theless the most covetous of all animals, and envies every other successful fisher. This he gives to understand, particularly by angry growls, if the line with the captive is drawn in, and his attempts to intercept the captured fish before it be drawn on the land should have proved unsuccessful. While we were encamped at the mouth of the river Rewa, or Roiwa, during our last expedition, the afternoon of the 21st of October had passed under thunder and rain; but at the approach of night Nature lulled herself to rest, and only the droppings from the leaves told of the former storm. I was lying sleepless in my hammock, and I watched two Indians who had their lines out to entrap some hungry fish. A kilbagre, lured away by the tempting bait, had snapped at it; and the fisherman, acquainted by the stress on his line of his success, drew the unwilling fish towards the canoe, when the roar of a cayman awoke the echo of the woods; and rushing towards the course with all his might, he recaptured the fish, as the astonished Indians were just on the point of drawing it in; and with it went the hook and a great part of the line. At our second night's camp, after we had entered the river Rupununi, the Indians were likewise fishing; and whenever a fish was caught and drawn towards the canoe, the caymans commenced such a roar that it baffled description. We distinctly heard that there were three: first one commenced, when the fish that was drawn in began to struggle; and another answered him, until the noise was so great that the Indians, as if in self-defence, and to intimidate the approaching monsters, set up a shout themselves. Indeed, the roaring of a cayman is so strong, that in the still hour of night it may be heard a mile off; and there is something awful and indescribable in it: it is not the tiger's growl, the bull's bellowing, the lion's roar; it is different from all, and really terrific when that sound bursts suddenly upon the ear. I might compare it to the snorting of a frightened horse, if the strength of that snort could be increased ten-no, twentyfold, in effect."

ART. XVIII.-Fisher's Drawing-Room Scrap Book, 1842. Fisher & Co. A SPLENDID and valuable array of Fisher's Annuals and Pictorials have reached us; but so late in the month, that we have room only for the shortest notices of them; and indeed one or two must be dismissed with the scantiest announcement.

The Drawing-Room Scrap-Book has claims upon us for precedence, and the largest portion of our small space. It awakens associations that need not be described. Still, we are bound to state that our predictive fears were rash, when we thought, on the departure of the seraphic being who presided over this lovely annual visitant and filled it with the outbursts of her soul, that it would languish and die. Another spirit of kindred birth, and yet with a difference, sustains the life of this favourite, with a sweetness, simplicity, and homely truth that none other can rival. But we need not tell of Mary Howitt's manner of song and original teachings. Suffice it to say that we never found more variety, more that is new, more that is good, in her well-known writings than in the present lovely volume.

The embellishments are much diversified, and are very fine. Oriental pieces, with their characteristic magnificence, familiar faces, living beauties, &c., are among the very numerous list of embellishments. But these we cannot exhibit, and therefore draw upon Mary's wealth. The following poem we have heard much praised, and justly. The subject is the "Bazaar of the Fig-Tree, Algiers :"

"Bear me outside the tent; and take, too, my divan:

Him must I see myself! To-day the caravan

Arrived from Africa, sayest thou, and brought the news?
Bear me outside the tent; for as the faint gazelle
Rejoices in the stream, so this which he shall tell,
If he speak true, in me will joy infuse!'

:-

The sheik sat by the tent; and thus began the Moor:-
'On Algiers' towers doth wave, old man, the tricolor;
Upon its battlements rustles the silk of Lyon;
The brisk réveille wakes the streets while day is dim;
The horses prance unto the Marseilles hymn:

The French come over from Toulon :

Like flashing lightning, towards the south the host went on;
Upon their weapons flash'd the Barbarescan sun;

Tunesan sand was blown about their horses' manes;
Teeth-gnashing, took their wives the Kabylen, and fled;
Mount Atlas was their hope; and with its hoary head
Up to the heights the dromedary strains.

The Moors draw up for fight. Like a sultry furnace glows
The pass with furious strife; the whirling steam arose.
Beside the half-rent deer no more the lion stays,
He can look out that night for other kind of game.
Allah! Feu! En avant! Right to the summit came
At once those daring avanturiers!

