which we subjoin, to be a Dougong. It was shot by Lieut. Emery, near the island of Mombass, and died shortly afterwards. When seen, the body of the animal was raised considerably above the surface of the water; and from the near appearance of that part of it to the human form, was then judged to be a mermaid. It was in company with two others, and they were all wading their way, by means of what the spectators called their arms. Lieut. Emery ate some of the fish, which he describes as being very savoury. He was unable to preserve the skin; but the bones are saved entire. It is rather more than five feet long.

"TO THE PRINTER.-Considerable curiosity having been excited by an account of the landing at this port, of a skeleton of a real mermaid,' I was induced to examine the subject in question. I have no doubt but that it is the bony fabric of an animal called the Dugong, a native of the Indian seas, and regarded by many of the natives of the different islands, as a royal fish; the peculiar form of the head, more especially the lower jaw, being at once a characteristic mark-and also the form, situation, and number of the teeth.-There are many other peculiarities, more especially the mode by which the ribs are articulated to the breastbone, and the form of the breast-bone itself, which are highly interesting to the comparative anatomists, and which serve to identify the animal. The place of anterior extremities are supplied by fins, and although, in the skeleton, the bones are found complete even to the last phalanges of the fingers, in the recent fish the organs are fleshy, and incapable, from their shape, size, or form, of assisting the animal, out of the water. It feeds on the submarine plants, browsing like a cow. It is seldom caught above eight feet long, though it is said to grow to a very large size. The animal, in its full growth, is furnished with two short tusks, projecting from the upper jaw, but in the younger ones these defensive weapons are wanting. There are several specimens of this animal in the magnificent collection of the late sir Stamford Raffles.I am, yours, &c.-Portsmouth, March 3.

"H. SLIGHT."

Hyena's Cave near Maidstone.-"A short time since, some workmen, employed in digging stone at Boughton Hall, the seat of Braddock, Esq., near Maidstone, discovered bones and teeth of several animals, some of which the proprietor of the estate transmitted to the Geological Society. As they were found to be those of the hyena, considerable interest was, in consequence, excited, and it was determined that some of the Fellows should examine the quarry, as there seemed reason to conclude that a cave might be found there like that of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire. Accordingly, Dr. Buckland, Mr. Lyvell, and several other scientific gentlemen, visited Boughton, whence it was discovered that the bones in question had been found in a fissure in the rock, which had evidently been filled up by diluvial action. The bones of at least two hyenas, of the extinct Kirkdale species, were found, together with bones and teeth of the horse, rat, &c.; but the fissure extended so deeply in the solid rock, that it could not be traced to the bottom, and it will not be possible to ascertain whether it leads to a cave, formerly inhabited by hyenas, or is merely a fissure filled up by the effects of the deluge, until the quarry is considerably enlarged. The fact, however, of the bones of a race of extinct hyenas having been found so far southward, is highly important, and we hope and trust, that ere long, our own country, which the researches of one gentleman have proved to be so rich in the reinains of a former world, will be found to rival the north, in those more comparatively recent savage inhabitants of our island."

Lord Liverpool as an Orator.-Lord Liverpool's style of speaking is cogent, argumentative, and synthetical; his language pure, precise, and English, undistigured by interpolation from the coined mintage of rhetoric, and free from all puerile exotics, glittering paradoxes, and showy trite generalities; his manner earnest, urbane, and dignified, with much of the negligentia non

ingrata, so much commended by Cicero. You see at once, from the unassumed downrightness of his voice and gesture, that he speaks what he means, and that he is inflamed by no desire to catch applause by a sprinkling soda-waterish sentiment, or well-turned sonorous period, gracefully delivered, but that he says what at the moment appears fittest to be said, according to the state of his own mind, or the character of the question; that he is one, "qui et humilia subtiliter, et magna graviter, et mediocria temperate potest dicere;" and that his only aim is to convince you he is right, without ostentation, and that you are wrong, without arrogance. In him are united some very happy and rare qualities: he can trifle without affecting his dignity, can dispute without losing his temper, can be ponderous without exaggerations, can be precise without being quaint; and as his temperateness is free from languor, so is his solemnity untinctured by grimace. His arguments are more distinguished for their force than their subtlety, for their acuteness than their refinement; as if, it would appear, the only tactics he would employ to vanquish sophistry and ingenuity, are those furnished by integrity and common-sense. In speaking, very lately, of the Duke of York, he remarked that the virtues as well as the failings of the deceased Prince, were those of an English gentleman. We can say of him in return, that his virtues, as well as failings, are those of an English Minister: for in him are eminently to be seen, the great dignity of mind, roused only by great objects, the absence of petty bustle, the contempt of show, the abhorrence of intrigue, the plainness, downrightness, and strong good-nature, that constitute the pride and ornament of the English character.

