ments of plain and ornamental pottery to attest their art and their orgies. The feasts of wild beasts have been succeeded by the feasts of men. The howl and the scream of the one are replaced by the song and the speech of the other. Other human visitors succeed these, and bequeath superior and richly embellished pottery, beads of opaque glass, shell-necklaces, rings and amulets and crumbling pieces of skeletons. Now, sun-baked urns, fragments of breastplates, heaps of shells, and pins and bodkins of bone, indicate the visits of Britonsperhaps Romanized Britons. Here, in one stalagmite, are fragments of a human cranium and teeth. There lie innumerable flints, chipped and edged, and shaped into wedges for various purposes, especially for arrow and spear heads. At this stage we seem to pause in human visitors. 1 Ages pass on,-Rome falls,-Britain rises,-England becomes one of the chiefest countries in the world, her sons cultivate all arts and sciences,-knowledge of the past and researches into antiquity distinguish even the high-born and noble of the land,—and now this cavern, the scene of so many and such extreme vicissitudes, is entered by a priest, accompanied by men who wield good steel and iron implements. Fired with antiquarian zeal, they tear up the floor,-they exhume the dead, they open the graves of unknown quadrupedal generations. Under the glare of torch-light, they rifle the long uninvaded solitudes of stalagmitic sepulchres. Skulls, jaws, and teeth are born in triumph from the despoiled cave. The priest fills his museum with them. Lords, bishops, and commoners admire these spolia opima; but the priest also descends to his sepulchre; and now another despoiler succeeds him, the auctioneer. In one day, under successive descents of his hammer, the accumulations of tens of centuries are dispersed. A few silver coins secure possession of the bones of quadrapedal tyrants. Inestimable remains are divided into lots and assigned to forty different owners. Countless animals had been drawn to this central cave, and are now distributed to distant cabinets and museums, never to be gathered together in one place again. A partial exception occurs once. On an appointed day, a tall, slim, smiling professor enters a lecture theatre, and is received with plaudits. On the table before him are placed imperfect skulls, jawless teeth, and toothless jaws, and shattered and gnawed bones. The professor waves his wand, and revivifies beast after beast, and with them repeoples the cave, their primæval palace. After the lecture, would-be-wise men and beautiful women descend to the table, and jaws once reeking with the blood of mangled prey are handled by gloved hands, and touched by fair fingers, and admired by sparkling and speaking eyes. This is the last at empt at a restoration and resurrection of these cavernous organisms. They now return to their places in museums, are ranged upon orderly shelves, inscribed with unpronounceable names, and gazed on by the descendants of those Britons who once feasted upon their undisturbed tomb. In their new resting-place they will probably remain unmolested until that day arrives when the earth shall experience another convulsion and a last rending,-when the bones of priests and profes NO. 9.-VOL. XXVIII. 3 s sors, fair women and forgotten men shall be mingled with the dust of bears, hyenas, and beasts of all orders, by the common and final catastrophe which awaits all living things, and even this great globe itself! Are there not themes enough for poetry here? Kent's Cavern might be a cavern in Parnassus, if only there were a poet to enter it. SANDWICH ISLANDS-The Volcano-Snow-Storm-Waterfall. Mr. Editor, I take advantage of the departure of the Mary, which sails for Honolulu to-morrow, to forward you the latest advices from the eruption. The volcano continues still in action. A considerable stream of liquid lava is nightly visible from Waimea on its descent towards the sea, near the track of the former flow. The head of the stream has now arrived to within fifteen miles distance of the shore. Its progress is slow; and, judging by its rate during the past week, a fortnight or three weeks will elapse before it quenches its redness in the waters of the ocean. If nothing happens to arrest or divert its course, it will probably reach the water at a point a little to the southward of Wainanalii,—the spot where the old stream entered the sea. Probably a length of fifteen miles of the glowing red hot stream is visible in the night from Waimea,--the fire extending from the head or front of the flow, up the mountain, about half way to the old