prostituting the principles of honour and humanity to the purposes of gain, I at once class them in the scale of human degradation, far lower than the miserable resurrectionists, who make a livelihood by the disinterment of their fellow men and exportation of their skeletons." "They are worse than the Arabs, by whom I was once taken a prisoner, said the gallant captain; "for, although it is true they sold me for money, yet they treated me while among them as one of their own tribe."

"The subject, I find," said my uncle, " is a disagreeable óne, so fill your glasses, and we'll have a song or a story from the captain." "I can pledge you in a glass," said the seaman, "but as for a song or a story, I must be excused. 1 have no voice for the one, and naval anecdotes are so filled with the numberless interpolations of best bower, larboard and starboard, ratlins and tompions, as to render them unintelligible except to a sailor. Mr. Carmine Fanciful, to whom I was introduced this morning, tells me that he has travelled through the western country, and I expect that he can give us something that is interesting concerning the breed of "half horses and half alligators." "Come painter," said my uncle, "a slight sketch either sentimental or picturesque, as you please." "What I shall relate," said Carmine, "shall be a circumstance that occurred some time since, while I was travelling through the west in company with my friend, Mr. Titian Tinto, cousin German of the celebrated Richard Tinto, and heir to all his distinguished cousin's talent and nervous sensibility." "Empty your glass," said my uncle, "and give it to us."

THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY.

AN ADVENTURE.

"If I mistake not," said the painter, "it was the learned Dr. Abernethy, who prescribed the use of hard trotting jackasses to promote a healthy circulation of the bile in the hepatic ducts of his patients, during the prevalence of the bilious mania in England. The learned Doctor's mistake with regard to a jolting apparatus, was made very apparent to Mr. Tinto and myself, upon one rainy day in the month of March, 18-, while travelling through the interior of Kentucky. We were firmly ensconced in a U. S. Mail Stage or Diligence, with our heads resting upon the precious depository of news and epistles, with our legs diagonally elevated and firmly planted against the posts of the vehicle. The road was what is called in that country, "a gridiron or a corduroy turnpike." This, gentlemen, is a Kentucky phrase, and needs explanation. Imagine, therefore, a deep miry road, overlaid with round saplings, through the interstices of which, the horses hoofs were constantly slipping, to the great annoyance of equestrians, who chanced to wear drab surtouts or light coloured pantaloons. The motion of the stage over this ever varying surface, was unquestionably the grand desideratum for Dr. Abernethy's bilious patients. I do not know whether it agitated the bile to any great degree in my own or my companion's system; but certain it is, it caused a wonderful revolution of ideas in the sensorium,

and the concussions of our skulls against the posts of the stage, produced divers lumps, which upon our arrival at Lexington, puzzled Dr. Caldwell, the craniologist, most confoundedly.

My companion, as I have before stated, was nervous. He was truly so in a superlative degree, and this malady was excited by discordances of any kind. Upon the present occasion, however, our uncomfortable situation in the stage was completely in keeping with the view upon the outside. The rain poured in torrents, the earth seemed completely inundated with water, the leaves on the trees hung heavily and dark from the boughs, and the trees themselves, strange as was the resemblance, looked black and scorched as if from fire. The only comfortable sight which presented itself was the face of the driver, glowing with the heat of inward combustion, or corn whiskey, in the centre of which the nose sparkled and blazed like the focus of a flame; it seemed the safety valve of his face and head, from which the vapour poured in a cheerful stream.

The happy expression of the driver's countenance, together with the jocund tone of his voice was out of all season, and acted very powerfully upon Mr. Tinto's nervous system. Even when he was at rest, and free from the intolerable thumping of the stage, he would frequently groan, as if in the deepest anguish. Thinking him afflicted in body, I enquired the reason of his desperate complaints. At the moment another astounding thump caused me to attend to my own situation, and extracted from my companion a tremendous oath, by which he seemed for some

time benefitted very considerably, and laid perfectly tranquil.

We at length arrived at the hostel where we intended to lodge for the night. It seemed to form the only building of a place dignified with the name of a town. It was a large ricketty frame building, with a porch of tremendous longitude. The house looked half antiquated, half new, and resembled a gentleman somewhat advanced into poverty and consumption. I understood afterwards it had been one of forty-seven brothers, called Independent Banks; all of whom had been disgraced for bad management and want of economy, and converted from nabobs into retailers of drink and meat.

Supper had been discussed, and my friend and myself accommodated with slippers, were whiling away the interval till bed time, in perusing some drowsy expose by a bell-wether of the relief party, and in listening to the profound discussions of a knot of anti-reliefs in the next room, when the distant sound of music stole slowly upon our ears. At the same moment the landlord, a large, careless looking host, and a full-blooded anti, stalked into the room and asked us into a private apartment to hear some music. My friend was passionately ately fond of music, and as for myself, numberless symptoms from my youth, such as singing in my ears and tinglings in the ends of my fingers, especially after having been boxed and feruled by my old pedagogue, have convinced me that my talent for music, as well as for painting, should have been sedulously cultivated. While we were dressing to honour our

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landlord's invitation, Tinto, who had wonderfully improved in his spirits from the effect of a little apple jack and a heavy supper, was expatiating at full length upon the anticipated treat. Now, Carmine my dear fellow," said he, " will we be recompensed for the rattling of that infernal stage over the grindiron turnpike, by an evening's conversation with some sweet, unsophisticated nymph, and the thrilling sounds of some soul-touching melody. I'll warrant that she is a lovely creature, (notwithstanding her father is rather on the order of the shabby genteel,) and 1 dare say that she can play some of my favourite airs; the "Echo Song," or "Robin Adair," or "Fly not yet," or the exquisite song to the air of "Lough Sheeling."

We were ushered with great form into the sanctum sanctorum, where the fair Terpsichore of the west, Tinto's unsophisticated nymph, (six feet high without her shoes) was presiding over the chords. After the first bustle of introduction had passed, and the bowing, scraping, and rustling of chairs had settled into a calm, I solicited the damsel to favour us with a specimen of her musical art. A critical fingering of the notes succeeded; 1 looked towards my companion, and saw his countenance brighten with pleasurable expectation. The prelude of fingering had now ceased, and the maiden was busily turning over the leaves of the music book, as if seeking some choice morceau of melody. At length she paused, and placing the book in a commanding light, gave us in a voice of thunder, the version of Ally Croaker, ending with the chorus of "Oh! Kentucky, the