depth. It is called after Tycho Brahe, I believe, by the learned. In the midst of this huge hollow there appears a bright spot, formerly the object of much speculation and controversy, but now ascertained, by the extraordinary powers of the new telescope, to be the skeleton of a gigantic animal—of dimensions so enormous as to surpass the mammoth or mastodon as much as they exceed in size our ordinary oxen!

The skeleton was lying on its side; and most of the bones retaining their places, afforded a very good notion of its figure. According to the Frenchman, who professed to have studied osteology under Cuvier, the structure was very peculiar, and unlike that of any known terrestrial animal, living or fossil. From the valley where it lay there ran a long narrow ravine, which you may trace by referring to a map of the moon. It was strewed with detached bones, and was doubtless the passage by which the monster issued and returned from his foragings.

The total absence of life, and the conical mound of bleached bones, were now accounted for; the Monster, after ravaging all around, had at last perished by famine; but there is something bewildering in the idea of a creature of such magnitude inhabiting a planet not so large by two-thirds as our

own.

To give you any idea of the effect produced on us by so unexpected, and I may say so appalling, a spectacle, is impossible. It was absolutely stunning. We stood and looked silently in each other's faces like men suddenly awakened from a sound sleep. Could it be real? Was it not all a dream? And that, then, was the Moon, the favourite haunt of poetical and romantic love fancies-one of the retreats of the fairies! Well might the Frenchman shrug his shoulders and exclaim that it was "triste-vraiment afligeante !" Nor did it much surprise me to see the old white-haired gentle

man, sitting on the grass, weeping like a child. In reality there was something depressing and shocking in the horrible desolation we had witnessed; yet withal so strangely fascinating, that we returned to it again and again. But we made no new discovery; except of the crater of an extinct volcano, in the vicinity of the charred forest already described.

At this point the party broke up, and Maclure and myself took leave. But there are mysterious whisperings afloat of subsequent explorations by a "select few ;" and in particular of some supposed ethereal or angelic beings discovered in Vesta. Their shape, it is said, cannot be distinguished; nor are they visible whilst within the disc of the planet, which is a very bright one; but when beyond its edge they are discernible, against the dark sky, hovering about with a soft greenish light, like that of the fire flies one sees on the banks of the Rhine. As soon as I can obtain any authentic particulars you shall hear from me again. In the meantime, adieu.

Yours ever,

CHARLES MAITLAND KILGOUR.

I omitted to mention that, observing how everybody rubbed their eyes after looking through the telescope, I determined to watch my own sensations, and detected a slight drawing or shooting pain in the organs, of course from the immense power of the lenses overstraining the optic nerve. I have just learned that several of the party are suffering from the same cause, one of them even with a temporary blindness of the right eye.

THE Consort of our gracious Queen is, as everybody knows, a Prince of the house of Saxe Gotha. Whether the famous Marshal Saxe was a member of the same family I cannot trace; but the place is celebrated for its well-known Almacks. Not that it was the first work of the kind by any means. Poor Richard's Almanack preceded it by many years. So did Francis, or Frances, Moore's; and there was a Popular one called Partridge's. One of his descendants is a Professor of Astrology, or Astronomy, or Anatomy-at any rate of something beginning with A, at one of our Universities or Colleges. I am not sure that the name was not Woodcock; but it reminded me of some wild bird of the kind. That notorious sporting character, Colonel Thornville, of Thornton Royal, once shot sixty brace of them on the same day. Another celebrated sporting character was Sir John Lade, or Ladd. I forget how much he betted to drive some sort of a vehicle, with two, or four, or six horses, a certain number of miles in a certain number of hours, and whether he won or lost; but it was reckoned a great feat. Then there was Merlin's carriage, without any horses at all. I am sure, at least, it went without horses; but am not positive if it was moved by springs or steam. Perhaps steam was not then invented. the present day called Merlins, but they are drawn by horses.

There are still carriages in or Berlins-which is it?— The last invented vehicles, I

believe, are called Broughams, or Brooms. But to return to

Prince Albert of Prussia, the son or brother-no, the cousin of the present king. There are some curious particulars about the Court of Prussia and Frederick the Great in the Memoirs of his aunt, the Margravine of Anspach and Bareuth. I remember reading them in the original French -who, by the way, excel in their biographies. The only thing we have to compare with them is the life, by himself, of Lord Herbert of Cherburg. A noted place in war time for harbouring the enemy's privateers. They did a great deal of damage to our export, and picked up some very rich prizes in the Channel. One of them, called the Jones Paul, or some such names, terribly infested the Scotch and English coasts, till, according to a memorandum now lying before me, she was driven ashore in Kent by Commodore G. P. R. James, and the pirates were taken prisoners at Sevendroog Tower on Shooter's Hill

REVIEW.

ETCH'D THOUGHTS. By the ETCHING CLUB.-Longman & Co.

THE process called Etching, although patronised and practised by the highest personage in the kingdom, is little known or understood by the public in general, who commonly suppose the term to be synonymous with engraving. It may be briefly defined as drawing on copper with a steel point or needle, for the shape of which see a representation of the "sharp thing" in the title-page of the work itself. The design thus scratched through a waxen coat on the metal, is corroded or bit in with aqua fortis; the finest lines of all being afterwards scratched on the copper with the tool

without the use of the acid, or, as it is called, with the dry point. The roughness at the sides of the slight furrows thus made in the metal is called the burr, which, in printing, retains some of the ink that would otherwise be wiped off the surface of the plate, and produces that soft smeary tint so much admired by the initiated. An etching, properly, is never touched by the graver, a sharp cutting tool that makes deep lines in the copper, as the surgeons would say, by the first intention, without the help of the aqua fortis. And in etchings, painter's etchings at least, the effect is produced, more artistically, and less mechanically, than in engravings where the various tints are obtained by ruled lines of different degrees of closeness and thickness, according to the shade required.

The vulgar eye, accustomed to the sleekness of modern engravings, and especially those executed on steel, will be very apt to take fright at what would probably be called the scratchy appearance of an etching by a painter-just as some foreigners would object to a coat of English broadcloth, compared to those glossy ones to be seen abroad, shining as if fresh from a drenching shower of rain. Nevertheless, as fine or finer tints and tones of colour are produced by the hand, than by the ruler or machine-as in the plates called the Burial Place and the Village Church, both by Creswick, in the handsome work before us.

In one essential particular the etching point brings the power of the artist to the test, namely drawing, in which our native painters are generally supposed to be somewhat deficient. There is no striking the outline with the sharp decisive needle as may be done with a soft pencil, a crayon, or a brush-full of colour. All deformities or disproportions are glaringly apparent : a glance shows whether the designer can or cannot draw, however he may affect a careless execu