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Curiosities Respecting Waterfalls, &C: Tivoli

LAKE SOLFATARA. - This lake is in the Compagna of Rome, near Tivoli, anciently called Albulus. It has what are called three floating islands, but they are only apparently so, being composed of bunches of sedges and bulrushes, glued together by the bitumen which swims on the lake, and the sulphur with which it is impregnated, and covered with sand and dust blown from the adjacent banks of the lake. These islands are from twelve to fifteen yards long, and the soil is strong enough to bear six persons, who, by a pole, may move to different parts of the lake. This lake has an outlet, whence its waters run, forming a whitish muddy stream, into the Teverone, the ancient Anio, emitting a vapour of a sulphureous smell as they flow. The ground near this rivulet, as well as on the banks of the lake, resounds with a hollow sound when a horse gallops over it. The water has also a petrifying quality, covering every substance that it passes over with a hard white stony substance. On throwing a bundle of sticks or shrubs into the lake, they will in a few days be covered with this stony crust; and this petrifying quality is even stronger in the rivulet that runs from it, than in the lake itself, and still increases till it falls into the Teverone. These small white incrustations that cover the pebbles in the bottom of the lake and rivulet, being somewhat like sugar-plums, are called Confections of Tivoli. Fish. abound in the Teverone above and below Tivoli, till it receives the petrifying water; after which, during the remainder of its course to the Tiber, there are none.

SUDEROE.--MAELSTROm.

Our next object of curiosity is a WHIRLPOOL near SUDEROE. -Suderoe is one of the Fero isles, situated to the north of Scotland. Near this place there is a remarkable whirlpool, occasioned by a crater sixty-one fathoms deep in the centre, and from fifty to fifty-five on the sides. The water forms four fierce circumgyrations. The point they begin at is on the side of a large bason, where commences a range of rocks, running spirally, and terminating at the verge of the crater. This range is extremely rugged, and covered with water, from the depth of twelve to eight fathoms only. It forms four equidistant wreaths, with a channel from thirty-five to twenty fathoms deep between each. On the outside, beyond that depth, the sea suddenly sinks to eighty and ninety. On the south border of the bason is a lofty rock, called Sumboe Munk, noted for the multitude of birds which frequent it. On one side the water is only three or four fathoms deep, on the other fifteen. The danger at most times, especially in storms, is very great. Ships are irresistibly drawn in; the rudder loses its power; and the waves beat as high as the masts; so that an escape is almost miraculous: yet at the reflux, in fine weather, the inhabitants venture for the sake of fishing. Our next subject is the celebrated MAELSTROM. This is a very dangerous whirlpool on the coast of Norway, in the province of Nordland, and district of Lofoden, near the island of Moskoe, whence it also has its name of Moskoe-strom. Of this amazing whirlpool, Jonas Ramus gives the following account:-" The mountain of Helseggen, in Lofoden, lies a league from the island of Ver, and betwixt these two runs that large and dreadful stream called Moskoe-strom, from the island of Moskoe, which is in the middle of it; together with S ral circumjacent isles, as Ambaaran, half a quarter of a league north, Iflesen, Hoeholm, Kiedholm, Suarven, and Buckholm. Moskoe lies about half a quarter of a mile south of the island of Ver, and betwixt them these small islands, Otterholm, Flimen, Sandfiesen, and Stockholm. Betwixt Lofoden and Moskoe, the depth of the water is between thirtysix and forty fathoms; but on the side towards Ver, the depth decreases so as not to afford a convenient passage for a vessel, without the risk of splitting on the rocks, which sometimes happens even in the calmest weather: when it is flood, the stream runs up the country between Lofoden and Moskoe with a boisterous rapidity; but the roar of its impetuous ebb to the sea is scarce equalled by the loudest and most dreadfu: cataracts, the noise being heard several leagues off; and the vortices, or pits, are of such an extent and depth, that if a ship comes within its attraction, it is inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom, and there beaten to pieces against 3Q 490 CURIOSITIES RESPECTING WATERFALLS, &c. the rocks; and when the water relaxes, the fragments thereof are thrown up again: but these intervals of tranquillity are only at the turn of the ebb and flood, in calm weather, and last but a quarter of an hour, its violence gradually returning. When the stream is most boisterous, and its fury heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come within a Norway mile of it; boats, ships, and yachts, having been carried away, by not guarding against it before they were within its reach. It likewise happens frequently, that whales come too near the stream, and are overpowered by its violence; and then it is impossible to describe their howlings and bellowings, in their fruitless struggles to disengage themselves. A bear, once attempting to swim from Lofoden to Moskoe, with a design of preying upon the sheep at pasture in the island, afforded the like spectacle to the people; the stream caught him, and bore him down, whilst he roared terribly, so as to be heard on shore. Large stocks of fir and pine trees, after being absorbed by the current, rise again, broken and torn to such a degree as if bristles grew on them. This plainly shews the bottom to consist of craggy rocks, among which they are whirled to and fro. This stream is regulated by the flux and reflux of the sea, it being constantly high and low water every six hours. In 1645, early in the morning of Sexagesima Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity, that on the island of Moskoe, the very stones of the houses fell to the ground. When this whirlpool is agitated by a storm, its vortex will reach vessels five or six miles distant." GULF-STREAM. - This is a remarkable current in the ocean, which runs along the coast, at unequal distances, from Cape Florida to the Isle of Sables and the banks of Newfoundland, where it turns off and runs through the Western Islands, thence to the coast of Africa, and along that coast in a southern direction till it arrives at and supplies the place of those waters carried by the constant trade-winds from the coast of Africa towards the west; thus producing a constant circulating current. This stream is about seventy-five miles from the shores of the southern states, and the distance increases as you proceed northward. The breadth of it is about forty or fifty miles, widening towards the north. Its common rapidity is three miles an hour. A north-east wind narrows the stream, renders it more rapid, and drives it nearer the coast. Northwest and west winds produce a contrary effect. The Gulfstream is supposed to be occasioned by the trade-winds, that are constantly driving the water to the westward, which being compressed in the gulf of Mexico, finds a passage between Florida and the Bahama islands, and runs to the north-east along the American coast.