54 The Frigate Bird. [January, 



this to the governor of the province, whose name he mentions. He also 

 relates several circumstances concerning that climate, which at present 

 agree only with Norway and Sweden. The forests of Thrace and Pannonia 

 were full of bears and wild boars, in like manner as are now the forests 

 of the North. The northern part of Spain was little inhabited, for the 

 same cause. In short, all the ancients who mention the climate of Gaul, 

 Germany, Pannonia, and Thrace, speak of it as insupportable, and agree 

 that the ground was covered with snow the greatest part of the year, 

 being incapable of producing olives, grapes, and most other fruits. It is 

 easy to conceive, that the forest being cleared away, the face of the 

 country cultivated, and the marshy places drained, the moist exhalations 

 which generate cold must be considerably lessened, and that the rays of 

 the sun must have a freer access to warm the earth. The same thing 

 has happened in North America, since the Europeans have carried there 

 their accustomed industry. The history of the North leaves us no room 

 to doubt that there have been vast forests cut down, and by this single 

 means extensive marshes have been dried up, and converted into land fit 

 for cultivation. Without mentioning the general causes which insen- 

 sibly effect the destruction of forests, it was common to set trees on fire, 

 in order to procure fertile fields. K king of Sweden was sur-named the 

 Wood-cutter, for having grubbed up and cleared vast provinces, and 

 felled the trees with which it was eovered. Nor were they less cleared 

 away in Norway and Denmark. Thus a change in the climate must 

 long have preceded that in the manners. 



< • ♦ • > 



THE FRIGATE BIRD, 



At a meeting of the members of the Ipswick Museum, the Bishop of 

 Norwich said he had sent to the museum that day, a specimen of the 

 frigate bird, which was literally a tenant of the air ; it lived in the air, 

 slept in the air, and never came to the shore except in the breeding 

 season. The explanation of this extraordinary phenomenon was as 

 simple as possible. It was admirably constructed for the support of its 

 existence. It had an enormous pouch beneath its throat, its skin was 

 loose, and its bones and arteries were like air vessels ; and with an 

 extraordinary expansion of tail and wings, it could, by imbibing a quan- 

 tity of air, and rarefying it within its body, become, in fact, an air 

 balloon. In this manner it floated in the air even during sleep. 



