"The before busy bee-hive of the Bagnio, therefore, soon became a dreadful solitude. Its spacious inclosures, so lately teeming with tenants of every description, now began to present a void still more frightful than its former fulness. Universal silence, pervaded those endless galleries, but a few days before re-echoing with the confused din of thousands of prisoners, fighting for an inch of ground on which to lay their aching heads; and nothing any longer appeared that wore a human shape, except here and there some livid skeleton, which, as if again cast up by the grave, slowly crept along the clammy walls. When however the dire disease had devoured all that could of fer food to its voracity, it gradually fell like the flame which has consumed its fuel; and at last became extinct. What few miserable remains of the former population of the Bagnio had escaped its fury, were again restored to the regular sufferings of the place, suspended during the utmost height of the desolation." From this excellent description of the public prison of Constantinople, we further extract the author's portrait of a Maynote chief whom he met there, and whose resemblance to the hero of Lord Byron's Corsair will render it still more interesting to the admirers of his Lordship's poetry. "There are men so gifted, as, in whatever situation fate may place them, still contrive to inspire a certain awe and respect; and though fallen through dint of adverse circumstances into the most abject condition, still to retain over them an innate superiority. Of this sort was Mackari. He had been one of the chieftains of that small tribe of mountaineers, pent up in the peninsula of Mayno, who, like greater nations, claim dominion over the seas that gird their native rocks. He had only considered himself as acting conformably to his natural right, in capturing the vessels that trespassed on his domain without purchasing his permission; and in his conduct he neither discerned injustice nor treachery. His lofty soul therefore still preserved all its dignity amid his fallen fortunes. Patient under every insult, unruffled by torture, he was never heard to utter a sigh, to offer a remonstrance, or to beg a mitigation of his sufferings. Even when his keepers, unable to wrest from his scornful lip the smallest acknowledgement of their ingenuity in torturing, began to doubt their own powers, and, irritated at his very forbearance, resolved to conquer by a last and highest outrage his immoveable firmness; when with weights and pullies they forced down to the ground that countenance, which, serene in the midst of suffering, seemed only fit to face the Heavens; when they compelled him, whose mental independence defied all their means of coercion, constantly to behold the fetters that contracted his body, they only succeeded to depress his earthly frame; they were not able to lower his unbending spirit. Still calm, still serene as before, he only smiled at the fresh chains with which he was loaded; and at each new fetter added to his former shackles, his mind only seemed to take a loftier flight. "Yet,impassible as he appeared to his own woes, was he most feelingly alive to those of his companions. Of every new hardship which threatened to increase their sufferings, he uniformly stood forward to court the preference; and while his fortitude awed into silence the useless complaints of his troop, his self-devotion still relieved its real misery. One day when a ferocious soldier was going to fell with his club the comrade of Mackari's fetters, whom his manacled hands could not save from the blow, he opposed to the frightful weapon all he could command, his arm; which, broken by the stroke, fell by his side a wreck." "Thus did the Maynote captain's former crew still view in their chief, though loaded with irons like themselves, not only the master to whom they continued to pay all the obedience they could shew, but the protector on whom they depended for all the comfort they could receive. His very keepers were unable in his sight to shake off the awe felt by all who approached him. They confessed by their fears their nothingness in his pre sence: they scarce could derive a sufficient sense of security from all the fet ters which they had heaped upon their victim! In vain would he himself with a bitter and disdainful smile point to bis forlorn state, and ask what they apprehended from one on whom they might trample with impunity? The mere sound of his voice seemed to belie his words. It was the roar of a lion, dreaded even when emitted through the bars of his cage. And when, with shackles somewhat loosened in order to perform his daily labour, Mackari was enabled to raise his head and to resume his erect posture; when his majectic forehead shone far above the brows of his tallest companions; he looked like the cedar of Lebanon which, though scathed by the lightning from Heaven, still overtops all the trees of the forest; and the wretches to whose care he was committed, used immediately to recede to a fearful distance." LIVING INHABITANTS OF A FORMER WORLD. From the Edinburgh Magazine, Jan. 1820. LIVING TOADS FOUND IN STONES