it is. The Grotto del Cane may be entered by a grown-up human individual with impunity, because the poisonous gas, on which its energy depends, is so heavy that it does not rise sufficiently high to be breathed, though a dog's nose and mouth being below the level of the poisonous emanation, the animal soon dies. The poison valley of Java is something like the Grotto del Cane on a gigantic scale. There is a difference, however, between the two as regards the kind of poisonous gas contained in each. That of the Grotto del Cane is carbonic acid gas-the same gas which is evolved from burning charcoal, from ginger-beer and soda-water, champagne, cider, and brewers' vats; but the poisonous air of the Java valley must contain, from the description we now have of it, other gases than the carbonic acid. Most probably the gas to which its energy is due is hydrosulphuric acid, or sulphureted hydrogen; but the chemical reader shall judge for himself from the description of Mr. Alexander Loudon, who visited the pestilential spot in July, 1830. This gentleman was fortunate in being able to find natives ready to take him to the poisoned valley, which they hold in great dread. A previous traveler had heard a very faithful account of it by the natives, but could not find any person who would show him its locality. Loudon heard for the first time of the poison valley, called by the natives "Gueva Upas," July 3, 1830, during a walk one morning with a native chief, who told him there was a valley only three miles from Batum, which no person could enter with out forfeiting his life; and that the bottom of the place was covered with the skeletons of birds, and beasts, and human beings. Mr. Loudon having communicated this intelligence to some of the Dutch authorities, it was agreed that a party of exploration should be made up, and the poison valley should be visited. "I had heard," says Mr. Loudon, that a lake existed on the summit of one of the mountains, and that it was dangerous to approach very near the banks of this lake; but of the poison valley I had never heard before; the accounts of it now were so very extraordinary that I did not believe them." Mr. Early on the 4th of July, 1830, Mr. Loudon and his fellow-excursionists set out on their exploration. The valley, as correctly stated by the natives, was only VOL. X.-37 The three miles from Batum. So far was there from being an absence of vegetation in its vicinity, as had been anticipated, that a Mr. Daendels, a gentleman in the Dutch service, ordered a path to be made through the dense brushwood, to facilitate the progress of the explorers. Mr. Loudon took with him two dogs and some fowls, as subjects of experiment. Arriving at the foot of the mountain, they left their horses, and scrambled up the mountain side, holding on for security by the branches of trees. The explorers were very much fatigued before they got up, the path being very steep and slippery. When within a few yards of the edge of the valley, a sickening, nauseous, suffocating smell was experienced; but no sooner did Mr. Loudon and his companions come close to the place, than the smell ceased. Mr. Loudon shall now speak a few words for himself: "We were lost in astonishment," he relates, "at the awful scene below us. valley was an oval excavation, about half a mile in circumference; its depth from thirty to thirty-five feet. The bottom quite flat; no vegetation, not even a blade of grass, but abundance of stones, like river-stones in appearance, and covered thickly with skeleton's of human beings, tigers, pigs, deer, peacocks, and a great variety of other birds and animals." Mr. Loudon, as soon as his first impressions had abated, began to look about for the cause of the desolation there apparent. He examined for clefts or crevices, through which the escape of gas might take place, but he could not find any. The bottom of the valley appeared unbroken, and to be composed of a white sandy material. The sides of the valley from top to bottom were found covered with vegetation, both trees and shrubs. One adventurous person proposed to enter the valley-a proposal, however, which Mr. Loudon considerately declined, and which the proposer himself did not carry into practice. All managed, however, by exercising great care, to descend within eighteen feet of the bottom. Still no difficulty of breathing was experienced; only a sickly, nauseous smell. The deadly character of the emanations of the valley may be judged of from the result of certain painful experiments made A dog was fastened to the end of a bamboo, eighteen feet long, and sent in. Some members of the party had stop-watches, by which the exact duration