NARRATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION: THIRD NOTICE.

In stirring adventure, delineation of character, and pleasing or beautiful description of natural objects, the narrative is rather deficient. Com- mander Wilkes has an eminently prosaic, not to say commonplace turn 'of Mind. If he has a taste for any one pursuit more than another, it is the- accumulation of statistical details, and indulgence in political disser- tation of no very original or philosophic character. A pretty stern dis- Ctdicarian., he had little toleration for the excursive propensities of the scientific gentlemen attached to the expedition : he is rarely touched by' the beauties of external nature, and apparently has no very great pleasure even in the rehearsal of past dangers. The most laboured parts of the book are the politico-statistical essays on the South American States and New South Wales ; and the whole tenour of the work is repulsively dry and commonplace. It was impossible, however, for any human being to pass through such varied and magnificent scenes without being occasion- ally transported beyond his habitual phlegm; and accordingly, Coup. mender Wilkes does occasionally rise above himself and become interest- ing. For example, a kind of breathless expectation is excited by the perusal of the following passage in his Antarctic adventures. It began to blow very hard, with a snow-storm circtunscrihing our view. The cold was severe, and every spray that touched the ship was immediately converted into ice. a a * We found ourselves thickly beset with icebergs, and had many narrow escapes; the excitement became intense; it required a con- stant change of helm to avoid those close ahead; and we were coml.ed to press the ship with canvass in order to escape them, by keeping her to windward. We thus passed close along their weather-sides and distinctly heard the roar of the surf dashing against them. We had from time to time glnlases of their obscure

outline, a 'mg as though immediately above us. The gale was

awful, and the sea so heavy that I was obliged to reduce sail. • • I fell that neither prudence nor foresight could avail in protecting the ship and crew. Allthat could be done was to prepare for any emergency by keeping every one at his station. We were swiftly dashing on; for I felt it neeeqssry to keep the ship under rapid way through the water, to enable her to steer and work quickly. Suddenly many voices cried out, Ice ahead! and then, 'On the weather-bow and again, On the lee-bow and abeam!' All hope of escape seemed in a mo- ment to vanish: return we could not, as large ice islands had just been passel to leeward: so we dashed on, expecting every moment the crash. The ship in an instant, from having her lee-gunsunder water, rose upright; and so close were we passing to one of those huge islands, that our trysails were almost thrown abaci by the eddy wind. All was DOH still except the distant roar of the wild storm, that was raging behind, before, and above us; the sea was in great agita- tioni and both officers and men were in the highest degree excited. The ship continued her way; and as we proceeded, a glimmering of hope arose, for we accidentally had hit upon a clear passage between two large ice islands, which in fine weather we should not dare to have ventured through. The suspense endured while making our way between them was intense, but of short duration; and my spirits rose as I heard the whistling of the gale grow louder and louder before us, as we emerged from the passage. We had escaped an awful death, and were again tempest-tost."

Perhaps the personal hazard of a single individual during a voleanic eruption in Hawaii (Owhyhee) is still more interesting.

"On the sides of this crater, Dr. Judd saw some fine specimens of the capil- lary glass 'Pole's hair,' which he was anxious to obtain tor our collection. He therefore, by the aid of one of the natives, descended, and began to collect speci- mens. When fairly down he was in danger of falling, in consequence of the narrowness of the footing; but in spite of this difficulty, his anxiety to select the best specimens enticed him onwards. While thus advancing, he saw and heard a slight movement in the lava about fifty feet from him, which was twice repeated, and curiosity led him to turn to approach the place where the motion occurred. In an instant the crust was broken asunder by a terrifin heave; and a jet of molten lava, full fifteen feet in diameter, rose to the height of above forty-five feet, with a most appalling noise. He instantly turned for the purpose of escaping; but found that he was new under a projecting ledge, which opposed his ascent, and that the place where he had descended was some feet distant. The heat was already too great to permit him to turn his face towards it, and was every moment increasing; while the violence of the thtoes which shook the rock beneath his feet augmented. Although he considered his life as lost, he did not omit the means for preserving it; butt offer- ing a mental prayer for the Divine aid, he strove, although in vain, to scale the projecting rock. While thus engaged, he called in English upon his native attendants for aid; and looking upwards, saw the friendly hand of Kalumo—who on this fearful occasion had not abandoned his spiritual guide and Mend—extended towards him. Ere he could grasp it, the fiery jet again rose above their heads, and Baum shrunk back scorched and terrified, until excited by a second appeal, he again stretched forth his hand; and seizing Di. Judd's with a giant grasp, their joint efforts placed him on the ledge."

