partial, as well as the copper of ships, it is never made use of.

SALMON IN KAMSTCHATKA.-Every species of salmon in Kamstchatka is said to die in the same river or lake in which it was produced, and to which it returns to spawn. In the third year of their age they begin to spawn, forming holes, by means of their tails and fins, in the sand, in which their spawn is deposited. After this they pine away and die. It is also said that fish of one year's growth remain near the spawn to guard it from depredation, and return to the sea with the newly hatched fry in November. The guarding of the spawn by yearlings, however, being contrary to the usual course of things, seems to us very doubtful.

APPEARANCE OF FISH IN EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES. In the course of one summer, says a Mr. Joseph E. Mure, I ordered a ditch to be cut of large dimensions, on a line of my farm near Cambridge. The line was a plane ten feet above the level of the neighbouring river, and at least one mile from it, at the nearest point of the line. A portion of the ditch being done, the work was interrupted by rain for ten or twelve days. When the work was resumed, on examining the performance, I discovered that the rain-water which had filled the ditch thus recently cut, contained hundreds of fish, consisting of two kinds of perch, which are common in our waters, the sun-perch and the jack-perch. The usual size of the former is from six to twelve inches; the latter varies from ten to fifteen inches long. Those in the ditch were from four to seven inches. By what possible means could these fish have been transported so far from their native waters? There is no water communication on the surface to conduct them there; the elevation and extent of the plane, in regard to the rivers, utterly prohibit the idea. The eggs, if placed there by a water-spout, could not have suffered so rapid a transmigration. No such phenomena had been observed, and the adjacency of the line to the dwelling would have rendered the occurrence impossible without notice. A similar incidence, a few years ago, I witnessed on the same farm. In a very large ditch, cut on lower lands, on a line equally unconnected with any river, pond, or other surface of water, there were, under very similar circumstances, numerous perch, which afforded fine angling to my children. In a diary which I keep, I have entered that several of them measured as much as twelve inches in length, and that the time since their arrival could not possibly have exceeded a fortnight.

STANZAS.

(By the Author of Lillian.)

THE temple of my youth

Was strong in moral purpose-once, I felt
The glory of philosophy, and knelt
In the pure shrine of truth.

I went into the storm,

And mocked the billows of the tossing sea:
I said to Fate- What wilt thou do to me?
I have not harmed a worm."

Vainly the heart is steeled

In wisdom's armour; let her burn her books?
I look upon them as the soldier looks
Upon his cloven shield.

Virtue and virtue's rest

How have they perish'd! through my onward course
Repentance dogs my footsteps!-black remorse
Is my familiar guest!

The glory and the glow

Of the world's loveliness have passed away;
And Fate hath little to inflict to-day,

And nothing to bestow.

CHINESE MODE OF FISHING.-The Chinese catch fish by what may be called a sort of daring. They employ two straight boats, with a board, painted white and varnished, nailed to them. This is made to slope outwards, and almost touches the surface of the water, the colour of which it is made to take by the reflection of the light of the moon. Towards this the fish dart, fall on the board, and are caught without further trouble.-On taking down a lamp in a diving-bell, the diver is immediately surrounded with a multitude of fishes, attracted thither by the light.

A PATRIARCHAL COD.-Col. M'Dowall's fish-pond at Logan was formed in 1800, and is thirty feet deep by 160 in circumference: it communicates with the tide by one of those fissures so common on bold and precipitous coasts, and has furnished a wholesome article of food for upwards of a quarter of a century. Attached to the pond, and forming its gateway, is a neat gothic cottage for the accommodation of the fisherman; and, round and round, the rock is surmounted by a stone-wall, gray with lichen and beautifully festooned with honeysuckle, binwood, and other creeping plants. Fishes hear as well as see; and the moment the fisherman descends the steps, the pond is agitated by hundreds of fins, and otherwise thrown into the greatest com

motion.-Darting from this, that, and the other corner, they move as it were to a common centre, elevate their snouts, lash their tails, and jostle one another with so little ceremony, that they appear to be menacing an attack upon the poor fisherman in place of the creelful of limpets he carries. Conceive a lady feeding her poultry, a knot of urchins scrambling for coppers, or a pack of fox-hounds disputing the property of a solitary bone, and you will have some idea of the ludicrous scramble which, even in this watery world, attends the distribution of the loaves and fishes. Loaves, however, is an improper term; for the cod, &c. will take nothing but what comes out of the sea. In 1824, not a few of the fishes were so tame, that they fed greedily out of the hand. One gigantic cod, the patriarch of the pond, which the fisherman asserted answered to his name, and who turned up his snout most beseechingly when he heard the monosyllable "Tom," very forcibly arrested my attention. From old age, accident, or disease, he became totally blind; and it was really affecting, as well as curious, to observe the animal raising himself in the water, placing his head on the feeding-stone, and allowing it to be gently patted or stroked, gaping all the while to implore that nourishment which he had no other means of obtaining. In 1826, old Tom died, after his body had been greatly wasted, and was perhaps the first cod on record whose remains, by being interred under the fragrant turf, escaped the general if not the universal fate of animals whose home is the great deep.