The late Lord Chancellor's Penury.-The truth of the following anecdote is wel known to the bar. An amiable and learned judge of the King's Bench had got so involved in debt, that he was on the eve of being compelled to quit Europe, and endeavour to mend a broken fortune in India. The bar, of which he was a great favourite, saw but one way to retain him. They opened a subscription to relieve him from his embarrassments, and succeeded. The subscription paper was first presented to the Chancellor, out of compliment. He put nothing down, but told the applicants to go round, and try what could be done, and come to him when their round was finished. They did so, with very slight expectations. They were asked how much they had got. The answer was, some hundred pounds above 7000/. How much do they want? It was impossible to effect what they purposed with less than 11,000. The venerable old nobleman, without saying a word, took a slip of paper, and wrote a cheque on his banker

for the difference.- His Avarice. A barrister of great eminence had got deeply involved, from various canses, and, to add to his difficulties, his business had almost entirely left him. As a temporary resource, he determined to sell his valuable law library, and offered the refusal of it to the Chancellor, who instantly paid him 9002. the sum asked for it. He then asked his Lordship when he should send home the books? And what was the answer of a man whom hackneyed scribblers would insinuate to be a miser? His Lordship told him he really had more books already than he had time to read, and Sergeant B. might just as well keep them. So much for the ex-chancellor's penuriousness.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

What is a Lawyer?-A lawyer is a man with a pale face and sunken eyes: he passes much time in two small rooms in one of the inns of court: he is surrounded with sheets of foolscap folio paper, tied up with a red string; he has more books than one could read in a year, or comprehend in seven: he walks slowly, speaks hesitatingly, and receives fees from those who visit him, for giving "hypothetical answers" to "specious questions."

What is a Doctor?-A doctor, videlicet, an M.D. is a sedate-looking personage: he listens calmly to the story of your ailments: if your eye and skin be yellow, he shrewdly remarks that you have the

jaundice; he feels your pulse-writes two or three unintelligible lines of Latin, for which you pay him a guinea: he keeps a chariot, and one manservant. The standing board behind, intended for a footman, is fearfully beset with spikes, to prevent little boys from riding at the doctor's expense. He ingeniously lets himself in and out of his vehicle, by means of a strap attached to the steps, so contrived, that when in, he can dexterously cause the steps to follow. His servant is a coachman abroad, and a footman, valet, and butler, at home.

What is an Author?-He is a man who weaves words into sentences; he dissects the works of his predecessors and contemporaries, and ingeniously dovetails the pieces together again, so that their real owners can scarcely recognize them. He is furnished with a pair of scissors, and a pot of paste. He frequents the Chapter Coffee-house by day, and the cider-cellar by night. He ruralizes at Hampstead or Holloway, and perhaps once a year steams it to Margate. He talks largely, and forms the nucleus of a knot of acquaintances, who look up to him as an oracle. He is always going to set about some work of great importance; he writes a page, becomes out of humour with the subject, and begins another, which shares the same fate. His coat is something the worse for wear; his wife is the only person in the world who is blind to his transcendent abilities; and he has too much to do in cultivating his own genius, to descend to the minutiae of his children's education.

What is an Editor?-An editor is-but no one is bound to answer a question to the prejudice of himself.

Literary Notices.

Just Published.

The Sinner's Tears and devout Breathings after God, revised and edited from the Rev. Thomas Fettiplace. By John Burdsall.

The Stanley Tales, original and select, chiefly collected by the late Ambrose Marten, vol. vi. pt. ii. True Charity; or a Tale of the year 1800. Four Sermons on the Priesthood of Christ. By Theophilus Lessey.

