in Apollonius, by pricking the animals with a sharp-pointed instrument, the experiment might be easily tried there, as they abound on every part of the coast. Beckmann says that muscles are opened in the beginning of summer by the Chinese, and five or six small beads are thrown into them strung on a thread. At the end of the year, when the muscles are drawn up and again opened, the beads are found covered with a pearly crust, in such a manner that they cannot be distinguished from real pearls. Some such process might be used to make the conch produce an equally valuable article of commerce. The kitchen consisted of a small wooden building outside, without a grate; for the negro cooks prefer a few bricks, to all the refined and elaborate culinary apparatus of Europe. With these primitive materials, they contrive to send up dinners that would surprise any person who saw the slender means they have of preparing them. We were fortunate in procuring pretty good servants, paying for a female six shillings a week, to a man-cook about the same, and to a man-servant, who styled himself, as they generally do, a butler, eight shillings. A certain portion of this went to their owners, and they received about two shillings and sixpence, so that they had not much remaining at the end of the week for their menus plaisirs, as they were obliged to provide their own provisions out of it. On the south side of the island, after the emancipation, we paid as much as three guineas a month to a butler, and the other servants in proportion. It was more economical to give good wages and have good servants, than to pay less, and be troubled with bad ones, who were generally addicted to thieving and other bad practices. LABOUR OF APPRENTICES. It was a common practice amongst the small proprietors, and brown people in the towns, who possessed a few apprentices, to hire them out for a work on the estates at so much per head, a large portion of which was retained by the owner, and a certain sum was granted to his people for their sustenance. This system was universally looked upon by the negroes as the worst kind of service. They were often obliged to go great distances to the work on which they were engaged, and they had less time than other negroes for the cultivation of their provisions ground. There were people on the island, who found it advantageous to bargain with some head men for the completion of a certain amount of work in a given time. These contracts of course varied in different districts, and according to the nature of the work to be performed; but the planter had only to deal with one man, and that man employed his own family or friends in the performance of his contract. It may be a question whether that will not be the most effectual and easy method of obtaining labour hereafter, inasmuch as it might lead the negroes to form associations amongst themselves, under leaders, in whom they have confidence, to employ their spare time. Most of the houses are built of wood, imported from our possessions in North America, and from the United States. I verily believe if a fire broke out the whole place would be destroyed; there is no fire establishment in it, and the only engine I heard of was that belonging to the barracks. * History of inventions. English translation, vol. ii. The merchants who reside in the small country towns of Jamaica depend principally upon the estates for getting rid of their goods, and furnish the greater part of the supplies required on them. Their stores are consequently filled with all descriptions of mercantile commodities, from shingles, boards, nails, hardware, copper, and iron, to calicoes, muslins, hams, preserved meats, and wines. Since the emancipation, the negroes object to such articles of food as were formerly supplied by their masters; the salted herrings have given way to fine Newfoundland codfish, and hams are in great request, particularly if they are a little tainted, faisandés, which give the storekeepers an opportunity of getting rid of all those that are objectionable to Europeans. From the great quantity of vegetables, such as yams and cocoas, that they consume, they are obliged to eat salt meat or fish to make them palatable; yet they dislike herrings, their former food, because they are associated in their ideas with a state of slavery. Shortly after our arrival, I was invited to dine with the hospitable attorney of Point Estate, where I was shown a singular lusus naturæ. In digging up some yams, a negro found one so exactly like a child's hand and arm, that he took it to the great house. It was put into a large glass bottle, in spirits, and, when I saw it, appeared so natural, the fingers being gracefully turned inwards, that I could scarcely believe it to be a vegetable production. A large marsh, covered with mangrove trees, is situated at the east entrance of the town of Lucea, into which the sea formerly found its way. This neutralised the effect of malaria, until some wiseacre thought fit to propose to the vestry the formation of a new road at one extremity. By this new arrangement a certain portion of the marsh was cut off from the sea by dike, and the water formed a stagnant pool, occasionally replenished by the rain which fell into it from the rocks above. When therefore the rains ceased, the miasma arising from the marsh enjendered a violent disease much resembling the yellow fever. It raged for two months, and carried off one