The crater, on the internal descent of which Dr. Judd met with this adventure, was thirty-eight feet deep by two-hundred feet in diameter ; and the fluid lava filled it in twelve minutes. One cannot help being impressed with respect for the strength of the Doctor's nerves, on learning that his first act on emerging from the gulf was to recall the dispersing natives, and set himsel4 with the aid of a frying-pan and long pole' tb dip up some of the melted lava for the mineralogical collection of the Expedition. Indeed, we feel tempted to attribute to the zealous coopera- tion of this gentleman—originally a member of the American mission at Honolulu' and now virtual Prime Minister of H.M. the King of the Sandwich Islands—no inconsiderable share of the honour due to the successful researches instituted by the expedition among the volcanoes 'Of Hawaii; decidedly the portion of its operations in which the greatest amount of energy, perseverance, and fertility of resources, was displayed. There was, it is true, something anomalous in the natural objects which surrounded our adventurers, calculated to stimulate their energies : to men fresh from the dangers and discomforts of the Antarctic Ocean, it Must have occasioned a piquant confusion of ideas to find themselves restored to regions of eternal snow and ice, by the simple operation or ascending a few thousand feet above the level of the Tropical groves by which they had two days before been canopied. Their nocturnal ad- ventures must have placed them in imagination on ship-board amid the regions of Polar snow and ice.

"At about four in the morning, the MOW had accumulated in such quantities on our canvass roof, that it brae in upon us' bringing down also some of the stones. This was a disagreeable accident; and, after seeming from beneath the ruin, it became necessarr to take the covering off and clear the now out of the a I do not think lever passed such a night: it blew aperfeet hurricane for several hours • caneieg an incessant slamming, banging, and

of the tents, as though hundreds of persons were beating them with clubs.

noises, added to the howling of the wind over the crater, rendered the hours of darkness truly awful."

But this Tropical frost region had a character exclusively its own. The cold did not brace the frame ; the tenuity of the air superinduced listlessness. In the thin atmosphere, the sound of a mortar when dis- charged was scarcely heard. And in the appearance of the sky, the characteristics of the Tropics and the Polar circle were strangely combined.

The following Sabbath scene on the top of Mauna Loa will illustrate this remark.

"In the morning, Dr. Judd had religions service with the Natives, and the day was passed without work. It was a most beautiful day; the atmosphere was mild, and the sun shone brightly on all below us. We engaged a clear and well- defined horizon; the clouds all floating below us, in huge white masses of every variety of form, covering an area of a hundred or more miles; passing around as they entered the different currents where some acquired a rotary motion that I had never before observed. The steam-cloud above the volcano was conspicuous, not only for its silvery hue, but by its standing firm like an immense rock while all around and beneath it were in motion. The vault overhead was of the most cerulean blue, extending to and blending with the greenish tint of the horizon; while beneath the clouds the foreground and distant view of the island was of a dark green. The whole scene reminded me of the icy fields of the Southern Ocean; indeed, the resemblance was so strong, that it seemed only to require the clouds to have angular instead of cumular shapes, to have made the similarity complete. It was perceived that as masses of clouds met they appeared to re- bound, and I seldom saw them intermingle: they would lie together with their forms somewhat compressed, and their outlines almost as well preserved as when separated and alone.

The phtenomena of the clouds—whether undulating, alternately ap- proximating, and dispersing and circling round each other in the aerial ocean at their feet, or accelerating their motion as in passing overhead they came to be vertical over the crater—appear to have possessed a fasci- nating attraction for the gentlemen of the Expedition. This is not to be wondered at. In that elevated region, the clouds were the most frequent objects of vision, and their motions were seen with advantages not else- where enjoyed. Sometimes the source of attraction was a spectral ap- parition of the mountain on which they stood. "At sunset, we had a beautiful appearance of the shadow of the mountain, dome-shaped, pro- jected on the Eastern sky : the colour of a light amethyst at the edges, increasing in intensity to a dark purple in the centre; it was as distinct as possible, and the vast dome seemed to rest on the distant horizon." Doubtless, in certain states of the atmosphere, Manna Loa could show its spectral giant to rival him of the Brokken ; but the neighbouring volcano can show a spectacle far transcending any that the Hartz ever displayed. " Although I had thought it impossible that the appearance the great burning lake presented on my first visit could ever be exceeded, yet this far surpassed it. An idea of the light given out by this volcano will be Obtained by the fact that it sometimes produces rainbows in the passing rain-clouds, one of which was seen by Mr. Drayton." To descend from these altitudes : the very hardness and literal charac- ter of Commander Wilkes's apprehension in some cases affords a guarantee for the accuracy of his statements. He gives a tolerably fair account of people, because his want of fancy or imagination makes him describe them exactly as they appeared to him. Hence, although with a strong predis- position to judge favourably of everything done by Protestant mission- aries—more especially by those of the United States—he enables us to form a pretty fair estimate of those whom he met in the Pacific. The theme is somewhat hacknied : there is more of novelty in the pictures he presents of two very different characters—a low Englishman and a low Irishman—preserving their dissimilarity even when sunk down into savagery. The Englishman Commander Wilkes encountered in Oregon.

