XXXVI. An easy and expeditious Method of diffipating the noxious Vapour commonly found in Wells and other fubterraneous Places; by Ebenezer Robinson, of Philadelphia.'

This method is certainly very eafy; for it confifts only in conveying air to the lower part of a well by means of a pair of bellows, and a long tube reaching to the bottom.

XXXVII. A Method of draining Ponds in level Grounds, by Jeffe Higgins, of Delaware.'

This is nearly what Dr. Anderson styles tapping the ground, viz. forming a communication between the water: and the ftratum of fand which ufually lies under clay. The water then drains off, and finks through the fand.

XXXVIII. Obfervations on the Severity of the Winter, 1779, 1780; by the Rev. Matthew Wilfon of Lewis, dated 22d June, 1780.'

The moles, bees, frogs, thell-fish, bugs, mufquitos, grafshoppers, and a great proportion of the fnakes, died. The fith were found dead or dying on the water with the airbladders greatly diftended. In the vegetable kingdom, the cold was equally deftructive.

XXXIX. A Defcription of a new Standard for Weights and Measures, in a Letter from Mr. John Cooke, of Tipperary in Ireland, to Thomas Jefferfon, Efq.'

Our author thinks that the pendulum, as a standard of measure, is uncertain and incorrect; and he therefore propofes the following plan.

THEOREM.If there be a cubic veffel with an aperture in the bottom, which aperture is in a given ratio to the base of the veffel; and if the ratio between the weight of the water which this vessel contains when full, and the weight of the water discharged from it, through this aperture, in a given time be given, the cube itself is given.' P. 330.

The difadvantages of the pendulum are well known and guarded against or corrected: thofe of the prefent plan must be immediately obvious.

XL. Defcription of a Spring-block, defigned to affift a Veffel in failing. By Francis Hopkinfon, Efq. of Philadelphia. Honored with the Magellanic Gold Medal, by an Award of the Society in December 1790.'

This paper we need not abridge.

XLI. A Botanical Defcription of the Podophyllum Diphyllum of Linnæus, in a Letter to Charles Peter Thunberg, M. D. Knight of the Order of Wafa, Profeffor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Upfal, &c. &c.'

There were fome doubts whether the fecond fpecies of podophyllum was not a fpecies of fanguinaria. That doubt is

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now removed; the fuppofed P. diphyllum is found to be a new genus. It occurs on the weft of the Alleganey mountains, and belongs to the octandria monogynia of Linnæus. "The root is purgative, and occafionally emetic. Perhaps, ast our author fuggefts, it may at laft be found a hybrid, a mixture of the fanguinaria and podophyllum.

Some fhort extracts from the obfervations of M. le Roy, on the conftruction of hofpitals, and the usual lift of prefents, conclude the volume.

Obfervations on the Western Parts of England, relative chiefly to Picturefque Beauty. To which are added, a few Remarks on the Picturesque Beauties of the Isle of Wight. By William Gilpin, M. 4. &c. 8vo. 11. 5s. Boards. Cadell and Davies. 1798.

MR. Gilpin feems declining in the west, with the mild radiance of a fetting fun, which, though pleasing, leads us to regret his meridian beauty. Without a metaphor, these obfervations' are greatly inferior to the other works of our author. The picturefque fcenery is loft in a crowd of heterogeneous remarks; and the technical terms, fo long hackneyed by their application to every inconfiderable view, fatigue and difguft the reader. In our traveller's fteps we have often trodden; and we recollect many beautiful fcenes which he has not defcribed. He proceeds from Epfom to Winchester and Salisbury. Wilton, Fonthill, Stourhead, Maiden-Bradfey, and Longleat, fhare his attention in the way to Wells. Thence his route extends to Glastonbury Abbey, the Quantoc Hills, and along the northern coafts of Somerfet and Devon. After a furvey of Torrington, Oakhampton, Tavistock, Launcefton, and Bodmin, Plymouth and its neighbourhood Occupy a great fhare of his attention. From Exeter he paffes through Honiton, Axminster, Bridport, Dorchester, Blandford, and Lymington, to the Isle of Wight.. Southampton and Bagfhot close his tour.

