1. After this we were not surprised to read, that at one of their villages Captain Lyon met with two young men, "one of whom was slowly recovering from an illness occasioned by excessive eating, and the other had just fallen sick from the saine cause, but was relieved by bleeding." As the year 1823 advanced, it became necessary for Captain Parry to determine finally the course which it was proper to pursue. It had in the previous winter been in contemplation to remove the remaining stores of the Hecla to the Fury, and to despatch the former vessel to England, while the latter, under the command of Captain Parry, should remain another winter, with the object of prosecuting the attempt in the ensuing year. The health of the crews, however, was evidently yielding to the climate; and after mature consultation with the medical men, and by the advice of Captain Lyon, the commander of the Expedition finally resolved to return to England. On the 10th of October, the ships put into Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, where they were greeted with ringing of bells and a public illumination in the evening.

The result of this Expedition, though not successful, is yet highly satisfactory. It has strengthened the conviction, not only of the existence of a North-West passage, but of the ultimate practicability of accomplishing that passage. A strong presumption, as Captain Parry remarks, arises from the recent discoveries in these regions, that the Continent of America does not in any part extend far beyond the 70th or 71st parallel of latitude. That the sea is sometimes navigable upon the northern shores of America, has been ascertained by Captain Franklin; but the difficulty of approaching this sea on the Eastern or Atlantic side is still to be overcome. Captain Parry is of opinion that this difficulty is not insuperable, and that the route pursued by the present Expedition is the one best calculated to ensure eventual success. "For my own part," adds Captain P., "I never felt more sanguine of ultimate success in the enterprise in which I have lately been engaged, than at the present moment; and I cannot but entertain a confident hope that England may be yet destined to succeed in an attempt, which has for centuries past engaged her attention, and interested the whole civilized world." Of the high talents and indefatigable zeal displayed by Captain Parry and his officers during this Expedition, it is difficult to speak in terms of adequate commendation. Perhaps no two individuals could have been selected more fit for the prosecution of an enterprise like this, than the commander of the Expedition and his able coadjutor Captain Lyon. To the latter gentleman the public are indebted for the drawings, from which the beautiful prints which ornament the present volume have been engraved.

At the conclusion of the volume Captain Parry has devoted several pages to a further account of the Esquimaux of Melville Peninsula and the adjoining islands, more particularly Winter Island and Igloolik. Of their personal appearance the Captain speaks more highly than we should be inclined to do, forming our judgment from the representations of their features which his work contains. The colour of a young Esquimaux woman, "when divested of oil and dirt, is scarcely a shade

darker than that of a deep brunette; so that the blood is plainly perceptible when it mounts into the cheeks."-"They are by no means," continues Captain P., "an ill-looking people; and there were among them three or four grown-up persons of each sex, who, when divested of their skin-dresses, their tattooing, and above all, of their dirt, might have been considered pleasing-looking if not handsome people, in any town in Europe." With regard to their moral character istics, the Esquimaux are a very singular race. Amid all the ignorance and privations of savage life, they display nothing of its ferocity. They live without government and without religion, appearing to have no idea of the existence of one Supreme Being, though they believe in the agency of spirits. No authority but the patriarchal one of parents and husbands is known amongst them, and that authority is seldom subject to abuse. The affection and kindness of parents towards their children has been remarked by former travellers, and is the most amiable quality which they possess. "The gentleness and docility of the children," says Captain Parry, are such as to occasion their parents little trouble, and to render severity towards them quite unnecessary. Even from their earliest infancy they possess that quiet disposition, gentleness of demeanour, and uncommon evenness of temper, for which they are in more mature age for the most part distinguished. Disobedience is scarcely ever known; a word or even a look from a parent is enough; and I never saw a single instance of that frowardness and disposition to mischief, which with our youth so often require the whole attention of a parent to watch over and to correct." In point of honesty the Esquimaux are fully as virtuous as any reasonable moralist could expect, and occasionally withstand temptations to which many civilized consciences would yield. Their worst qualities appear to be ingratitude, selfishness, and envy. Of their manual arts, and of their mode of hunting and living, many curious details are given in the volume before us, to which we can only refer the reader. Of their amusements the following extract will give some idea.

