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General Rules to be obferved in Angling.

furs as an infulter, or a spy to warn all its little companions of the cu. koo's depredations.

Such are the manners of this bird, whilst it continues to refide, or be feen among us. But carly, at the approach of winter, it-totally difappears; and its paffage cannot be traced to any other country. Some are of opinion that it lies hid in hollow trees, and others that it paffes into warmer climates. Which of thefe opinions are best founded, feems very uncertain, as there are no facts related on either fide which can fully be relied upon. To fupport the opinion that they remain torpid during the winter, at home, Willoughby introduces the following ftory, which he delivers upon the credit of another :

"The fervants of a gentleman in the country having stocked up in one of their meadows, fome old dry rotten willows, thought proper, on a certain occafion, to carry them home. In heating a ftove, two logs of his timber were put into the furnace beneath, and fire applied as ufual: but foon, to the great furprise of the family, was heard the voice of a cuckoo, finging three times from under the ftove. Wondering at fo extraordinary a cry in winter time, the fervants ran and drew the willow-logs from the furnace, and, in the midft, one of them faw fomething move; wherefore taking an axe they opened the whole, and thrusting in their hands, firft they plucked out nothing but feathers: afterwards they got hold of a living animal; and this was the cuckoo, that had waked fo very opportunely for its own fafety."

"It was, indeed," continues our historian, "brifk and lively, but wholly naked, and bare of feathers, and without any winter

provifion in its hole. The boys. kept this cuckoo alive two years afterwards in the ftove; but whether it repaid them with a fecond fong, the author of the tale has not thought fit to inform us."; The most probable opinion on this fubject is, that as quails and woodcocks fhift their habitations! in winter, fo alfo does the cuckoo; but to what country it retires, or whether it has ever been feen on its journey, are queftions which we are wholly incapable of refolving.

In different parts of the world, many varieties of this bird are to be found, but differing in their fhape and colours. Latham mentions forty fpecies: a large fpotted cuckoo appears in the fouth of Spain, and a black crefted fpecies at the Cape of Good Hope. Only the common and fpotted cuckoo have been seen in Eu. rope.

GENERAL RULES to be obferved in
ANGLING.

A

N angler fhould poffefs much patience and refignation: and muft neither be dejected with bad luck, nor elated with good; well knowing that he cannot always be equally fuccefsful.

He fhould helter himself, as much as poffible, from the fight of the fith, for they are timorous and fhy; when he angles for a trout, he need not make any more than one or two trials for him in the fame place, for in that time he will either take it, or wholly reject it.

Cloaths of a glaring colour ould not be worn by the angler, as being more difcernible and alarming to the aquatic tribe. He must be careful to have his tackle neat, and his baits in the greatest perfection.

The

General Rules to be

The beft times for angling are from April to October; and the best time of the day, from three till nine in the morning; and three in the evening till fun-fet.

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The fouth wind is the best to an-having therefore abstained from gle in; next to that is the well; the cooler these winds blow, in the hottest months, is the belt time to fish.

If you angle in an easterly wind, your labour will be in vain; if it blows from any other point, provided it be not too harp, you may have fuccefs. Always remember that fish will never bite before a flower of rain.

The best time to take trout, and other fifh with the ground line, is morning and evening, in clear weather and water; but when the day is cloudy, or the water muddy, you may angle the whole day.

An angler may catch great plenty of fish, in a dark, clofe, gloomy, or lowering day, if the wind is foutherly; and, as the poet fays, when

"The ftealing shower is scarce to patter

heard

"By fuch as wander thro' the foreft walks, Beneath th' umbrageous multitude of

leaves."

food all night, they are become hungry and eager; and, encou raged by the darkness and gloomis neis of the day, venture to range about, and bite with appetite and courage,

In order to learn what groundbait is to be preferred for the res fpective fifh you mean to kill, open the ftomach of the first you take, and, finding on what he fed laft, bair accordingly.

If the angler purfues his fport in a pond, he fhould prefer a spot near the fords where cattle are accustomed to drink. In rivers, if he angles for breams, he should make choice of the quieteft and deepest parts; for eels, under trees hanging over banks; for chubs, in deep'fhaded holes; for pearch, in fcours; for roaches in winter, in the deeps, at all other times where it is proper to angle for perch; and for trout in rapid ftreams.