Thefe various places, he has examined with very unequal attention. Norbury-house, its beautiful fituation, and its fingular drawing-room, attract his particular notice, and receive, what is not very ufual, his warm commendation. Of the drawing-room, the four fides reprefent as many scenes of nature's choiceft reprefentations. Thofe at the two ends, reach from the cicling to the bafe: that, on one of the fides, is natural-the view from the windows. Many remarks on the ftatues, &c. are fubjoined; but these are too trite to add to the value of the work.

The rafts of timber, floating down the Wey, lead to a de

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fcription of thofe of Adernach, and the fragile floats of jars down the Nile. Farnham castle, and the cathedrals of Winchester and Salisbury, are described at fome length; and we meet with a few judicious and appropriate obfervations on Gothic ornaments. In the furvey of Stone-henge, all the idle tales about the Druids and their worship are repeated. That Stone-henge was not the work of the Druids, fecms to be clear from one circumftance, that thofe priests confined themfelves to the fhades of forefts, and particularly the groves of oak; but this tree either never grew in that plain, or, from the fhallowness of the foil, on a chalky ftratum, it never could have grown there to any confiderable fize. Barrows undoubtedly abound there; but these appear to be of a later date than the existence of Druidifm; for they are unfuitable appendages to a Druidical temple.

The writer treats copiously of Wilton, and enlarges on what it might have afforded, as well as what it offers. He also examines the fources of the numerous ftatues from Greece and Italy, and defcribes the various pictures with critical minutenefs.

He gives what history and legends have preferved respecting the abbey of Glaftonbury; fumming up with propriety the advantages and difadvantages of fimilar inftitutions. The plain was probably, in former times, under the water either of the fea or of a lake; but we fufpect that it was only occafionally inundated. A fubterraneous paffage is faid to exift from the abbey to the Tor. The revenues of this inftitution were very great; and its charities and hofpitality kept pace with them.

Inftead of a defcription of Bridgewater, we find _only_an account of admiral Blake, who was born there; and, at Enmore caftle, we are told how ancient caftles were built. The defcription of the view from the Quantoc-hills will furnifh a fpecimen of the manner in which Mr. Gilpin escapes from the country to his common-place book.

• From Enmore-caftle we afcended Quantoc-hills. Our views from the heights of Pontic were chiefly inland; but from the high grounds here, as we now approached the sea, we were entertained with beautiful coaft-views, which make a very agreeable fpecies of landfcape.

The firft fcene of this kind was compofed of Bridgewaterbay, and the land around it. We faw indeed the two illands of Flat-holms and Steep-holms, and the Welsh coaft beyond them; but they were wrapped in the ambiguity of a hazy atmosphere, which was of no advantage to the view. Hazinefs has often a good effect in a picturefque fcene. The variety of objects, hapes, and hues which compofe an extenfive landscape, though inharmonious in themfelves, may be harmoniously united by one Crit. Rev. Vol, XXIV. Dec. 1798.

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general tinge spread over them. But here the land bore fo fmall a proportion to the water, that as we could not have a picture, and expected only amufement, we wished for more diftinctnefs, We had it foon; for before we left our ftation, a light breeze arifing from the weft fwept away the vapours: the diftant coast became distinct, and many a little white fail appeared in different parts of the channel, which had been loft before in obfcurity.

. The going off of mifs and fogs is among the most beautiful circumstances belonging to them. While the obfcurity is only partially clearing away, it often occafions a pleafing contraft between the formed and unformed parts of a landscape; and like cleaning a dirty picture, pleases the eye with feeing one part after another emerge into brightness. It has its effect also, when it goes off more fuddenly." P. 161.

