summer-houses of great beauty. The contrast between these fairy parterres and the venerable walls which tower above them, is very fine; and the whole is reflected by the water, which in many places is bordered by two of the most picturesque trees in nature, the willow and the weeping birch. Within the walls the streets are clean and cheerful, and present more the healthy aspect of a country village than of a walled city. With regard to any object of curiosity which U trecht may contain, I am ignorant, as the greater part of my time, from sun rise to sunset, was spent on the battlements. The morning after my are rival I met with a Dutchman, ex facie a school-master, who spoke to me in Latina At this I was somewhat a larmed; but I thought it better, at least to appear as learned as he. So I told him, in French, that I was an Hungarian priest; that Latin was my vernacular tongue and that I was travelling to Paris to acquire a more perfect knowledge of the French language, to speak which I was anxious to avail myself of every opportunity before visiting the capital. This had the desired effect. He tried no other dead language and as he spoke French with as much awkwardness as I did myself, escaped detection. Among other pieces of information, he told mey what I perhaps ought to have known before, that Utrecht is one of the oldest towns in Holland; that in the time of the Romans it was a mere ferry called. Trajectum, afterwards Trajectum Ulpii, out of respect to Ulpius Trajan; and that from these the present name was derived. He also informed me, that there is in this neighbourhood a colony of Moravian brethren of the simplicity and propriety of whose manners he gave an interesting accounts The females are distinguished, according to their age, by saa differences in the colour of the riband upon their caps. Rose colour #characterizes the children under twelve years old from that period till the age of eighteen, yellow and a deeper red are worn a pale rose colour is then assumed, which is kept till mar riage after which the colour is sky bluer Widows wear white ribands jusga la mort but I forgot to ask if any change is effected in this matter by second marriage thai-sent B was much" delighted with my. VOL. I. journey hither from Amsterdam. It was a lovely night, with a glorious moon; and the sky was brighter and more blue than I should have expected to see it in so low a country as Holland. The sides of the canal are adorned with many villas, surrounded by gardens and shrubberies, which have summer-houses close upon the water's edge; and those balmy airs, which I have already described, were more than usually refreshing, after the close and heated atmosphere of the ruim. We glided smoothly along from one fine grove to another, with the moon and her attendant image on the still water, either sailing along with us, as if competing with each other, or suddenly obscured and darkened by the dense foliage of some majestic tree. Rotterdam. Having been rather amused with the scene presented by my last noeturnal voyage, I again embarked in the evening, and travelled during the night from Utrecht to Gouda. In the ruim I found as motley a group as on the former occasion. The company was, however, very musically inclined. One man commenced operations by whistling a tune, another hummed, and a third sung aloud. Matters did not stop here. A young man produced a flute, and an old one a fiddle, and to it they set, whistlers, hummers, singers, flute-players, and fiddlers, all together, and produced amongst them no inharmonious concert. The love of music, indeed, seems a prominent feature in the character of the lower classes in Holland, and the only amusement which I have observed capable of making them withdraw their tobacco-pipes from their mouths. This effect, however, it does not always produce, for I have frequently seen them smoke and sing at the same time. In Holland, indeed, a pipe is absolutely necessary in the performance of every duty-moral, physical, and commercial. 2010 I arrived at Goud Just as the sun appeared above the horizon, which in this country is at a very early hour. As there is not a cliff or mountain within the visible diurnal sphere,” the sun is seen emerging, as if from the plain of the ocean, without an ob jest to intercept his horizontal rays. There is indeed a feature of the pic turesque in Holland, and a very grand one too, which I have never seen mentioned by any traveller. A short time before sunrise, each field and meadow, as far as the eye can reach, is covered by an impenetrable mass of the whitest mist, resembling a sea of cotton, through which, like so many beautiful cazes in the desert, the tops of villages, with the spires of churches, and tall poplars, are seen in every direction. These vapours, when about to be dispersed by the solar beams, assume a variety of forms and colours, and exhibit, through their airy case ments, rich glimpses of the verdant meadows sparkling with the morning dew. I believe there is nothing remarkable in Gouda. In it the two Crabreths flourished, celebrated as glasspainters, I think, in the sixteenth century. Some of their works adorn the windows of the principal church. It is also worthy of remembrance as the birthplace of Hartsoeker. From Gouda to Rotterdam, probably owing to the nature of the country, there is no direct conveyance by water; so, after