138 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



balsamic odours of its shores, the freshness of the 

 atmosphere, and the gentle heat of the sun, whose 

 rays gilded every wave, offered to the sight and to 

 the senses a spectacle which inspired Joseph Vernet 

 to paint one of his most highly esteemed marine 

 pictures. In our times, the mandragues of Mar- 

 seilles have fewer visitors than when the celebrated 

 painter produced that remarkable painting, which 

 is one of the most admired in the collection of 

 the Louvre — and yet the fashion, which had been 

 discontinued for many years, is gradually return- 

 ing to the shores of the Mediterranean. In the 

 United States, the tunny fishing is one of the most 

 popular on the shores of the Atlantic. Not only 

 do the fishermen by profession give themselves 

 up to the sport of a tunny hunt, but there are 

 amateurs who keep nets, resembling those of the 

 Mediterranean, near their properties. 



One of the latter, a Mexican Spaniard, who retired 

 to the United States in 1838, to escape the dangers 

 of the pronunciamenti, Don Alvear Manoel Alfenares, 

 a rich planter in South Carolina, struck up an inti- 

 mate acquaintance with me at the Baths of Newport. 

 There I met hiiii in 1842, and I received a letter 

 from him one morning, inviting me to spend a few 

 weeks at his estate at Winyan Bay, not far from 

 Savannah. " Do come, I beg, my dear sir,^^ wrote 

 he; "my two daughters and myself will be delighted 

 to do the honours of our habitation, and I hope my 