Another inftance follows:

As we approached Barnstaple, the view from fome of the high grounds is very grand, composed on one fide of Barnstaple-bay, and on the other of an extenfive vale; the vale of Taunton carrying the eye far and wide into its rich and ample bofom. It is one of thofe views which is too great a fubject for painting. Art, confined by the rules of picturefque compofition, must keep within the compass of inch, foot, and yard. But fuch flender confines cannot rouse the imagination like these extensive scenes of nature. The painter, jealous of his art, will fometimes deny this. If the picture, he tells us, be well painted, the fize is nothing. His canvas (however diminutive) has the effect of nature, and deceives the eye. You are affected, fays he, by a landscape seen through the pane of a window. Why may you not be equally affected by a landfcape well painted within the fame dimenfions?

It is true, the eye is frequently imposed upon. It is often purposely mifled by tricks of deception. But it is not under the idea of deception, that the real artist paints. He does not mean to impofe upon us, by making us believe that a picture of a foot long is an extended landfcape.. All he wishes is, to give fuckr characteristic touches to his picture, as thay be able to rouse the imagination of the beholder. The picture is not fo much the ultimate end, as it is the medium, through which the ravishing scenes of nature are excited in the imagination.-We do indeed examine a picture likewife by the rules of picturefque compofition: but this mode of examination we are not now confidering. The rules of compofition ferve only to make the picture anfwer more effectually its ultimate end. We are now confidering only the effect which the picture produces on the mind of the fpectator, by carrying him forcibly, and yet willingly, with his eyes open, into thofe 1 fcenes which it defcribes.' P. 175.

If the defcription of the natural bridge, in the back fettles ments of Virginia had a connection with our author's fubject, we fhould have felected it. The whole is an animated picturefque defcription, which, however, fuffers from being phyfically erroneous. We fhall copy humbler features, and Introduce the defcription of the falls of the Lid.

In our way, we were to pafs a bridge, which, we were informed, was thrown over the rocky fides of two frightful precia pices of the Lid, each eighty feet high. The idea was terrific; and we expected a very grand scene. But we were disappointed, from the omiffion of a fingle circumftance in the intelligence, which was, that the feparation between thefe two tremendous precipices is little more than the crevice of a rock; and, in fact, we had paffed it before we knew we had been upon it. It is only feen by looking over the battlements of the bridge. If the day be clear, you just discover the river foaming among rocks many fa thoms below. If not, you must be content with liftening to its roar. The mufic, however, is grand; for if the river be full, the hotes fwell nobly from the bottom, varied, as they are, by afcenda ing fo narrow and broken a funnel.' P. 179..

• The channel of the Lid, though contracted at the bridge, foort widens, both below it and above, and would afford many beautiful fcenes to thofe who had leifure to explore them. This river rifes about three or four miles above Lidford, on the edge of Dartmore, and flowing through a barren plain, finds a fall rocky barrier, through which it has, in a course of ages, worn a whimsical pafs fage. As it iffues from the check it meets with here, it falls about thirty feet into a small dell, which was not represented to `us as a scene of much beauty. But a little farther the banks rife on each fide; vegetation riots, the ftream defcends by a winding and rapid courfe; and the fkreens, though finall, are often beautifully adorned with wood and rock. By this time, the river approaches the bridge, where it is loft in the narrowness of the channel, and, as I have juft obferved, becomes almoft fubterranean.

From the bridge we proceeded directly to what are emphatically called the falls of Lidford, which are about three miles below. We alighted at a farm-house, and were conducted on foot to the brow of a fteep woody hill, from which we had a grand view of Lidford-caftle, which appeared now, at a diftance, more proudly feated than it feemed to be when we rode paft it. Of the river we faw nothing, but could eafily make out its channel, under the abutments of grand promontories, which marked its course,

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Having viewed this noble landicape, we defcended the hill by a difficult winding path, and at the hotton found the Lid. The appearance which the river and its appendages made here from the