Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/540

530 Thus the Brazilians of the interior consist of three original races,—the creole, the negro, and the Indian; and of two hybrid races,—the mulatto and the mameluco, making altogether five distinct reproducing classes. There is also a third hybrid variety, the cabocles. These have arisen from unions between negroes and Indian women; and though at present they form a recognisable variety, they will probably be absorbed in the ranks of the natives and share their fate.

the occurrence of the great earthquakes at Manilla, on the 3rd of June last, the following have been recorded:—

On the 19th of June, at noon, and an hour after, two shocks were felt at Anatolai, and the surrounding country, east of Constantinople; and on the 25th, at Rhodes, a slight shock, accompanied by subterraneous bellowings (mugissements).

At Jamaica and Spanish Town, two strong shocks are reported to have occurred recently, but no precise date is given.

On the 21st of August, at 5h. 15m. , at Setif in Algeria, the earth was slightly agitated during a period of about ten seconds. On the same day at 11, a shock was felt at Palmi and at Gerace, in Calabria; and a slighter one in the same locality at 9 o’clock on the following evening.

At Mont Dore (Puy de Dôme), between September 18, 6h. 20m.,, and September 19, 3h. 5m.,, eighteen shocks were felt, five of them so strong as to terrify the population, who in consequence passed a part of the night in the streets; and between 7h. 15m., on the 19th, and 5h. 8m., on the 20th, seventeen fresh oscillations, some of which, especially those that occurred during the night of the 19th, again compelled the inhabitants to quit their houses and bivouac in the street. These phenomena were accompanied by a noise resembling the roll of distant thunder.

Concerning the slight shock we in England have lately experienced, enough—perhaps too much—has been already said. The editor of a French scientific journal remarks, “Aucun incident qui mérite d’être relevé n’est cité dans les longues correspondances des journaux anglais.” J. C.

Alf we dismiss the carriage, and walk up the gorge to Bertrich in the cool of the evening. The beauties of the way are only suggested in the darkness, but the air is fragrant and full of music. The song of the nightingale, however, overpowers all other sounds, and one sometimes wishes that this accomplished artist would distribute himself more evenly over the face of the earth. He manages a duet very well, but it is a mistake for him to attempt a symphony—the many voices mar each other’s distinctness. An agreeable surprise, in the shape of a supper of delicious trout, awaits us at the Post at Bertrich. The dawn discovers a new world, and we seem to have been transferred in the night to some luxurious nook in the neighbourhood of the bay of Naples: no wonder that the Romans thoroughly appreciated the baths of Bertrich! Bertrich lies in a basin in the gorge of the Uesbach, which is here 700 feet deep, and joins that of the Alf by the Castle of Arras. It is a centre of volcanic disturbance, which has produced here hills of the softest outline and the most lovely colour. There are three slag-heads on the slate towards the edge of the tableland; of these two have craters, the third, the Falkenley, has only a depression in the centre. The Roman Kessel or Cauldron is a most lovely spot, formed by an amphitheatre of hills; in the midst is another hill, where the inspector of the baths, Captain Steffers, has built a pretty Protestant church to commemorate his wife. The Catholic church stands on another rock, evidently on the ruins of a Roman temple. In 1843, when the baths were being enlarged, the old Roman fountain was discovered, five feet broad and seven feet long, hewn in the rock twenty-seven feet deep, and also a public bath, twelve feet square, in which lay a large amphora. Coins were also found on the same occasion, several of Constantine, and a gold Vespasian. By an old record the place was named after one Saint Berticlus, who lived here as a hermit; but as it was known to the Romans under the name of “Baudriaci Fontes,” the name must be older than the age of saints. The water of the baths is comfortably warm, about twenty-five or twenty-six degrees Reaumur, and by no means disagreeable to drink, although it contains a proportion of Glauber’s salt. Bertrich rejoices in a profusion of shade; and its avenue of noble limes, cooled by the airs from the brook, make it a most desirable retreat in the dog-days. It is just such a place as Horace recommended to Tyndaris at that season:

An invalid who really wished to get well would surely come here, instead of seeking one of the crowded fashionable baths. Here the mind, which has more to do with ill-health than the body, would find repose, exquisite scenery, moderate prices, simplicity, and regularity; and the temper would not suffer, as it infallibly must in those dens of thieves and gamblers which are resorted to by the idle and wealthy of all nations and those who prey on them. On the brink of the brook are several stacks of basaltic columns. If we follow the course of the Uesbach for about half a mile above Bertrich we come on a spot where a tributary brook leaps into it; and over the waterfall is a rustic bridge, and by the side of the glen a path leading through a most remarkable cavern, which is commonly called the cheese-cellar, but which would-be refinement has endeavoured to rebaptise the Fairies’ Grotto. It consists of columnar basalt, which has crystallised into spheröides, or rough balls, and forms a Fingal’s Cave on a small scale. Its picturesque effect is much enhanced by the beautiful trailing