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ters of the whole lake of Zurich; their left wing has been confiderably reinforced by the inhabitants of the fmall Cantons, who join them in crowds The movements of the Imperialifts indicate their design to turn the left wing of the French army.

In Italy affairs are every where favourable to the allies. The exactions and cruelties of the French have fo much enraged the inhabitants, that there are continual infurrections against them: they are entirely driven out of Piedmont.

The preparations making for the fiege of Mantua are dreadful. The works are first to undergo a violent bombardment, after which the garrifon will be fummoned to furrender. In case of a refufal, a bombardment will enfue in which 400 bombs will be thrown into the city in the space of an hour.

7. The ci-devant Venetian ifles, formerly conquered by the French, will, it is faid, form an independent Ionian republic, under the protection and guarantee of England, Russia, and the Porte. It will confilt of the Mands of Xant, Cephalonia, and Cerigo; but St. Maurs, and the reft of the ci-devant Venetian continental poffeffions, are to be ceded to the Porte.

11. An extraordinary Gazette was publifhed last night, containing an account of the defeat of the French army in Italy under Gen. Macdonald, by the Ruffian Gen. Suwarrow. The French loft 6000 in killed, and 10000 prifoners. The Ruffians and Auftri. ans fuffered very feverely. Subfequent accounts ftate the battle to have 'continued three days, in the two former of which the French were fuccefsful. They retreated in fach good order towards Genoa, that only feven pieces of cannon were captured.What renders this victory of more importance, is, that Gen. Suwarrow had fo weakened himfelf by fpreading detachments over a large space of country, that there was a great chance of the French regaining all they had loft in Italy.

There have been violent difputes at Paris in the Council of Five Hundred and in the Directory, which have ended in the expulfion of Reubell, Le

paux, and Merlin from the Directory. The Abbe Sieyes, late amballador from France to Pruffia, is one of the new Directors.

13. Yesterday his Majesty went in ftate to the Houfe of Peers, when, after a speech, in which he remarked the fuccefs of the allies, but particu larly of Ruffia, and urged the neceffi→ ty of an union between this country and Ireland, the Lord Chancellor, by his Majesty's command, prorogued the Parliament to the 27th of Auguft..

17. The last advices from India contain fubjects of the greatest con fequence to the interests of the Company Our affairs in that quarter of the globe do not wear in reality fo difmal an appearance as they have been reprefented, The conduct of the governor general, Lord Mornington, is fuch as merits univerfal approbation, and from his ability, firınnefs, and moderation, in the present negociation with Tippoo, there is reafon to expect a favourable iffue, Should not this be the cafe, he has conciliated the minds and infured the confidence of most of the native princes, from whom he has every thing to hope in cafe of actual hoftilities.

The commotions which have long fubfifted in many of the diftricts have happily fubfided.

18. The camp at Southampton confifts of about 12,000 men, and the number intended for the fecret expedition, it is faid, will be 25,000. It is now generally believed that an attack upon Holland is intended, in which we fhall have the co-operation of about 40,000 Ruffians.

20. Last night the Paris Journals were received up to the 14th inftant. Affairs continue the fame as for fome time paft in Switzerland. Lacourbe,Gen. of the right wing of the French army, the point of conteft, has gained fome fuccefles. Macdonald had retreated to Piftires in Tufcany, on the 28th. ult. He is difplaced, and is on his way to Paris. A communication between the armies of Moreau and Macdonald is ftill preferved on the fea-fide. Fears are entertained by the French papers, that both armies may be cut off by Ceva and Savona.

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Thefe Journals fay the French Fleet has entered Carthagena. Three large fhips, with 12,000 men, on board, from Malta and Egypt, have been taken by the English, near Toulon. The papers contain much that is inte-refting on the internal state of France. The Directory are encouraging Jacobin focieties, and large bodies of the people openly oppose them.

Troubles have broken out in the fouth.

