amongst us dwellers near London. Our garden 

 frequently gets the honor of a temporary visit; 

 but out comes a neighbor's gun the very moment 

 the gay visitors are seen. A report is heard, — 

 the birds take the hint; and away they fly, to 

 seek more hospitable treatment elsewhere.] 



" Salt, the Curse of Old England."— No doubt 

 you remember reviewing a book bearing the 

 above title, some two years since, — and a very 

 bitter pill your remarks must have been for the 

 writer, Dr. Howard ! You charitably inferred he 

 was " mad." It would seem so. He has recently 

 committed suicide — impelled perhaps to the act by 

 the neglect of using salt ! I send you the recorded 

 particulars of the event : — Dr. Howard, the 

 author of a very silly and ignorant work, tracing 

 many prevalent diseases to the use of salt, and of 

 other eccentric publications, died by his own hand 

 at his residence, 6, Upper Gloucester Street, 

 Dorset Square, on the 27th of January. The 

 evidence at the inquest showed that he was 

 found lying upon his back in bed, quite dead ; 

 his hands and arms being crossed upon his 

 breast, and the bed-clothes neatly arranged and 

 tucked up all round. The features presented the 

 appearance of a slight convulsive spasm. A 

 small phial, with the stopper out, and labeTe I 

 " Hydrocyanic acid," was lying on the table, 

 and near it was a minim measure and a wine- 

 glass. There was no indication of the slightest 

 struggle having taken place. The candlestick, 

 with about two inches of unburnt candle, was 

 also by the bed. The servant of deceased de- 

 posed that his habits were odd and peculiar, 

 but that she was never afraid of him. Mr. 

 Obre, surgeon, deposed that prussic acid was the 

 cause of death. Mr. Keed Howard, of Alfred 

 Street, Bedford Square, stated that the deceased 

 gentleman was his brother. He had lived about 

 12 years in Gloucester Street, and witness seldom 

 saw him oftener than once in 12 months. He 

 was in independent circumstances, and had pub- 

 lished his peculiar opinions in various ways 

 through the press. Witness could not account 

 for his committing suicide, unless under a state 

 of mental derangement. He rarely saw any of 

 his friends. The jury, after a short consultation, 

 returned a verdict that deceased had destroyed 

 himself by hydrocyanic acid. — James E. 



[This poor man was no doubt confirmedly 

 mad. His friends were greatly to blame not to 

 have had him confined.] 



like a stone to the bottom of the sea. Oh ! my 

 friend, such is my love. It is bound to me as 

 portion of my life. Peace be with thee, my 

 little w< 31-beloved friend, in the name of the true 

 God, and the King of i eace. — F. P. 



A Tahitan Love-Letter. — I send you a speci- 

 men of a " missive," penned under the direction 

 of Cupid, at Tahiti. It is short, but sweet; ori- 

 ginal, but expressive : — my well-beloved, my 

 heart is troubled, it cannot rest! It is like the 

 fresh and deep water which never sleeps, and 

 which seeks agitation to find rest. I am like a 

 branch which has been broken by the wind; it 

 has fallen to earth and can never again attach 

 itself to the trunk from which it has been sepa- 

 rated. Thou hast left me, no more to return. 

 Ihy face is hid from me, and I shall see it no 

 more. Thou art like the beautiful shrub that 

 grew before my door, whose roots struck deep into 

 the earth. My body would unite itself to thine ; 

 but in vain it seeks to transplant itself. It falls 



The Mind of Woman. — A writer in the New 

 Qua?-trrl/j Review says, naively, — A woman's 

 mind is rarely creative. Much sweetness of imi- 

 tation she may possess; much tenderness, much 

 melody. But originality is not her forte. We 

 have no feminine epics — and we want none. Such, 

 however, is the originality of most of the "ori- 

 ginal " male, not masculine poets of the present 

 day, that, compared with them, this may be a 

 merit. — W. K. 



Mackerel on the Devonshire Coast. — The ex- 

 citement on the Devonshire coast, when the shoals 

 of mackerel come, is very great ; on their period- 

 ical arrivals on the coast, which is their custom 

 in multitudes, for the purpose of feeding on a small 

 fry very similar to a whitebait, a practised eye 

 will readily observe their manoeuvres some dis- 

 tance from the shore, inasmuch as the moment 

 they discover the food they love so well, their 

 numbers and greedy propensities cause them to 

 rush on their prey ; which, endeavoring to escape 

 from death, disturb the water in large circles 

 like a shower of hailstones dropping therein ; in- 

 deed we know of nothing more similar to compare 

 it to. The moment one of these disturbed spots 

 appears on the water, men are placed on the 

 highest cliffs to look out, while the boats with their 

 crews and nets prepared are launched and ready 

 for action. The mackerel are sometimes seen at 

 least a mile from shore ; but the moment they attack 

 the small bait, the latter fly nearer and nearer to 

 the beach, till at times they approach within 

 a hundred yards or nearer; and then while the 

 look-out man, who discovers them more readily 

 from an eminence, shouts at the extent of his lungs, 

 the boats are rapidly rowed around the feasting 

 fish in a circle, and then being hauled towards the 

 shore by men on land, some thousands of mackerel 

 are enclosed in a large bag at the extremity of 

 the not; indeed, I once witnessed the taking of 

 several thousand, and the sight was of no common 

 interest to those who had not previously witnessed 

 it. Neither was the eating of these fish, stiff and 

 fresh from the water, without interest ; they are as 

 different, be assured, from a London mackerel, as 

 a crimped Severn from an Irish salmon. — Byxq 

 Hall. 



Artificial Pearls in China. — It was stated in a 

 paper recently read before the members of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, that the artificial produc- 

 tion of pearls froni the mussel fish is carried on to a 

 great extent at Hoochow, China. The fish are 

 collected in April arid May ; and are opened by 

 children, who place a small bit of bamboo in the 

 orifice to keep the shells apart. A piece of brass 

 or bone, a small pebble, or a pellet of mud, is then 

 introduced, a dose of three to five spoonfuls of 

 fish-scales pounded and mixed with water is 

 poured in, and the stick removed. The fish are 

 then placed a few inches apart in ponds, the water 

 in which is from three to five feet deep, and which 

 are well manured wLh night-soil four or five times 