Elements of the History of Philosophy and Science, from the earliest authentic records, to the commencement of the 18th century. By Thomas Morell.

Memoirs, including letters and select remains of John Urquhar. By William Orme. 2 vols.

The Schoolboy's reverie, a collection of Poems. By George Carter, of Deal.

Memoir of Miss Mary Helen Bingham. John Bustard.

By

Essays on the Pleasures of Literature. By T. Hathaway.

Elements of Bible Criticism and Interpretation. By Moses Stewart; republished by E, Henderson. Early Life of Christ, an example to the Young. By Henry March.

Adaptations of Scripture to Family Devotion. Help to Family Devotion; being a course of morning and evening Prayers, &c. By Geo. Smith. The Union Collection of Hymns and Sacred Odes, additional to the Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts.

Complete in Two Volumes, imperial folio, and uniform in size with Stuart's Athens-" Pompeii ;" illustrated with Engravings, by W. B. Cooke, in a free and spirited style of Line-engraving; containing upwards of ninety plates, and one hundred and twenty pages of descriptive letterpress from original Drawings by Lieut.-Col. Cockburn, of the Royal Artillery, J. Goldicut, H. Parke, and T. L. Donaldson, architects. With an Engraving of an Eruption of Vesuvius, from a Drawing by John Martin, Esq. which precedes the History of the Mountain; including the recent

Excavations of the Pantheon, Baths, and Temple of Fortune, up to the present period of 1827.

River Scenery, by Turner and Girtin: complete in one Volume, uniform in size with Cooke's Southern Coast of England; engraved in Mezzotinto on steel, from original drawings, by J. M. W. Turner, R. A. and the late celebrated artist, Thomas Girtin; with Letter-press descriptions of each view, by Mrs. Hofland.

Views on the River Rhone: engraved in Lineengraving by W. B. Cooke, George Cooke, and J. C. Allen, from Drawings by P. Dewint; after the Original Sketches by John Hughes, A. M. of Oriel College, Oxford: with Letterpress Descriptions of each View. Complete in Six Numbers, each containing Four Plates.

Gems of Art: Six Parts are now published, which complete the Volume. Each Part contains five Plates, engraved in highly-finished Mezzotinto on steel, by Messrs. W. Ward, A. R. A.-S. W. Reynolds-Thomas Lupton-Charles Turnerand John Bromley, from Pictures of acknowledged excellence, beauty, and variety, painted by esteemed Masters.

A Pair of Marine Views, drawn by J. M. W. Turner, R. A. A Sunrise View of Margate, and the Eddystone Light-house, a Storm, engraved by Thomas Lupton.

Beauties of Claude Lorraine. This work consists of Twenty-four Landscapes, engraved on steel, selected, as the most choice subjects, from Two Hundred Landscapes by Claude, in the "Liber Veritatis," and are engraved from brilliant Proof Copy, lent for that purpose by His Grace the Duke of Bedford.

a

Cooke's Southern Coast of England, extending from the Mouth of the Thames to the Severn, engraved in highly-finished line-engraving by W. B. Cooke, George Cooke, and eminent Engravers, from original Drawings by J. M. W. Turner, R. A.-W. Collins, R. A.-W. Westall, A. R. A.-P. Dewint-W. Havell-S. Owenand L. Clennell.

Views on the Thames; engraved in highlyfinished line engraving by W. B. Cooke and George Cooke, from Drawings made expressly for the Work by P. Dewint-W. Havell-S. Owen -R. R. Reinagle, A. R. A-G. Arnald, A. R. A. -G. Barret-L. Clennell, &c. And printed uniform with Cooke's Southern Coast of England.

In the Press.

Little Frank, the Irish Boy. By Charlotte Elizabeth. 1 vol. 18mo.

Burgon's Vanity Fair, with a prefatory dialogue, for the benefit of Good Folks, who attend the booth, the ring, and other equally innocent amusements. By Abdiel. 18mo.

Missionary Excitements, a Sermon preached before the London Missionary Society. By the Rev. Henry Foster Burder, M.A.

