354 



TABLE-TALK AND VARIETIES. 



lington was himself one of the 

 least obtrusive members of the 

 house, but when he spoke all heark- 

 ened in profound silence. A stran- 

 ger could recognize him amidst 

 the peers by the marked respect 

 they showed to him. The Duke 

 was the best-known and most po- 

 pular man in London. There were 

 people constantly waiting at the 

 entry to the House of Lords, and 

 not unusually in the vicinity of the 

 Horse Guards, to get a peep at 

 him ; and he had been so long 

 accustomed to acknowledge the 

 homage paid to him by all classes, 

 on his appearing in public, that the 

 habit had become mechanical with 

 him. Every well-bred person 

 elevated his hat to the Duke ; and 

 the Duke, sitting on horseback in 

 his calm, impassive manner, and 

 looking straight before him, lifted 

 two fingers towards his hat to 

 everybody. It was quite a scene 

 when he chanced to walk along 

 Regent Street, or some of the more 

 frequented thoroughfares in the 

 neighbourhood of the Horse Guards 

 or the Houses of Parliament. A 

 knot of followers instantly fell into 

 his wake, augmenting as he pro- 

 ceeded. Shopkeepers rushed to 

 their doors, or peered out of their 

 windows to catch a glance of him. 

 *' The Duke " passed irom lip to 

 lip. You could see in the counte- 

 nance of all sorts of people as they 

 approached and passed and all 

 sorts of people is a wide word in 

 the streets of London a pleased 

 expression as they recognized the 

 Duke. It was less striking to ob- 

 serve the respectful greetings of the 

 better-conditioned classes, than the 

 cordial interest which the common 

 people evinced in the great Cap- 

 tain. The omnibus-driver would 

 point him out to his outside pas- 

 sengers ; the cad on the steps be- 

 hind, to his " insides." The butch er's 

 boy, as he dashed along on hi: 

 poney, drew bridle to look at the 



Duke. Cabmen, cadgers, coster- 

 mongers, and gamins, gentle and 

 simple, young and old, paused for 

 i moment to gaze at the man whom 

 they delighted to honour. 



HEIGHTS AND DEPTHS. 



In speaking of the greatest depth 

 within the earth reached by human 

 Labour, we must recollect that there 

 is a difference between the absolute 

 depth (that is to say, the depth be- 

 Low the earth's surface at that 

 point), and the relative depth (or 

 that below the level of the sea). 

 The greatest relative depth that 

 man has hitherto reached is pro- 

 bably the bore at the new salt 

 works at Minden, in Prussia ; in 

 June 1844, it was exactly 1993 

 feet, the absolute depth being 2231 

 feet. The temperature of the water 

 at the bottom was 91 degrees 

 Fahrenheit, which, assuming the 

 mean temperature of the air at 49 

 degrees 3 seconds, gives an aug- 

 mentation of temperature of 1 



gree for every 54 feet. If we 

 compare the depth of the old Kut- 

 tenberger mine (a depth greater 

 than the height of the Brocken, 

 and only 200 feet less than that of 

 Vesuvius), with the loftiest struc- 

 ture that the hands of man have 

 erected (with the Pyramid of 

 Cheops, and the Cathedral of Stras- 

 burg), we find that they stand in 

 the ratio of eight to one. In de- 

 scending eastward from Jerusalem 

 towards the Dead Sea, a view pre- 

 sents itself to the eye which, accord- 

 ing to our present hypsometrical 

 knowledge of our planet, is un- 

 rivalled in any country ; as we 

 approach the open ravine through 

 which the^ Jordan takes its course, 

 we tread, with the open sky above 

 us, on rocks which, according to 

 the barometric measurements of 

 Burton and Russeseggar, are 1385 

 feet below the level of the Mediter- 

 ranean. Poisson endeavoured, in 

 a singular manner to solve the dim- 



