longitude for the time required; and with this sum, as an argument, enter the following small table, in which the signs are inserted at the top or bottom, and the degrees on the sides, and the corresponding numbers will be the conjugate axis of the ring, its transverse being 1.000. This result, however, requires a correction, depending upon the geocentric latitude of the planet. To obtain this correction, the latitude must be reduced to minutes, and 4th part applied to the number above found, with the sign+, if his latitude be south; but with the sign—if it be north, and the result will give the apparent conjugate diameter of the ring.

TABLE

For finding the Form of Saturn's Ring, and the Orbits of his first four Satellites.

As an example of the preceding method of finding the ratio of the diameters of Saturn's ring,

let it be required to find his conjugate axis on the 1st of January 1819; then we have

Hence, as the ratio of the two axes of the ring at this time are 058 to 1, it will appear only like a line. When the sign + is prefixed to the result, it indicated that it is the upper surface or northern side of the ring that is then visible; but when - is employed to characterise the result, it shows that it is the southern face of the ring that is then seen. The result thus obtained also applies to the orbits of the first four of Saturn's satellites. When the result is equal 0, Saturn's ring totally disappears, the edge being too thin to reflect sufficient light to render it visible.

The Naturalist's Diary

For FEBRUARY 1819.

Reviving nature seems again to breathe,

As loosened from the cold embrace of death.

IN the course of this month all nature begins, as it were, to prepare for its revivification. God, as the Psalmist expresses it, renews the face of the earth;' and animate and inanimate nature seem to vie with each other in opening the way to spring. About the 4th or 5th, the woodlark'

'O stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay,
Nor quit for me the trembling spray;
A hapless lover courts thy lay,

Thy soothing fond complaining.

(alauda arborea), one of our earliest and sweetest songsters, renews his note; a week after, rooks begin to pair; the thrush sings; and the yellowhammer is heard'. The chaffinch sings; the green wood-pecker (picus viridis) makes a loud noise; and the redbreast continues to warble. Turkey-cocks strut and gobble. Partridges (tetrao perdix) begin to pair; the house pigeon has young; field crickets open their holes; missel thrushes couple; and wood owls hoot;-gnats play about, and insects swarm under sunny hedges; frogs (rana temporaria) croak, and the stone curlew (otis ædicnemus) clamours. By the latter end of this month, the raven (corvus corax) has generally laid its eggs, and begun to sit. Moles (talpa europaeus) commence their subterraneous operations.-See T.T. for 1814, p. 49, and our last volume, p. 43.

The weather is usually variable in this month, but most inclined to frost and snow, and the thermometer is often down below the freezing point. The severe weather generally breaks up with a sudden thaw, accompanied by wind and rain; torrents of water pour from the hills, and the snow is completely dissolved. Rivers swell and

Again, again that tender part,

That I may catch thy melting art;
For surely that wad touch her heart,
Wha' kills me wi' disdaining.

Say, was thy little mate unkind,
And heard thee as the careless wind?
Oh, nocht but love and sorrow joined
Sic notes o' woe could wauken.

Thou tells o' never-ending care;
O' speechless grief, and dark despair;
For pity's sake, sweet bird, nae mair!
Or my poor heart is broken!

BURNS.

'See our last volume, p. 43, for a pleasing poetical illustra

tion.

inundate the surrounding country, often carrying away bridges, cattle, mills, gates, &c., and causing great injury to the farmer. Mrs. Cowley's • Petition after Thaw-Flood,' in Devonshire, affords a good description of the appearances of nature at this season, of the ravages occasioned, and of the losses suffered by the poor. We have only space for a few lines:

The sportive winds sprang up on high,

With feathery snow played through the sky;
The earth was clothed, the hills grew white,
The shrinking vales gave gelid light;
The blanched oak waved his hoary crown,
And shook his silver garland down.

Green wheat, just piercing through the ground
With tender blade from root profound,

A chilling element found there,
That checked its rise to live in air.

The spirit of dread storms awoke,
The roaring winds their magic spoke,
Transformed to torrents settled snow,
And bade the dark-browed tempests grow.
O'er Devon's hills fierce waters gushed,
And boisterous on the meadows rushed;

They drenched the woodlands, choaked the plain,
Till all appeared one billowy main;
Black clouds shot on in dread array,
And chased the last remains of day.
No spangled vault relieved the sight,
No soothing moonlight graced the night,
But there the Pleiades were seen,
Triumphant glittering and keen.

The flowers of the crocus (crocus vernus) appear, before their leaves are grown to their full length; the barren strawberry (fragraria sterilis); the laurustinus (viburnum tinus); and the yewtree (taxus baccata), are in flower.

SONNET to the YEW-TREE.

[By Dr. J. Leyden.]

When Fortune smiled, and Nature's charms were new,
I loved to see the oak majestic tower,-

I loved to see the apple's painted flower,

Bedropt with pencilled tints of rosy hue:
Now more I love thee, melancholy YEW,
Whose still green leaves in solemn silence wave
Above the peasant's rude unhonoured grave,
Which oft thou moisten'st with the morning dew.
To thee the sad-to thee the weary fly;
They rest in peace beneath thy sacred gloom,
Thou sole companion of the lonely tomb;
No leaves but thine in pity o'er them sigh:
Lo! now to Fancy's gaze thou seem'st to spread
Thy shadowy boughs, to shroud me with the dead.

The elder-tree (sambucus nigra) begins to put forth its flower buds, and the catkins of the hazel are very conspicuous in the hedges. The gooseberry bush (ribes grossularia) and the red currant (ribes rubrum) show their young leaves about the end of the month. The hepatica (anemone hepatica), unless the weather be severe, gives brilliance to the garden with its bright pink flowers; and the hounds-tongue (cynoglossum) with its more modest flowers of pink or light blue. Many plants appear above ground in February, but few flowers, except the snowdrop, are to be found. This ' icicle changed into a flower' is sometimes fully opened from the beginning of the month.

The husbandman is now eager to commence the work of ploughing, which important business is finished in this month, if the weather permit.

Sweet then the ploughman's slumbers, hale and young,
When the last topic dies upon his tongue;

Sweet then the bliss his transient dreams inspire,
Till chilblains wake him, or the snapping fire.
He starts, and, ever thoughtful of his team,
Along the glittering snow a feeble gleam
Shoots from his lantern, as he yawning goes
To add fresh comforts to their night's repose;
Diffusing fragrance as their food he moves,
And pats the jolly sides of those he loves.
Thus, full replenished, perfect ease possest,
From night till noon, alternate food and rest,
No rightful cheer withheld, no sleep debarred,
Their each day's labour brings its sure reward.