ten fail of the line, apparently ready for fe. On the 6th inft. Admiral Dickfon joined with the rest of the North Sea fleet, and his force was then equal to that of the enemy. which there are full details of the 16 Yesterday the Hamburg mail which was due on Sunday a rived, and although brings no advice of any active operations on the part of the Arch-duke, yet the war proceeds in the molt fpirited and fuccefsful manner in Italy. A fmart action was fought, on the 20th ult. near Cremona, in which Gen. Kaim repulfed the French, and pushed his advanced polis across the Adda, even to Lodi, which place fubfequent accounts fay has fallen into the hands of the imperial troops. Gen. Suwarrow, (who made himfelf fo famous by his ex-carried lights to the diftance of a quarploits at Ifmael and Warfaw) pelles forward with 50,000 men, to force the French to a general battle, which they feem anxious to avoid. The French head-quarters are at Milan, but they are falling back, and are throwing their troops into the fortrelles of Piedmont, They are puthed on all fides and Italy is apparently loft to them, with the exception of the fortrefles. The inhabitants alfo favour the Imperial troops fo much, that there is little necefiiry for leaving corps behind them to preferve their communications. But Gen. Suwarrow promifes to revive that enthufiafm which a short time ago created fuch armies, and infpired iuch a fpirit in France, as threatened the overthrow of almost every government in Europe. It is faid, that he put all the French advanced polts to death, and that a party of 60 men, which fell into his hands, were all killed but two, who were fent back to the French camp to tell, that Suwarrow was arrived. 17. Fresh accounts have been received from Buonaparte, by which the former accounts of his conquefts in Syria have been confirmed; he has Silued a proclamation, inviting all the Jews on the fhores of the Levant, Mediterranean, &c. to return to Judea, promifing to re-establish the Jewish government at Judea, and of which government he will confider himfelf as the particular protector. 18. The Paris Journals, up to the 9th init. were received yesterday, in ter of a league from the city. A rumber of huffars then came up with them, fome on foot, and others mounted, who flopped the fi ft carri age, in which were Jean Debry, his wife, and two daughters. The minifter, thinking they wanted to fee his pal port, to inform themselves of the quality of the travellers, declared himfelf. Immediately he was dragged out of the carriage, and received many wounds. He fel--they fuppofed him dead, but he got into a ditch. His fecretary, &c. were in the fecond carriage, who were plundered. They then went to the third carriage, in which was Bonnier alone; upon his telling his name, he was pulled out of the carriage and cut to pieces in the moft dreadful manner. In the fourth carriage was the fecretary of legation, who faved himself; but Robertjot, who was in the fifth carriage, with his wife, was maffacred in the most horrible manner. After having committed these cruelties, the huffars carried to their commander the greater part of the plunder, together with the pa→ pers. The above is the French áccount, according to which, the intelligence, when received at Radftadt, caufed the greateft fenfations among the deputies at the congrefs. 23. A Gazette extraordinary was publifhed laft night with an account of the total defeat of the French under Gen. Moreau, in Italy, by Suwarrow. The French loft 6000 in killed, 5000 taken prifoners, and 80 pieces of cannon. THE Univerfalift's Miscellany For JUNE, 1799. NATURAL HISTORY. (Continued from p. 131.) TE have at laft, in fome meafure, emerged from the Wdeeps of the earth; we now come to a fcene of greater fplendour---the contemplation of its external appearance. When we view the earth, mountains are the first objects that ftrike the imagination, and excite our curiofity. There is not, perhaps, any thing in all nature that impreffes an unaccuftomed fpectator with fuch ideas of awful folemnity, as these immenfe piles of nature's erecting, that feem to mock the minutenefs of human magnificence. In countries where, in general, there are nothing but plains, the fmalleft elevations are apt to excite wonder. In Holland, which is all a flat, they fhew a little ridge of hills, near the fea-fide, which Boerhaave generally marked out to his pupils as being mountains of no fmall confideration. What would be the fenfations of fuch an auditory, could they at once be prefented with a view of the Alps, or the Andes! Even among us in England, we have no adequate idea of a mountain profpect; our hills are generally floping from the plain, and cloathed to the very top with verdure; we can scarce, therefore, lift our imaginations to those immenfe piles whofe tops peep up behind intervening clouds, fharp and perpendicular, and reach to heights that human avarice or curiofity have never been able to afcend. Philofophers have long been divided in, their opinions concerning what, gave rife to thefe inequalities on the surface of VOL. III. Y the the globe. In our own happy region we feldom fee any inequalities but fuch as contribute to use and beauty; and we therefore are amazed at a question inquiring how fuch inequalities came to be formed, and feem to exprefs a wonder how the globe came to be fo beautiful as we find it. But though with us there may be no great cause for fuch a demand, yet in those places where mountains deform the face of nature, where they caft a gloom over the adjacent country by obftructing the chearing beams of the fun, where they pour down cataracts, or give fury to tempefts, there feems to be good reason for the inquiry either into their caufes or ufes. It has been therefore afked by many, in what manner mountains have been formed; and for what uses they are defigned. To fatisfy curiofity in these respects much reafoning has been employed, and very little knowledge propagated. With regard to the first part of the demand, the manner in which mountains were formed, the conjectures of philofophers have been very various. Some fuppofing that they exifted from the creation, and only acquired their deformities in procefs of time; others, that they were formed from the earth's broken fhell, at the time of the deluge; fome, that they owed their original to earthquakes; and others afcribing them entirely to the fluctuations of the deep, which in the beginning covered the whole earth. Such as are pleafed with