being obliged to submit to an affectionate salute from an old man, with whom I had a good deal of conversation in Dutch, (not very classical—its chief ingredient, on my part, being borrowed from a sister language, the broad Scotch,) and who insisted upon treating me to a glass of gin, which, together with the snuff from his shirt-ruffle, brought tears to my eyes on this most melancholy occasion,-I departed in the diligence, and arrived at Rotterdam in good time for breakfast. Here I fancy myself quite at home, from the aspect of a few streets and canals being familiar to me, in consequence of my former visit. I believe I shall not be able to discover any thing new in Rotterdam, or worthy of note; and shall therefore, in all probability, prepare to-morrow for my journey to the Netherlands. I consider the Dutch to be a civil obliging people, willing enough to accommodate travellers, though probably seldom inclined to sacrifice their own interests for the welfare of others. In as far as I have gone, I can say, with truth, that I am not sensible of having been imposed upon by any one, pr of having been treated with neglect where I had any right to expect atten⚫ tion. Ther cleanliness and sobriety are beyond praise; and their honesty, with the exception of coasters and idle seamen, who proffer their services in taking you on shore, and who are rogues all the world over,—I have had no reason to doubt. The love of gain seems their ruling passion; but, dăclusive of Jews, who are very nuna. ous in this country, I am not war that they employ any mean or dishtourable artifices to promote its gratifcation. Talking of the gentlemen, leads, by a natural transition, to the he They are in general a handsome ra though, I believe, in proportion t their numbers, there are more benti ful women among the Jews in Halland, than among the Dutch, properly so called. The beauty of the highe ranks did not appear to me to be in a degree peculiar, or national, but admi ted of great variety; as I frequent observed in the same town, feature which would have been considered, in the respective countries, as characteristic of Britain, France, Germany, and Spain. The Batavian embonpoint more frequently exemplified by the men than by the women. somme In some parts of Holland, particu larly at Haarlem and Enchuisen, the occasion of a birth, a piece of suk with a lace border, four or five inches in diameter, sometimes round, times square, is pasted on the outside of the lady's door, as an intimation to the world, that is, the neighbour each side of her house, of this import ant event. In our own country, s was informed by an elderly gentleman in Amsterdam, the same information, however attempted to be disguised, and indeed solemnly denied, were you to assert such a thing, is conveyed by a paper, entitled, " Please call at the low door," as if, the old gentleman added, any gentleman not paid for it, accept of such an invitation, or call by a route appropriated exclusively for servants, attorneys' clerks, sick-nurses in long silk cloaks, and square sterbed femmes sages. Many of our remote ancestors, I am credibly assured by several old women and some antiqua. ries, had only it seems one door, and that sometimes low enough. Even at present, I am told, that some decent looking people reside at this moment in many parts of Britain, up sometimes one pair of stairs, and sometimes up would half a dozen; that there they contrive, nobody knows how, actually to have children, and that *Buirdly chiels and clever hizzies, Are bred in sic a way as this is." Long before the days of Tristram Shandy, there must have been something magnificent naturally associated with the idea of parturition, I mean among females; for as to the male animal chiefly concerned, it has been remarked, that on such occasions he has rather a sober, pitiful, sneaking, aspect. Even a hen in an outhouse cannot drop an egg quietly. No there is incontinently such a clack and hullyballoo set up in the neighbourhood, in which the cock, too, like a fool, sometimes joins, as is absolutely intolerable. A learned friend of mine, who has studied all languages, particu`larly that of birds, and who pretends he can converse with them, assures me, that all this cackle and uproar in the hen-house, is nothing more than *Please call at the low door."* X. Y. Z. GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON STRATHEARN. fied it; but those immense masses, which constitute what are called the primary mountains, seem in a great measure to have remained unaltered during the subsequent convulsions that produced the secondary structure, and gave to the universal body its present unequal appearance: But a smooth and uninterrupted surface was incom➡ patible with those laws which are supposed to have been called into action in the formation of the earth; and though it is not necessary, on the present occasion, to enter into the merits of the contending Volcanic and Neptunian theories, we must still be conscious, that many series of facts constantly presented to our view on the exterior, as well as those that have been explored in the bowels of the earth, are consistent with, and may very plausibly be attributed to, the influence of both powers. For the purpose of exhibiting an object of geology more immediately within the reach of our own observation, we shall confine our remarks to an