person in six of the entire population. I had previously exerted myself in obtaining signatures to a petition to the vestry, for the purpose of having it filled up. This might have been done at a small expense, simply by throwing all the sweepings of the town into it; but the vestry in their wisdom disapproved of my plan, and the consequences were serious. I speak feelingly on the subject; for having been attacked by the fever myself, as well as another member of my family, I can well expatiate upon evils that I painfully experienced. There were one hundred and sixteen interments in the English church-yard from the beginning of January to the end of December 1837, and the negroes who are buried in hill above the town (as unworthy, I suppose, of having their bones laid alongside those of their masters) were carried of in an equal proportion, so that about one in six of the whole population was carried off. The negro grave-yard, as it is called in Jamaica, had no monuments or tombs to record the deaths of those who were buried there, during the times of slavery and apprenticeship. The undulating ground alone showed the number of those who had been removed from all their earthly troubles; and so convinced were the slaves that in another and a better world they should rejoin the friends and relatives from whom they had been torn at home, that they often put a period to their existence under that impression. Weeds and creeping plants overran the rank soil, and no flowers bloomed over their graves. But what had slaves to do with flowers? Flowers are the luxury of the contented poor, not of the miserable negro in bondage; and I almost think that wherever they are cultivated, there must be some grains of happiness that have sprung up in company with them. When we see the honeysuckle and roses overspreading the cottage of the English labourer, we naturally associate ideas of comfort and happiness with their presence, and easily identify our feelings with those of the humble individual who cherishes them. The slave has no such feelings. The poetry of the tomb does not extend its soothing influence over the bondsman or the Jew. The arboreal emblem of sorrow, the floral offering of affection, decks not the last resting-place of the persecuted African or the wandering Israelite. The slave sees in the church-yard of his relatives and companions the memorial evidence of his injury. The disciple of Sadoc views with indifference earth that is rendered unto earth, whilst the Pharisee contents himself that the eye of his brother is covered with the earth of Jerusalem But wiser than the Sadducee, the slave rests his hope on the immortality of the soul; and holier in his faith than the Pharisee, he sees happier results in the blessedness of resurrection, than a simple congregation of numbers in the valley of Jehoshaphat. There is not a human being in existence, to whom the doctrine of immortality confers such essential benefit, such immediate consolation, as to the poor African slave. With little opportunity for the commission of ordinary crimes, his time is devoted to the completion of his tasklabour, varied by the contemplation of expected and unmerited punishment. He views in the grave a sure release from pain, the only refuge from suffering; and with no foundation for the hope of milder treatment, it is not surprising that he flies from excruciating torment, and seeks, uncalled, the dread presence of a just and merciful God. However heinous the sin of slave suicide may be accounted, the responsibility of the act will chiefly rest with the tormentor who was the cause of it. The Great Judge of hereafter, inflicts punishments and decrees rewards after a juster fashion than that followed by the white slaveholder, who, criminal and unmerciful, is terrified at the name of the awful tribunal that his victim so willingly seeks. To resume: the civil practitioners of the place were so constantly employed, that they caught the infection, and all died except two. In other respects Lucea is a very healthy place, and the vicinity of the hills enables the inhabitants to renovate their strength by occasional visits to them. We were some time in recovering from this severe attack of fever; and it left us so weak and feeble, that we gladly accepted an invitation to spend a few weeks at a fine sugar estate called Old Retrieve, where we met with a most hospitable reception. "The rabbins of Jerusalem, it must be understood, do not come to England empty handed: knowing every synagogue in their route, they have to consign a certain quantity of Jerusalem earth for the use of the congregations. I must give my readers to understand, when a Jew dies, he is shrouded, and is put into his coffin, this is the last office they perform: upon each eye they put as much earth as will lie on a shilling. So scarce was the Jerusalem earth in the late war, when the seas were infested with the enemy's privateers, which prevented those men coming in regular time, that for fear of disappointment they were very sparing of the earth, and so applied half the quantity.”