may be one picked hound of one pack, and another of another, and both so unlike each other as to leave the judges in a dilemma as to which to prefer. Some masters of harriers hunt otter at particular seasons with their pack. I have heard others say, a fearless, determined foxhound is the best otter-hound that can possibly be; it is not every hound that will hunt this sort of amphibious vermin, or (par excellence) game. So I suspect; for I am not well versed in this particular sport. Otter dogs-that is, dogs that will hunt otters-is a more appropriate name for them than hound. I once heard a gentleman say, that a bitch almost bull, was the best otter dog he had; if so, otter hounds, or an otter pack, must be a somewhat heterogeneous lot.

I have heard the query mooted as to whether bulldogs will be admitted, or considered as a race tabooed by the judges. I should hope not; for though I would in no way encourage a breed of dogs to be used for their original legitimate purpose, yet the bull is very serviceable as a cross with others; to this end it would be desirable to have the few wanted for such purpose as pure and handsome as can be got.

As regards other dogs, I should suppose the judges will not refuse to permit many to be exhibited, whom they may not be disposed to hold as eligible to have prizes awarded to them; for unless this is permitted, we might, and certainly should, lose the examining many dogs crossed with others, that are both more useful or more improved in looks by such cross. Curs, or rather mongrels, we must admit such dogs are usually held to be; yet it would be somewhat hypercritical to call a bull-terrier a cur, or not to award praise to a harrier because he had a cross of the foxhound; a retriever, because he sprang from a French poodle and a spaniel or Newfoundland; or even a very handsome and first-rate dog as to character for performance, though he might be partly setter and partly pointer. I should say the fair distinction between dogs bred from any cross, where both parents are pure breed of their sort, is-they are cross bred. The mongrel is where both parents were of no definite sort. Again, we must consider a bad cross as a decided mongrel; for instance, a pug with a spaniel or terrier; a hound with a Danish spotted coachdog; and many others, where no good and much deterioration arises from the cross.

Define as closely as we may, and act impartially as we will, I suspect it will be found that the admission of the different dogs to the Exhibition will be attended with no small share of grumbling from the wouldbe exhibitors, if excluded; and those admitting candidates will have anything but a sinecure as regards their share in the business. The specifications, as respects the dogs, will be found to involve considerable difficulty. If they are too stringent and exclusive, we deprive the public of a considerable share of interest and gratification; for we are to bear in mind, not a tithe part of its visitants will be sportsmen. But again, if we do not clearly designate what is to be exhibited, and are or are not eligible for prizes, we shall be inundated by half the dog-fanciers and dog-dealers from the lowest parts of the metropolis.

More than as a pleasing amusing morning lounge, and one to gratify curiosity in some, and interest in others, I cannot see much absolute national benefit likely to accrue from the proposed Exhibition. Masters of hounds, the shot (if celebrated), and the courser, all now strive to breed to the highest perfection; nor do I consider their efforts will be

much stimulated by the prizes offered. A huntsman may feel proud if a silver horn is awarded him, for what the judges consider the bestlooking foxhound; or a keeper or trainer of greyhounds may be equally pleased with a silver-mounted drinking horn, for the best dog of the kind he has had the management and breeding of. The Quorn would not feel at all elevated because one hound from their pack was awarded the prize. The Quorn can but be the Quorn; and being so, cannot rank higher. "Aquila non captat muscas.' HARRY HIEover. May 2nd.

Towards the latter end of the past, and during the present month, the above fish presents itself in our estuaries. It has been a puzzle to many to ascertain whether the subject of my remarks is a sub-species of the salmon (Salmo marinus major), or is of the trout (Trutta) family. By some anglers in the West of England it is regarded as the "salmon peel "(Salmo marinus minor); but it is a far more delicate fish in its general complexion than the latter, nor does it run to the size or weight of that fish. It comes to us with the anthera or "sand smelt," and may be observed, on its first arrival, to be engaged during the day in hot pursuit of these little fish. On its entry into the freshes, it delights to indulge in sportive sallies, leaping out of the water to some height, either with a view to prey upon some volitant insect on the wing, or to initiate itself into the practice of effecting summersaults, which it is preparing to make, on its passage to the many obstructions it is liable to meet with, in the act of surmounting locks, hatches connected with mill-ponds and other barriers, so frequently recurrent in the beds of rivers.