extraordinary change to which the beautiful and fertile valley of Strathearn has anciently been subjected; and which, though perhaps of less importance to the naturalist than the prodigious altitudes and extensive THE wonderful revolutions to which dales of the Alps and Andes, are still the surface of the globe has been sub-worthy of admiration, as this tract possesses a variety of subjects interesting to the student of nature, and to the lover of her sublime and picturesque beauties. MR EDITOR, jected since its primary formation, have of late years claimed the attention of philosophers. Those changes, almost every where apparent, have 1 given rise to new theories no less singular than satisfactory, and have excited a desire in mankind to become acquainted with the causes by which those extraordinary phenomena have been occasioned, and which, in former times, either escaped their notice, or appeared so mysterious and inscrutable as to preclude all research. The human mind cannot now form any conception of that aspect which the surface of the earth originally had bassumed, though it cannot be doubted, that, from the various agents employved in the mighty operations of nature, exerted in giving form and stability to our planet, considerable irregularity must all along have diversi الي The great chain of the Grampian mountains, which constitutes the northern, as the Ochil hills do the southern,, boundary of this valley, are in many parts composed of primitive matter; but in several places this formation is surmounted by secondary rock of various character and diversity of alternation and position. The portion of those mountains in the vicinity of Lochearn, and what forms the immediate limits of that lake, is not wholly granitic, their exterior being covered with wacke, different species of shistus, lime, and sandstone. Some beds of trap are also visible in its usual linear direction, traversing these rocks without regard to their stratification, and always disposed in vertical walls. But the most striking features in the district of Strathearn are, the surprising changes that the ground undergone by the different courses which the river has taken at various periods. These alterations are very evident in travelling along this extensive tract, from the departure of the river out of its parent lake to its confluence with the Tay, a distance of near thirty miles, as the numerous channels by which it has run may be traced with tolerable accuracy. It appears almost certain, that Lochearn at one time had extended to more than double its present magnitude, having occupied the whole of the flat from its south-eastern extremity to Ochtertyre, covering the great plain on which the village of Comrie, the remains of the Roman camp of Dalginross, the Victoria of Ptolemy, and many farm-houses now stand." This opinion is strengthened and rendered satisfactory by an examination of the surrounding country, or what originally marked the borders of the lake, where the soil and banks formed by the water are visible, and still retain their first appearance, although for ages submitted to the operations of agriculture. The soil over all this flat is also of a decisive character, being composed of water, gravel, and alluvion, as almost all the stones that have been dug up are round or elliptical, the certain effects of water; and this is particularly the case in the neighbourhood of Ochtertyre, along the road from Crieff to Comrie. On the south side of the valley, near the House of Struan, there is a large concretion of breccia, the composition of which is sand, and stones that have undergone attrition by the action of water, and have been consolidated by the admixture of metallic oxide. This species of rock is not commonly to be met with in the interior of the kingdom, and in no situation but where considerable bodies of water either now are, or have formerly been. On the western shores of Scotland it is frequently seen; but we are not acquainted with its appearance in masses of great magnitude at a distance from the coast, nor in situations of very lofty eleva tion. It has been supposed, by many learned Antiquaries, that on this spacious plain was fought the celebrated battle of the Grampians, betwixt the Caledonian and Roman armies and, certainly, the names of many places in the neighbourhood go far to sanction such a belief The efflux of Lochearn, in its then extensive form, seems to have been different from the course which the river at present follows in leaving the plain of Dalginross, and appears to have passed from Ochtertyre, whose lakes are the remains of the ancient eastern boundary, along the hollow at the manse of Monivaird, near to which it was joined by the water of Turret At the present day, the old and per haps original bed of the river Earn can plainly be traced along the west side of the town of Crieff, where it still intersects two of the streets, sweeping, in a circular direction, the base of the hill on which that town is built, and passing eastward, held its course upwards of 90 feet higher than the present river. Pursuing that direction, it appears to have made sev eral windings until it reached Abercairney, whence it continued its chap nel, with little variation from a straight line, nearly due east, running along the tract of the Powaffery river, now a retrograde stream, over the valley where