him halloo from under the neck, "All rights." Those negroes use their feet exactly like monkeys, grasping every projection as firmly almost as with their hands. The line he carried up he made fast above, and up it we all four climbed in succession. It was, joking apart, awful work. In several places the ridge ran to an edge not a foot broad; and I could, as I held on, half sitting half kneeling, across the wedge, have kicked my right shoe (had I had any on) down to the plain on one side, and my left into the bottom of the ravine on the other. The only thing which surprised me was my own steadiness, and freedom from all giddiness. I had been nervous in mounting the ravine in the morning, but gradually I got so excited and determined to succeed, that I could look down that dizzy height without the smallest sensation of swimming in the head. Nevertheless, I held on uncommon hard, and felt very well satisfied when I was safe under the neck; and a more extraordinary situation I never was in. The head, which

www.

is an enormous mass of rock, about thirtyfive feet in height, overhangs its base many feet on every side. A ledge of tolerably level rock runs round three sides of the base, about six feet in width, bounded everywhere by the abrupt edge of the precipice, except in the spot where it is joined by the ridge up which we climbed. In one spot, the head, though overhanging its base several feet, reaches only perpendicularly over the edge of the precipice, and most fortunately it was at the very spot where we mounted; here it was that we reckoned on getting up. A communication being now established with the shoulder by a double line of ropes, we proceeded to get up the necessary matériel-Lloyd's portable ladders, additional coils of rope, crow-bars, &c. But now the question, and a puzzler too, was, how to get the ladder up against the rock? Nous verrons. Lloyd had prepared some iron arrows with thongs to fire over; and having got up a gun, he made a line fast round his body, which we all held on, and going over the edge of the precipice on the opposite side, he leaned back against the line, and fired over the least projecting part. Had the line broken, he would have fallen eighteen hundred feet. Twice this failed, and accordingly he had recourse to a large stone, with a lead line, which, swung diagonally, seemed a feasible plan. Several times he made beautiful heaves, but the provoking line would not catch, and away went the stone far down below, till at length Æolus, pleased, I suppose, with his perseverance, gave us a shift of wind for about a minute, and over went the stone, and was eagerly seized on the opposite side. “Hurrah, my lads! Steady's the word." Three lengths of the ladder were put together on the ledge, a large line was attached to the one which was over the head, and carefully drawn over; and finally, a two-inch rope, to the extremity of which we lashed the top of the ladder, and then lowered it gently over the precipice, till it hung perpendicularly, and was steadied by two niggers on the ridge below. "All right! hoist away!" and up went the ladder, till the foot came to the edge of our ledge, where it was lashed in firmly to the neck. then hauled away on the guy to steady it, and made it fast: a line was

We

passed over by the lead line to hold on, and up went Lloyd, screeching and hallooing, and up the other three scrambled after him. The unionjack and a boat-hook were passed up, and Old England's flag soared freely and gallantly on the redoubted Peter Botte. No sooner was it seen flying, than the Undaunted saluted in the harbour, and the guns of our saluting battery gave tongue; for though our expedition had been kept secret till we started, it was made known the morning of our ascent, and all hands were on the look-out, as we afterwards learnt. We then got a bottle of wine to the top of the rock, christened it King William's Peak, and drank his health, hands round the jack, and then, Hip! hip! hip! hurrah! I never felt certainly anything like the excitement of that moment; even the niggers down on the shoulder took up our hurrabs, and we could hear far below the faint shouts of the astonished inhabitants of the plain. We were determined to do nothing by halves, and accordingly made preparations for sleeping under the neck, by hauling up blankets, pea-jackets, brandy, cigars, &c. During this time our dinner was preparing down on the shoulder, and about 4 P.M. we descended our ticklish path to partake of the portable soup and preserved salmon, &c. Our party was now increased by Dawkins and his cousin, a lieutenant of the Talbot, to whom we had written, informing them of our hopes of success.