It is good angling in whirlpools, under bridges, at the falls of mills, and in any place where the water is deep and clear, and not difturbIf there happens to be a hoared with either wind or weather; froft, either in the fpring, or ad- alfo at the opening of fluices and vancing of the feafon, fifh will mill dams. not bite on thofe days, except in the evening.

After a dark, cloudy, or windy night, little fport can be expected the next day in catching large fifh, and efpecially with regard to trout! for in thofe nights they range about to prey upon the fmaller kinds; but if the night fhould be rendered brilliant by the thining of the moon and ftars, and the day fol.

The angler who fishes for roach, dace, &c. in a stream, muft caft his ground bait above his book; and he must always remember to plumb his ground.

When he has struck a good fifh, he fhould keep his rod bent, which will prevent the fish from running to the end of the line, whereby it might break its hold.

Rely not on the firength of your rod and line, when you B

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Hiftorical Effay on the Chafe.

have hooked a good fifh; but always ufe your landing net.

Your rod fhould not be kept too dry, or too moift; as the one will render it brittle, and the other rotten. In fultry weather, always wet the joints of your rod to make them adhere; if by being too wet they should stick fo as not to be easily moved, never ufe force, nor attempt to ftrain the rod; but turn the ferrel of that joint which is fast, a few times over the flame of a candle, and it will feparate..

In rainy weather, or when the feafon for fishing is over, repair whatever damage your tackle may have sustained.

Never fish in any water that is not common, without the leave of the owner, which is feldom refufed to any but those who do not deferve it.

If at any time you happen to be overheated with walking, or other exercife, avoid fmall quors, (water efpecially) as you would poifon. A glass of rum or brandy may then be neceffary; the inftantaneous effects of which, in cooling the body, and quench ing thirst, are almost incredible.

HISTORICAL ESSAY on the CHASE.

Continued from page 319. Enophon not lefs great as a. philofopher than as a general, after his justly famous retreat with ten thoufand, retired to Sillontum, where he built a chapel to Diana, amufing himself with his fons and his friends in the fports of the chafe. It was alfo there that he compofed his works, particularly what he has wrote on hunting, a diverfion of which he was very fond, and which he celebrates with becoming praife. He thought that this exercife

Xenophon, not dels asl,

formed the best foldiers; tha there is neither art nor protef fion which bears more resemblance and proportion with war than hunting; that it habituates men to cold, to heat, to fatigues; that it kindles courage, elevates the foul, invigorates the body, makes the limbs more pliant and agile, the fenfes more acute; that it retards old age, and that the pleasure it procures is a for vereign remedy againft unea finefs "The chafe," fays à of mind, celebrated modern author, “fortifies the heart as well as the body." The ancients made Diana the foe to love, and the allegory is perfectly just; the languors of love are felt only in indolent repofe: violent exercife ftifles all foft and tender fenfations. In the forest, amid rural fcenes, the lover and the hunter are fo differently affected, that they form diverfe images of the felf-fame objects. The fhady

groves, the fragrant bowers, the foft retreats of the former, are to the other only paftures for deer, or haunts of game; where nothing is heard by the one but nightingales, linnets, and warbling birds; the other fancies only the found of the horn, and the yells of the hounds: imagines only dryads and nymphs, the other only huntfmen, packs, and horfes.

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Hiftorical Effay on the Chafe.

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The Romans, warriors from their birth, made hunting an important concern: it was the school in which all their great men were formed. Among that people every perfon might hunt, whether on his own eftate, or on the lands of others. L. Æmilius prefented the young Scipio with an hunting equipage equal to thofe of the kings of Macedonia; and, after the defeat of Perfeus, Scipio spent in hunting all the time that the troops remained in that kingdom."All the amusement of the Roman youth," fays Pliny in his panegyric to Trajan, "and the school in which all their great commanders were formed, was the chafe at least, it may be advanced, that courage made them hunters, and ambition warriors.

