ter; or sometimes, by way of variety, plunge into snow, and
roll themselves therein. This violent exercise and sudden transition
of temperature is almost overpowering to persons unhabituated to the
custom, and will oftentimes produce fainting,--though the patient, on
recovering, finds himself refreshed, and experiences a delightful sense
of mental, as well as bodily, vigour and energy. The enervating effects
of the extreme luxury and refinement practised in the Greek and Roman
baths are obviated in the Russian mode: to which may partly be ascribed
the power which the latter people have in undergoing fatigue and the
various hardships of their rigorous climate. Tooke says that without
doubt the Russians owe their longevity, robust health, their little
disposition to fatal complaints, and, above all, their happy and
cheerful temper, mostly to these vapour-baths. Lewis and Clarke, in
their voyage up the Missouri, have noticed the use of the vapour-bath in
a somewhat similar contrivance to the Russians among the savage tribes
of America;--so it appears that this effectual promoter of cleanliness
is one of the most simple, original, and natural, that can be employed
for that paramount duty.

C.R.S.

[7] Culverwell on Bathing.

[8] [Greek: thermai]--hot springs.

[9] These baths, impregnated with medicinal herbs, and other
preparations, are at the present day gaining great repute for
the cure of cutaneous diseases, and other complaints.

* * * * *

The Sketch Book.

* * * * *

RECOLLECTIONS OF A WANDERER.

_An Incident on the Coast._

Towards the close of an afternoon in the dreary month of December, a
small vessel was descried in the offing, from the pier of a romantic
little hamlet on the coast of ----. The pier was this evening nearly
deserted by those bold spirits, who, when sea and sky conspire to frown
together, loved to resort there to while away their idle hours. Only a
few "out-and-outers" were now to be seen at their accustomed station,
defying the rough buffetings of the blast, which on more tender faces
might have acted almost with the keenness of a razor. Though the evening
certainly looked wild and stormy to an unpractised eye, still to those
who "gauge the weather" it was unaccompanied with those unerring
symptoms which usually usher in a gale. However, the appearance of the
night was so uninviting, as