:

After dinner, as it was getting dark, I screwed up my nerves, and climbed up to our queer little nest at the top, followed by Keppel and a nigger, who carried some dry wood, and made a fire in a cleft under the rock. Lloyd and Phillpotts soon came up, and we began to arrange ourselves for the night, each taking a glass of brandy to begin work. I had on two pair of ineffables, a shooting waistcoat and jacket, and a huge Flushing jacket over that, a thick woollen sailor's cap, and two blankets, a brandy flask, and cigamero. We each seated ourselves with a lighted cigar to wait for the appointed hour for our signal of success. It was a glorious sight to look down from that giddy pinnacle over the whole island, lying so calm and beautiful in the moonlight, except where the broad black shadows of the other mountains intercepted the light here and there we could see a light twinkling in the plains, or a fire in some sugar manufactory, but not a sound of any sort reached us, except an occasional shout from the party down on the shoulder, we four being the only ones above. At length, in the direction of Port Louis, a bright flash was seen, and, after a long interval, the sullen booms of the evening gun. We now prepared our pre-arranged signal, and whizz! went a rocket from our nest, lighting up for an instant the peaks of the hills below us, and then leaving us in darkness visible. We then burnt a blue light, and nothing can be conceived more perfectly beautiful. The broad glare against the overhanging rock-the wildlooking group we made in our uncouth habiliments-and the narrow ledge on which we stood distinctly shown-while many of the tropical birds, frightened at our vagaries, came glancing by in the light, and then swooped away screeching into the gloom below, for the gorge on our left was as dark as Erebus. We burnt another blue light, and threw up two more rockets, and then, our laboratory being exhausted, the patient-looking, insulted moon had it all her own way again. We now rolled ourselves up in our blankets; and having lashed Phillpotts, who is a determined sleep-walker, to Keppel's leg, we tried to sleep;

but how it did blow before morning! and oh, so cold! We drank all the brandy, and kept tucking in the blankets all night without success.

1 Lloyd. 2 Phillpotts. 3 Taylor.

4 Keppel.

At day-break we rose, stiff, cold, and hungry; and I shall conclude briefly by saying that, after about four or five hours' hard work, we got a hole mined in the rock, and sunk the foot of our twelve-foot ladder deep in the top, lashed a water-barrel as a land-mark at the top, and above all a long staff with the union-jack flying. We then in turn mounted to the top of the ladder to take a last look at a view such as I may never see again, and bidding adieu for ever to the scene of our toil and triumph, descended the ladder to the neck, and cast off the guys, cutting off all communication with the top.

In order to save time and avoid danger, we now made fast a line from the neck to the shoulder as taut as possible, and hanging on our traps by means of rings, launched them one by one from the top, and away they flew down, making the line smoke again. All were thus conveyed safely to the shoulder, except one unlucky bag containing a lot of blankets, my spy-glass, and sundry other articles, which, not being firmly fixed, broke the preventer line and took its departure down to Pamplemousses. We at length descended, and reached the shoulder all safe, and without one accident, save and except the blankets-not a rope-yarn being left to show where we got up. We breakfasted, and, after a long and somewhat troublesome descent, arrived on terra firma, and drove home all six in Lloyd's carriage full split to town, where we were most cordially welcomed by all hands, and most devoutly wished at Old Nick by all the French, who now find out that "c'est une chose bien facile," so like them. Let them go and pull the union down, and stick up that three-coloured thing of theirs!-but we must make allowances.

THE BOMMARANG.

THE Aborigines of New South Wales use an offensive weapon called "Bommarang," which appears to be peculiar to themselves, and possesses some curious properties worthy investigation. It is merely a covered piece of wood, which the natives can throw with ease one hundred or one hundred and fifty yards, with sufficient force to break the leg, or otherwise injure any animal. The singular property of this instrument, however, consists in the possibility of throwing it forward in the air to a considerable distance, so that it shall always return towards the person throwing it, and even pass over his head behind him twenty or thirty yards, and this without touching anything in its flight. At the first glance there is something so incredible in this assertion, and so contrary to all received opinions, that few persons are disposed to believe before they have witnessed the experiment; and I confess I was rather sceptical, until I had been assured of the fact by more than one gentlemen of undoubted veracity, and had succeeded in producing the same effect repeatedly, on the first day of making the attempt.