ARE PRODUCTIONS OF THE FORMER WORLD. BY THE RECTOR OF PABSDORF. THE HE occurrence of living toads in stones, is one of the most remarkable facts in natural history. Amongst many examples of this sort, we shall mention a few which put the matter beyond all doubt. A living toad was found in a large stone, at Newark on Trent, in England. It was of a white colour, measured three and a half inches, but appeared incapable any more of bearing the light. For all its motions argued an incompatible state, and an hour afterwards it died. But in this time it was seen by several hundred people. In a stone quarry, near Cassel, the workmen discovered three living toads lying together in a stone four feet long, three feet broad, and as many high, on the outside of which, before it was broken, not the slightest trace of an aperture was to be discovered. It was with difficulty that these animals could be brought from the spot they lay in, and as soon as they were taken out, they hopped in again. They appeared at first to be quite lively in the grass; but they died in half an hour. The fact cannot, therefore, be disputed, and I could, were it necessary to prove the truth of these appearances, quote many instances of this sort, which have been recorded. Some time since a living toad was found in slate, at Ruthenberg on the Saale. We shall not, therefore, detain ourselves longer on this point, but endeavour rather to explain Every thinking reader, the matter. who has not heard of this phenomenon, will consider such as wonderful, and many even unaccountable. It appears also at first sight to be impossible for a creature to be inclosed in stone, such a length of time, without dying of hunger, or being suffocated. Naturalists have endeavoured, to be sure, to shew, how this is possible; but no one has, if I remember, explained in what manner and when these animals came into the stones. In order to solve the first problem, it is said, the stone in which the toads existed, was probably a porous sandstone, which imbibed moisture from rain, which the animal inspired by means of its pores, or its sucking warts. For these animals can be kept long alive on wet blotting paper, which is moistened from time to time. It is also known that toads and frogs are very tenacious of life, and can fast a long time. An English naturalist made a trial, how long he could keep a toad without nourishment; he placed it in a pot,and buried it in the ground, closing it carefully. He forgot by chance to dig up the pot, until 2 or 3 years were elapsed. He found his toad still living, and buried it a-fresh. We have to wait the issue. But this explanation does not appear quite satisfactory to us. Such a creature can be preserved living by means of moisture or water, for a certain time. But many thousand years, how would that be possible? For we cannot ad mit of a shorter period, since which our rocks, even slate, lime, and sandstone, and who knows, even if it were a porous sandstone in which the toads lived. We can more easily explain how such an animal can exist and be preserved in a tree. For a living toad has been found in the cavity of a tree, which, according to its rings, must have been more than 80 years old. It probably had crept into a hole of one of its boughs, and had not been able to come out again; and the opening had in the course of time completely closed. Here it could easier subsist, than in hard stone, but the sequel will show, that the preservation of these animals does not depend upon nourishment, but upon another circumstance, and quite other causes. We come now to the second question, how and when the toads came into the stones. In order to render this clear to ourselves, we must remember, that besides our own present world, one has already preceded it, which contained, as ours, terrestrial and marine animals. Yet there was a time, when the whole continent was but an immeasurable ocean; as the secondary mountains, with their petrified beds of muscles, fishes, and sea productions prove. After some unknown great catastrophe, which our earth suffered, the sea at length disappeared, and from world of waters arose, if I may be allowed the expression, a world of land. There, where at present the plough turns up the soil, and countless corn fields shine with their golden harvests, where immense forests spread forth their luxuriant trees, amongst which numerous wild animals sport, where hills and mountains raise their varied summits, where herds of cattle graze, where rivulets and rapid streams wind thro' the vallies, and where cities and villages are now situated, there formerly raged the waves of this ocean-there swarmed hosts of animals, of numberless forms and magnitudes. a At the command of the Almighty the waters disappeared, and with them the then existing world of marine animals and of plants, which were thus placed upon the dry land. The bowels of the earth have preserved to our times the remains of such only as have withstood decay, and have become petrified. And the bottom of the sea became dry land, and the slime and mud it had left behind was hardened into stone. But another terrestrial