difquifitions of this kind, may confult Burnett, Whiston, Woodward, Buffon, Catcott, and Whithurst. But perhaps Goldsmith speaks as much, in few words, on this subject as was ever spoken by any writer. "I would not," fays he, "be thought to decry any mental amufements, that at worst, keep us innocently employed; but for my own part, I cannot help wondering how the oppofite demand has never come to be made, and why philofophers have never afked, how we came to have plains. Plains are fometimes as prejudicial to man as mountains. Upon plains an inundation has greater power --the beams of the fun are often collected there with fuffocating fiercenefs---they are fometimes found defert for several hundred miles together, as in Arabia, and in the country east of the Cafpian fea, merely because there are no rifings nor depreffions to form refervoirs, or collect the smallest rivulet of water. The most rational answer, therefore, why either mountains or plains were formed, feems to be, that they were thus formed by the hand of wifdom, in order that pain and pleasure should be fo contiguous, as that morality might be exercifed, either in bearing the one or communicating the other." "Indeed, "Indeed, the more I confider this difpute refpecting the formation of mountains, the more I am ftruck with the futility of the question. There is neither a ftrait line, nor an exact fuperfices in all nature. If we confider a circle, even with mathematical precifion, we fhall find it formed of a number of Amall right lines, joining at angles together. The angles, therefore, may be confidered in a circle as mountains are upon our globe; and to demand the reafon of the one being mouns tainous, or the other angular, is only to afk why a circle is a circle, or a globe is a globe. In fhort, if there be no furface without inequality in nature, why fhould we be furprised that the earth has fuch? It has often been faid, that the inequali ties of its furface are fcarce diftinguifhable, if compared to its magnitude; and I think that we have every reafon to be con tent with the answer." Some philofophers, however, have avoided the difficulty of the question by urging the final caufe. They alledge that mountains have been formed merely because they are useful to man. This carries the inquirer but a part of the way; for no one can affirm that in all places they are ufeful. The contrary is known by horrid experience, in thofe vallies that are subject to their influence. However, as the utility of any part of our earthly habitation is a very pleasing speculation, it is not to be wondered at that much has been faid to prove the usefulness of mountains. It has been faid, as one principal advantage that we derive from them, that they ferve, like hoops or ribs, to ftrengthen our earth, and to bind it together. In consequence of this theory, Kircher has given us a map of the earth, in this manner, heaped with its mountains; but this map of Kircher's does not correspond with fact. Others have found a different ufe for them, especially when they run in long ridges from east to weft, which is, that they ftop the vapours that are continually travelling from the equator to the poles; for thefe being urged by the heat of the fun from the warm regions of the line, muft all be accumulated at the poles, if they were not stopped in their way by thofe high ridges of mountains which croís their direction. But what fhall we say to all the great mountains in America? It is well known that they run north and fouth; and America extends in that direction much farther than any other quarter of the globe. Others affert, that not only the aniinal but vegetable part of the creation would perifh for want of convenient humidity, were it not for the friendly affiftance of mountains: their fummits are, by thefe, fuppofed to arreft, as it were, the vapours Y 2 which which float in the regions of the air. Their large inflections and channels are confidered as fo many bafons prepared for the reception of those thick vapours and impetuous rains which defcend into them. The huge caverns beneath are so many magazines or confervatories of water for the peculiar service of man: and thofe orifices by which the water is discharged upon the plain, are so fituated as to enrich and render them fruitful, inftead of returning through fubterraneous channels to the fea, after the performance of a tedious and fruitiefs circulation. This is, probably, matter of fact; for certain it is, that almost all our great rivers find their fources among mountains; and in general, the more extensive the mountain, the greater the river; thus the river Amazons, the greatest in the world, has its fource among the Andes, which are the highest mountains on the globe-the vast river La Plata has alfo its fource among the fame ftupendous mountains---the river Niger travels a long courfe of several hundred miles from the mountains of the moon, the highest in all Africa-and the Danube and the Rhine proceed from the Alps, which are probably the highest mountains in Europe. It need scarcely be faid, that, with refpect to height, there are many fizes of mountains, from the gentle rifing upland to the tall craggy precipice. The appearance is in general different in those of different magnitudes. The firft are cloathed with verdure to their very tops, and only seem to afcend to improve our profpects, or fupply us with purer air; but the lofty mountains of the other claís have a different afpect; at a diftance their tops are feen, in wavy ridges, of the very colour of the clouds, and only to be diftinguifhed from them by their figure. As we approach, the mountain aflumes a deeper colour; it gathers upon the fky, and feems to hide halt the horizon behind it. Its fummits alfo are become more distinct, and appear with a broken and perpendicular line. What at first feemed a fingle hill, is now found to be a chain of continued mountains, whofe tops, running along in ridges, are embofomed in each other; fo that the curvatures of one are fitted to the prominences of the oppofite fide, and form a winding valley betwixt, often of feveral miles in extent; and all the way continued nearly of the fame breadth. Nothing can be finer, or more exact, than Mr. Pope's defcription of a traveller ftraining up the Alps. Every mountain he comes to he thinks will be the laft; he finds, however, an unexpected hill rife before him; and that being fcaled, he finds the highest fummit almoft at as great a diftance as before. Upon quitting the |