A DAY'S FISHING.

"To-morrow, then, is the 25th of July!" exclaimed I, at the same time complacently surveying a new sailor's jacket, nankeens, and a broad-brim straw hat, the whole of which had been made expressly for the occasion: the 25th of July-the day so long expected, so anxiously anticipated-the day on which I hoped to enjoy the most pleasant day's fishing in the season. Jack Thornton, who was to call for me in the morning, is an early riser, a good walker, full of anecdote, and, upon the whole, the most desirable person you could appoint to meet; for, if by one of those chances to which we are subject you did not arrive at the appointed place in time, he was sure to create noise enough to awaken the seven sleepers. After again examining the whole of my fishing tackle, and making sure nothing was wanting, I fell into the arms of Morpheus. Loud and long did Thornton exert his powerful voice ere I joined him. The day was beautiful, but intensely hot. We walked and talked, and caught a surprising quantity of fish. Pleasantly and fast did the old enemy of man, Time, steal on, that evening had arrived without its approach being perceived by us. We had only just concluded that it was time to think of returning home, when suddenly the sky became overcast with dark and dismal clouds, and the rain fell in torrents you might conceive a second deluge was about to destroy the face of the earth.

We now perceived, to our mortification, that we had strayed far, very far beyond our first intentions-indeed, into a part of the country of which we had no previous knowledge. A diversity of opinion now took place as to the best mode of regaining our homes. Thornton insisted upon leaving the course of the stream, and trying his fortune by land; whilst I took my desolate walk along the banks of the rivulet, expecting to arrive at some spot with which I was familiar.

I must confess I was somewhat alarmed and disappointed to find myself a stranger, and that, too, in my native county. It seemed to lower me so much in my own estimation as a fisher. I had previously boasted that there was not a stream within fifty miles of my residence that I had not traced from the mouth to its source; yet there I was, within a day's march from home, completely bewildered, still pondering on the phenomenon as to me it appeared, still marching and hoping that the next step would lead to some well-known spot, and thus enable me to dissolve the enigma. Each succeeding step, however, increased my bewilderment.

I had now arrived at a part of the stream which convinced me I was in an unknown neighbourhood. The water was deep, and furiously did it run. The banks, on either side, were both steep and

high. My alarm was extreme. I had now been upwards of a mile so completely hemmed in at both sides, that I could not leave the river. The rain had fallen so long and so fast, that I dreaded the very narrow, and in some parts hardly perceptible, path would be overflowed; nor were my fears without foundation. I heard a rushing and rumbling sound behind me, far fiercer and more furious than had ever entered my imagination. I turned round to discover, if possible, what occasioned it. Guess my surprise and horror when, by the assistance of a flash of lightning, I perceived, a short distance in the rear, the water rushing on at an impetuous rate on a level with the embankments.

Alarmed at my situation, I hallooed for assistance, and made many desperate but futile attempts to climb the bank. Finding it impossible to escape the rage of the waters by these means, I ran, with all my might, with a faint hope of outdistancing it, or at least of discovering some place where the banks were lower and more scaleable. In this hope I was doomed to be disappointed the waters appeared to increase at every step, and each succeeding moment seemed to bring them nearer to me. Finding escape quite out of the question, and that being a coward would not save me, I resolved to become a hero, and meet my fate with resolution. Turning my face towards the advancing enemy, I awaited his approach with all the courage I could muster. My heroic resolution was hardly concluded, when I felt myself thrown on my back by the now-victorious foe. My fortitude did not, however, forsake me : even in this extremity I struggled, tried to swim, and arrived in safety on the surface, where a tree, which the excited waters had torn up by the roots, afforded me a raft, which, seating myself resolutely and firmly between two branches, I tried to compare to my easy chair, looking anxiously forward to the result of this adventure.

Fast and furiously was I propelled along the rushing water, and, as the thickest darkness prevailed, I was unable to form the remotest idea of the course to which the impetuous torrent was hurrying me. Now and then flashes of lightning enabled me to discover the stream, widening gradually; but even this small consolation left me, as it evidently abated none of its speed; the flashes grew "few and far between," and then finally ceased altogether. The winds blew a perfect hurricane, except at intervals, when the lull was accompanied by a deep and heavy rain.

