used in Ireland more than eight hundred years ago and nearly two hundred years before English connexion commenced, was one of the first facts that made me suspect there was much suppression of truth in the theory that assigns a modern date to our music. Standing before that venerable relic of Ireland's former civilization and refinement, Mr. Moore must have felt that there had been once an era, and an early one, when scientific men and "civilized airs," such as that barp was strung for, were known and encouraged in Ireland,

There are preserved in Lambeth Palace, where I perused them, certain laws passed in Ireland, in the year 1366, whereby the " Irish Minstrels," as they are specially called, were ordered to be excluded from those districts which belonged to the English Government, under pain of imprisonment and forfeiture of the instruments of their Minstrelsy" les instrumens de leur Ministralicie." In these statutes, which have not been given by even the latest writers on Irish music, I should add, there are no less than six classes of minstrels mentioned by name, a classification that bespeaks great proficiency and variety in Irish minstrelsy so far back as four hundred and sixty-seven years since; and it is to be observed that the reason recited for expelling them, was their discovering the secrets and privities of the Government districts a fact which inferentially establishes their accomplishments to be of the higher order, when they could procure them ingress and influence even amongst an hostile people. Their influence, however, in spite of such laws, rapidly increased, and in many years afterwards, King Henry the Sixth issued a commission, with the advice of his Lieutenant, Sir Thomas Stanley, wherein he names several classes of Irish minstrels, with others, as coming into the English districts, and receiving great gifts and goods from his lieges, for exercising. their minstrelsy contrary to law, while, at the same time, as the King says, they were exploring the secrets of the district to report them to their countrymen; wherefore he orders the Marshal to enforce the above laws against them, to imprison them, seize on their horses, harness, gold, silver, goods, and the instruments of their minstrelsy, Instrumentalua Minstralciarum suarum," and keep them for bis the Marshal's proper use. Here we find the King obliged to stimulate the Marshal to enforce this law by giving him the pecuniary rewards, which under the statute ought to go to the Crown; we also see that though such statute existed, yet it had become inoperative, or was not enforced, for the King mentions that his liege people were conferring great rewards "Grandia Dona et Bona" upon those Minstrels: and coupling these facts, it is clear that the proscribed were influential by their professional talent and skill only; for between them and those “ Lieges" who were rewarding them no community of language, interests, or connexions existed.

66

The political history of the Irish minstrels, it is evident, has not yet been written; and when its materials are collected, Mr. Moore, as well as others, will admit that the men who could cause such intense anxiety to Government for several centuries, not by force of arms, but by music only, must have been an influential and accomplished race. At present, however, one circumstance may be here alluded to, without, perhaps, encroaching too much on your limits: Queen Elizabeth aimed at the entire extirpation of the children of song; without actively forwarding the Royal intentions no favors of state could be had, and, in consequence, Lord Barrymore and others accepted commissions under the Great Seal to hang the harpers, destroy their instruments, &c., whenever found. That these commissions, (one of which I lately glanced at), were rigidly executed, the favours afterwards conferred by Eliza

and difficulty of investing very small sums yearly, and of obtaining accumulated interest, were almost sufficient preventives to deter even a man anxiously desirous for the future welfare of his family, from the endeavour of acquiring, by small savings, any thing which he could reasonably hope would, though fostered through length of years, swell into a patrimony for his children. But now the more than probability the certainty is his.

"The system of life assurance incites all to obedience to the moral obligation of exercising foresight and prudence; since through its means these virtues may be successfully practised, and their ultimate reward secured,-if a man's income be sufficient to allow of his setting apart somewhat considerable for an accumulating fund, it is still no slight advantage, if we consider the constitution of human nature, that he can put it out of his power to encroach on the accumulations. By laying out an annual suin in assuring his life, he cannot, without difficulty and considerable loss, apply to his present uses his past savings, while there is little fear that he will be so improvident as to forfeit his testamentary claim to them by neglecting to make his periodic payments.

"It may not, perhaps, be useless, briefly to exhibit the comparative effects of putting by annual savings, and allowing them to accumulate, or of expending them in a life

assurance.

"A man with a moderate income may feel that, in a few years, he shall have saved sufficient to leave a competence for his family;-but he feels likewise, that at any moment of time, he may be snatched from them, ere the proposed sum is amassed ;-he therefore has recourse to an assurance on his life, and "renders that certain which nature has made uncertain." If at the age of twenty-five, he could save from his income £24 per annum, it would be twenty-six years before his saving, laid out at 3 per cent interest, would amount to £1000. But if he employed this annual saving in assuring his life, at any one of those offices which demand the highest premiums, the hoard is already his to leave in reversion, and the twenty-six years of the best period of his life are not on this account wasted in anxiety and care. The anticipation of future evil no longer robs him of present enjoyment; by an annual fixed payment he is secure of leaving a fixed sum at his death; and he does not feel it his harrassing and comfortdestroying duty to save to the utmost from his present income. All that is required of him is carefully and punctually to supply the annual tribute which secures to him so invaluable a blessing. Should he live beyond the period at which his savings would have accumulated to the sum assured, he will not be disposed to repine at a bargain the improvidence of which is caused by his continuation of life, and if he take into the account the exemption from corroding solicitude through so many years, he will think it is cheaply purchased.