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The ports of the field were always confidered, both by the Greeks and the Romans, as the fource of health and glory, the pleasure of the gods, and the proper pastime for heroes and kings. Julius Cæfar, fpeaking in praife of the people of the north, fays, that they are expert and attentive both in hunting and war; and he himself gave an elagant entertainment of hunting at Rome, which continued five: days. Pompey, after having fubjugated the Africans, introduced and exercifed among them the fports of the chafe. The Romans made ufe of a trap of an extraordinary kind: they laid mirrors in the track ufually held by the dangerous animals, and while one of them was amufing himself in contemplating his fellow which he imagined he faw in the mirror, the hunters, concealed be

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hind, or upon the neighbouring trees, drew upon them at their eafe. The fepulchre of the Nafos, difcovered near Rome, and which we find reprefented in the antiquities of Grævius, furnishes us with an example of this strat tagem in hunting, and the fame is alfo confirmed by a paffage in Claudian.

The chafe, according to Pliny, gave rife to monarchical states. In the earliest ages, fays that hifə torian, men had no private pos feffions. They paffed their lives devoid of fear and envy, having no other enemies than the beafts of prey; the hunting of thefe was their fole occupation; fo that he who exhibited mot dexterity and force, naturally be came chief of the hunters of his country, and prefided in the affemblies they held for making a greater havoc among the fero cious animals; but, in the fequet, thefe troops of hunters began to contend for the places more abundant in game; they fought, and the vanquished remained in fubjection to the victors; thus it was that dominations were formed. The first kings and the firft conquerors, were accordingly hunters. The collection of Philippe d'Inville, prefents us with numberlefs evidences drawn from antiquity in favour of the chafe, and the encomiums that have been bestowed on it by Plato, Xenophon, Polybius, Pollux, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Seneca, Pliny the Younger, Juftin, Symmachus, Vegetius, &c. This unanimous concurrence is! a plain demonftration how highly the chafe was regarded as ufeful, to the prince, and to the young nobility, defigned by their valour to be the fupport of the state.

The Laplanders neglect the cultivation of their grounds, to

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Defence of the Game Laws:

All the general affemblies of the nation, or the great parlia ments where the kings prefided in perfon over all that was illuftrious among the French, were regularly terminated by a party of hunting. The lovers of that amufement being defirous of

live only on game and fish. The Tartars alfo draw the whole of their fubfiftence from the chafe and their hares: when there is a fcarcity of game, they eat their borfes, and drink the milk of their mares. The curious letters of their mithionary jefuits in China, contain relations of hunting-par-chufing a faint, under whofe auties made by whole armies, confifting of feveral thousands of men. They are extremely frequent among the Mongoles. The Indians of America are continu: ally hunting, while their women are employed in domeftic concerns. Whenever thefe favages undertake long journies, they carry with them no ftore of provifions, but entirely depend for fubfiftence on the fruits that na- therefore had recourse to St. Huture abundantly offers them on bert, whofe call from heaven, it every fide, or on the beaft they is pretended, was announced to fhall kill on their way. It may him by an apparition he had, be affirmed, that one half of the while hunting of a ftag, that bore inhabitants of the world at pre-a crofs between his antlers. The fent, live only on the produce of the chafe.

Our first kings referved to themselves the great forefts of the kingdom; and in thefe they paffed whole feafons in following the fports of the field. We read in Gregory of Tours, that king Gontran, became fo jealous of his chase, that it cost three of his courtiers their lives for having killed a buffalo without his leave. He was, at that time, in the mountains de Vauges, where he had made one of thefe refervations for hunting. Charlemagne and his firft fucceffors had no fixed abode, on account of the pleasure of hunting in various places. Thefe monarchs paffed the whole of their reign in going fucceffively from Aix-la-Chapelle to Aquitaine, and from the palace of Cafenveil to that of Verberie, in Picardy.

fpicies they might celebrate their fealt, they claimed, with all France, the patronage of St. Mar tin; afterwards, that kingdom having changed its protector, the hunters but partially adopted St. Denis, whom all the orders of the ftate had chofen. They would have a patron who had fhewn the fame tafte, and had practifed their exercife; they

feftival of this faint, which falls at prefent on the third of November, has fuffered fome variations, or, rather, the body of the faint having had feveral tranflations, each of them has been kept as a feftival. Accordingly, there was a feast of St. Hubert in April, one in May, which is the true time of his death; another in November, which is that still retained, and finally one in December.

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(To be continued.)

DEFENCE of the GAME LAWS. Extracted from the LAUREAT'S INTRODUCTION to his ESSAYS on SPORTING.

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from Aix-la-Cha-lowed in a liberal manner,

URAL diverfions, when fol

are particularly ufeful in this ifland; where from the nature

of

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