The Gentiles gathered to the Fold of Christ; a Sermon preached at the Poultry Chapel, on Monday evening, May 7, 1827, to the Juvenile Societies, in aid of the London Missionary Society. By the Rev. Thomas Raffles, LL.D.

Excitements to Exertion in the Cause of God; a Sermon preached at the thirty-third anniversary of the London Missionary Society, at the Tabernacle, May 9, 1827. By the Rev. James Parsons. Mr. McCreery is about to publish a second part of his Poem of the Press, dedicated to William Roscoe, Esq.

Preparing for the Press.

A Defence of the Missions in the South Sea and Sandwich Islands, against the Charges and Misrepresentations of the Quarterly Review, in a Letter addressed to the Editor of that Journal. Also,

Oriental Observations and Occasional Criticisms, more or less illustrating several hundred passages of Scripture. By John Callaway, late Missionary in Ceylon.

AUGUST.]

MEMOIR OF MR. ISAAC DALBY, Late Professor of Mathematics, in the Senior Department of the Royal Military College, Farnham.

(With a Portrait.)

IT has been frequently remarked, that the lives of studious men are commonly destitute of incident, and equally devoid of instruction. This, however, like many other general assertions, is only partially true. Although the life of an individual may be marked with but few such events as excite imagination, or gratify a curiosity always athirst after the marvellous, the momentous, or the sublime; yet it may develop such facts, or explain such incidents, as may communicate instruction, and leave an impression by no means void of utility. And when the same individual is at once the subject of the biography, and the narrator of his own story, we may naturally expect to derive either moral or scientific advantage, however concise the history may be.

The grand aim of biography should be the exfoliation of character, and the development of those events, or trains of thought, or series of action, or apparent accidents, which have contributed to render the man what he ultimately becomes; and when such trains of thought, or occurrence, are scarcely, if at all, known, but to the individual himself, we cannot but be pleased to listen to his own story, although it may not be so full, or so diversified with incident, as to satisfy our inquiries on every point. Hence it is, that we have a gratification in presenting to our readers, a brief sketch of auto-biography, from the pen of the able mathematician, whose portrait, engraved from an excellent picture, adorns the present number of our Magazine.

ISAAC DALBY was born at a village in Gloucestershire, in the year 1744; and died at Farnham, in Surrey, (to which place the senior department of the Royal Military College was transferred from High Wycomb,) October 14th, 1824, in his eightyfirst year. Some years previously to his death, he sent to a friend an account of the principal events which had occurred since he had reached maturity; and from

104.-VOL. IX.

this we are permitted to present the following narration.

"So, my good friend, you request me -to inform you where, and how, I have passed my time since we met in London, which I think was in 1775 or 1776. To satisfy you in that respect, would be something like undertaking to write my own life—a task I could not possibly execute to my own satisfaction, if I omitted nothing, and stuck to the truth, and 'nothing but the truth.' You shall, however, have something like a biographical sketch from the time I left Glocestershire.

"You cannot but remember when we were wont to meet in the evenings and puzzle ourselves with x plus y minus z, &c. You were under the tuition of Mr. Davis, who was reckoned a conjurer in the mathematics;-I had nothing to help me out but Gordon's Young Man's Companion, an old edition of Wingate's Arithmetic, and Stone's Euclid. Simson's Algebra and Martin's Trigonometry, however, soon increased my library; and in a short time I was qualified for an usher. I then left the cloth-working business, for which I was designed, and engaged myself to Mr. James, who kept a very respectable boarding-school at Stoke-Bishop, near Bristol. I staid there about three years, and left it with an intention of commencing schoolmaster in another part of the country: but I had only just made the attempt, when I found there was no chance of succeeding. Thus disappointed, I left the country rather in disgust, and arrived in London in the summer of 1772.

"My first lodging was at Mr. Cook's, a carpet-weaver, at Hoxton. During the first two or three months I did nothing but ramble about London. I was taken ill; and while that obliged me to keep at home, I had many opportunities of examining the process of carpet-weaving; and by frequent trials, by way of amusement, became so dexterous, that Mr. Cook offered to engage me as a workman. An advertisement, however, for an usher to teach arithmetic, brought me towards the west end of the town, and I was engaged at Archbishop Tennison's grammar-school,

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