regions, except Captain Symmes's hole, the aspect of which, it seems, did not please them. But we are anticipating our extracts from Doctor Skallagrimston's selections, in which a curious reference is made to that aperture. The Esquimaux did make themselves a universal nation, by taking independent possession of all the ground they could find, which the occupants could not keep with the strong hand, in the extreme northern latitudes: and as the result of the exploration of all modern navigators has been that there is very little of it, perhaps they are more excusable than some other people.
We feel that we are writing in a strain of levity, which may be thought misplaced. But it is impossible to refrain from smiling at the idea of poetic inspiration being kindled in regions where alcohol freezes; and natural wonder at the fact that such is the case, is accompanied, more or less, with amusing associations.
May our apology be accepted; and let us proceed with Dr. Thorlief Glum Skallagrimston's specimens of the poetical literature of the Esquimaux. We love his name, because it is hard to utter, and, being learned, is difficult to disremember,—as we have heard certain of our countrymen say, when cross-questioned in courts. Next to Dr. Bowring, he is probably the most erudite man alive, in the languages of the northern regions of the globe; and he has made that of the Samoieds his favorite and particular study. By some cultivated English scholars, his metrical versions both from the Celtic and the Gothic poets are preferred to those of Dr. Bowring. And, if our opinion were of any recognized value, we should not hesitate to say that there is a sameness and a oneness about Bowring's translations, which makes less touching and effectual the joys and the woes of that kind of people who do not know each other from Adam; and who, moreover, are unapprised of the fact that Adam was their common father. Not that they have been sophisticated, by reading Voltaire's Universal History; for they are innocent of knowing any letters; but that they have lost even the commonest and most universal of the early traditions. Still they are homoio-pathetical with the great family of man; while, as nations, they have idiosyncrasies which arise from circumstances, and give a definite and distinct character to the poetry of each tribe or people. Dr. Bowring makes them all sing to the same tune. They do not. The peculiarities of all the large human families which have ramified out from among the descendants of Shem, Ham, and
