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above the surface of the ocean, have received the name 

 of icebergs. They frequently project above an hundred 

 feet, and must therefore have ten times as much depth 

 concealed under water. To suppose them to have been 

 detached from a solid field of such tremendous thickness, 

 would seem utterly improbable. It may indeed be doubt- 

 ed, whether any part of the ocean be ever naturally fro- 

 zen. The ice which I have formed from salt water by 

 the frigorific process, was always incompact, inclosing 

 brine within its interstices, and resembling the aspect of 

 wliat is called water-ice, or dilute syrup congealed. Per- 

 haps an extremely slow congelation, descending regular- 

 ly from the surface, may press down the saline particles, 

 which are never absolutely detached from the water, and 

 thus force them to combine more largely wi'h the mass 

 below. But even admitting this idea, it would be still 

 required to account for the great elevation of those icy 

 cliffs. The most satisfactory mode, probably, of ex- 

 plaining the phenomenon, is to refer it to the operation 

 of a general principle, by which the inequalities on the 

 turface of a field of ice must be constantly increased. 

 The lower parts of the field, being nearer the tempered 

 mass of the ocean, are not so cold as those which project 

 into the atmosphere, and consequently the air which 

 ascends, becoming chilled in sweeping over the eminen- 

 ces, there deposits some of its moisture, forming an icy 

 coat. But this continued incrustation, in the lapse of 

 ages, produces a vast accumulation, till the shapeless 

 mass is at length precipitated by its own weight. 



Other natural phenomena will receive illustration from 

 the facts disclosed by the refrigerating process. In the 

 rigorous climes of the north, the alternations of the sea- 

 sons are most rapid. On the approach of spring, the 

 thick fields of ice which, in Russia or Canada, cover the 

 Neva or (he St Lawrence, break up with overwhelming 

 fury, accompanied too by tremendous explosions. Nor 

 is this noise to be ascribed to the mere crash of the fall- 

 ing fragments. In those frightful climates, the winter 

 at once sets in with most intense frost, which probably 

 envelopes the globules of air separated from the water in 

 the act of congelation, and, invading them on all sides, 

 reduces them to a state of high condensation. When 

 the mild weather begins, therefore, to prevail, the body 

 of ice, penetrated by the warmth, becomes soft and fria- 

 ble ; and the minute but nilmenusly interspersed glo- 

 bules of imprisoned air, exerting together their concen- 

 trated elasticity, produce the most violent explosive dis- 

 ruptions." 



See Mr Leslie's Short Account of Experiments and 

 Instrument* depending on the relation of Air to Heat and 

 Moisture, p. 148 153. Edinburgh, 1813. (A) 



COLDENIA, a genus of plants of the class Tetran- 

 dria, and order Tetragynia. See BOTANY, p. 127. 



COLEUS, a genus of plants of the class Didyna- 

 mia, and order Gymnospermia. See BOTANY, p. 256. 



COLERAINE, a market and borough town of Ire- 

 land, in the county of Londonderry. It is situated upon 

 the river Bann, about three miles above its mouth, and 

 is a tolerably large town. Considerable sums of money 

 have been fruitlessly expended on thv harbour of Cole- 

 raine, but it is> merely a bar harbour, and will admit only 

 vessels of a small burden at the time of high water. The 

 salmon fishery at Coleraine is one of the two largest in 

 Ireland. It belongs to the London Society, who have 

 lea rd it to Irishmen, by whom it is again let at a con- 

 siderable advance of rent, to a company who keeps fast 

 sailing vessels, for ihe purpose of conveying the fish to 

 Liverpool and other places. In 1796, the salmon sold at 

 3d. per pound, and in 1808, it was as high as Is. 2d. 



Mr Wakefield visited the famous salmon leap within a Coliseum 

 mile of Colerair.e.and observed the salmon springing from II 

 the water in hundreds. In 1776, about 1400 were ._ ''"^ 

 caught at one haul. 



'There is also an eel fishery at Coleraine belonging, to 

 Lord Donegal, which lets at 1000 per annum; the eels 

 are sold at 4d. per pound. The burgh of Coleraine be- 

 longs to the London Society, but the Beresford interest 

 returns the member. The annual duties of this harbour 

 amounted to 6000 in 1801. Population 4500. (j) 



COLISEUM. See AMPHITHEATRE, and CIVIL 

 ARCHITECTURE. 



COLLADEA, a genus of plants of the class Trian- 

 dria, and order Digynia. See BOTANY, p. 116. 



COLLEGE. See ABERDEEN, ST ANDREW'S, CAM- 

 BRIDGE, EDINBURGH, GLASGOW, OXFORD, and UNIVER- 

 SITY. 



COLLETI A, a genus of plants of the class Pentan- 

 dria, and order Monogynia. See BOTANY, p. 156. 



COLLIERY. See COAL and MINES. 



COLLINS, WILLIAM, an ingenious English poet, 

 was born in 1720 at Chichester, where his father carried 

 on business as a hatter. He was educated on the founda- 

 tion of Winchester, but missed the advantage annexed to 

 that institution, of going off to a fellowship in New Col- 

 lege, Oxford, as no vacancy occurred while he continued 

 within the limited age. He went notwithstanding to 

 Oxford, where he was first entered of Queen's College, 

 and afterwards of Magdalen's, but remained only till he 

 took the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Like many other 

 poets, Collins seems to have delayed his choice of a pro- 

 fession till the time for chusing was past. It unfortu- 

 nately happens, that the age at which this important de- 

 cision should be made, is the same at which men of ge- 

 nius begin to discover their intellectual superiority, and in 

 the triumph which this discovery creates, they think them- 

 selves entitled to a higherdestiny than that of their compa- 

 nions, who content themselves with occupations requiring 

 no unusual portion of ability. They are thus tempted 

 to cherish indistinct though splendid visions of ambition, 

 without calculating exactly the steps by which it is to 

 be gratified, and they reject the employments for which 

 they were intended, from no decided preference of any- 

 other, but from a hope that, to make their genius known, 

 will be all that is necessary for advancing them to an emi- 

 nence, which no success in an ordinary profession could 

 confer. Such appears to have been the case with Shake- 

 speare and Spenser, with Milton and Dryden, with Thom- 

 son and Gray, and with Chatterton and Cowper ; and of 

 all our poets, none have been richer in that originality of 

 genius, which distinguishes its possessor from the rest of 

 his species, than those whom we have named. This 

 seems likewise to have been the case with Collins, whose 

 success in college exercises seduced him into so early an 

 application to poetry, that, before he quitted the univer- 

 sity, he had published his Oriental Eclogues. Though 

 the demand for these was not such as testified any extra- 

 ordinary portion of public favour, yet having acquainted 

 their author with the delight of doing that which can 

 be done by few, and probably given him sufficient confi- 

 dence in his powers, he hastened from Oxford, before 

 the usual period of attendance was completed, to procure 

 wealth and fame in London by his pen. His scheme, 

 however, seems not to have been arranged with much 

 precision, and instead of engaging in any important work, 

 he frittered away his time in desultory exertion, design- 

 ing what he never executed, and executing what he had 

 never designed. Literary adventurers have generally 

 been destined to a life of discomfort and perplexity ; nor 