:

"It may be supposed that among so cheerful a people as the Esquimaux there are many sports or games practised; indeed it was rarely that we visited their habitations without seeing some engaged in them. One of these our gentlemen saw at Winter Island, on an occasion when most of the men were absent from the huts on a sealing excursion; and in this Iligliuk was the chief performer. Being requested to amuse them in this way, she suddenly unbound her hair, plaited it, tied both ends together to keep it out of the way, and then stepping out into the middle of the hut, began to make the most hideous faces that can be conceived, by drawing both lips into her mouth, poking forward her chin, squinting frightfully, occasionally shutting one eye, and moving her head from side to side as if her neck had been dislocated. This exhibition, which they call ayokit-tak-poke*, and which is evidently considered an accomplishment that few of them possess in perfection, distorts every feature in the most horrible manner imaginable, and would, I think, put our most skilful horse-collar grinners quite out of countenance."

"The next performance consists in looking steadfastly and gravely forward, and repeating the words tabak-tabak, keibo-keibo, kebang-e-nu-to-eek, kebangenu toeek, amatama, amatama, in the order in which they are here placed, but

"This name, as well as those of the other games I am now describing, is given in the third person singular of the verb used to express the performance.

each at least four times, and always by a peculiar modulation of the voice speaking them in pairs as they are coupled above. The sound is made to proceed from the throat in a way much resembling ventriloquism, to which art it is indeed an approach. After the last amatama Iligliuk always pointed with her finger towards her body, and pronounced the word angetkook, steadily retaining her gravity for five or six seconds, and then bursting into a loud laugh, in which she was joined by all the rest. The women sometimes produce a much more guttural and unnatural sound, repeating principally the word ikkerce-ikkeree, coupling them as before, and staring in such a manner as to make their eyes appear ready to burst out of their sockets with the exertion. Two or more of them will sometimes stand up face to face, and with great quickness and regularity respond to each other, keeping such exact time that the sound appears to come from one throat instead of several. Very few of the females are possessed of this accomplishment, which is called pitkoo-she-rak-poke, and it is not uncommon to see several of the younger females practising it. A third part of the game, distinguished by the word keitik-poke, consists only in falling on each knee alternately; a piece of agility which they perform with tolerable quickness, considering the bulky and awkward nature of their dress."

"The last kind of individual exhibition was still performed by Iligliak; to whom in this, as in almost every thing else, the other women tacitly acknowledged their inferiority, by quietly giving place to her on every occasion. She now once more came forward, and letting her arms hang down loosely, and bending her body very much forward, shook herself with extreme violence as if her whole frame had been strongly convulsed, uttering at the same time, in a wild tone of voice, some of the unnatural sounds before mentioned.”

We have refrained from entering into any scientific details, as the Appendix, containing the most important discoveries in Natural History, and other similar matters, has not yet been published.

&

WINTER SONG. TO MY WIFE.

THE birds that sang so sweet in the summer skies are fled,
And we trample under foot leaves that flutter'd o'er our head;
The verdant fields of June wear a winding-sheet of white,
The stream has lost its tune, and the glancing waves their light.

We too, my faithful wife, feel our winter coming on,
And our dreams of early life like the summer birds are gone;
My head is silver'd o'er, while thine eyes their fire have lost,
And thy voice, so sweet of yore, is enchain'd by age's frost.

But the founts that live and shoot through the bosom of the earth.
Still prepare each seed and root to give future flowers their birth;
And we, my dearest Jane, spite of age's wintry blight,

In our bosoms will retain Spring's florescence and delight.

The seeds of love and lore that we planted in our youth,
Shall develope more and more their attractiveness and truth;
The springs bencath shall run, though the snows be on our head,
For Love's declining sun shall with Friendship's rays be fed.

Thus as happy as when young shall we both grow old, my wife,
On one bough united hung of the fruitful Tree of Life;
May we never disengage through each change of wind and weather,
Till in ripeness of old age we both drop to earth together!

H.

BRITISH GALLERIES OF ART.-NO. XI.

Mr. Mathews's Theatrical Gallery: Second part.

THAT portion of the above unique collection, which was noticed in my last paper-namely, the portraits and theatrical scenes-if more striking in its general character than the portion now to be described, is perhaps less interesting, and comes less "home to the business and bosoms" of those who peculiarly concern themselves in theatrical affairs. And who is it that does not, in the present day-in wish and in thought, at least, if not in fact?-Of all the various classes of which society is composed, there is not one, about which all the others feel so much curiosity as they do about actors. And the next best thing to knowing a person about whom one feels interested, is to have an opportunity of inspecting those objects which are calculated to enliven and call up the various associations, both actual and imaginary, of which we are possessed concerning him. From this it follows, that to all lovers of the drama, and admirers of those who give a substantive being and existence to it, the actors--the Gallery now before us will offer more subjects of attraction than any other that I have yet had occasion to describe; and that attraction will be of a more intimate and permanent nature. And if the interest excited by it is not of that high and ennobling character, which results from the inspection of those collections devoted to the more imaginative classes of Art, perhaps it is not the less valuable on that account-since the human heart by which we live is kept in a sound and healthful state, not so much by gazing on the everlasting stars that are above and at a distance from it, as by feeding on the humble roots that grow in the common path which we are destined to pass over, and inhaling the breath of those frail flowers of a day that spring up by its side.