Of gleaming bayonets the mountain wears a crown;
Afar o'er all the land, with its cities, they look down,
From Atlas to the sea, from Tunis unto Fez.

The cavalry dismount; with arm on crupper laid,
Their eyes range all around; from many a myrtle shade
Arise the tall and slender minarets.

The almond-tree within the pleasant valley bloweth ;
Spite of the bare hot rock the spiny aloe groweth;
Good luck unto his land, the Bey of Titterie!

There gleams the sea; beyond lies France. The winds coquet
With the war-flag. The match is to the touchhole set,
The salvo fired-such a salute had he!'

'Tis they!' exclaimed the sheik; 'I fought upon their side;
Fight of the Pyramids! O day of spoil and pride!

Red as thy turban were the fords o' th' Nile!
But of their sultan what?'-He seiz'd the Moor's right hand;
'His size, his gait, his eye? Saw'st him in battle stand?
His dress?' The Moor felt in his sash awhile.

Their sultan found,' said he, 'his palace more inviting;
A general dared for him the danger-did the fighting;
An Aga took for him the mountain-pass by force.
But on this bright gold-piece of twenty francs thou'lt see
Their sultan's head; a French horse-soldier gave it me
In certain trafficking about a horse.'

The Emir took the gold, and long he look'd thereon,
To see if 'twere the sultan that he long since had known
In the great desert-fight; but he only sigh'd, and said,
'These eyes are not his eyes, nor this his forehead fair;
This man I do not know! His head is like a pear!
He whom I mean is not this man indeed!'

ART. XIX.—Fisher's Historic Illustrations of the Bible. Division IV. Fisher and Co.

ENGRAVINGS from Guercino, Copley, Caracci, West, Rubens, Poussin, Jouvenet, Mutiano, and Coypel, and several from some of these masters, constitute the illustrations in this Division. We think it is the richest The originals are not only

portion of the series that we have yet seen.

master-pieces of these masters, but there is a depth and tone in the plates that could not be expected in such a cheap work. So much care has been taken that the details are brought out, and the very expression of the muscles and eyes. How much of truth and life, for example, is there in "Martha and Mary," by Coypel? But we are precluded from saying

more.

ART. XX.-The Rhine, Italy, and Greece. Thirty-three Plates.

Fisher and Co.

Now completed, this work may be ranked among the most acceptable of Fisher's descriptive and pictured guides to the most remarkable scenes in countries, which on account of their scenic, traditional, and historic character, maintain the strongest hold of our memories and imaginations. All works of this kind must address themselves to two classes of persons; these classes including the whole, viz., the travelled and the untravelled,— recalling the actual, and in a measure satisfying the inquiring.

ART. XXI.-Family Secrets; or Hints to Those who would make Home Happy. By MRS. ELLIS. Fisher and Co.

WE must return to this work; it must not be dismissed in a single line.

ART. XXII.-The Juvenile Scrap-Book. Sixteen Plates. By Mrs. ELLIS. Fisher and Co.

As suitable and elegant as any of this lady's labours of love for the enter tainment and best interests of the young. The middle-aged and the old will derive pleasure and profit too from it, if they peruse the beautiful volume in a right spirit.

ART. XXIII.—Hints to Australian Emigrants. By PETER CUNNINGHAM, Surgeon, R. N. London: Boone.

MR. CUNNINGHAM has heretofore written about Australia, for he is the author of a clever book, entitled "Two Years in New South Wales." The present work, however, we take to be one of superior value to the former; at any rate it is one of universal concernment, whatever be the colony to which you may bend your course, or the country in which you may abide. The Hints are those of a philosophical inquirer, a steady observer, and a practical man, who has visited many shores and lands. The principal, or rather the sole subject of the work is Husbandry; and the principle sought to be established and illustrated is this, that there is a mode in which that comprehensive art may be systematically and profitably applied, whatever the region of the world be in which you settle. Englishmen are particularly in need of having this principle inculcated upon them, owing to their pertinacity in carrying out with them, and abiding by the habits and practices which are approved of in their native land. For instance, there was one who emigrated to Australia, and who forgetting even the change of latitude, laid out his garden with a southern aspect, which is equivalent to the north with us, and gave as his reason that it is the way he had always done.

