350 Mr Arnotfs Tour to the South of' France 



arrangements that enabled him to complete with safety this 

 extensive survey of the Arctic coast. Only eleven degrees of lon- 

 gitude remain unknown to the westward of the Macken- 

 zie, and the discoveries of Captain Parry interlink with those 

 of Captain Franklin to the eastward, so that the complete 

 knowledge of the North-west Passage has been nearly attained. 

 This has been an object of British enterprise for three centuries, 

 and the discoveries -that have been made by expeditions equip- 

 ped expressly for that purpose, from the voyage of Sebastian 

 Cabot in 1496, downwards, have not only contributed to raise 

 the naval fame of England to the proud pre-eminence it has at- 

 tained, but have given rise in the New World to some of the 

 most remarkable establishments recorded in the history of man- 

 kind, and produced a lasting influence on the affairs of the Old. 



A Tour to the South of Frame and the Pyrenees in the year 

 1825. By G. A. Walker Akkott, Esq. F.R.S.E. F.L.S. 

 M.W. S. &c. (Continued from p. 164.) 



vJn the 31st May we set off in the diligence for Barcelona, 

 and, passing by Bellegarde, the frontier town of France, and 

 La Jonquiere, that of Spain, in each of which we were visited 

 by the customhouse officers, we slept at Girona. The fortress 

 of Figueras Ues between this and the frontier, and was in pos- 

 session of the French army of occupation : there we had break- 

 fast, and saw for the first time the Catalonian mode of drink- 

 ing. A glass jar, shaped like an urn or a coffee-pot, or, in heu 

 of such, a small wooden barrel, is furnished with two openings : 

 the one is wide, and placed where the handle usually is, oppo- 

 site to the spout, wMch is long, straight, and tapered to a fine 

 point. Through the former the liquor is poured into the ves- 

 sel ; through the latter it is poured into the mouth. Much 

 more cleanliness is certainly shown by drinking in this way, than 

 that all should put their mouth to the same pot, as is done fre- 

 quently in other countries. In Catalonia, one holds the jar as 

 high up as he can, and, by inclining it, a continuous but slen- 

 der stream reaches his mouth. The difficulty at first is as much 



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