The first portion of this secondary department of Mr. Mathews's gallery, which I shall now describe, is what may truly be called the Garrickiana-consisting of busts, casts, models, medallions, medals, drawings, engravings, dresses, and an almost innumerable collection of other objects, all referring to the various circumstances of that distinguished artist's life, as connected with the British stage. Perhaps the most valuable and interesting among these, as a detached object, is a beautiful and elaborate casket, exquisitely carved out of the wood of the mulberry-tree, ascertained to have been planted by Shakspeare's hand. In this casket was presented to Garrick, by the corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon, the freedom of that city; and that document itself, with the letter which accompanied it, still retain their place in the casket. The allegorical subjects depicted on the four sides and the top of this casket, are executed with extreme delicacy--being carved into high-relief out of the solid wood.-For those who are capable of using visible objects as a means of calling up, or even of creating, imaginative abstractions, the sight of this casket (together with several other minor

In the first paper on this subject there were two trifling errors which should be corrected. In Zoffanj's picture of Jaffier and Belvidera, the Belvidera was described as Mrs. Beverly, instead of Mrs. Cibber; and the characters of Charles and Joseph Surface, in the original cast of the School for Scandal, were reversed.-Charles was performed by " gentleman Smith," and Joseph by John Palmer.

objects preserved here, illustrative of the general feeling that prevailed during his own day, in regard to this extraordinary actor) will furnish a striking idea of that truest of all fames, which consists in feeling that our being is projected without us, and has become part and parcel of the being of those with whom we live. Posthumous fame, as an anticipated possession, is but a cheat after all--a castle in the air. It is a splendid mockery, to be sure, and a useful one; but it is a mockery nevertheless. But the man who has lived to have his shoe-tie craved as a boon, and sold as a sacred relic*, may set posterity and its awards at defiance; for he has lived, and nothing that those who are to live can do, either for or against him, is worth a moment of his consideration. In fact, there is no fame and distinction like an actor's. It not only "comes home to his bosom," but to his very senses;-he sees it with his eyes-he hears it with his ears-he feels it tingling at the very tips of his fingers and yet he is not content. There never was an actor that did not, in his secret heart, curse his choice of a profession;—at least, after the novelties attending the first practice of it were a little faded. He sighs for the scholar's, statesman's, soldier's, pen, tongue, sword;" for any kind of distinction, in short, but that which he has: as if there were any difference in distinctions, as such, except in degree-and as if any were so tangible, so palpable, so unequivocal, as that belonging to a favourite actor. In fact, the applause which he gets, is the thing itself; while all other is but "as the echo that doth applaud again." There is no exception to this remark, unless it be in the case of the public speaker and this can scarcely be considered as one-inasmuch as the public speaker, whatever his views or sentiments may be, is in a great degree an actor.

There are two other detached objects in this part of the collection, cannot help mentioning in particular, on account of the associations they excited in my own mind, in regard to the character of Garrick, as a dramatic artist; and I confess (without pretending at present to investigate the why and wherefore) that they called up before me a more distinct and visible image of that artist, in all the extraordinary variety of his alleged power, than all the portraits of him that I have ever seen, or all the descriptive criticisms that I have read. These are, the head-dress in which he performed the mad and heart-stricken Lear; and (think it not an anticlimax, reader-" from the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step!")--the shoes in which he played Abel Drugger. I shall leave the mention of these two objects to produce their own effect on the reader, and pass on, if not to "mettle more attractive," at least to that about which I may more safely trust myself to remark: for to say the truth, I find some difficulty in escaping from the abovenamed objects, without being impelled to exclaim, in the language of Lear himself" Stay-I'll preach to thee! &c. ;" and forthwith proceed to pen down certain wise reflections, which are at this present writing rife within me, but which the reader might possibly think honoured in the breach than the observance;" especially as the ine

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The shoe-rose which Garrick wore on the night when he quitted the stage is among the relics preserved in this collection. It was begged as a boon by his friend Davis, and has since come into Mr. Mathews's possession, accompanied by a document duly authenticating it! This " is true fame."