of life in the valley was determined. In ten seconds the animal fell on his back, overcome by the poisonous gas; he neither barked nor moved his limbs, but continued breathing for about eighteen minutes. The second dog broke loose from the bamboo, and walked in of his own accord to the spot where the other dog was lying. He then stood quite still for ten seconds, when he fell on his back, and only continued to breathe for seven minutes. The first of the fowls was now thrown in; it died in a minute and a half. A second fowl was dead before touching the ground. On the side of the valley, opposite to where Mr. Loudon stood, he saw the skeleton of a human being bleached quite white, and lying on a large stone. The skeleton was lying on its back, with the right hand under the head. Mr. Loudon wished to procure this skeleton, but he was unable to do so. This, and other human skeletons existing in the poison valley, are supposed to have been those of rebels, who, pursued from the main road, had taken refuge here, ignorant of the fatal nature of the place. are interested in the sanitary welfare of the community ought to be stirred up by the reflection, that through our want of caution we are often allowing the very gases that constitute the destructive properties of the upas valley, to do their deadly work upon the population in the midst of us. Were it desirable for any reason to purify the poison valley of Java, there is reason to believe, from the description of the locality furnished to us by Mr. Loudon, that it could be effected by the exercise of moderate engineering skill. Sulphureted hydrogen gas, like carbonic acid gas, is very heavy; it remains at the bottom of a vessel just as a liquid would do.. If, therefore, the poison valley were tapped, like a barrel, at its lowest part, all the foul air would run away, and, mixing with the external air, would soon be diluted to such an extent, that no practical harm would ensue. When sulphureted hydrogen is mixed with air in very small proportions, it may be breathed with impunity. In point of fact, we breathe it every day of our lives, especially such of us as live in cities; nay, it is continually evolved from our hair. A curious point may here be mentioned in reference to this evolution: sulphureted hydrogen has the property of turning black certain metallic compounds which are brought in contact with it. Among the metallic compounds in question, those of lead and bismuth are conspicuous. If, therefore, hair be smeared with a paste into which litharge (oxyd of lead) enters, and cutaneous exhalation retarded by a cap of oil-skin, the hair is dyed black, although the dye itself be light red. Of this kind is the ordinary hair-dye. That oxyd of bismuth is changed to black, has been discovered by ladies more than once, to their cost. Some mineral waters, among which that of Harrowgate is a fahy-miliar example, contain this offensive gas dissolved; and oxyd of bismuth, owing to its pearly whiteness, has sometimes been used as a skin pigment. Certain incautious fair ones have before now emerged from a bath of the Harrowgate waters in a most alarming state of blackness, the cause of which the chemical reader will be at no loss to understand. The blackness, however, is not permanent; and if the accident causes a lady to reflect on the folly of using skin cosmetics, it will not have occurred in vain. It is a pity that Mr. Loudon, when he was about it, did not procure a bottleful of the gas which pervades this poisonous locality. Had he done so, analysis might have settled the nature of it. The chemical reader, however, will be convinced, from various points of the description, that sulphureted hydrogen, if not the sole gaseous poison there, must be a constituent of it to a very large degree. And a very terrible poison it is, too. Some years ago a curious experiment was made with it at the Veterinary College at Lyons. The object proposed was to determine whether a horse could be killed with it by mere absorption through the skin. For this purpose the poor animal was inclosed, all but the head, in an india-rubber bag, containing air mixed with twelve per cent. of sulphureted drogen gas. The conditions of the experiment of course permitted the horse to breathe atmospheric air; nevertheless, he died. This is the gas which accumulates in graveyards, cesspools, and other places where animal matter is collected. Accidents originating with it have been particularly frequent at Paris, where the conditions are such that large amounts of animal matter accumulate, and are allowed to remain for considerable periods in domestic establishments. Surely all who AT summer eve, when Heav'n's