In all tables which have been constructed to exhibit the probabilities of human life, the calculations have been made on a certain number of beings taken indiscriminately from all classes of the community. It is evident that, in such tables, the average duration of life must be shortened, by including the working poor ;-some prematurely worn out by labour, others wasting life in unhealthy oc'cupations, many dying from neglected disease and scanty nourishment. These, of necessity; form no part of those -whose deaths affect the Assurance Offices.-Those who assure their lives, are generally the healthiest of the most healthy class, the greatest proportion of whom are under the most favourable circumstances for longevity. If any labour under disease, they are rejected, or must seek by a much higher payment to obtain equal advantages. Those who have not had the small pox, nor have been vaccinated, and those who have had the gout, are alike obliged to purchase, by an enhanced premium, immunity from this negative and this positive evil.

It is found from observation extended through many years, that the decrement of life varies very little, for however uncertain the duration of individual life may be, this uncertainty does not extend to an aggregate multitude of individuals. The uniformity in the number of deaths in a community is remarkable; the excess or diminution, in

any one year, rarely exceeds above or below the average number a small fractional part of the whole--not more than one-thirteenth or one fifteenth part. If from this community are excluded the aged, the infants, and that portion of a population which is most exposed to the casual effects of disease and want, the variations from the mean number of deaths will be still less; and it is always found that the variation is on the side of longevity, it being a fact that for the last fifty years, the rate of mortality has been very gradually, but progressively lessening."

Insurance from fire, we may remark, is now so general, that when the calamity happens, and the sufferers are found to be uninsured, (unless really indigent), they be come rather objects of blame than of pity.-Perhaps the time is not far distant when the usual enquiry—“ Are they Insured?" will as naturally occur when a family sustains the loss of its chief support, a calamity more frequent

and irretrievable.

A FISHERMAN'S TALE.

TO THE EDitor of the Dublin PENNY JOURNAL.

His

A curious story is told in the North, which from the time that the incident of which it is the subject occurred, and the evidence of it that remain, seems entitled to some share of credit. There was always a great plenty of bream in Lough M. till within the last sixty years, when they disappeared on a sudden, and though persons have constantly fished in the lake since, there has not been a single one taken, whilst perch and roach are caught in great abundance. On inquiring from an old man, who lives close to the lake, the cause of this strange affair, he told me the following story. For some years before the flight of the bream, there were two men named Morris and Pat. Brady, who constantly fished here: they knew every part of the lake, and had great success in taking the bream; for several years they agreed well enough, till some men set up a still in the adjoining bog, they persuaded Morris to give up his old employment and join with them in the still-but here, says the old man, the bad work begins. It was not more than half a year after the still was set up, when some one informed against Morris and his friends, who shortly after saw their still and their all carried away by the guager. From this out Morris was seldom seen sober, and though he before gave good bread to his family, he now worked but seldom, spending the most of his time in a shebeen house. Whilst Morris was thus becoming a beggar, Brady was getting prosperous, and was able to increase his stock with a cow, and to grow more flax than he used. success made him hateful to Morris, who looked on with a 'wicked eye, and he would even sometimes tell his friends, that Brady informed and got money for it; but to make a long story short, Morris with two others happened to go out to fish one night in the end of summer, and taking too much of the potheen, they began to quarrel with each other, when one of them observing Brady, as he watched his lines seated in his cot, told his companions, who rowed up, and seemed at first friendly, but they shortly accused him of informing on them, which raised a fight, and whilst his companions were seizing on Brady, Morris took an oar and drove it through the bottom of the boat, which filled and sunk with Brady. His two companions fled from the country, but Morris being taken was tried, yet for want of proof he was acquitted; Le lived in this place for seven years after, and it was remarked that as often as he went on the water, the lake became disturbed and heaved the cots about as if it blew a storm, though the day itself was calm. At length when Morris was dying, he called together his neighbours and told them the whole story, and, said he, "no person can ever catch a bream, till all who were on the lake the night of Brady's murder, are 'dead." As yet, says the old man, Morris's words are true, for one of his companions is, they say, alive in America, and in my memory, I never saw a bream come from the lake, though I have always lived beside it.

DUBLIN:

C. J. S.

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