world, besides the one of water above mentioned, must have existed before the present one was formed. This can be seen from the numerous remains of terrestrial animals and productions which we find in different countries, and which do not belong to the present period of the earth. There are as many and as large forests under the earth as there are above it, which have been buried thousands of years ago, and have been transformed into coal. There were formerly as many, perhaps more, large and small animals on the earth than there are at present. We must therefore suppose, that the sea and dry land have been continually changing places with each other on the surface of our earth, and that after each change of this description,'a new creation of animals and plants took place on it. For this reason we find, that wood in a state of coal, and the bones of quadrupeds, occur intermixed with marine productions in the same bed; nay, even under the bottom of the sea we discover river muscles,and the beds of former great rivers. It may be conjectured, that at a future transformation of the earth new intermixtures will arise, and the productions of our present world will be united with those of a former one, and rest with them in one common grave, in order to make place for a new and better world. It is impossible to determine the time when the last great transformation took place, which caused the former world to make place for this. But every one who knows how much time is necessary to produce a new creation of plants and animals out of the bosom of the earth, according to the laws of nature, must easily discern that many centuries must have passed away since that great catastrophe happened. The living toads already mentioned must have been inclosed in their stony prisons during this last revolution of the globe. For on the present period of the earth having commenced, and the productions of the former world being buried in mud and slime by the over- very tenacious of life, and has the adflowing of the sea, the whole surface of vantage of being able to pass a long the earth became turned into solid strata time without nourishment, in a state of by some unknown process of nature, torpor or sleep. The fact is still a and out of the sand-banks and coral problem which naturalists or zoologists reefs of the sea, arose the secondary will alone be capable of solving and limestone and sandstone mountains. which would be effected by anatomising The toads of the former world met with one of those fossil toads with the view the same fate as its fish and other ani- of ascertaining if it is an animal of the mals; they were covered and buried present or of the former world. The with mud. They would have perished white colour, which the English like their fellow creatures, in water or in toad had, leads us to suppose it as probmud, had not their peculiar organization able that it did not belong to our world, prevented this. These animals possess provided the length of time and the the property of sleeping and remaining want of air and nourishment had not in a state of torpor during the winter, changed its natural colour and bleached without having occasion for any nour- its body.-In the mean time, if such an ishment during the whole period. animal can exist for years in an old Frogs are often to be found, in winter, tree, or even in a stone, it is also capable in ice, and on its thawing, they are again of being preserved in a stony prison revived. And it is well known, that thousands of years, because, being frogs and toads, when the weather is asleep and in so confined a situation, no warmer than usual in the spring, come exhalation takes place from it, and, forth from their holes in the earth, and therefore, there is no occasion to replace commence a new life. During the great the lost animal juices by various nourrevolution of our globe, just mentioned, ishment. Wonderful phenomenon! when the whole animal and vegetable The toad, this ugly and much despised creation was buried under mud and animal, was of all others the only one earth; these toads met with a similar capable of undergoing this experiment fate, and were inclosed in their stony of nature, and, thereby, of viewing a prisons until they were released from second time the light of the world. All them by accident. They were obliged others, the most noble creatures, even to repose in them some thousand years man himself, had it not in his power to in a state of sleep, having no other live to see such a blessing. Man, with means in their power, otherwise they his fellow creatures, could only pass would have had a like fate with millions into the new world in a petrified state, of fishes and terrestrial animals, which the insects of a former world could only perished and became petrified. be preserved from complete ruin in amber, and the mammoth be partially preserved in ice, but the toad was capable, on account of its tenacious powers of life, and its peculiar nature, to pass from the old world into the new one in a living state, and by these means to be snatched from destruction. It has seen two worlds, having been an inhabitant of the old as