But the most extraordinary part of the contents of thefe papers is an article which infinuates the ruling faction are negociating with the King of Pruffia, and through him with the allies, to restore a conftitutional king. This article is countenanced by another, dated Vienna, July 2, which fays, "A Pruffian courier, the third in a few days, has arrived here on an affair of iniportance. There is a report of affembling all the minifters of the belligerent powers at Radftadt, to agree upon propofitions to be made to France, and to adopt a declaration to be iffued before a foldier enters her territory."

24. For fome time paft reports have prevailed of the defeat of Buonapart in Egypt; but reports of that nature have been fo very often fabricated, that little dependance could be placed upon them. But it is impoffible that any doubts should now remain of his defperate condition, the particulars of which are given in the Vienna Gazette, confirmed by the London Gazette of lat! night. The fortrefs of Acre feems molt effectually to have refifted him, and to have difconcerted his meafures: he made eleven attempts to ftorm the city, in each of which he loft a prodigious number of men, though not without great lofs on the part of the Turkish garrifon, and of the English under Sir Sydney Smith, who affifted them. He

then began his retreat towards Cairo, but (if fome accounts are true) without a poffibility of his reaching that place. If this be the cafe, it will be fortunate for him to have fallen into the hands of the English, (which it is ftrongly reported he has) as the Turks have put all their prisoners to the fword, and have fent great numbers of their heads to Conftantinople, where they have been fuck up, according to the merciful cuftoms of the Turks, in the principal places in the city.

26. The following letter from Portfmouth, dated the 24th, has been published in moft of the London papers of this day, and great reliance is placed in it Arrived La Suffif. ante, and Haarlem, men of war. The latter brings word, that in coming down the Mediterranean from Naples, in company with the Centaur, theyfell in with three frigates and two corvets, who each fired a single shot, and furrendered; their names are the Alcefte, of 36 guns, and 460 men, with an admiral's flag, Juno, of 44 guns, 560 men, Courageux, of 44 guns, 500 men, and two corvets of guns each; two frigates were within fight, and the French fleet within hearing when the above captures were made. The next day they joined Lord Keith, who defcried the combined French and Spanish fleets, and fent the Penelope cutter to reconnoitre, who was attacked by a French brig, which the beat off; but a Spanifh frigate coming down, fhe was taken. Lord Keith attacked the rear of the enemy, confifting of 58 fhips, the English only 34. The action commenced at 7 in the morning, and at 2 o'clock continued with great fury, the Haarlem's officers could then only fee 28 of the enemy, feveral of which had loft their top-mafls. The action was fought on the 8th inft."

The Subfcribers are requested to excufe the omiffion of The Trial of the Witneffes in this Number; in our next, Eight Pages extra will be given.

THE

Univerfalift's Mifcellany

For AUGUST, 1799.

NATURAL HISTORY.

(Continued from p. 196.)

HE mountain Catapaxi is more than three geographical

TH miles above the furface of the fea. Chimborazo and

Pichincha are not much inferior. On the top of the latter, continues Don Ulloa, was my ftation for measuring a degree of the meridian; where I fuffered particular hardihips from the intenseness of the cold, and the violence of the ftorms. The sky around was, in general, involved in thick fogs, which, when they cleared away, and the clouds by their gravity moved nearer to the furface of the earth, appeared furrounding the foot of the mountain, at a vast distance below, like a fea encompaffing an ifland. When this happened, the horrid noises of tempefts were heard from below, then discharging themselves on Quito, and the neighbouring country. I saw the lightenings iffue from the clouds, and heard the thunders roll far beneath me. All this time, while the tempeft was raging below, the mountain top, where I was placed, enjoyed a delightful ferenity; the wind was abated; the fky clear; and the enlivening rays of the sun moderated the feverity of the cold. However this was of no long duration, for the wind returned with all its violence, and with fuch velocity as to dazzel the fight; whilst my fears were increased by the dreadful concuffions of the precipices and the fall of enormous rocks; the only founds that were heard in this frightful fituation.

