SPORTING IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

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HAD we been writing in a Magazine more immediately appropriated to subjects connected with Natural History, we should have made many copious and valuable extracts from Frank Forester's "Field Sports in the United States," and given a general view of its contents. To the naturalist the volumes will be found full of information on such subjects as are not within the observation or reach of many persons: and when we add that they are written by the son of the late learned and most accomplished Dean of Manchester, we shall not be surprised at the extent and accuracy of knowledge exhibited in it. The author is at once an enthusiastic sportsman and a naturalist, two vocations which harmonize very closely; and he has made his skill in the former supply him with his rich and varied materials for his collection in the latter capacity. In truth, this work may be considered as a Hand-book for the sportsman in Transatlantic regions; whereas, if left to his own resources, he would be obliged with difficulty and through disappointment to attain the knowledge necessary to his success. Here he will

be at once placed in a right direction; and he will soon be sensible how much an European sportsman has to learn before he can accommodate himself and his previous acquirements to the new fields of enterprize opened before him. We must leave him diligently exploring these pages, and just hint, as we pass along, a few of the subjects treated of.

The introduction of deer-hounds and falconry in the Western Prairies. It appears that even the powerful and enormous elk has been brought to bay by the deer-hounds of Scotland.

The poisonous qualities of the rhododendron-buds to the flesh of the pheasant and deer. Some cases have proved fatal.

Hen's eggs brought up under partridges, as a means to bring back the domestic fowl to its original savage state.

The consequence of eating the upland-plover and sandpiper, which feed on cantharides.

The power of the quail to withhold or retain its scent. Whether this is voluntary or not is difficult to ascertain. Not resting for some time after they have alighted, they give forth no scent, and the best dogs will fail to find them. And more on this curious subject.

The singular fact, that the setter, which in England sets his bird, when in America commonly points and stands, and does not set.

The curious fact connected with the history of the "rallus," or land-rail, of its being subject to such violent gusts of passion as to produce epilepsy.

The proverbial character of the curlew as sympathizing with its murdered companions.

The velocity of the flight of the swan, which, with a moderate wind in its favour, travels certainly at the rate of one hundred miles (or more) in an hour. The wild goose about sixty. Mr. Herbert has seen, when these two birds have been flying near each other, the swan pass the goose with nearly double velocity. Perhaps the fol

"Frank Forester's Field Sports in the United States," &c. Fish and Fishing." "Frank Forester and his Friends."

"Forester's

lowing passage throws light on the ancient belief of the swan singing: "When mounted, as they sometimes are, several thousand feet above the earth, with their diminished and elaborate outline hardly perceptible against the clear blue sky, their harsh sounds, softened and modulated by distance, and issuing from the immense void above, assume a supernatural character of tone and impression, that excites, the first time heard, a strangely peculiar feeling." Again-" Their notes are extremely varied; some closely resembling the deepest bass of the common tin horn, while others run through every modulation of false notes of the French horn or clarionet."

This species (the Canada goose) is not the origin of the domestic goose, as is by some supposed; the genealogy of which is said to be the bean-goose of Europe.-Note.-Not the bean-goose, but the greylag, commonly known as the wild-goose-Lire sauvage-see an interesting account of a wild goose (Anas Canadensis) retiring to civilized life after its annual migration.

The sinus lacrymalis, so remarkably developed below the inner angle of the eye of the different species of deer, and in its lip. See also p. 281. (This singular structure was, we believe, first noticed by White in his "History of Selborne.")

Interesting account of the Meleagris Gallipavo-the wild turkey of America.

The Scottish greyhound, and the manner of breeding them.-One of them, single handed, will pull down a red stag of the finest breed, or throttle a wolf; and the author says he could back a brace to bring any elk to bay in a mile's course, but Berkeley Craven's famous dog was completely beaten by a fallow buck!

The above is an cutline of some of the curious and interesting subjects treated of in this work, which is, in fact, a repository of observation on various branches of natural history, practically and scientifically made; and what the pen describes, the gun has supplied; for, says the author:-Legere et scribere est pædagogi, sed optime collineare est Dei.-Reading and writing are acquired through schoolmasters, but a crack-shot is the work of God!