—Ceremonies, Rites, and Traditions of the Jews; by HYAM ISAACS. REMINISCENCES OF FISHING IN IRELAND. BY PISCATOR. "The Groves of Blarney, they are most charming, This quartet is a verse from the popular ballad written by a Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. Returning to our "Finis coronat opus," I still pronounce the Erne the best river for fishing in Ireland; it is a short stream, but its characteristics-the angler who resorts to it will find them-make them more than double the loss for that want. The portion selected for fishing is a succession of extensive pools, connected by channels of various width, cut by the force of the water through rocks of limestone, which in various strata intersect its course. The dip being to the northward, the most abrupt parts lie on the northern banks; that on the south being generally more shelving. The bottoms of the pools are gravelly; those of the channels and rapids are of rocks, singularly jagged and uneven. The body of water in the river is considerable, and as the fall between Belleek and the sea is great, the force of the current, when contracted within these channels, is perfectly irresistible. In the short course of five miles there are no less than four falls-those of Rose Isle, the Captain's, Kathleen's, and the Fall of Ballyshannon; and besides these there are numerous rapids. The pools are the resting-places of the salmon in their progress from the sea to the head-waters and fords where they breed; but as their habit is to lie on the bottom, the water here is generally too deep for them to see the fly; they are mostly caught at the heads of the rapids, closely to where the water begins to break on the rocks at the entrance of the channels. These particular points, which are well known to the water-keepers, are called, technically," Throws," and all are named; the number of them is about thirty, but there are others of minor importance, which are rarely visited, except when the number of fishermen is very great. The still break of the fall is, generally speaking, the place most favourable for catching salmon; but all the throws do not bear this description-the Sally Bush, the Bank of Ireland, the water between the Grass Guard and Kathleen's Falls, and one or two others, bearing mostly the character of rapids. No. 1.-BELLEEK POOL. Above Rose Isle Falls is Belleek Pool, one of the best throws on the river, on a rough day, but hopeless without wind. The depth of water is great, and the largest sized fish are found here. It may be fished in part from St. George's Island, and also from the left bank; but to command it satisfactorily, you will require a boat, which is easily procurable. This throw is without dangers of any kind, and no one can lose a fish once hooked in it, except from his own fault. No. 2.-ROSE ISLE. From Belleek Pool the water leaps over a broad fall of inconsiderable depth, across the head of which there is a safe ford; it then passes Rose Island, by a channel in length about a hundred yards, over a perfectly smooth limestone bottom, interrupted only by three rocks in its course; these form its principal dangers, but are indicated clearly enough by the curling of the water. The whole channel here is hardly more than twenty yards in width, and in consequence the rush of waters is prodigious. This is Rose Isle Throw, at all times good, but particularly to be sought on a bright still day, when the other throws afford little or no chance; nevertheless, the difficulty of landing the fish here is great: the rapidity of the water, the hidden rocks and confined space (scarcely exceeding a hundred yards by twenty), and the great fall of Rose Isle below it, give altogether a better chance of losing than of landing the fish. As good a plan as any, for a man of nerve and quickness, is to stand at the end and urge the fish down the fall; but in this there is a great risk of cutting the line against the sharp ridge. This throw is fished from the right bank. No. 3.-THE SHORT THROWS. From Rose Ile Throw, the water passes in one collected body down the falls, which are, as it were, in two steps, with a turnhole between them, and is finally received into a magnificent basin, cut by its own force, in the solid rock below. Its course then continues through a succession of rapids, for nearly a mile, when it expands, on reaching a more level country, into a flat of several hundred yards in width, and nearly, or quite half a mile in length, terminating in the Monk's Pool..... Up to this point from Belleek, its course has been through a ravine formed by overhanging rocks, covered with wood. These rise in many places perpendicularly to the height of fifty or sixty feet, and so immediately from the water's edge as to leave no passage between them and the river. In the course of this mile there are three salmon throws to be found: these are confined in point of size, and of little promise, while the access is so difficult, and in consequence of the overhanging rocks, the fishing so bad, that few seek them. No. 4.-THE MONK'S FORD. The Beyond this ravine, the river assumes a quiet character..... rocks disappear, and the banks, receding on either side, present an open country, with a border of soft turf on either side, shelving down to the water. The bottom is gravelly, interrupted only by salmon graves, as the places where that fish lays its spawn are technically called..... This is an excellent place for trout, especially in the evening. At the head of it, is an extensive eel-weir; and immediately above the Monk's Pool, it is crossed by a ford, which, when the depth of water on it is not much above or below 24 feet, is an excellent salmon throw it is without any dangers whatever, as the fish, on being hooked, invariably rush down stream into the depths of the |