On being taken, at an early period after it has ventured into our streams, like its congener the salmon, it is not in its full condition, but is thin and unsettled in form, like a trout when out of season, whilst the general aspect of the fish is somewhat coarse and unseemly; but, as soon as it has benefited by a short residence in the fresh water, it is found to improve rapidly in condition, appearance, and quality, and may be regarded as one of the most delicate and inviting samples of excellence that can be met with in the piscatorial calendar.

During my residence on the Hampshire coast, I had frequent opportunities, during several successive seasons, of making myself acquainted with the nature and habits of this migratory visitant. I have witnessed salmon-trout captured in nets, and I have taken them, on various occasions, by means of the artificial and natural fly; but I never recognized any of them exceeding four pounds and a half in weight, and this circumstance tends the more to convince me that they are quite a distinct class of the salmon or trout family.

The nearest fish of all others, I ever met with, which they closely resemble, is the "loch trout," peculiar to some of the lakes of Scotland, and those

of Cumberland and Westmoreland. So near does the appearance of the two assimilate in all points, that I should unhesitatingly pronounce them, at a bird's eye view, to be one and the same genus. After the mode pursued by the salmon, on merging into our inland streams, it peregrinates into the interior by nocturnal stages, taking up its temporary residence during the day in the deep holes and eddies which it may perchance meet with in its way. And here it is that the fisherman has an opportunity afforded him of exercising his tact and ingenuity with his pliant rod and fly. Should the sun shine bright upon the water, Piscator may keep in doors, and save himself the unnecessary trouble of putting himself out of his way for nothing; for the salmon-trout will not rise to the surface in the face of the sunbeams, however luring and tempting the bait may prove that is tendered to him. But, on the contrary, should the day prove cloudy and calm, a watchful person may observe his anticipated captive chopping at small flies and other insects which may happen to court the wave in the immediate locality of their watchful devourer. I have known instances of the above fish frequenting particular holes in shallow rivers for weeks together, before they have had a chance of meeting with water enough to aid them in forcing their way up to higher parts of the stream. In such instances, by constant usage to the fall of the artificial fly, and finding the same a cheat and a feint, they altogether avoid it, and refuse to notice the same. I have changed and varied my fly patterns to the fullest extent on such occasions; but I found it, after all, of no avail; for the fish was possessed of vulpine cunning and astuteness, and was, like an "old bird (as the saying is), not "to be caught with chaff." rather than be disappointed in my aim and object, had ultimately recourse to a never-failing expedient, in my attempt to net my shy and non-complying customer. During the dusk of the evening the salmontrout is exceedingly active, for it is a fish that feeds principally during that interval, before it commences its endeavours to ascend higher up the rivers. During this vespertine period, a large variety of moths, are to be met with, toying upon the wing in almost all the meads that are situated near water-courses, and the phalaena tribe are eagerly seized by the whole of the trout and salmon family. I have, therefore, when I have found all other means fail, succeeded in obtaining a large brown moth, which creature is common during the present month, and placed it upon a No. 6 hook, gently casting the same on the surface of the water, adjunct to the hole or ambuscade of the fish. Should the finny tenant be at home, he will be sure to carp at his favourite morsel; and I have successfully hooked and secured him, when every other method I have previously invented to capture him had effectually failed. In open, quick, rapid water, the "May fly" and the "palmer" I have found more generally attractive to salmon-trout than any other I have used. In the river Itchin, which runs through a course of meadows at a village called Twyford, situated about three miles south of Winchester, I have during the dusky evenings of June fished for more than a mile down the stream, and with a small black gnat succeeded in handling twenty to thirty brace of fine trout, but never once struck one of the first-named fish, although I was aware that the same were numerous in that locality.

But I have,

It is astonishing how perseveringly the salmon-trout will force its

way up the most shallow passes, to effect its passage eventually to the spring-heads of water-courses. During the early part of August, I was one moonlight night returning late from a party of friends occupying a farm near Boldre, and had to ford, for want of a bridge, a portion of the Warburn river, at the entrance of an extensive marsh. This ford went by the name of Shallows among the country folk around, as being the only fordable part of the river for some miles. Before I approached the spot, my ear was assailed by some unaccountable sounds proceeding from the water, which gave me an idea that an "otter' was at hand; but, to my surprise, on nearing the pass, I discovered no less than three salmon-trout, struggling to make their way through the shoal in question, towards a deep hole which terminated it. The water did not half-cover the fish, and they had proceeded so far up the strait, that it would have proved as difficult a task for them to recede to the flood whence they had aberrated, as it would be for them to progress forward. I could have baled the whole of them out of their precarious and perplexing position with all possible ease, but such an illegitimate species of legitimacy was not in accordance or in keeping with my views of true genuine angling. I gave them the full chance of arriving unmolested at the end of their arduous, fatiguing, and perilous journey, under an impression that, if they were not netted or hooked by the way, they might eventually be lucky enough to reach their spawning beds, and complete and consummate the purposes which directed them to our shores.

