Sept. 18, 1875. 
375 
here’s the Lord Mayor’s cook with a sharp knife; the 
pot’s a boiling, and I fancy I seethe inscription on your 
shell— ‘Soup to morrow. ’ ” The conger eels have taken 
advantage of your sleepiness, }’OU lazy old turtle, for I 
see four or five of them under your shell. I tap the 
glass, “Hi! hi! wake up, old man; here is Mr. Law- 
ler with a nice basket of ‘sea-grass’ for your dinner, and 
some bits of fish for your cousins, the hawk’s-bill tur- 
tles.” But the old turtle said to me, “How the d 
can I possibly keep awake in this cursed cold water; my 
toes are cold; bring me a blanket, a glass of hot grog, 
and a pipe.” “Never mind, my shell-backed friend,” I 
said, ‘‘Mr. Lee will bring a steam pipe into your tank 
in a day or two to warm you, and then you must wake 
up, and be a little more civil to the visitors, instead of 
lying there like a fat hog in a sty. If you don’t wake 
up you will be made into soup for the Directors’ dinner; 
so you had better mind.” 
There are occasions of supreme felicity. They don’t 
come often, but I confess to the immense delight that I 
felt when I saw the salmon in the Aquarium. In the 
spring of 1873, mv friend Mr. Berringion, Chairman of 
the Usk Board, sent some .salmon smolts to the Aqua- 
rium.* They all died except one, and friends, fisher- 
men, what can you see now? lliis smolt hm become a 
grilse. It is not a large grilse, not more than ten or 
twelve inches long, but a pure salmon grilse for all that. 
He shines like a bar of silver as he swims round his 
tank, sometimes leisurely, sometimes with the rapidity 
of a hawk. He is a wonderful and beautiful fish, the first 
smolt that ever turned himself into a grilse under the 
ken of us air-breathing mammalia. Naturalists <an’t 
live in the water, fish can’t live in the air; so we make 
water cages for our fish, and we observe their wondrous 
trunsmutations from one stage of adolescence to an- 
other, changes quite as wonderful as the transformation 
of the duli-coiored hairy vegetable-eating caterpillar, 
■creeping along the ground, into a butterfly, which flies 
with ease in the air, and vfhich is ornamented with col- 
ors, on wings thinner than silver-paper — colors far more 
beautiful than anything that can be painted by artists. 
-My readers have probably heard of the celebrated 
Scotch tame smolt. Some fishermen were “yarning” 
against each other, and at last an old fellow informed 
the company that salmon-fishery Inspectors and people 
of that kind did not know their business. They knew 
nothing about the salmon. “ When he was a boy he 
caught a salmon smolt, and took it home, and after a 
time he tamed it. He then had to go away for several 
years, and wlien he came home again his smolt had 
grown into a thirty-pound salmon, and was going about 
the farmyard picking up seeds loith the hens." 
As we lament the poor old rhinoceros at Regent’s 
Park, so we lament our friends the porpoises, at Brigh- 
ton. They were most intelligent creatures, and seemed 
almost to understand what was said to them; at all 
events they understood signals and sound, especially 
when hungry; — as an old saying has it, ‘“The nearest 
wa)- to the heart is down the mouth.” To put, this max- 
iiu into practice, mem., “never ask a man for a sub 
scription before he has had his dinner.” A very stingy 
man had his portrait painted. A friend, who was always 
cadging for shillings and half-crowns for something, 
met the stingy man at dinner. The friend said: “I saw 
your portrait at the exhibition to-day, and was much 
struck with it.” “Did you ask it for a subscription?” 
said the stingy man! “No,” said the other, “the picture 
was so like you that I saw that if I had asked it for a 
subscription I should not have got one.” 
I think the porpoises were killed by the gas. The last 
porpoise used to come to the surface and breathe, taking 
m a long inspiration, like a spoony sweetheart when he 
leaves his lady love. The porpoise — spoony or not we 
cannot tell — sighed so deeply that he blew out the gas- 
•light above his tank, and breathed a lot of gas into his 
lungs, and he never recovered it. Moral: don’t sigh too 
deeply near a gaslight. Porpoises are only little wdiales, 
and we don’t know much as yet about whales. I know 
at least, from Information given me from my good 
friend Capt. Gra)', of the steamship Eclipse, of Peter- 
head, that the price of whalebone here in London is now 
£490 per ton. Ladies, who use whalebone for your 
dresses, see how you command even whales amidst the 
icebergs and snow of the Arctic regions. “Whales,” 
says the Captain, “ are getting verj' artful, and are bad 
to catch.” Nobody knows much about whales, where, 
how, when they breed, how long they live, etc. A whale 
it is supposed, is not fully grown till he is twenty years 
.old. He may possibly live to the age of one hundred or 
more. 
After all, how very little we men know about our fel- 
low animals, whether living in the water or on the land. 
These animals don’t ask us what to do — they know their 
own business. I wonder how the whales are keeping 
Christmas week in the Arctic Seas, and how the seals 
pass their time. I should dearly like to spend my 
Christmas among these poor persecuted things. I would 
not shoot, hurt or frighten them if they would only take 
me into their confidence, and admit me into their family 
circle. 