moulder the ruins of the abbey of Inchaffery; and, holding the same line, passed below the House of Bal gowan, and the Castle of Methven, until it joined the Water of Almond at Pitcairn Green, at that period probably an arm of the sea, which then certainly covered large portions of the flat land along the banks of the Tay near Perth. Over the whole of this ground undoubted proofs of the ef fects of water are evident, by an ex amination of the debris collected at different times, which form a variety of strata, and contain boulder stones of many species, brought from the mountains by successive floods and inundations of the river. But, after the river had ceased to flow by the course which it has thus been supposed primarily to have taken, the valley of Strathearn seems to have undergone other considerable revolu tions from the changes of its river. We have said that Lochearn, at cording to its original expanse, formed a lake, from its western extremity to the house of Ochtertyre, of twenty miles catastrophe which diminished it to the long, but of irregular breadth. The present size, and gave the river a new direction, does not seem inexplicable. It is the opinion of many profound ge ologists, that the western mainland of Scotland, with its numerous islands and promontories, were anciently united, forming a compact and undivided continent; but that, by tremendous convulsions, produced by general, as well as by partial earthquakes, a disjunction of the primary structure was effected, and occasioned that separation of is lands from the mainland, and on the mainland, that astonishing irregulari ty of coast, so indented with arms of the sea, which renders its navigation so intricate, but gives to the minera logist an ample field of research, and to the painter an admirable display of sublime scenery. To the cause that has produced such wonderful phenomena, do we also attribute the reduc tion of ancient Lochearn. The departure of the river from the great level plain of Dalginross, the former bottom of the lake, is through a narrow chasm, the sides of which appear at one time to have been united, as they are composed of the same materials, and were disjoined by some of those convulsions of the earth, which, even of late years, have been so common in that vicinity. This dis stances, a particular description might not be generally interesting. The deep chasms, however, exhibit some objects of mineralogical curiosity, and the steep banks expose a series of alluvial stratification, illustrative of the revolutions to which the soil and surface of mountainous countries are liable. Having exhausted too much of your time, on a subject of little importance perhaps to your readers, we have only to observe, that in pursuing similar objects of inquiry, sources of rational amusement may be developed, which may ultimately lead to the acquisition of knowledge, and the prosecution of useful science, while they must direct the mind to the contemplation of that Power whose wisdom has ordered, and whose omniscience has regulated, the magnificent and wonderful operations of nature, so constantly under our observation. DICALEDON. Crieff, Aug. 1, 1817. union must have been sudden, though, MEMORANDUMS OF A VIEW-HUNTER. from the very remote period at which we may believe it took place, no calamitous consequences as to human life could have happened, as the kingdom was probably not inhabited for many subsequent ages. By the sudden separation of this hill, the north side of which was washed by the lake, an impetuous and irresistible discharge of water would be the consequence, which, forcing its way through a different tract of country from the former stream, must have carried every opposing substance before it, and speedily have formed a new channel for it self. But this latter course, from passing along a more enlarged plain than formerly, has produced considerable alterations on the face of the country, which is evidently broken by deep hollows that have been washed out by the stream. The river in the plain near Comrie, has taken various channels after the ground was drained by the breaking out of the water that anciently covered it; and when it descends below Crieff, the whole low land is marked by the numerous courses it has pursued at different periods. To trace these windings is not an arduous undertaking; but, excepting in a few in No III. Calais. Took a very cursory view of the town, as I meant to return through it. Not so large as Dover. It has a very good market place, or square, of the country town sort: the streets are tolerably wide and straight, and the houses respectable for a place of its size. It has an air and cast of the French towns; but I perceived less Frenchness, both in its buildings and in the dress and manners of its inhabitants, than in any other town in France. Indeed, in London, our women, since the peace, had so entirely abandoned their own simple and natural mode of graceful dress, and imitated the late fantastic French style in so burlesque a way, that, on crossing the water, I really began to imagine that simplicity in dress had changed countries. I saw ornaments on the French side, I own, which it would have been more truly ornamental to have been without; but, contrasting what I saw with the grotesque habiliments of our r London belles, I thought I had got again among a more natural kind of |