The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-03-06 00:00:00

rHE. LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

LIVERPOOL'MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

LECTURES ON ,PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

On Saturday evening Mr. John Smith delivered his second
lecture upon this interesting subject, which was attended by un
overti,witig audience.

existence of a north-western passage has fur the last three
centuries been a problem which has excited the utmost interest,
not only in this but in many other commercial countries, cud
accordingly numerous expeditions have been fitted out for the
purpose of exploring it, all of rich have terminated in unsuc-
cessful results. This much, however, has been ascertained,
that if such passage do exist, it can uever be made available
in the present physical condition of our globe, fur any
useful purposes of commerce. As a voyage.to the northern seas
is one which is productive of much gratification; so far as the pie-
toresque is concerned, as well as one which is profitable in a mer-
cantile point of view, it will be intereresting to follow the voyager
in his progress to describe the scenery, which lies in his route,
the dangers he has to undergo, and the sources of his remune-
ration for these dangers. Passing through the narrow channel
which divides Scotland from Ireland, we arrive at the Giant's
Causeway, a stupendous range of basaltic columns, which ex-
tends over a great portion of the north-eastern coast of Ireland
and its adjacent islands. These columns, to the number of
many hundreds of thou-sands, are mostly pentaugular, and-vary
from one to five feet in thickness, and from 20 to 250 feet in
height; They are composed of several short lengths, curiously
joined like a bail and socket,ahe depth of the hollow being :3 or
inches; The neigh urine poor hit these little basins in the
tops of the columns A%-.40 sea water, which evaporating in .3 few
days, leaves there a kind of bay salt. Mr.Srnith then exhibited
a view of the causeway as wellas a cave in its immediate vicinity,
called Dunkerry Cavern. This cave is accessible by water
alone,-and is well worthy of a visit. Fingal's Cave, situated in
the romantic Isle of Staffa, lies in the direct route•of the nor-
thern traveller. It is composed of basalt of a similar descrip-
tion to that of the Giant's Causeway, and forms a grand speci-
men of the architecture of nature. The castle of Rochemaure.
in.-Languedoci (Which, as well as Fingal's Cave, were illustrated
by the lecturer,) is built upon an abrupt and lofty crass of a
stuathir description of basaltic rock. Proceeding further on our
voyage, we come to an abrupt rock in the sea. on the coast of
Brassa, one-of the Shetland isles, called Noss-Holm, (of-which
an excellent representation was given by Mr. Smith.) This
rock, which is about 1G fathoms from the lofty rock of the main
land, is famous for eggs and fowl, to obtain which .men are
loweeed from its frightful precipices by ropes. The inhabitants
get on this rock by-means of endless ropes resembling the-Ta-
rabitas, described in the last lecture. The people of this district
are temperate and abstinent. Hence, length of life is a remark-
able feature among them,,traditiou giving an account of one
individual who arrived at the age of ltio.
Proceeding seaward from thse Scottish isles, a current is per-
ceived setting from the pole. It is found that two currents, regu-
larly set from each of the poles towards the equator. Indeed it
was the opposition of the polar current principally occa-
sioned the failure of Capt. Parry's-attenipt to reach the North
Pole in 1827. , These eurreuts are caused by the high temPera- •
lure of the tropical waters, and the continual waste which is
thus caused by evapotation. Being disturbed, by the rotation
of the earth, the direction of the curreutt are changed and they
Set upon the eastern shores, where they frequently become strong
and even dangerous, according to the nature of the opposition
which they encounter. By maeting with continual opposition
the northern current performs a circuit of 11,400 miles in two
years and ten months, leaving -in its route on the shores of
variuus countries the seeds of plants, Br.c. which it has abstracted
from the lands, with which it has come into contact. The con-
tinual agitation of the sea is necessary to prevent its corruptjon,
for notwithstanding its saltness, sea water will soon; become
putrid in casks, indeed, the Indian ocean has been known.by
a long calm to smell so ,offensively as to threaten the safety of
life. When two or more currents meet each other or cross at
angles, a circular motion or whirlpool is the result. A.reinark-
able whirlpool occurs among the Orkneys, which is not con-
fined to any particular place.
:To avert its danger the natives
carry in their boats a lug of wood, by throwing which into the
whirlpool, its fury ceases, and in about an hour its locality is
found to be shifted .the distance of a mile. - The largest whirl-
pool known is' the Maelstrom of Nor Way, which is of such
,an
extent or depth that if a ship comes within its attraction, if is
inevitably absorbed, there beaten against the rocks, and its frag:
ments tlitown.up to the surface t,-tien the water becomes less
rapid iii its. gyrations. Whales are frequently overpowered by
its violent e. The trade winds, those cunstaut currents of air,
are explained uu similar principles to the currents of the sea,
that is from the rarefaction occasioned by the powerful heat of
A tropical sun. These currents of the air and sea exercise a
beneficial influence in commercial intercourse and when the
canal is cut through the istiiMus of Darien they will much fa-
cilitate our communication with the East, by enabling th'e
voyager to go by that route and return by way of the Arabian
Gulf and Mediterranean Sea.