"George Gay is of that lazy kind of lounging figure so peculiar to a back- woodsman or Indian. He has a pretty and useful Indian wife; who does his bid- ding, takes care of his children and horses, and guards his household and pro- perty. The latter is not bulky; for superfluities with George are not to be found; and when he and his wife are seen travelling, it is manifest that his all is with him. George is a useful member of society in this small community: he gelds and marks cattle, breaks horses in, and tames cows for milking,—m short, he undertakes all and every sort of singular business; few things are deemed by him impossibilities: and lastly, in the words of one of the settlers, George is not a man to be trifled or fooled with. He is full as much of an Indian in habits as a White man can be. He told me he bore the Indians no love; and is indeed a terror to them, having not nnfrequently applied Lynch law to some of them with much effect. The account he gave of himself is, that he was born of English parents, but became before he had grown up more than half Indian, and was now fully their match. He passes for the best lasso-thrower in the country ; and is always ready to eat, sleep, or frolic; his wife and children are to him as his trap- lines. He has with all this many good points about him. I have seen him, 'while travelling with me, dart off for half a mile to assist a poor Indian boy who was unable to catch his horse, lasso the horse, put the boy on, and return at fall gallop. All this was done in a way that showed it to be his every-day practice; and his general character throughout the settlement is, that George is ever ready to help those in trouble."

"Paddy Connel " had voluntarily taken up his abode among the can- nibals of the Fiji Islands. His adventures in civilized lands are told at considerable length : he began life as a soldier ; deserted to the French in the first Irish rebellion ; was transported to Sydney "by mistake " ; and left a vessel at Ovelau; where he had lived forty years when he favoured Commander Wilkes with his autobiographical sketch. Our author proceeds. • "After hearing his whole story, I told him I did not believe a word of it: to • which he answered, that the main part of it was true, but he might have made some mistakes, as he had been so much in the habit of lying to the Fijians that he hardly knew now when he told the truth; adding, that he had no desire to tell anything but the truth. Paddy turned out to be a very amusing fellow, and possessed an accurate knowledge of the Fiji character. Some of the 'Whites told me that he was more than half Fiji: indeed, he seemed to delight in showing how nearly he was allied to them in feeling and propensities; and, like them he seemed to fix his attention upon trifles. Be gave me a droll account of his daily occupations' which it would be inappro- priate to repeat here; and finished by telling me the only wish he had then, was to get for his little boy, on whom he doated, a small hatchet; and the only articles he had to offer for it were a few old hens. On my swiping him if he did not cul- tivate the ground, be said at once, No; he found it much easier to get his liveli- hood by telling the Fijians stories, which he could always make good enough for them: these, and the care of his two little boys, and his hens' and his pigs when he had any, gave him ample employment and plenty of food. He had hved much .at Rewe, and until lately had been a resident at Levuka; but had, in consequence of his intrigues, been expelled by the White residents to the island of Ambatiki. It appeared that they had unanimously come to the conclusion, that if he did not remove, they would be obliged to put him to death for their own safety. I could not induce Whippy or Tom to give me the circumstances that induced this deter- mination; and Paddy waidd not communicate more than that his residence in Ambatiki was a forced one, and that it was as though he was living out of the world, rearing pigs, fowls, and children. Of the last description of live-stock he had forty-eight, and ho* that he might live to see fifty born to him. He had had one hundred wives." There is a tolerably characteristic sketch of two New Zealand chiefs who have made some noise of late; though it takes some trouble to re- cognize them under the names Robolua and Orangia-dieti. But it is too long for our present purpose. The following cabinet picture, however, of a Governor by accident, is not ill executed. "Mr. Robert Shortland, the first Police Magistrate, after the fitness of Governor Hobson styled himself Acting Governor: and a more ridiculously pompous func- tionary could scarcely be imagined. He paid a visit to the vessel in which EMM of our gentlemen had made the passage from Sydney, and demanded the reason why the mail-bag had not been sent to the new Government Postmaster. The master of the vessel replied, that he thought it his duty, not having been in- formed of any change, to deliver them to the old Postmaster, until he should be directed otherwise by Governor Hobson. This pompous functionary in an im- proper tone as well as manner, exclaimed, 'I wish you to know that / am Go- vernor now!' In the words of one of the gentlemen, Had he been Viceroy of the Indies, he could not have made his inquisitions in tones of loftier supremacy.'

These extracts may serve to inform readers for amusement, that the narrative of the United States Expedition, although rather deficient in stirring incident and picturesque description, is not altogether devoid of those attractions.