1310.] 
_ who still hope to find the solid nucleus 
of the earth. It begins fo be embraced 
by the geologists of the contivent, in 
preference to the systems which they 
had before adopted. — 
ITALY. 
In the month of October last, a fresh 
search was made for antiquities in the 
ruins of the ancient Pompen, by order 
of their Neapolitan majesties. On this 
occasion, the CHEVALIER\ARDITI, su- 
perintendant of the Royal Museum, pre- 
sented several pieces of ancient pitch, 
a vessel full of wheat, a piece of coral, 
several beautiful pamtings, and a lamp of 
baked earth in the form of a leaf, and 
bearing a Latin inscription. This lamp 
was covered with a very fine varnish, or 
vitrification, which gave it a silvery or 
pearly appearance. It seems therefore 
that those authors aré mistaken, who 
assert that this vitrification was not in- 
vented till the fifteenth century, by a 
Florentine sculptor. 
having expressed @ desire to have some 
of the ruins dug up under their own in- 
spection, the workmen had the good 
fortune to find several pieces of money ~ 
of various denominations; a number of 
bronzes, among which was a very fine 
vase, and an urn for wine; some articles 
formed of bones; a great quantity of 
glasses, of various shapes and sizes; and 
in particular, several vases improperly 
denominated Etruscan, with Latin in- 
scriptions. They also discovered various 
works in marble, some-comic masks, a 
few small but elegant altars, adorned with ~ 
basso relievos and weights, marked on. 
the upper side with cyphers. Hitherto 
only a single subterraneous habitation, 
erroneously called a cantino, but which 
ought rather to have been named crypto- 
portico, had been found at Pompeii. In 
the recent excavations, another, consist 
ing of several stories, was discovered. It 
is remarkable, for having in one corner, 
a pipe or tube of stucco, intended for the 
conveyance of smoke. This discovery 
seems to set at rest a question long agi- 
tated by the learned, whether the an- 
cients were acquainted with the use of 
‘vents or chimnies for carrying off smoke. 
In the same apartments were found 
several pieces of marble and alabaster; 
valuable on account of the basso-relievos 
and inscriptions with which they are 
adorned. Their majesties then pro» 
ceeded to a triclinium, or dining-apart- 
ment, recently discovered. The walls 
are covered with paintings in the best 
\ 
Literary and Philosophical Intelligence. 
Their majesties _ 
477 
taste, representing fishies, birds, and game 
of all kinds. Here are three couches of 
masonry, in perfect preservation,”"vpon 
which the ancients reclined durine their 
meals; and new them 1s still, to be seen 
a marble foot “which must have served to 
support the cable. 
RUSSIA. 
* The celebrated traveller, M. Henpev~ 
strom, has paid a second visit to the 
countries discovered to the north of- 
Siberia, which are denominated in the 
best maps, the country of Listickof, or 
Sannikof. He has found them to be 
only an island; but farther to the north, 
this traveller discovered a country wa- 
tered by considerable streams, which he. 
thought formed part of the continent. 
He examined the coasts to the extent of 
one hundred and seventy wersts, and 
found them covered with great trees 
petrified, and lying in “heaps one upon 
another. The hills are formed of scarcely 
any thing but slates, petrified wood, and 
coal. This country he has named New 
Siberia. In his researches there, My 
Hendenstrom has found the claws of a 
gigantic bird, which seems to bave be= 
longed to a species at present unknown. 
These claws are described as being each 
a yardin length. The Yakuts have as- 
sured him, that in their bunting excure 
sions, they have frequently met with 
skeletons, and even feathers, of the bird, 
This discovery cannot fail of proving ine 
teresting to naturalists, since it strengih- 
ens the prebability that, together with 
the Mammoths, Mastodontes, and other 
gigantic quadrupeds, now extinct, there 
existed both in the animal and vegetable 
kingdom, species of corresponding di- 
mensions, and in all probability a world 
quite different from our own. : 
M. Karamstn,-historiographer to the 
emperor, is dilizently employed upon a 
History of the Russian Empire. He has 
already brought it down to the time of 
_ Dmitri Donskoi; but does not intend 
to vive the result of his labours to the 
public, till he has arrived at the epoch 
of the elevation of the Czar Michali 
Fedorowitsch to the throne. It is said 
that M. Karamsin has received cone 
siderable assistance from the Wolhvpian 
Annals, discovered by him, togetier 
walt the ecclesiastical ordinances of 
John, metropolitan of Kiow, cotempo. 
rary with Nestor, andthe code of 
Prince Swatoslaw Qlvewitsch, who 
lived in the 12th century; as aiso from 
the Russian Chronicles of the fourteenth 
CENLUTYg 