Having reflected on the subject, I am induced to offer for insertion in your Journal, some explanation of the principles on which it acts, as I believe no attempt at explanation has hitherto been published; but will first describe the instrument according to the dimensions given me by Captain Norton which I find answers perfectly. The "Bommarang may be formed of any tough, heavy wood, and is about three-eighths of an inch thick in the middle, gradually tapering off towards the extremities, and rounded on each side from the centre until brought to an edge:

B

B

:

Construction.-Let A B E be the arc of a circle: the chord ADE=18 inches the perpendicular B D=7 inches: the width BC=3 inches. Thus constructed, the centre of gravity will fall exactly on the edge of its concave surface at C. When used as an offensive weapon, it is usually thrown with the convex side outwards; but when intended to return, it is held in the reverse position; although it will probably act in either direction, if properly managed.

For the latter purpose, however, it should be thrown from the hand at a considerable elevation (45°) with a sudden jerk, so as to combine with the projectile force a rapid rotation round its centre of gravity. The rotation acts constantly in opposition to its line of flight; so that if a similar rotation could be communicated without any projectile force, the instrument would move backwards: now, as the force with which it is thrown is constantly diminishing while the rotation continues, it must always arrive at a certain point where these opposite forces balance, or equalize each other. At that moment the weapon would fall towards the ground, were it not for its flat surface and rotatory motion; but in consequence of the centre of gravity being so placed that it will always present its broad surface to the air, it cannot descend perpendicularly, but slides down the inclined plane, up which it has been thrown, in consequence of the whirling-motion continuing after the projectile force has ceased; so that if properly thrown, it will pass over the head of the thrower, and often to a considerable distance behind him.

On the same principle, a hoop thrown from the hand with a spinning-motion inwards, will begin to return before it touches the ground; and also the curious, though not so familiar instance, of a ball fired from a musket, the barrel of which has been bent to the left, being carried at long distances considerably to the right of the object aimed at, in consequence of the rotation of the ball on its axis, caused by the friction against the right side of the barrel overcoming the projectile force, and thus carrying it across the line of aim.

The bommarang may be illustrated in a room, by merely cutting a piece of card into the same shape as the diagram; then holding it between the finger and thumb of the left hand, at an inclination of about 45°, and striking one corner with a piece of wood, it will advance several feet and return to the spot from whence it proceeded. I find, however, that this form is not essential to produce a similar effect, although the most convenient to throw from the hand. Any thin, flat body of a semi-circular or rectilinear figure, will return in the same manner, if a rotative motion be communicated to it, in conjunction with the projectile force at a considerable angle of elevation.

27, Pall-Mall, 1833.

HENRY WILKINSON.

REVIEWS AND CRITICAL NOTICES.

THE PORT ADMIRAL.

SOME time ago we demolished a trashy libel, under the style and title of Cavendish, or the Patrician at Sea ;" and although the chief characteristics of that production were inanity and absurdity, it still excited indignation, on account of a base admixture of calumny and mendacity. But on its being discovered to be the joint spawn of a discarded captain's clerk and a notary's fag, it was seen that the Folly-tonian Brothers," as they were termed, were beneath the notice of gentlemen. Still there was a score of uplifted cudgels ready for their shoulders, but terror has driven them to so obscure a hidingplace, that, for the present at least, they have "saved their bacon." In this dilemma, one of the aggrieved parties is said to have taken an odd kind of vengeance, and one which we think must have been more troublesome than the occasion required: for he has endeavoured to imitate the vulgar assurance of the self-created" Patricians," in order to impose another work on the public, as coming from the same hands, and thereby put more rods in pickle for them. Such an attempt, it is clear, must fail, because pretending, heartless rascality is below the limit to which satire or parody should descend. It is true we have here again the same guitar-playing mutinous midshipman,the same hatred of laws,-the same crying-up of that noblest passion, REVENGE!"-the same vapid arrogance, the same ignorance of life as it is,-the same long-bow appeals to the truth of rank falsehoods,-the same debasement of taste, and profligacy of sentiment,-the same contempt of grammar, and the same regret at the "atrocious calumnies cast on the name of Bonaparte; "--but while Cavendish actually does give one fact, the battle of Navarino, there is not a solitary truth throughout the "Port Admiral." By this oversight, the present author has jumbled and perverted circumstances and dates too ludicrously; and we cannot but think this method of wreaking vengeance is more painstaking than wise, for what humour is there in reducing authorship to the level of Folly-toman malignity? Indeed there can be few readers who will not pronounce the book to have been written by an ass;-and considerable indignation will no doubt be excited against the "House" of Cochrane and Co. for publishing it, which can be allayed only by our explanation.

46