well as the new one. has twice trodden the theatre of the world! But it may be said, that these toads might have been inclosed in stone at a later period, as these animals are fond of creeping into holes and cavities of the earth in order to sleep the winter. Even the toads which were found in closed alive in a tree must have coine there in this manner. It is also known, that in limestone quarries, new rocks, as calc-tuff, &c., are formed during a comparatively short period of time, and that these animals might, perhaps, have been inclosed through these means. But if insects of a former world could be preserved in amber, and mammoths in their full flesh in ice, a toad of the primeval world could well exist alive in stone, until the present world, as it is It How many useful considerations does the discovery not give rise to! How many weighty truths may not be traced from it! These toads, therefore, furnish us with a fresh proof of a former world. For, if they do not belong to our world, but are different from the present ani- remarkable nature. Here, we even find mals of the same species, which, however, must be more decidedly proved than at present, it is clear that there have been formerly other animals in the world than ours. Should they prove to be a new species, we shall have discov ered a new race of animals of a former world, and thus add one more to those already known. It were only necessary that Cuvier should discover or examine such a toad found in stone, and perhaps one more would be immediately added to the number of primeval auimals discovered by him. But the circumstance gives rise to other considerations; if the philosopher takes pleasure in endeavouring to penetrate the depths of futurity, and in exploring the future fate of our world, and of his fellow-creatures: it cannot be less agreeable and instructive to him to investigate the past, and to read the former fate of our present earthly inhabitants by the remains of a former world. Such an enquiry makes us acquainted with numerous interesting facts, and we shall now present our readers with a few of these. We fancy ourselves standing in the subterraneous caverns of a great limestone mine, and admiring the immense masses of rock, with its different layers and strata. On nearer inspection, we find that these masses of limestone teem with millions of shell-fish, and other remains of a former world, which must have ceased to exist thousands of years ago; that we are even standing on a former bottom of the ocean, and are surrounded by millions of marine animals, and other productions of the sea. On searching, we soon find a cornu ammonis, whose species is now extinct in the world; then a nautilus, now a gryphite, or a turbinite, or a pectinite, &c. &c. In these we discover beings which have a similitude to our present inhabitants of the ocean, but are differently constructed. Here we discover a petrified fucus, and remark in it the branch of a former marine plant. There we notice the remains of an encrinite, or lily stone, and discover, them to have been formerly marine animals of a a tooth, and recognise it to have belonged to an unknown animal of the former world, or of a fish whose race has been destroyed in a great revolution of the earth. There we discover a thigh-bone lying under the ruins of the former world, and immediately pronounce it to be part of a palaotherium. We cannot help expressing the most earnest wish to be better acquainted with this world of plants and animals for ever passed away. We often, in imagination, fancy to ourselves the delight we would experience could we have seen the former world, with its various productions, in their natural and living state, in order to compare them with their present terrestrial creation! but this is a wish which cannot be gratified. We are only capable of judging, from the scanty remains of the numerous productions of that early period, of their existence and properties. If the earth is to be again inundated with water, and its inhabitants destroyed and again peopled, the inhabitants of the new world will form nearly the same conception of the animals and vegetables of the present world as we form of those of the world which has preceded the present. But the ideas thus formed will be very imperfect. But do not let us make too hasty conclusions! On finding a piece of amber, we discover in it an insect of the former world, in all its natural beauty and form, as it has lived and breathed. At another time, in breaking a rock in pieces, in order to examine its correspondent parts, and to ascertain if it contains any marine organic remains-and behold! our wish of beholding animals of the former world alive in their natural form, is now accomplished. A living creature of the former period of the earth, a toad, which has withstood the decay of thousands of years, springs out of its prison, in which it has been secured against every injury. It awakes from its slumber, on beholding the renewed light which beams around it, and of whose beneficial influence it has been so long deprived, in order to convince us of the reality of a former world, and then after |