craters. The two upper craters continue to send up immense voluines of smoke, and on Friday night last, the 29th of April, one of the lower craters was distinctly observed to throw up considerable jets of lava into the air,—thus showing conclusively that old Pele "still lives." The weather of late, in this elevated region, has been quite cool and rainy. On Friday last the summit of Mauna Kea was the scene of a violent snowstorm, which wrapped a large portion of the mountain in a robe of shining white. The storm was accompanied, as is frequently the case, by thunder and lightning. Besides volcanoes and snow-storms, the island of Hawaii possesses, as is well known, many other natural curiosities, among which its waterfalls are not the least interesting. In northern Hawaii there are, scattered here and there, many remarkable falls and cataracts, some of which, for beauty and sublimity of surrounding scenery, possess few parallels in the world. The valley of Waipio which in itself forms one of the most interesting natural wonders of the island, possesses two of these waterfalls One of them, near the mouth of the valley, visible from the sea, and said to be twenty-five hundred feet high, possesses a world wide reputation. The other one, situated at the head of Waipio valley, at a distance of some eight or ten miles from the sea, is, although not its rival in height, by far the most beautiful and perfect fall. At this point the precipitous sides of the valley, assuming a perpendicular position, approach each other in a regular curve and join, so that the valley suddenly terminates in a large basin, surrounded by smooth perpendicular and overhanging rocks, rising to a height of fifteen hundred feet, and forming a sort of huge chimney, over the top of which pours the main body of the Waipio River. The water rushes over the brow of the rock in one broad regular stream, and falls in an uninterrupted sheet to the bottom, and thence, flowing forth from the deep round pool that receives it, dashes and roas away down the valley among the rocks. The huge precipices, the thundering waters, the dancing rainbows, the blackness of the great cave beyond the pool and behind the fall, and the many varieties of bright coloured ferns above and on either side, form a rare combination of attractions. An artist would seldom meet a more glorious subject for a pencil. The route up This beautiful fall is, unfortunately very difficult of access. the valley is rough and in some places dangerous. The traveller will be up to his waist in water a great portion of the time, and in one place, for a brief distance, swimming is the only method of progression. Probably few whites have ever visited the spot. The lover of natural beauties however, if he is stout enough of limb to overcome intervening obstacles, will be richly rewarded for his labours, by a visit to the head of Waipio Valley. Pacific Commercial Advertiser. J. H. S. New Books. AN ESSAY-on the Cause of Rain and its Allied Phenomena. By G. A. Rowell, Hon. Mem. of Ashmolean Society, Oxford. Those of our readers who take delight in the vast subject of Meteorology, may look into Mr. Rowell's book with advantage. They will find ample matter to engage their attention, even in knocking down old theories on this wonderful subject, and setting up another reasonable one in their stead. Although we are more satisfied with Mr. Rowell's attributes to the enormous power of electricity in the formation of clouds and all that has to do with that canopy of curtains which are provided by an All-wise Creator to prevent suffering from the effects of the sun's rays, we are not so much so with his hurricane theory. It was enough for Redfield to work with facts, and for seamen to profit by them, as they have done, in avoiding the disasters from them which were common at sea before he wrote. We have much respect for Mr. Rowell's opinions, but before he reasons on their origin and formation, he would find safer ground on which to reason in collecting facts concerning them than that on which he endeavours to controvert the present theory. The labours of Piddington and Thom, and before them, Redfield and Reid, will supply abundance of material, besides the pages of this work. Whatever the cause and origin of these phenomena may be, they have established as facts those traits of character by which they are successfully avoided, and by which it may be seen that they move onward in the direction of certain ocean currents, and are seldom stationary. We commended the foregoing authors to our readers long ago. Nautical Notices. CUBA LIGHTHOUSES.