Frank Forester's "Fish and Fishing" is confined to what the author calls "game-fish," that is, all those that will take the bait with sufficient boldness and activity, and which, when hooked, are endowed with sufficient courage to offer so much resistance to the captor as to render the pursuit exciting and agreeable, &c. and it is remarkable that all those fish which are the boldest and strongest, are invariably the finest alike for culinary purposes, and the most highly appreciated. With few exceptions also, the same fish are migratory. They belong to a few wellmarked families, and are almost all included in the large classes of Malacopterygii and Ecanthopterygii, or those with the fin-rays soft and flexible, and those with part of the fin-rays hard and spiny. Among the former description are the salmon, tench, smelt, carp, pike, roach, herring, &c. Among the latter are the perch, sanfish, &c. reader will find many fish here enumerated whose names are not familiar to him, and whose races are unknown in the European waters, though some of them are equal, perhaps superior, to those which form the pride of the Greenwich or Blackwall table, as the blae-fish and weak-fish; but the key-fish and the sheep's-head, are in far greater esteem, being regarded by epicures as inferior to none

The

taken. We have spoken in praise of the author's previous treatises on land-game, as combining scientific knowledge with practical accucy, and thus opening the best and surest path to the investigation and discovery of truth of the present treatise we should speak in the same terms, for the naturalist and the sportsman have united to give a much fuller and more faithful history of the subject than ever had been previously attempted; and this volume will, we think, be found on the same shelf where stand the much-prized works of Walton, Yarrell, Scrope and Hoffland. It is quite out of our path to go through the volume with the attention it will demand and find when it passes into the hands of the naturalist; and all we can do is to point out a few points of interest which detained us in our rapid glance through its contents, and which will well reward a closer and more continued observation.

The impregnated spawn of any two live breeding fishes of the same family which may be artificially kept and preserved in waters other than those in which the parent species are wont to live, as even the salmon in fresh water. "The salmon will live and preserve its excellence in fresh water, on being debarred an egress to the sea."

The muscular strength and power of the salmon. It is believed that the utmost limit of perpendicular height which the salmon can attain is fourteen feet, &c.

The greatest lake trout, macknow salmon, or namayauk-the largest of the salmon growing in the known world,—has been known to attain the enormous weight of one hundred and twenty pounds.

The American smelt and its difference from the English. "It is said that in England the smelt is never taken between Dover and the Land's End: on the eastern side of the island it is taken from the Thames and Medway to the Tay; and on the western in the Solway, and so far southerly as the Mersey and the Dee."

The formidable gar pike (Esex Osseus) of the south-western waters, which, instead of scales, is covered in a complete armour of rhomboidal plates, and which is held by Mr. Agazziz and other naturalists, to be a running link between the Amale of the present period, and those contemporaneous with the Saurians and other extinct races.

We only need add, that the numerous plates to this work are correctly and beautifully engraved, and that the whole work is a valuable addition to this branch of natural history connected with America.

"Frank Forester and his Friends" may be considered as a continuation of the two former works, with this difference, that they contain more of dialogue, character and fiction, and less of natural history. The same cleverness, and spirit, and knowledge, is strewn in them, as in the former, and to some persons they will be not inferior in attraction. We can only give the heads of a few of the facts or observations relating to different points connected with the sport pursued.

"Hops," observes Mr. Herbert, "I have known in England to keep birds in an extraordinary manner. I once ate a ptarmigan, the day year after it was killed, which had been packed with hops, in perfect preservation, at Farnby, Mr. Fawkes's place, in Yorkshire."

Vitality in birds. "The first shot had cut off the whole crown of the head (of a tufted grouse), with half the brain and the right eye, and after that the bird had power to fly five or six hundred yards, and then cling to its perch (on a tree) for at least ten minutes !"

The difference between shooting in America and Scotland.

Birds being tainted in game-bags, and thrown away the day after they are killed, in consequence of bad packing.

The quail having the power to withhold its scent from the effect of fear; perhaps by contracting its pores, and hindering the escape of the effluvia.

The power of hitting a ten feet target with a rifle at three hundred yards distance.