Mr. Cunningham of course applies his principle especially to Australia; and by comparison and analogy as respects Egypt, Syria, South America, &c., countries as regards soil and climate not very different from the one which immediately engages him, he suggests the mode of cultivation, the kind of implements, vegetables, and animals best adapted to the southern hemisphere. The necessity and the various methods of irrigation are points upon which he particularly dwells; but which Englishmen are apt to overlook, accustomed as they have been to a moist climate. Engravings and explanatory descriptions of artificial helps, such as of water-raisingwheels, serve to enhance the usefulness of the book, which is written in a clear manner, brevity and pith uniting. We give some examples. Hints about a certain grass:—

"Doob-Grass.-It is not known how or when this grass was introduced into New South Wales; but it has made such rapid progress since then over the country, as to threaten to supersede, in a great measure, the native grasses.

"Its roots not only strike many feet deep into the soil, but ramify in all directions through it, while its tendrils shoot rapidly along the superfices, taking root at intervals as they proceed, thus forming a thick network above ground as well as below, binding the miry as well as the sandy soils, so as to make them passable for both animals and wheel-carriages, and at the

same time furnishing places with abundant food for stock, which yielded nothing before.

"It has also been successfully applied in preventing, by its binding qualities, the washing away of land by floods, of which the late Mr. Macarthur was the first to test its merits in this respect, at Camden. Indeed, from the rapidly with which it spreads, it bids fair at no distant period to convert the numerous wastes of interior Australia into grassy meadows and downs; as from the deepness to which it burrows, and the enduring nature of its roots, it is so constituted as to defy the severest droughts or floods to which the Australian interior is subject, from making any deadly impression upon it.

"It would, indeed, be conferring a great future good upon the colony, were all travellers into the interior to carry a store of its seeds along with them, to scatter at intervals in their route, so as to hasten the covering of the present interior wastes with verdure.

"It must strike any one who has witnessed the binding effects upon the Australian sands, what great benefits would attend its introduction into Southern France, which moving sands are fast converting into deserts, as its binding qualities would not only arrest their progress, but convert them into pasture-downs.

"The doob grass stands heat and drought infinitely better, but cold worse than the native grasses; while it is always the first to show, by its leafy shoots of lively green, the influence of a passing shower, as well as the longest to reap its benefits. Though much coarser in blade in its wild state than the native grasses, yet it improves greatly in this respect by cultivation-is much relished by cattle, as well as a good fattener of them, particularly when its pastures are intermingled with white clover, which agrees well with it, while it also makes good hay.

"Its roots form in some parts of India no small portion of the horse and cattle food, and were similarly used in the vicinity of Sydney during the great drought terminating in 1829; the horses relishing them much when washed and chopped up."

About goats:

"An Englishman, on visiting the Mediterranean countries, and finding goat's milk nearly everywhere in use, to the exclusion of that of the cow, is apt to ascribe this to prejudice: but on further research, he will find that it is more digestible than cow's milk, and hence more suitable to warm countries; and that a far greater amount of milk can be obtained from a given space of ground pastured by goats than when pastured by cows, in consequence of the goat feeding upon many things the cow either would not taste or that would prove poisonous to her.

"The Malta goat frequently gives ten pints of milk per day in the height of the milking; while in the case where a milch-cow was required at Smyrna, several herds were tried, and the greatest quantity procurable was two pints per day from a single cow.

"In many parts of Australia, therefore, (particularly in the bushy ground near Sydney,) goats might with great advantage supplant the cows for milking purposes; while the flesh of some of the breeds, differing little from mutton, would still farther enhance their value."

VOL. III. (1841.) No. III.

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