The toils and dangers of the whale fishery are of an extreme na-
, lure. A' Green land.ship generally carries a crew of,lo or 50 men,
and is provided with 6 or 7 boats, contrived so as to be ready with
the least possible delay. Each boat. is provided with six iron
harpoons, of about three feet in length, attached to lines mea-
suring 120 fathoms. The harpoon is used to strike and hook
the fish, its destruction being accomplished by a thin spear six
feet in length, which is ❑ot dung from .the hand like the har-
poon but held fast as it is thrust into the body or the animal.
This description was accompanied by vivid and characteristic
sketches of the process of striking the whale, as well of the dan-
gers frequently attending the whale fishery in consequence of
the sudden rising of the whale under the boat, whereby the boat
and crew are thrown a considerable distance into the air. Ice;
bergs are met with in the Arctic regions of a very great length.
Captain Parry gives an account of one 140 feet in height and
720 feet deep. Whenever these ice-bergs ground, •as was the
case in this instance, the contact of a floating field of ice is at-
tended with a fearful and tremendous crash, and consequently
with considerable danger to any vessels which
.may,be in the
vicinity. In order to avoid as much as possible such accidents,
Captain Parry,, upon the approach of winter,
.cut a canal for his'
vessels through a field of ice, of nearly two miles, and one-
third so that they might be safely situated during the winter:
season. After tlesct ibing and illustrating this process, Mr.
Smith exhibited the appearance of the vessels in .their winter'
quarters, and gave 'a❑ admirable account of the manner in
which the voyages passed their time during the dreary winter.
The Esquirnatix and their snow huts next occupied the lecturer's
attention, the appearances they presented being accuratelLex-
hibited by means of the magic lantern.
It may naturally be supposed that in a country, the sources
of whose vegetable productions are so long and so deeply frozen
Up, the means of human subsistence must be very scarce.
Captain Franklin and his companions were far months com-
pelled to subsist upon a course species of lichen called Tripe de
Roche, (which was illustrated by a view) a substance so acid as
to produce painful illness. When the travellers reached Mar-
tin's Lake they shot several reindeer, which supplied them with
better food. The scene presented at Martin's Lake was then
exhibited by the lecturer; a very beautiful one it was for such
a northern lattitude, and must have been an exciting one to
the travellers. Nature, however, occasionally gives in these.
'tiorthei•n regions, very bold specimens of her powers, of which'
The' Falls of .Wilberforce, a beautiful view of which was pre-
sented to the audience, is a noble instance. The mode in which
Captain Franklin and his fellow travellers prepared their en-
campment for the night was very simple. 'I hey cleared away
the snow from the ground, strewed the space with pine branches
and over these the party spread their blankets and cloaks. A
fire was kindled, the sledges unstowed, the dogs unharnessed,
and the provisions hung fur safety on the trees. Supper having
been cooked and despatched, the weary travellers ranging them-
selves round the fire with their feet towards it, slept in a armth
and coniparative conifort, without any other canopy than the'
trees and the heavens, when the thermometer might be far be-
low Zero. A very correct notion of this manner of forming a
resting place was conveyed by a pieturial view. Humbly ac-
commodated as were our countryrnen in this their resting place,
the Laplander is much worse conditioned. The rein-deer are
their only riches, for by them their sledges are drawn, upon
their milk and flesh they subsist, and their skirts form their only
furniture. Mr. Smith thee. exhibited views which admit ably
illustrated the feeble resources and helplessness of the -Laplan-
der, as compared with the beaver, a being so much inferior to
him in the scale of creation. It is remarkable that the dwelling
of the beaver is in the form of a dome, from which, probably,
the Esquirnaux have derived their domed snow huts, and that
this mode •of covering which the Greeks were unable to discover
thought their splendid architectural career should have been
known to this industrious animal.
Parhelia, or mock RIM, so frequently seen in northern lati-
tudes, tire caused by the angular forms of the crystals of ice
or vapour floating in the atmosphere, determining the rays of
light in different directions, and thus giving rise to various 'ec-
centric halos, which, by their united intensities, particularly
where they cross each other, occasionally torm masses of light or
parhelia. The Aurora Borealis is another of those interesting
phenomena frequently visible in the northern regions. The ge-
neral and most rational opinion is, 'that this beautiful display
of nature depehds upon electrical causes, but'Sir john Ross
thinks that it is occasioned by the reflection of the sun upon
the Polar ice. Mr. Smith then closed his interesting► lecture
by exhibiting views of Parhelia and the Aurora Borealis, as
well as one which, though he said, it might aot be appropriate to
his subject, would be so to all good subjects, viz. a beautiful like-
ness of our lovely virgin Queen, which elicited the loudest
tokens of applause.
The lecture oftto-morrow will embrace the scenery of Switzer-
land and other temperate climes; where verdant valleys, ro-
mantic glens, sublime mountains, and expansive lakes present
themselves under the most delighttul aspects.