The strange drumming sound of the snipe when soaring; Gilbert White says that it is ventriloquous. This is now generally conceded to be the effect of a vibratory motion of the quills-for these set obliquely so as to make the air whistle through them.

The snipe alighting on the top sprig of the willow tree; a fact which will with difficulty be believed.

The nomenclature of American birds. "The partridge of New York is not the partridge of Virginia. Further, it is the pheasant of Pensylvania and New Jersey: further, neither the partridge of New York nor the partridge of Virginia is a partridge at all,-nor the pheasant of any place on this side of the Atlantic a pheasant at all. There is not one wild bird in America, unless it be a few ducks, that is similar to its European congeners. The bird called in the eastern states the partridge, is in reality a grouse. The partridge of Virginia is the quail of New York; but he is not a quail or partridge either, but a link between them. The modern naturalists will have an ortyx-any silly name, since it is also the Greek for a quail. The 'ruffled grouse' is called the partridge in the eastern states. The pinnated grouse is the prairie-fowl in all the western states: they literally swarm in the prairies. The 'spruce grouse' is small and rare four or five other species are found in Labrador and the Rocky Mountains. Properly speaking, there is no rabbit in America; the small grey fellow who is commonly so called, sits on a form, never burrows, nor lives in congregations; while the larger one, which is only found in the eastern states, turns white in winter, and is a variety of the Alpine hare. The snipe is not exactly the same as his brother English. The only birds, therefore, exactly similar here and in England, are the mallew, duck, and teal."

It will be allowed by all sportsmen and naturalists that these various observations are well worthy of attraction-showing practical knowledge of the subject, observation and discrimination, and likely to correct numerous errors in previous publications of high character and extensive influence.

RUSSIA, AND THE EUROPEAN CRISIS.*

A THOROUGH examination of the prevailing spirit in Russia, as well as of the nature of her institutions, could not be effectually accomplished in a day. This country is almost like a new world to us, on account of its being so difficult of access; we are separated from it by impassable barriers. I do not speak so much of the severe laws which seem to forbid all familiar intercourse with it, or of the system of espionage to which the observer is subjected, but I allude more particularly to the originality of ideas and manners, and to the singularity of the causes which distinguishes the social and political life of the Russians from that of other European nations. In the present day, however, we can no longer reasonably neglect the study of the politics and civilization of Russia, which have hitherto been to us so completely enveloped in mystery. The Russian Government has latterly formed new relations with Europe; it therefore becomes us to inquire on one hand, what idea we should entertain of its power, and, on the other, what Europe may have to hope or fear from it. If the attitude which the Russian Cabinet assumes inspires some minds with unbounded confidence, it also gives birth to many very just and unjust apprehensions in others. It is impossible to deny that Russia plays a very prominent part in Europe at the present moment, and though her state of civilization does not appear to be sufficiently advanced to meet all her ambitious political views, yet, amidst the many calamities with which other nations have been visited, Russia contemplates the unfruitful agitations of our worn-out social systems with the calmness of a sage; nay, she composedly criticises our disorganized liberty and our purposeless philosophy. She even foretells the decay of our churches, and undertakes to improve the spirit of our various modes of faith. According to some writers, she is preparing, with her rising and religious population, to succeed the old world, whose feelings and ideas she considers are exhausted. What does all this prove but that Russia aspires to the part of conservative power, and boasts herself capable of fulfilling that part, better than any other nation in Europe.

The government of the Czar is invested with absolute authority. To maintain his authority in all its fulness, it becomes necessary that it should be constantly asserted; in short, it is essential that he should exercise without relaxation a kind of prestige over the nation, which gives him much more influence than the knowledge of his power. If M. Mickiewicz, a writer who has profoundly studied the character of the Russians, may be depended upon, and he appears to be thoroughly unprejudiced, they are a people essentially spiritualiste,-the government only rules and guides them by means of a great moral influence. At first sight fear would be discovered to be this influence, but it is fear fortified by enthusiasm, without which it would be only corruption and impotence. sian discipline was very striking to the mind, and was the result of a principle of spiritual terrorism," remarks M. Mickiewicz, in speak

From the French of H. Desprez.