aerial bow Spans with bright arch the glittering hills below, Why to yon mountain turns the musing eye, Whose sunbright summit mingles with the sky? Why do those cliffs of shadowy tint appear More sweet than all the landscape smiling near? "Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue. Thus, with delight, we linger to survey The promised joys of life's unmeasured way; Thus, from afar, each dim-discover'd scene More pleasing seems than all the past hath been; And every form, that Fancy can repair From dark oblivion, glows divinely there. What potent spirit guides the raptured eye To pierce the shades of dim futurity? Can Wisdom lend, with all her heav'nly power, The pledge of Joy's anticipated hour? Ah, no! she darkly sees the fate of manHer dim horizon bounded to a span; Or, if she hold an image to the view, 'Tis nature pictured too severely true. With thee, sweet Hope! resides the heav'nly light, That pours remotest rapture on the sight: Thine is the charm of life's bewilder'd way, That calls each slumb'ring passion into play: Waked by thy touch, I see the sister band, Primeval Hope, the Aönian Muses say, When Man and Nature mourn'd their first decay; When every form of death, and every woe, Sprung on the viewless winds to Heav'n again; Thus, while Elijah's burning wheels prepare, From Carmel's height, to sweep the fields of air, The prophet's mantle, ere his flight began, Dropp'd on the world-a sacred gift to man. Congenial Hope! thy passion-kindling pow'r, How bright, how strong, in youth's untroubled hour! On yon proud height, with Genius hand in hand, I see thee light, and wave thy golden wand. "Go, Child of Heaven! (thy winged words proclaim,) "Tis thine to search the boundless fields of fame! Lo! Newton, Priest of Nature, shines afar, Scans the wide world, and numbers every star! Wilt thou, with him, mysterious rites apply, And watch the shrine with wonder-beaming eye? Yes, thou shalt mark, with magic art profound, The speed of light, the circling march of sound; With Franklin grasp the lightning's fiery wing, Or yield the lyre of Heav'n another string. "The Swedish sage admires in yonder bow'rs, His winged insects, and his rosy flow'rs; Calls from their woodland haunts the savage train With sounding horn, and counts them on the plain : So once, at Heav'n's command, the wand'rers came To Eden's shade, and heard their various name. "Far from the world, in yon sequester'd clime, Slow pass the sons of Wisdom, more sublime; Calm as the fields of Heav'n, his sapient eye The loved Athenian lifts to realms on high, Admiring Plato on his spotless page, Stamps the bright dictates of the Father sage: 'Shall Nature bound to Earth's diurnal span The fire of God, th' immortal soul of man?' "Turn, Child of Heav'n, thy rapture-lighten'd eye To Wisdom's walks, the sacred Nine are nigh: Hark! from bright spires that gild the Delphian height, From streams that wander in eternal light, Ranged on their hill, Harmonia's daughters swell The mingling tones of horn, and harp, and shell; Deep from his vaults, the Loxian murmurs flow, And Pythia's awful organ peals below. "Beloved of Heav'n! the smiling muse shall shed Her moonlight halo on thy beauteous head; name; Then weave in rapid verse the deeds they tell, And read the trembling world the tales of hell. "When Venus, throned in clouds of rosy hue, Flings from her golden urn the vesper dew, And bids fond man her glimmering noon employ, Sacred to love and walks of tender joy; While Beauty's deeply pictured smiles impart "Yes; to thy tongue shall seraph words be given, And pow'r on earth to plead the cause of Heav'n; The proud, the cold, untroubled heart of stone, That never mused on sorrow but its own, Unlocks a generous store at thy command, Like Horeb's rocks beneath the prophet's hand. The living lumber of his kindred earth, Charm'd into soul, receives a second birth; Feels thy dread pow'r another heart afford, Whose passion-touch'd harmonious strings ac cord True as the circling spheres to Nature's plan; And man, the brother, lives the friend of man! "Bright as the pillar rose at Heav'n's command, When Israel march'd along the desert land, Propitious Pow'r! when rankling cares annoy same O there, prophetic Hope! thy smile bestow, And chase the pangs that worth should never know There, as the parent deals his scanty store What though for him no Hybla sweets distill, Arcadian beauty on the barren heath; The days of peace, the sabbath of his years, Lo! at the couch where infant beauty sleeps, Where is the troubled heart, consign'd to share Tumultuous toils, or solitary care, Chide not his peace, proud Reason! nor destroy The shadowy forms of uncreated joy, |