After a time I began to experience considerable difficulty in retaining my place on the raft, which, instead of gliding swiftly but gently down the stream, seemed to plunge heavily in the heaving waters, and scarcely to be able to bear the burthen of my weight. By the faint glimpse of light which I now and then obtained, I evidently perceived that I was getting out to sea, and was leaving the shore rapidly. How long this lasted, or how far I had travelled in my new vehicle, I had not the means of ascertaining; it was, however, sufficient for me to recall the comforts of home, in those gorgeous colours that unwilling absentees from home are always prone to do. I fancied to myself the alarm and horror my wife would naturally feel at my absence-the remorse of Thornton for his perverseness in leaving

me in such a situation-the exultation of my cousin and heir-at-law on the futility of a marriage I had contracted with almost the sole intention of preventing his succession to the estate. These and many other things passed rapidly through my mind, which, from my excited state, I felt was shortly about to leave me, when suddenly I felt a shock as if my support had struck against some large substance, and then heard the, to me, melodious sound of "What ship ahoy!" at that moment more musical than the lute of Orpheus.

I hollaed in return a short account of my expedition. A rope was thrown to me, to which I attached myself; and I found I was on board a collier just weighing anchor. The captain saluted me with "Well, messmate, we are in want of hands, so you are quite welcome." In returning thanks for this reception, I expressed a wish to do all in my power to assist the crew, at the same time explained to him that I was a landsman, and totally unacquainted with nautical affairs, and owed my introduction to his vessel to one unfortunate accident. He met this with a volley of abuse, accused me of being a deserter from a man-of-war, and pointed to my clothes as a confirmation of his assertion. It was in vain to protest against so arbitrary a decision, and, consoling myself with threatening an action as soon as we should arrive on land, I obeyed his orders to the best of my abilities. Not being so expert as he wished, I was put to the most degrading drudgery, ordered and knocked about by all the crew. Great was the joy, and many the anticipations of revenge I resolved upon, as at length we approached the termination of our voyage.

"Now!" exclaimed I, seizing a stick, and mounting a tub on the quarter-deck; "now, you rascals, the day of vengeance is arrived; now shall you suffer for all your inhumanity to a freeborn Englishman; the laws shall make you feel the injustice of your treatment."

The master and men followed each sentence with a long, loud laugh until I had arrived thus far, when they closed on, disarmed, bound, and beat me, threatening to hand me over to the civic authorities as a mutineer. Wishing to get before a magistrate, I was pleased at their threats, little thinking they had an casier and quicker mode of punishment.

We dropped anchor. The master immediately went on shore, and did not return until the evening. I was then thrown, bound into a boat, landed, and carried to the mouth of a coal-pit, placed in a basket, and soon far into the bowels of the earth. I here learned, from a man who attended to the lamps, that the captain represented me as a ne'er-do-well relation of the pit-owner, who had committed forgery, and was sent into the pits until pursuit was over, and had worked out my iniquities as a coal-digger. Guess the astonishment I felt, gentle reader, at such a charge: I raved, I roared, I tore my hair with anguish, and called upon the pit to fall in upon me. My discomfort at first amused the demons of the pit; annoyed by my noise and frightened by my curses, they flogged me into silence and submissiveness.

My time was now occupied in waiting upon the pitmen and digging coal. My spirit became broken; I looked forward to death as the only end of my miseries.

P

One day, while the men were at dinner, not wishing to be subject to their gibes, I took my basket of provisions into a short, narrow passage, long unused and considered dangerous, till at last I arrived at a large cavern, which I was attentively exploring, when I heard a loud explosion, and found my retreat cut off. "Now is the cup of misery full!" I cried: "here, alone, deep in the bowels of the earth, must I end my weary pilgrimage." Yet still full of hope, I turned round, and with much solemnity exclaimed-"I am indeed monarch of all I survey;' no one will encroach upon my prerogative; no anticorn-law unions to disturb my repose, no annoyances about civil lists, no petitions against taxes, no church reform, no society for diffusing useful knowledge, nor any other humbug."

