222 
MOBSELS SAVED FBOM MOTH AND MOUSE. 
[Nature and Art, December 1, 18G6. 
been illustrated, to be the best yet adopted. The merit of 
the modern wood-cutters is very great, and the care which 
they bestow upon the blocks they cut deserves, oftentimes, 
the greatest thanks of the designer of the work ; but, even 
under the most favourable treatment by the cutter, much of 
the original character of the drawing must necessarily be 
lost. Your new invention will preserve every peculiarity of 
style. A first experiment is scarcely a fair test of the 
capability of the process, but it has convinced me that 
when the tools are familiar to the draughtsman ho will find 
a means of expressing his ideas which he never had before 
except in etching on metal, which of course cannot be used 
in type printing.” 
That a revolutionary invention should pass 
through a certain period of minority is satisfactory, 
as withdrawing from calculation the evils attendant 
upon large and sudden convulsions in the labour 
market ; and we confess we should regard the 
Grapliotype with less complacency could we believe 
that it would paralyze the profession of the designer 
on wood, or annihilate that of the wood-engraver. 
Should a revolution come, its march cannot be so 
rapid as to leave no time for preparation by those 
who, from previous training, will have so little 
need of it. The art cannot extemporize its pro- 
fessors ; and the industries in question may, at 
small pains, be ready to welcome it. If they refuse 
to see the signal of change the fault will be their 
own. Under either flag they may be safe if they 
please, and we are glad to think there is no place 
for the conservative objection we might otherwise 
have founded upon tendresse for an old interest in 
danger of being swept away. 
And, while we counsel the instant study of the 
Grapliotype and its capabilities to those whom it 
may chance materially to concern, we must par- 
ticularly commend this gentlest of arts to that 
interesting and growing fraternity, the amateur 
Etchers. In a recent number of the “ Fine Arts 
Quarterly Review, ” an enthusiastic writer “About 
etching,” told us, epigrammatically and truly enough, 
that the etcher’s needle was to the engraver’s burin 
“ as a pen to a plough.” He illustrated in poetical 
and forcible terms the superiority of the “ point ” 
in “ suppleness, liberty, rapidity, and directness of 
utterance ; ” “ in mobility, in independence,” and in 
“ mental properties.” Adopting and carrying 
farther his metaphor, we are bold enough to say 
that in every property which may enable an artist 
to record felicitously his impressions of nature the 
Graphotyper’s pencil must bear away the palm ; 
while, in the commonplace particulars of con- 
venience and manageability, there can be no com- 
parison between the processes. We cannot con- 
ceive that any such “ poet painter,” as is referred 
to by our contemporary, if his object be con- 
scientiously and without unnecessary labour to 
attain the qualities above set forth, will, after a 
trial of the Grapliotype, ever again resort to the 
cumbrous paraphernalia of the etcher. Whoso 
would save himself pounds of burden and crowns 
in money, besides enjoying the satisfaction of seeing 
the continuous progress of his plate instead of work- 
ing in darkness and uncertainty as to result, must 
surely, ere long, prepare to abandon the copper-plate 
with its fussy array of bottle and bath, varnish and 
mordant, in favour of the hair pencil, the chalk, 
and the rubber of the Grapliotype. 
MORSELS SAVED PROM MOTH AND MOUSE; OR, GLIMPSES OF 
NATURAL HISTORY IN THE DARK AGES. 
By Greville Fennell (Barnes). 
A S there are nations and individuals who look 
upon a piece of printed paper as a sacred 
emblem of literature, and spare it in consequence, so 
have we, whenever we have met witli typical worth 
thereon, considered that the scrap which gave us 
pleasure might afford delight to others ; and it has, 
consequently, escaped destruction. We have re- 
cently been sorting some of these jottings and 
cuttings under heads, and as our natal month claims 
for its zodiacal sign — the Pisces, it is but natural 
a preference should be given to the musty bits 
that apply to fishes, some of them being from books 
and manuscripts, which we are inclined to believe 
are now extremely scarce, or have almost ceased 
to exist. But let us dip at once, after the fashion 
of an extempore and petite lottery, into our budget 
of literary tickets, and take what comes first. 
“ There are stingrays, which carry a dangerous 
sting in their tails. Captain Smith,” says Harris, 
“ was stung by one of them. The effect was a 
violent swelling and a tormenting pain, but was 
cured by a good chirurgeon, and the sick man, that 
was like to die in the morning, was able to make 
a supper of it in the evening : for they are good 
meat.” 
Doubtless the piquancy of the meal was not a 
little increased by the captain’s knowledge that he 
was eating his enemy. 
The effects of electricity upon fish are well 
known, although but little is understood at present 
thereon. The Tench suffers extremely from thunder- 
storms, and in Norfolk, where large quantities are 
taken and “ trunked,” the fishermen often endure 
great loss from this cause ; yet the consequences 
are very partial in their character, one trunkful 
of tench being killed on the same “ Broad,” — as the 
lakes or lagoons attached to the rivers are tech- 
nically termed, — while others wholly escaped. We 
learn by an article in the Quarterly Review for 
January, 1822, upon Dobrizhoffer’s “ History of the 
Abipones,”that in tropical climates hail and thunder- 
storms together sometimes depopulate rivers. In 
Fotherby’s “Voyage near Greenland,” lat. 78°, “they 
saw a light upon the Fore-bonnet, which the sailors 
