1825,] 
14.—To C. Mactytosx, of Crossbasket, 
Lanarkshire, Scotland: for a new process for 
making steel.—Six months, 
16.—To J. Bapams, of Ashted, near 
Birmingham: for a new method of extracting 
certain metals from their ores, and of purify- 
ing them.—Six monibs. 
Monthly Review of Literature. 
543 
20.—To J. Rivirre, of Oxford-strect, 
Middlesex: for an improved construction, 
arrangement and simplification of the ma- 
chinery by which guns, pistols, and other fire- 
arms are discharged.—Six months.* 
MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC © 
AND FOREIGN. 
Authors or Publishers, desirous of seeing an early Notice of their Works, are 
requested to transmit Copies before the 18th of the Month. - 
= 
JYZEMOIR on the Roads of Cefalonia, by 
Colonel Narrer. 8yo.*—Although 
this (pending) publication belongs to the 
elass of statistics, and, as the title indicates, 
to the state and projected improvements - 
of the roads by which communication be- 
tween the different parts of the island may 
be facilitated, and culture and civilization 
extended, its interest is by no means con- 
fined even to those’ important subjects. 
The very name, indeed, in the title page 
will have led the reader to anticipate a 
much more extended sphere of amusement 
and instruction, in which the gratifica- 
tions of taste are to be mingled with those 
of practical utility and intelligent research : 
and he will not be disappointed. It pre- 
sents us, at the very outset, with a fair 
anticipation of the interest that is to be 
given throughout to this apparently not 
very promising subject ; and prepares us 
to expect that, though we are to be 
travelling along the roads of this Ionian 
island with Mr. McAdam’s steining imple- 
ments in our hands, our path is not to be 
unstrewed with flowers, nor the eye, either 
of sense or intellect, prevented from ex- 
patiating on many a varied-and extended 
prospect. 
« Section I. Formation of the Island:—Cefalonia 
is said, by the inhabitants, to be about one hundred 
and thirty miles in circumference.” ‘* It is divided 
into several great valleys, formed by the under ridges 
of the Black Mountain, the height of which, above 
the level of the sea, is five thousand three hundred 
and eighty English feet, by barometrical measure- 
ment. Although the ridges have mule tracks across 
them, they are difficult to traverse, and, in many 
places, not only extremely dangerous, but for loaded 
animals quite impassable. 
The consequence of this is, that many of the great 
proprietors seldom visit their estates, although only 
a few hours’ distance from Argostoli. Men will not 
* This work is not, in reality, as yet before the 
public; but will be so, in all probability, within a 
few days from the date of our publication. We 
have been favoured with a copy in sheets, as far as 
it was printed, containing the: whole of the Memoir» 
and apart of the Appendix, which ‘consists of Ther- 
Mometrical and Statistical Tables; and we have 
thought it well to lose no time in the announcement 
of so valuable an addition to the small stock of 
public information relative to so interesting a depen- 
dency of the British Empire as the fonian Teles, 
risk their safety by travelling on a bad mountain 
road, where, should their mule make a false step, 
they would be thrown down a precipice of many 
hundred feet into the sea. Their country-houses are 
therefore allowed to decay, are generally destitute of 
furniture, and if the owner has energy enough to 
take the journey, instead of the comforts and plea- 
sures of an English country residence, he finds him- 
self in the midst of filthy ruins, and without a single 
comfort, except such as he may have brought with 
him for the few days he remains; and all this in an 
island producing every thing calculated to make the 
country delightful. On the Black Mountain a gen- 
tleman might builda villa, and pass the heats of 
summer in the midst of woods and the most beauti- 
ful scenery, and from his windows would haye one 
of the most extensive and interesting views in the 
world ; would see the whole of Cefalonia, Ithaca, and 
St. Maura, with the small islands spread like a map 
beneath him; and, beyond them, all Acarnania, 
Mount Pindus, the gulf of Corinth, Patras, Cla- 
rence, and the Arcadian mountains. His ice-house 
might be filled as late as the end of May, his table 
furnished with the finest fruits and vegetables; and 
the height of the situation would give him an atmo- 
sphere many degrees cooler than in Argostoli, to 
which place he might drive in two hours, and return 
in three. Not only the Black Mountain, but many 
parts of Cefalonia afford similar advantages; yet 
with all these comforts and pleasures within their 
reach, the gentlemen of Cefalonia are huddled to- 
gether in Argostoli, where they describe any thing 
uncomfortable by saying, ‘‘ it is like being in the 
country.” The effect of this is, that the proprietor 
orders his tenant to come to Argostoli with his rents, 
and rarely goes to see his country possessions; his 
money is spent in town, and the peasants remain un- 
civilized and poor; so slight indeed is the inter- 
course between the latter, that a countryman, of the 
valley of Samos, considers his neighbour of the val- 
ley of Pillero as much a stranger as if he belonged to 
some distant country. t 
Such being the state of the island, it became a 
matter of importance to make roads, that men might 
know each other, that the rich might visit and im- 
prove their estates, by bringing the produce to mar- 
Ket at much less expense, and that ‘the valleys of 
Cefalonia, instead of being unknown to many of - 
their own inhabitants, might pour their produce into 
the capital, giving to this large island its proper 
vigour and station in the Ionian states.” 
We have marked for quotation a variety 
of interesting passages, not only illustrative 
of the state and capabilities of the island, 
and*the condition and habitudes of the 
people, but also of more general appliance 
to the views of the intellectual inquirer, and 
the purposes of socialeconomy. For these, 
however 
