We now turn to the American expedition, which was prosecuted simultaneously with the other. Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, of the American Navy, in the U. S. ship Vincennes, with the Peacock, Porpoise, and Flying Fish, sailed from Sydney, New South Wales (where they completed their outfit), on the 24th December 1839, with instructions to proceed south as far as practicable, and cruise within the Antarctic Ocean. In a few days, the Peacock and Flying Fish parted company, and on the 10th January, in lat. 61°, they fell in with the first ice-island, and were obliged to alter their course frequently, to avoid the bergs, which increased in number as they proceeded to the south. On the 12th, in lat. 64° 11', long. 164° 53′ E., they ran into a bay of field ice, presenting a perfect barrier to their further progress south, and a fog coming on, the Porpoise parted company. The commander in the Vincennes being left alone, after an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate through the ice, turned to the W., and on the 16th rejoined the Peacock in lat. 65° 26', long. 157° 43′. On the morning of the 19th, they saw land (the very day when the French commodore first sighted it, and in the very same latitude), to the S. and E., with many indications of its proximity, such as penguins, seals, discoloration of the water; but the impenetrable barrier of ice prevented a near approach. They were now in lat. 66° 20′, long. 154° 27'. On the 22d, they fell in with large clusters of ice-bergs, and innumerable ice-islands, and on the 25th they reached the highest southern latitude they could attain, namely, 67° 4′, long. 147° 30': appearances of distant land were seen to the E. and W., but the vessel was embayed in ice, and an impenetrable barrier precluded their nearer approach. Magnetic observations were made on the ice. The dipping-needles gave 87° 30′ for the dip, and the azimuth compass was so sluggish, that, on being agitated, it gave nearly three points difference, the variations being 12° 35' E. A few days afterwards, about a hundred miles farther to the west, there was no variation, and thence it rapidly increased in westerly variation. Mr. Wilkes concludes from these facts, that, when in the ice bay, they could not have been very far from the south magnetic pole. On the 28th, after many repulses, they reached long. 140° 30′ and lat. 66° 33', where they again discovered land bearing south. A heavy gale from the S.E., with snow, hail, and thick fog, rendering their situation highly dangerous, compelled them to retreat through ice-bergs of formidable size. On the 30th the gale abated, and they ran towards the land about fifty miles, and reached a small bay, formed by high ice-cliffs and black volcanic rocks, with about sixty miles of coast in sight, extending to a great distance towards the southward, in high mountainous land. The breeze freshened to a strong gale, which prevented their landing, and compelled them to run out, after sounding in thirty-fathoms water; and within two hours afterwards, the ship was again reduced to her storm-sails, with a strong gale from the southward, accompanied by snow, sleet, and a heavy sea, continuing thirty-six hours, and, if possible, more dangerous than that of the 28th and 29th, owing to the large number of ice-islands around them. Lieut. Wilkes now received reports from the medical officers, representing the exhausted state of the crew and condition of the ship; but, deeming it his duty to persevere, he steered again for the land, which they named the Antarctic Continent. They reached it on the 2d of February, about sixty miles to the westward of the point first visited, where they found the coast lined with solid perpendicular ice-cliffs, preventing the possibility of landing, and the same mountains trending to the westward. Thence they proceeded to the westward along the ice-barrier, which appeared to make from the land, until the 3d, when they again encountered a severe gale from the south-east, with thick weather and snow, until the 7th of February, when it cleared up sufficiently to allow them to see their way clear, and they again approached the perpendicular barrier of ice, similar to that previously seen as attached to the land, the same land being in sight at a great distance. They stood along the barrier about seventy miles to the westward, when it suddenly trended to the southward, and their further progress to the south was arrested by a solid barrier of field-ice. After an unsuccessful examination for twenty-four hours in all directions, they continued to the westward along the barrier, as usual, surrounded by ice-islands. On the 8th, being in long. 127° 7′, lat. 65° 3′, they had similar appearances of distant mountains, but the compact barrier extending from E. to W. by S. prevented approach. They followed this barrier closely on the 10th and 11th, and on the 12th, being in lat. 64° 57', long. 112° 16', they again saw the distant mountains. Lieut. Wilkes was now again compelled to go on to the westward. The icy barrier trending more to the S. induced him to hope they should again approach the supposed line of coast. On the 13th they reached long. 107° 45', lat. 65° 11', with a tolerably clear sea, and the land plainly in sight; but the fixed barriers stopped them about fifteen miles from the shore. Next day, they got three or