Such is the animated picture of the Andes, as given us by Don Ulloa. A paffage over the Alps, or a journey across the VOL. III. Pyrennees,

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Pyrennees, appear as petty trips. or excurfions in comparison; and yet these are the moft lofty mountains we know of in Europe. If we compare the Alps with the mountains already described, we shall find them but little more then half the height of the former. The Andes, upon being measured by the barometer, were found above three thousand, one hundred and thirty-fix toifes or fathoms above the furface of the fea, Whereas the highest point of the Alps is not not above fixteen hundred. That is, the one is above three miles high; the other about a mile and a half. The highest mountains of Afia are, Mount Taurus, Mount Immaus, Mount Caucafus. Some mountains in Japan are alfo faid to be very high. None of these are equal to the Andes in height; although Mount Caucafus, which is the higheft of them, makes very near approaches. Father Verbieft tells of a mountain in China, which he measured, and found a mile and a half high. In Africa, the mountains of the Moon, famous for giving fource to the Niger and the Nile, are rather more noted than known. Of the Peak of Teneriff, one of the Canary Islands, we have more certain information.

In the year 1727, it was vifited by a company of English merchants, who travelled up to the top, where they obferved its height, and the volcano on its very fummit. They found it an heap of mountains, the higheft of which rifes above the reft like a fugar loaf, and gives a name to the whole mafs. It is computed to be a mile and a half perpendicular from the furface of the fea. Kircher gives us an eftimate of the height of most of the other great mountains in the world; but as he has taken his calculations in general from the ancients, or from modern travellers who had not the art of measuring them, they are quite incredible. The method of taking the height of places by the barometer, is a new and an ingenious invention. As the air grows lighter as we afcend, the fluid in the tube rifes in due proportion. Thus the inftrument being properly marked, gives the height with a tolerable degree of certainty; at least enough to fatisfy curiofity.

Few of the great mountains have been eftimated in this manner; travellers having, perhaps, been detered from afcending them by a fuppofed impoffibility of breathing on the top. However, it has been invariably found that the air on the highest mountains, that have been afcended, is not at all too fine for respiration. At the top of the Peak of Teneriff, there was found no other inconvenience from the air, except its coldness; at the top of the Andes, there was difficulty of breathing pere ceived,

ceived. The accounts, therefore, of thofe who have afferted that they were unable to breathe, although at much lefs heights, are greatly to be fufpected. In fact, it is very natural for mankind to paint thofe obftacles as infurmountable, which they themselves have not had the fortitude to furmount.

The difficulty and danger of afcending to the tops of mountains, proceeds from other caufes, not the thinness of the air. For inftance, fome of the fummits of the Alps have never yet been vifited by man, But the reafon is, that they rife with fuch a rugged and precipitate afcent, that they are utterly inacceffible. In fome places they appear like a great wall of fix or feven hundred feet high; in others, there ftick out enormous rocks, that hang upon the brow of the steep, and every moment threaten deftruction to the traveller below.

In this manner almost all the tops of the highest mountains are båre and pointed. And this naturally proceeds from their being fo continually affaulted by thunders and tempefts. All the earthy fubftances with which they might have been once covered, have for ages been washed away from their summits; and nothing is left remaining but immenfe rocks, which no tempeft has hitherto been able to deftroy. Nevertheless, time is every day, and every hour, making depredations; and huge fragments are seen tumbling down the precipices, either loof,, ened from the fummit by froft, or rains, or ftruck down by lightening. Nothing can exhibit a more terrible picture than one of thefe enormous rocks, commonly larger than a good fized house, falling from its height, with a noise louder than thunder, leaping from precipice to precipice down the fide of the mountain. Dr. Plott mentions one in particular, which being loosened from its bed, tumbled down the precipice and was partly fhattered into a thousand pieces, while another large part of the fame, still preferving its motion, travelled over the plain below, croffed a rivulet in the midst, and at last stopped on the other fide of the bank!

Thefe fragments, as was faid, are often ftruck off by lightening, and sometimes undermined by rains; but the most usual way in which they aredifunited from the mountain, is by froft: the rains infinuate between the interftices of the mountain, continue there till there comes a froft, and then, when converted into ice, the water fwells with an irresistible force, and produces the fame effect as gunpowder, fplitting the most folid rocks, and thus fhattering the fummits of the mountain.

Not only rocks, but whole mountains, are, by various causes, difunited from each other. There are feen in many parts of the

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Alps,

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