There is, however, a class of idle characters in all country neighbourhoods, who, rather than gain their bread industriously, prefer to do so by other and less praiseworthy means. They are, unfortunately, encouraged by those who prove themselves incentives and accessaries to the crime of poaching, and the many evils which that crime engenders, and who ought to know better and to do better. Among the above class of characters, I would here allude to a set of fellows (for I can call them no better), who haunt, at early morn, the rivers which salmon-trout are known to frequent, and by entering the holes in which they take refuge for the day,. grope them out, as they are pleased to term it. This they do by driving the fish under some shelving bank, or thick mass of weeds, in which all the salmon and trout species are accustomed to take refuge the moment any startling object obtrudes itself on them, when free in their native element; and by this means they tickle the bellies of their capture, which sensation appears to mesmerize their faculties, and the poacher by gradually lifting the fish to the surface of the water, flings it suddenly on the bank of the river, and secures it as his prize. By this furtive practicefrom ten to twenty fine salmon-trout are taken in the course of a night, and disposed of by the robbers to the respectable families in the vicinity, who give an unjustifiable encouragement to the trespassers by purchasing the fruits of crime of them, as a table luxury, at the rate of from 9d. to 1s. per pound. By this means it is a marvel how a single fish is left to make a fair way to its spawning grounds.

But there is another illegitimate mode of destroying the above fish, which may be regarded in the light of wholesale murder. On the generality of the streams that immediately communicate with the estuaries on the Hampshire coast, are situated numerous corn mills. The fish have more danger to encounter in passing these tolls than any other they are

exposed to on their previous passage. The proprietors of these grinding establishments know full well the exact time when the salmon-trout will ascend the rivers to cast their spawn, and prepare traps to secure them on the occasion. These personages, when they perceive any quantity of these fish already inhabiting the "hatch hole" (a reservoir that is formed to receive the waste water from the river, when it is overflooded with water, and is situated just below the mill-pond, which feeds the mill), place a close-ribbed rack across the tail of the "hatch board" of an evening, and haul up the hatch that keeps back the water from this hole; the consequence is, that the water descends from the river on the "hatch board," and the fish in their attempt to leap and penetrate into the sluice torrent, are repelled back upon the flat hatch bed or board, and effectually secured within the rack. On the following morning almost every fish, that endeavoured to effect a passage into the mill-pond or river, has fallen a victim to the miller's dam. It frequently occurs that many prodigiously-fine eels are taken with the sam let, instinctively shifting their inland quarters to penetrate the estuaries. I have been credibly informed that from twelve to twenty brace of salmon and other trout, varying from two to four pounds in weight, have been taken by one miller in the course of a night, after the above man

ner.

CHARLEY SCUPPER'S RACING YACHT.

(Conclusion.)

CHAPTER XX.

Lonely and unhappy sat our hero, on a sultry summer's evening: his darling boy had been taken from him for the night, and placed in charge of his nurse. Charley had then endeavoured to find consolation in a volume he took from his late uncle's book-shelves; but the vengeance of the heavens seemed to deny him, for a time, any repose to his perturbed mind. In vain he drew down the windowblinds and closed the windows of his apartment: the vivid flashes of lightning insisted on penetrating every corner of the room; whilst the successive peals of thunder appeared like the awful voice of a commanding God, desiring all men to fall down on their knees, and acknowledge him supreme. The rain, besides, was pouring down as in a tropical clime, and bearing every moveable substance away in its torrents. It was just at the close of this storm, and whilst the distant echoes of the passing thunder might still be faintly heard upon the now-tranquil scene out of doors, that an attendant intruded upon Charley's privacy, and informed him a youth had just arrived, on horseback, in breathless haste, and wished to see him upon urgent business.

"Show him in immediately," said Charley.

An extremely fair-looking personage was then ushered into Charley's presence, who had the appearance of a young gentleman