ELECTRIC EEL.-This eel abounds in the lower provinces of Venezuela and Caraccas. It possesses the singular faculty of stunning its prey by an electrical discharge. The old road near Urutica has been actually abandoned, on account of the danger experienced in crossing a ford, where the mules were, from the effect of concealed shocks, often paralysed and drowned. Even the angler sometimes receives a stroke, conveyed along his wetted rod and fishing line (four feet long). The sensation is highly painful, and leaves a numbness in the part affected. The mode of taking them is a very novel spectacle. About thirty horses and mules were immediately collected from the adjacent savannahs, where they run half wild, and are only valued seven shillings a head when the owners happened to be known. These the Indians hem in on all sides, and drive into the marsh; then pressing the edge of the water, or climbing along the extended branches of the trees, armed with long bamboos or harpoons, they with loud cries push the animals forward or prevent

their retreat. The gymnoti, roused from their slumbers by this noise and tumult, mount near the surface and swim, like so many livid water-serpents, briskly pursue the intruders, and gliding under their bellies, discharge through them the most violent and repeated shocks. The horses, convulsed and terrified, their mane erect, and their eyes starting with pain and anguish, make unavailing struggles to escape. In less than five minutes, two of them sunk under the water and were drowned. Victory seemed to declare for the electric eels. But their activity now began to relax. Fatigued by such expense of nervous energy, they shot their electric discharges with less frequency and effect. The surviving horses gradually recovered from the shock, and became more composed and vigorous. In a quarter of an hour the eels retired from the contest, and in such a state of languor and complete exhaustion, that they were easily dragged on shore by means of harpoons fastened on cords. This is called, in allusion to catching fish by an infusion of narcotic plants, poisoning with horses.

TO THE WOODBINE.

How gracefully around yon trellised bower
The spiral Woodbine twines its slender stem,
Blushing with many a bright and starry gem,
Shedding the sweetness of its fragrant flower!
Around and round its pliant tendrils twine,
Like a fond infant, longing to be prest
More closely to its mother's teeming breast,
With pure affection's sympathy divine.
How modestly to each soft breeze it quivers,
Basking its dewy eyelids in the sun,

Bathing its pearly lashings 'neath the moon,
Until the winter comes, and then it withers!

Affection thus, around the heart most cherished,
Twines till the loved or loving one hath perished.-

Monthly Mag.

GOLD FISH.-When I happen to visit a family where gold and silver fishes are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased with the occurrence, because it offers me an opportunity of observing the actions and propensities of those beings with whom we can be little acquainted in their natural state. Not long since I spent a fortnight at the house of a friend, where there was such a vivary, to which I paid no small attention, taking every occasion to remark what passed within its narrow limits. It was here that I first observed the manner in which fishes die. As soon as the creature

P

sickens, the head sinks lower and lower, and it stands as it were on its head, till getting weaker and losing all poise, the tail turns over, and at last it floats on the surface of the water, with its belly uppermost. The reason why fishes when dead swim in that manner, is very obvious; because, when the body is no longer balanced by the fins of the belly, the broad muscular back preponderates by its own gravity, and turns the belly uppermost, as lighter from its being a cavity, and because it contains the swimming bladders which contribute to render it buoyant. Some, that delight in gold and silver fishes, have adopted a notion that they need no aliment. True it is that they will subsist for a long time without any apparent food but what they can collect from pure water, frequently changed; yet they must draw some support from animalculæ, and other nourishment supplied by the water, because though they seem to eat nothing, yet the consequences of eating often drop from them. That they are best pleased with such jejune diet may easily be confuted, since if you toss them crumbs they will seize them with great readiness, not to say greediness; however, bread should be given them sparingly, lest turning sour it corrupt the water. They will also feed on the water-plant called lemna (duck's meat), and also on small fry.

ΤΟ ΑΝΝΑ.

I CAN but, as a lowly pilgrim, bring

A simple offering, lady, to thy shrine;

Yet such poor gifts as to thy votary cling

My heart, my lyre, and changeless faith, are thine!
Rich gems, and gold, thine offerings may have been;
Instead of these, I give my deathless love;

For costly coronal, a wreath of green;

For pearls, the flowers amid its verdure wove;

I have entwin'd a lily in my wreath,

Deeming thee pure, as is its stainless hue;

A rose, less fragrant than thine own sweet breath;
A violet, emblem of thine eye's deep blue.
Though worthless now, richer these gifts will be
Than gold or gems, when look'd upon by thee !—*

CURIOUS FISHERY.-The savages are as skilful in fishing as expert in the chase. They fish with hooks and nets; and they also know how to empty ponds. But they have great public fisheries. The most celebrated of all these fisheries was that of the sturgeon, which took place in the Mississipi and its branches. It opened with the marriage of the net. Six warriors and six matrons carrying the net advanced into