Consoling myself thus upon my exclusiveness, sleep stole over my eyelids. How long this lasted is to me unknown; but a rat, crawling over my face, aroused me. After considering what could be done, I resolved to scrutinize the cavern more closely upon minute examination, there appeared to be a small passage, in an oblique direction, sufficiently large to admit a man on his hands and knees. To resolve to explore this was the work of a moment; exploring it took a considerable time, but it brought me out in the open air, in the middle of a field. After expending some little while in congratulations on my delivery from captivity and slavery, fear came over me lest the accursed captain or any of his crew should see and reconduct me back; feeling this, and thinking flight was my only chance of retaining freedom, away I ran, and did not stop till completely exhausted, then, espying a village, made for it, but had no sooner arrived than the villain of a captain stared me in the face. To attempt escape was useless, so, making the best of a bad bargain, I tried to pass him, hoping that my residence in the coal-pit, and consequent black visage, would render me unknown; this was, however, calculating too strongly upon my disguise. He saw, and pointing to me, gave me in charge of the constable as the man for whom £100 reward was offered, and was charged with blowing-up the coal-pit. Hand-cuffed and placed in a cart, I was taken to a justice. The description in the handbills was compared with my features, and they agreed exactly. The magistrate concluded this evidence sufficient to remand me. In vain I claimed his protection, it was useless; upon my telling him how infamously I had been used, he merely shook his head, and said he thought mine was touched. Seeing no prospect of redress here, I made up my mind to attempt an escape. Gathering all my strength, I struck my right hand out and knocked down one man who collared me on that side; I was going to treat the man on my left to a similar mark of my regard, when I heard my wife's voice hollaing as if hurt, and, upon turning round to see if my senses had deceived me, I found it was her indeed-that, instead of knocking a man down, I had hit her a prodigious blow, and, far from having undergone such trials, was in bed, and the whole was a long, awful dream.

ON BEATING FOR GAME IN THE OPEN FIELDS.

BY A VOYAGER.

It is as certain as that I am now writing with one of Perry's threepointed pens, that not one sportsman in every hundred, trying the English stubbles, beats them properly. Yet on this depends the amount of game he kills; or rather, for it is not exactly synonymous, the number of shots he gets.

Impatience is the besetting sin of almost every man of the pointer and gun; and it is a prime cause of this slovenly imperfect searching for game. He jumps over a gate, or rushes through a gap, and stalks towards that part of the inclosure where he judges the game to be crouched. This is certainly the way to get over the ground fast; but it is also the way to miss finding the game: and it is a most admired way of spoiling your dogs. But of this, more anon.

Another cause of this slovenly mode of beating, is having a large extent of country to beat over. "Is your's a good shooting district ?" "Pretty well: I have the right to sport over three thousand acres.' When this is the response, be tolerably certain that he who thus answers does not beat his ground well. He is one of the if-I-don't-find-them-there's-some-in-the-next-field fellows. Virgil has very justly observed―

which in plain English means that a wide extent of country is all very well, but that a small breadth is made the most of. Columella tells a story in point: "A man had two daughters, and a large vineyard, of which he gave a third part with his eldest daughter in marriage; and yet he gathered as much fruit as he did before. Afterwards, he married his younger daughter, giving with her another third of his vineyard as a portion; and still he found that the remaining third part produced as much as the whole had done." Now, why was this-but that because the third part remaining was by far better cultivated? That That is a moral tale for the farmer; but I have one quite as piquant for the sportsman. A gentleman in one of our eastern counties had the right of shooting over one thousand acres of land, in the midst of a country well stocked with game. His gamebook showed that he bagged on the average about one hundred and fifty brace of all kinds during each season. He shot with a single barrel. Circumstances arose which deprived him of the right of shooting over about half those thousand acres. Yet his game-book showed at the end of each shooting year that he still bagged his one