four miles nearer, but it appeared perfectly unattainable. Several ice-bergs were near, coloured and stained with earth, from one of which they obtained numerous specimens of sand-stone, quartz, conglomerate, and sand, some weighing 100 lbs. Their position was long. 106° 40', lat. 65° 57', with upwards of seventy miles of coast in sight, trending the same as that previously seen. The American commander had now reached the position where his examinations were to terminate, but he resolved to proceed to the westward along the barrier, which continued to be much discoloured by earth; and specimens of rock, &c. were obtained from an ice-island. A sea-leopard was seen on the ice, but the boats sent did not succeed in taking him. On the 17th of February, in long. 97°, 30', lat. 64°, land was again seen at a great distance from the S.W. They were now closely embayed, and unable to proceed in a westerly direction; the ice-barrier, trending round to the northward and eastward, compelled them to retrace their steps. They had entered a deep gulf on its southern side, and it required four days' beating along its northern shore to get out of it. During this time, the weather was changeable, and there was little room in case of bad weather; it fortunately held up until they were again with a clear sea to the north. The ice-barrier had now trended to about sixty-two degrees of latitude; the wind having set in from the westward, with dark weather, and little prospect of seeing the land or making much progress to the westward prior to the 1st of March, he determined to proceed to the north on the evening of the 21st. The result stated in this report leads Lieut. Wilkes to the following conclusions: 1st. From our discoveries of the land through forty degrees of longitude, and the observations made during this interesting cruise, with the similarity of formation and position of the ice during our close examination of it, I consider that there can scarcely be a doubt of the existence of the Antarctic Continent extending the whole distance of seventy degrees from east to west. 2d. That different points of the land are at times free from the ice-barrier. 3d. That they are frequented by seal, many of which were seen, and offer to our enterprising countrymen engaged in those pursuits a field of large extent for their future operations. 4th. That the large number of whales of different species seen, and the quantity of food for them, would designate this coast as a place of great resort for them. The fin-backed whale seemed to predominate. A brilliant aurora australis was seen on the 17th of February, the very day on which, sixty-seven years before, Captain Cook had witnessed the phenomenon, in nearly the same latitude, that able navigator not supposing that such an appearance had ever before been seen in the south. Thus, then, the problem of an Antarctic Continent has been so far satisfactorily solved, as that there can be no doubt of its existence. The coincidence of the two descriptions is a guarantee of the fidelity of both. Whether science, commerce, or civilization, be likely to reap any important fruits from the discovery, remains to be seen. SUFI POETRY. LINES AFTER THE PERSIAN OF HAKIM SANAI.* A LOVER on his death-bed lay, and o'er his face, the while, * For the original Persian text, see Asiatic Journal for March 1840, p. 161. F. MEMOIRS OF A GRIFFIN. CHAPTER I. PLEASANT days of my Griffinhood!-green oasis of life's desert waste !— thoughtless, joyous, happy season, when young Hope wore the sweetest smiles, and novelty broke sweetly upon a heart unsated by the world, with what fond and regretful emotions do I now look back upon you through the long, dim, dreary vista of five-and-twenty years! But I think I hear a raw reader exclaim, "Griffins! -are there griffins in the East?" Assuredly, sir. Did you never hear of the law of Zoroaster, quoted in Zadig, by which griffins' flesh is prohibited to be eaten? Griffins are so common at the different Presidencies of India, that nobody looks at them, and most of these animals are very tame." I will not, however, abuse the traveller's privilege. Griffin, or more familiarly a Griff, is an Anglo-Indian cant term applied to all new-comers, whose lot has been cast in the "gorgeous East." Whether the appellation has any connexion with the fabulous compound, the gryps or gryphon of armorial blazoning, is a point on which I feel myself incompetent to decide. A Griffin is the Johnny Newcome of the East,-one whose European manners and ideas stand out in ludicrous relief when contrasted with those, so essentially different in most respects, which appertain to the new country of his sojourn. The ordinary period of Griffinhood is a year, by which time the novus homo, if apt, is supposed to have acquired a sufficient familiarity with the language, habits, customs, and manners of the country, both Anglo-Indian and Native, so as to preclude his making himself supremely ridiculous by blunders, gaucheries, and the indiscriminate application of English standards to states of things to which those rules are not always exactly adapted. To illustrate by example :-a good-natured Englishman, who should present a Brahmin who worships the cow with a bottle of beef-steak sauce, would be decidedly "griffinish," particularly if he could be made acquainted with the nature of the gift; nevertheless, beef-steak, per