04 
OLLA PODEIDA. 
[Nature ancl Art, July 1, 1866. 
gallery in Pall Mall, was bought by an intermediate owner 
at the Meyer sale for £ 1,1 80. 
The sale of the Pourtales gallery, and, in a minor degree, 
that of the late Due de Morny’s collection, were events that 
brought half the connoisseur world to Paris, and the prices 
surprised everybody. The late retrospective exhibition in 
the Champs Elysees showed the extent to which the love 
and the vogue for objects of art and curiosity are now culti- 
vated in France. Such a collection of enamels, old faiences, 
china, carving, and curiosities, was rarely ever seen under 
one roof. One of the most remarkable contributions to 
that exhibition — the museum of the well-known virtuoso, 
M. Carpentier, recently deceased — was offered to the public 
in June. It contained sixteen hundred objects of the 
richest and most varied quality. 
Truly we cannot refrain from observing that the fine-art 
buyers, at least, have escaped the 11 panic ” of the day. An 
eminent contemporary, moralizing on this theme, draws the 
conclusion that the class concerned in the ups and downs 
of the East-end, and in the treasures of King Street, are 
widely different. Commerce and finance, he thinks, have a 
world of their own ; and while some deal with their money, 
others — meaning the fine-art buyers — have no more concep- 
tion of the fluctuation of money than Arcadians, and buy 
pictures, jewels, and blood-stock, without any notion of 
investment. Such, however, happens not to be the case. 
Mark a catalogue at King Street, and where you can get 
the name of a principal you will find that the amateur of 
diamonds and sapphires is a “Mincing-lane man,” who has 
the bank x-ate at his fingex - -ends ; the buyer of lacquer, jade, 
Cellini cups, and the like, is a prosperous money-jobber and 
citizen spectacle-maker. Croesus, of Lombard Street and 
the lanes adjacent, has never finished stocking his west- 
ward palace with objects of art ; while Dives, of Moorgate 
Street, has nothing left to sigh for but more wall space for 
his pictures. It would be an evil day for the painters of 
England in which the magnates of Lancashire and York- 
shire — the men of the mill, the mine, and the forge — ceased 
to vie with each other for specimens of Muller, Constable, 
Turner, Stanfield, Creswick, and Ansdell ; and successful 
traders of London to invest in pictures and precious orna- 
ments, as deliberately, perhaps as profitably, and quite as 
agreeably as they could in houses or Consols. 
OLLA P 
A LARGE PICTURE of the Rocky Mountains painted 
by Mr. Bierstadt, an American artist, is now on view at 
Mr. McLean’s gallery in the Haymarket. It is long since we 
have had an opportunity of inspecting a work of art so 
grand, and yet so truthful in detail. The huge riven peaks 
shooting up, snow-capped, 10,000 feet above the sea’s level, 
their sides furrowed by glaciers, and the chasms amongst 
their giant crags pouring forth streams of crystal water, 
stand towei'ing imposingly before us. The lights and 
shadows are so admirably disposed, that it is hard to divest 
the mind of the reality of the scene, or avoid entertaining 
ardent wishes for a rod and line with which to levy ti'ibute 
on the speckled trout that our imagination pictures eagerly 
waiting the gaudy, treacherous fly in the depths of that 
noble pool below the -cataract. The camp of the Shoshone 
Indians beneath the grove of cotton-wood trees, is replete 
with rich coloux-ing- and picturesque effect. In fact, the 
quiet, peaceful valley amongst the mountains will long live 
in our memory almost as though it had been one of our own 
camping-grounds, when, like the artist, we worshipped at 
the shrine of Natux-e amongst her most majestic temples. 
On the 12th of May a large and distinguished party, 
several hundred in number, was entertained at Willis’s 
Rooms by Sir Roderick Murchison, President of the Royal 
Geographical Society. The treasure-stores of travellers 
in every quarter of the world seem to have been laid under 
contribution to delight the assembled geographers and their 
friends. Conspicuous among- the objects was the collection 
of Mr. Consul Baker, the Nile traveller, and that of Com- 
mander Forbes, from Japan. The former comprised a 
specimen of indigenous cotton from the equatorial region, 
seemingly, at least to unpractised eyes, full of promise. The 
latter, rich in curiosities of the description now familiar to 
most of us, was remarkable for a rope described as “ a 
junk’s cable of ladies’ hair !” Our valued contributor, Mr. 
Baines, exhibited his drawings made in Australia and Central 
Africa ; and an attractive feature of the multifarious exhi- 
bition was a Chinese work illustrated by native artists. 
Not only the Geographical Society and the scientific world, 
but we may even venture to add that civilization itself, is 
indebted to the liberality that organizes these monster 
gatherings. 
At the Annual Meeting of the same Society a purse 
of 100 guineas was presented to M. Du Chaillu, to re-imburse 
him for the loss of his instruments in Western Africa ; thus 
affirming satisfactorily the value placed by a competent 
tribunal on the labours of a traveller whose inferences and 
even veracity have been strongly impugned by captious and 
ungenerous critics. It was announced, too, that Mr. 
ODRIDA. 
Whymper, of Alpine renown, purposed to trace by land the 
extent of Greenland to the north, conceiving, from the 
number of deer that find their way to its ice-bound coast, 
that there may be pasture-grounds beyond. 
A Variety oe Indian Corn known as Caragua maize 
has lately been cultivated in the South of France ; it 
is said to attain a height of from ten to twelve feet, and to 
give nearly twice as much grain as the ordinary kinds and 
sixty per cent, more forage. It is not stated whether it 
requires a hot climate, but, from the fact of its cultivation 
being commenced in the South of France, this is most pro- 
bably the case. 
Apropos of Arctic discovery, we extract the following 
remarkable passage from the corner of our daily contem- 
porary, the Standard, in which, considering its startling 
natux-e, it was somewhat unaccountably buried: — “Two 
French gentlemen recently explored the island of Spitz- 
bergen in a manner never before done. They have measured 
the mountains, mapped the whole coast, examined the vege- 
table products, the geological composition, &c., of the island. 
They found that the long day, extending over several months, 
during which the sun never sets, became intensely hot after 
a month or two by the unceasing heat from the sun. In 
this period vegetation springs up in great luxuriance and 
abundance. The North Pole is only a matter of 600 miles 
from the island, and it is thought by the two explorers, as 
by many others, that the Pole itself and the sea which is 
supposed to surround it could be reached from Spitzbergen 
without any great difficulties being encountered. A singular 
fact noticed by the explorers in connection with this island 
is the enormous quantities of floating timber which literally 
cover the waters of the bays and creeks. A careful exami- 
nation of the character, condition, and kind of those floating 
logs would no doubt lead to a conclusion as to whence and 
how they came, and probably suggest new theories for the 
solution of geographical problems connected with the Arctic 
Seas.” We shall certainly look with intex’est for further 
detail in this matter. 
In the North of France, salt, we hear, has been 
found of great value in renovating asparagus beds that 
have ceased to be productive. The salt is applied in the 
proportion of aboixt 12 lbs. of the grey common salt of the 
country to each yard of bed, six feet wide ; or, in other 
wox-ds, six pounds of salt to the square yard. Treated in 
this way, says a French gardener, old beds yield crops 
twice as large as could be expected from young plants ixx 
full bearing. The middle of March is said to be the best 
time to apply the salt, which is merely sprinkled on the 
surface. 