-The intended light on Cayo Cruz del Padre, has been finally abandoned, all endeavours to lay the foundation having failed. It appears to be the intention to place a light on Cape Lucretia, the tower to be of stone 120 feet high, the light a first class Fresnel, revolving; but it is not yet commenced. As soon as the tower on Cayo Bahia de Cádiz is built, the light will shortly appear. GUANO ISLANDS. Washington, March 5th, 1858. Noticing a few days since that Clipperton Island had been proclaimed to the world as belonging to the Emperor of France, and as this guano question has become one of the first moment, it has occurred to me it would not be uninteresting to your readers to know if any, and how many guano islands in the Pacific Ocean or elsewhere have become the property of citizens of the United States, and have been recognized by the Government as pertaining to its territories under the act of Congress approved August 18th, 1856. The following is believed to be a correct list of said islands, and their several latitudes and longitudes, viz.: The two first named islands have been claimed by the American Guano Company, and the rest by the United States Guano Company, and other citizens of the United States. I understand these acquisitions are all to be surveyed and chartered, and the quality and quantity of the guano thereon to be ascertained by competent analytical chemists and topographical engineers, and a report thereof made to Congress at the earliest practicable period. At some of these islands there are good harbours and safe anchorage, and at most of there is a good lee, which, coupled with the fact that most of them are situated where storms are seldom known, (the prevailing winds being from the East,) makes them places of safe resort for ships. The quantity and accessibility of the guano on many of these islands is placed beyond doubt. What remains to be demonstrated is its quality, and whether that is such to warrant its importation. On this point I am not competent to decide, because there are two theories which now divide the opinions of scientific men, viz., the ammoniacal and the mineral. The former advocated by Laws, Gilbert, Johnson, and others, and the latter by Liebig, Gule, and others, who claim that it is nutrition not stimulus which is the great desideratum. The guano from these islands comes under the last head; the Peruvian, Elide, and Ichaboe under the first. Time will settle which theory is correct. A gentleman who is well acquainted with the islands of this ocean, gives us some information in regard to some of those claimed above, which it may be well to state here. 1st.-Arthur, Favourite, and Farmer Islands do not exist. 2nd. Walker, Sarah Anne, Samarang, and David Islands are of doubtful existence. All the above are laid down on the charts, it is true, but probably none of them exist. 3rd.-Flint, Clarence, Duke of York, Rierson, and Humphrey Islands are all inhabited, and possession of them cannot very well be taken by foreigners. Sydney Island is covered with trees or woods. Christmas and Caroline Islands are partly covered with cocoanuts and are known not to possess guano. That there may be guano in abundance on many of the islands claimed, is very likely, but the best deposits will probably be found to exist on small rocky islands, as yet perhaps undiscovered. New York Tribune. Referring the above to the chart, we find,— 1. Baker is Phoebe or New Nantuc- 24. Enderburg-placed in same lat. ket of the chart. and 3' to the eastward in chart. 25. Sydney-20' East of that chart. Penrhyn-1° 8' East of that in chart. 2. Jarvis, same in chart. 4. Maldens. Maldon is fifteen miles 5. Arthur-same in chart. 6. Christmas-in chart. 7. Caroline-in chart a trifle West. 8. Anns-new. 9. Stavers-called Vostock in chart. 10. Flints-in chart. 11. Baumans-new. 12. Rogewein-in chart. 13. Groningen--in chart. 14. Freinhaven - Teinhoven, twelve miles S.S.E. in chart. 15. Quiros-new. 16. Low-South part of Bowditch Island in chart. 17. Clarence-Nuku-Nono of chart. 1S. Favorite-new. 19. Duke of York-perhaps meant for Oatafou, ten miles S. W. in chart. 20. Farmer-twenty-four miles E.N.E. of Enderburg Island of chart. 21. Birnies-in chart. 26. 27. Pescado-12′ S.b.E. of that in chart. 28. Ganges-new. 29. Reirson-seventy miles to southward of that in chart. 30. Siderons-10' 8. E. of that in chart. 31. Humphrey-15' S.E. of that in chart. 32. Frances-new. 33. Flint-new. 34. Nassau-doubtful longitude. 36. Mary Letitia-new. 38. Walker-about 10′ N.E. of that 39. Sarah Anne-in chart. 22. Phoenix about twelve miles 47. Davis-new. S.S.E. of that in chart. 23. Marys-new, 48. Barbara--new. |