se, is an excellent thing in an Englishman's estimation, and a better still with the addition of the before-mentioned condiment. But to return to our subject. At the termination, then, of the above-mentioned period, our Griffin, if he has made the most of his time, becomes entitled to associate on pretty equal terms with those sun-dried specimens of suffering humanity, familiarly called the "old hands:"-Subs of fifteen years' standing, grey-headed captains, and superannuated majors, critics profound in the merits of a curry, or the quality of a batch of Hodgson's pale ale. He ceases to be the butt of his regiment, and persecutes in his turn, with the zeal of a convert, all novices not blessed with his modicum of local experience. The Griff, when he joins his regiment, as junior, is commonly honoured with the appellation of " Boots," and a pair of these necessary articles of dress are not unfrequently transmitted to him, as insignia of office, by the sub whom he supersedes in this high dignity. The relator, on joining his regiment in the upper provinces of India, many years ago, a stranger to the humours of those amongst whom his lot had been cast, received a few days after his arrival a present of this sort. He was at first puzzled to understand this extraordinary proof of Indian liberality; but soon suspecting something in the shape of banter, with all the offended dignity of a junior sub, he breathed forth threats of vengeance. The boots, however, were a capital pair, and his stock of that article being none of the best, he pocketed the affront-in other words, kept them, and subsequent reflection, and the direction of his companions' laugh, soon convinced him that he acted wisely in so doing, and had by far the best of the joke. Youth is proverbially of a plastic nature, and the juvenile griffin, consequently, in the majority of instances, readily accommodates himself to the altered circumstances in which he is placed; but not so the man of mature years, to whose moral and physical organization forty or fifty winters have imparted their rigid and unmalleable influences. Griffins of this description, which commonly comprise bishops, judges, commanders-in-chief, and gentlemen sent out on special missions, &c., protract their griffinage commonly during the whole period of their stay in the country, and never acquire the knowledge which entitles them to rank with the initiated. The late most excellent Bishop Heber, for example, who to the virtues of a Christian added all the qualities which could adorn the scholar and gentleman, was nevertheless an egregious griffin, as a perusal of his delightful travels in India, written in all the singleness of his benevolent heart, must convince any one acquainted with the character of the country and natives of India. Autobiographers love to begin ab ovo, and I see no reason why I should wholly deviate from a custom doubly sanctioned by reason and established usage. It is curious sometimes to trace the gradual development of character in "small" as well as in "great" men; to note the little incidents which often determine the nature of our future career, and describe the shootings of the young idea at that vernal season when they first begin to expand into trees of good or evil. In an old manor-house, not thirty miles from London, on a gloomy November day, I first saw the light. Of the home of my infancy I remember little but my nursery, a long, bare, whitewashed apartment, with a tall diamond-paned window, half obscured by the funereal branches of a venerable yew-tree. This window looked out, I remember, on the village churchyard, thickly studded with the moss-grown memorials of successive generations. In that window-seat I used to sit for many a weary hour, watching the boys idling on the grave-stones, the jackdaws wheeling their airy circles round the spire, or the parson's old one-eyed horse cropping the rank herbage, which sprouted fresh and green above the silent dust of many a "village Hampden." The recollections of infancy, like an old picture, become often dim and obscure, but here and there particular events, like bright lights and rich Rembrandt touches, remain deeply impressed, which seem to defy the effects of time; of this kind is a most vivid recollection I have of a venerable uncle of my mother's, an old Indian, who lived with us, and whose knee I always sought when I could give nurse the slip. My great uncle Frank always welcomed me to his little sanctum in the green parlour, and having quite an Arab's notion of the sacred rights of hospitality, always refused to give me up when nurse, puffing and foaming, would waddle in to reclaim me. I shall never forget the delight I derived from his pleasant stories and the white sugar-candy, of which he always kept a stock on hand. Good old man! he died full of years, and was the first of a long series of friends whose loss I have had to lament. My father was, truly, that character emphatically styled "an Irish gentleman," in whom the suavity of the Frenchman was combined with much of the fire and brilliancy of his native land. Though of an ancient family, his fortune derived from an estate in the sister kingdom was very limited, the "dirty acres" having somehow or other, from generation to generation, become "small by degrees, and beautifully less." He was of a slender frame, and of that deli |