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to Midsummer. On the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland all the different species of the cod genus, usually known under the name of white fish, are plentifully dispersed. Every bank is, in fact, an inexhaustible fishery; for with fewer enemies than the herring to prey upon it, the cod is at least a hundred times more productive. The fecundity of this fish, indeed, so far exceeds credibility, that had it not been ascertained by actual experiment, and on the best possible authority, it - would have been considered as fabulous to assign to the female cod from three to four millions of eggs.

Not only the hake, sometimes known by the name of Poor John, but more commonly by that of stock-fish and the ling, are to be reckoned among the valuable products of the British fisheries, especially as articles of foreign consumption, but we may also include the haddock, which is another species of cod, as equally important for the supply of the home market. Haddocks assemble in vast shoals during the winter months in every part of the northern ocean, and bend their course generally to the southward, proceeding beyond the limits of the cod and the herring; but it is remarked that they neither enter the Baltic nor the Mediterranean. The two dark spots a little behind its head are supposed to have gained the haddock, in days of superstition, the credit of being the fish which St. Peter caught with the tribute money in its mouth, in proof of which the impression of the saint's finger and thumb has been entailed on the whole race of haddocks ever since. Unfortunately, however, for the tradition, the haddock is not a Mediterranean fish, nor can we suppose it to have belonged to the lake of Tiberias. The truth is, the Italians consider a very different fish as that which was sanctified by the apostle, and which, after him, they honour with the name Il Junitore, a name that we have converted into Johnny Dory, with the same happy ingenuity that has twisted the girasole, or turnsol, into a Jerusalem artichoke.

Several other kinds of white fish, as turbot, plaice, sole, and whitings, are plentifully dispersed over various

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parts of the British seas, so as to afford an ample supply for the home market, the whole year round, without the smallest danger of that supply being exhausted or diminished.

The mackarel fishery in the English channel continues about four months in the year, commencing in April or May. This, too, is a fish of passage; but, contrary to the course of the herring, is supposed to visit the British seas in large shoals from the southward. The mackarel is chiefly caught for immediate consumption, but is sometimes pickled for winter use. Its fecundity is very great, each female depositing at least half a million of eggs.

The pilchard, like the herring, of which it is a species, is a fish of passage. It makes its appearance in vast shoals, on the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall, and in the neighbourhood of the Scilly islands from July to September. About the time that the pilchards are expected on the coast, a number of men, called huers, post themselves on the heights to look out for their approach, which is indicated by a change in the colour of the water. The boats in the mean while, with their nets prepared, are held in readiness to push forth in the direction pointed out to them by the huers. On the coast of Cornwall alone, fifty or sixty thousand hogsheads of this fish are annually salted for home consumption.

But of all others, the salmon may, perhaps, be considered as the king of fishes; and no part of Europe is more bountifully supplied with it than the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. At certain seasons of the year, whole shoals of this noble fish approach to the mouths of rivers, which they ascend to considerable distances, surmounting every obstacle, in order to find a safe and convenient spot to deposit their spawn. From January to September they are in high season, but in some part or other of the coast are fit for use every month in the year. The salmon fishery is of great value, whether for home consumption or exportation. Prodigious quantities are consumed fresh in the London

market, and in almost all the sea-port towns in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; but a far greater quantity is salted, dried, or pickled in vinegar. The lochs and friths of Scotland and Ireland are visited by salmon in such copious shoals, that more than a thousand fish have sometimes been taken at a single draught. The two most productive fisheries are that of the Tweed, near Berwick, and of the Bann, near Colerain; at the latter of which, Mr. Young says, 1450 salmon have been taken at one drag of a single net. The salmon also fre-quents the coasts of Norway and Iceland in the summer months in prodigious quantities. Hooker describes the salmon fishery in the river Lax Elbe on the latter island, where women as well as men took with their hands, in a few hours, 2200 salmon.

The banks of the North sea, and the rocky coasts of the Orkneys, and the eastern shores of Britain, afford in abundance two articles of luxury for the London market, though but sparingly drawn from those sources -we allude to the turbot and lobster. For a supply, however, of the former we have always had recourse to the Dutch, to whom we paid about 80,000l. a year; and for about a million of the latter taken on the coast of Norway, the Danes drew from us about 15,000l. a year. For eels we gave the Dutch about 5000l. a year. These fisheries are calculated to give employment to not less than 10,000 seamen.

Even the oyster fishery supplies the market of the metropolis with an article of nutritious food for eight months in the year; and if cultivated with the same care in the neighbourhood of Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton, Plymouth, the coasts of Wales, and among the Hebrides, as it is at Colchester, Milton, Feversham, &c. there is not a town in Great Britain which might not be as abundantly supplied with oysters as the London market.

THE JOURNEY IN QUEST OF A WIFE.

FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHREIBER.

66

DINNER was over-my mother had taken up her knitting apparatus, and I was picking my teeth and amusing myself with building castles in the air, when my atten tion was roused by the unusual number of the good lady's hems, which seemed to be a prelude to some extraordinary communication. At length, out it came. My dear Tom," said she, "yesterday was your birthday; you are now twenty-three, and it is high time you should be looking about for a good match: a man must marry some time or other, but he should take care he does so ere it be too late, for that is as bad as too soon." "Why, mother," answered I, laughing, "I am not much disinclined to 'change my situation, as the phrase goes, but I have never yet been fortunate enough to meet with the girl who could induce me to become a Benedic."

While I was speaking, my mamma had opened her china snuff-box, and with a knowing look, held a pinch betwixt her finger and her thumb-" What would you think now," said she, after a pause, and eyeing me through her spectacles, "what would you think of little Doris, the upper forester's daughter?"

I shook my head-" She is well enough to pass away an hour or so with occasionally, for she is a good-humoured, lively thing; but she is like the lilies of the valley, which toil not, neither do they spin."

"Son, she has ten thousand dollars in the bank, and they can set the looms agoing. You know our estate is burthened with debt, and as you now think of keeping house for yourself, and won't make use of your friends' influence to procure a place under government for you "My good mother," interrupted I, " once

for all, that is out of the question; one who has any pretensions to the character of an honest man cuts but a sorry figure now-a-days as a man in office. For my own part, I can only go straight forwards, and it would not be easy to avoid every now and then treading on the kibe of some placeman or other, or giving him a jerk with my elbow; and I should gain nothing but vexation for my pains. No, no; I will travel, and endeavour to

suit myself to my mind."

"But do you know what the expression getting 'suited' means?"

I took her hand- -"Mother," cried I, "most fully do I appreciate the force of the expression, for I have seen it so completely exemplified in my own family; during my father's life, he and yourself had but one heart-one will."

This was touching the right string, and decided the question at once. My mother wiped her spectacles, gave me her blessing, and desired me to travel.

My portmanteau was soon packed; and almost before I could bestow a serious thought on the object of my journey, I found myself seated in the diligence for B-. I was ashamed, however, to turn back, and determined to give up myself to the guidance of my lucky star. I had several acquaintances in B-, and loitered away some weeks with them, and among what is called the good society of the place. Here there was no lack of pretty maidens, all ready and willing to get married; but their forward manners, and total want of female delicacy, soon convinced me that this was not the place "to be suited." For the most part, their ideas of life were gathered from the shelves of the circulating library; and of gentility, from the miserable flounderings of a set of strolling players who sometimes visited the town. In short, their small accomplishments sat on them with about as much grace and propriety as the glass beads and tinsel of the Europeans do on the necks of savages. One young creature, however, attracted my attention by her naïveté and engaging disposition. I determined to make her acquaintance, and found no