The seals up in the corner, near the platform of the 
orchestra, appear to be in perfect health, aud are, doubt- 
less, as happy as seals can be. They are exceedingly 
intelligent little creatures, and know their keeper’s 
whistle and voice perfectly well. I observe that two of 
the seals always swim on their backs, wliile the other 
swims in the manner of a dog in the water. The two 
seals which swim on their back are those which were 
sent from the Arctic regions by Captain Gray’s brother, 
and Mr. Lawler and myself took them from on board of 
a Dundee steamer when she arrived in the Thames some 
months ago. These seals are ratlmr expensive pets to 
keep, as they daily devour an enormous quantity of fish. 
I have warned Jlr. Lawler to take special care that there 
are no fish-hooks left in the fish he gives the .seals. Fish- 
ermen very often do not take the trouble to remo'^e the 
hooks from the fish which they catch on the hand-lines, 
and the consequence is that when the seal swallows the 
fish he swallows the hook also, and the natural result is 
that the hook becomes the cause of 4 lingering and pain- 
ful death to the poor animal. 
Seals have the power of making a sound which is not 
unlike the human voice, and I have heard many “talk- 
ing-fish,” as they are called by the penny showman, pro- 
nounce the words “papa,” “mamma,” very distinctly'. 
The young bladder-nose seal, which I received from 
Captain Gray some months since, and which unfortu- 
nately died soon after its arrival, certainly cried amaz- 
ingly like a human baby. 
The barnacles are very pretty objects. A stick that 
was thrown ashore covered with goose barnacles, was 
secured for the Aquarium, and it is truly a wondrous 
sight to see the shells of the barnacles wide open and 
the curious fan-like feeders of the animal within, work- 
ing away incessantly, grasping at the water. I sup- 
pose they catch something, or they would not work so 
hard. 
There is a bottle floating in the barnacle tank, and 
some barnacles are attached to it. This bottle might 
have once contained some “ message from the sea, ’’writ- 
ten in pencil by some poor fellow who found the ship 
sinking under him in the mid- Atlantic. The message 
perished, but the barnacles clung to the bottle, and very 
pretty objects they are. There were some whiting for- 
merly in the barnacle tank ; but the whiting cams round 
the barnacles, and bit off their feelers one by one as they 
put them out, so the whiting were shifted, and the 
barnacles now have an easier time of it. Neverthless, 
the shrimps in the tank must be a great nuisance to the 
barnacles, at whose spread-out feelers they are continu- 
ally nipping. 
I was told by Admiral Hall that for many years of his 
life, when far away at sea, he used to throw over a bot- 
tle with a written message in it at least once a day, but 
the.se bottles were seldom if ever picked up again. He 
considered the reason of this wa.s that barnacles attach 
themselves to the bottles and breed so quickly that they 
sink the bottles altogether. That barnacles delight to 
live near the surface is proved by the fact of being found 
on ship bottoms and floating timber. 
Sea-horses — Hippocampi. Funny little fellows in a 
pretty aquarium all to themselves, with curious horse- 
like heads and little fins which shake like horse’s ears. 
They have also a long fln on their backs, not unlike a 
horse’s mane, and thej' make it quiver every now and 
then so that the fin seems to vibrate. But why hold on 
so with your tails, like so many spider monkeys, my 
pretty little fellows? You can swim if you like, I know. 
See, there’s one of you eating a sandhopper, catching 
him with his trumpet-shaped mouth. Brave little sea- 
horse ! you shall be first favorite for Neptune next 
Derby ! 
One of Mr. Lee’s great successes are the young dog- 
fish, hatched out of eggs laid in the tanks. These little 
“ sea-puppies ” are very prettj', and not a bit nervous. 
I think we should arrange an Aquarium pantomime for 
the Brighton children, and let them ride the Hippo- 
campi, and go out with a pack of puppy “ dog-fishes ” 
to hunt the herrings and sprats around the rocks and 
sea-weed forests of the mighty ocean. We could get up 
a nice pack of “sea-hounds,” and write over their ken- 
nel, as was done by a wag over the kennel of a scratch 
.pack of hounds that would hunt and kill anything, “ Pro 
Aris et Focis,” with the translation: “For Hares and 
Foxes.” 
[to be continued.] 
SMALL SHOT. 
Mr. John B. Corey, a veteran of the war of 1812, died at his re.'^i- 
dence in Sag Harbor, on Thursday., at tlie advanced age of 86 years. 
Eating bull-heads or mosebunkers does not make brains: al- 
though it is said that fish are excellent diet for some weak-brained 
folk. 
A TURKEY was attacked by a hawk a few days ago. The turkey 
got off, but only when the hawk had been driven away by a by- 
stander. 
Mr. Allen McDonnel. a young man at Strathroy. was on the 
shoot for cals, when his revolver exploded and put the ball through 
his o^^Ti leg. Poor pussy I 
Miss Audubon, granddaughter of the great naturalist, who was 
taught to swim almost before she could walk, ventures out to sea 
far beyond the most adventuresome man in the place, and is one of 
the notabilties at Watch Hill. 
A Mr. Richardson, of Boston, went a-fishing. Not liking to re- 
turn home empty-handed, he commissioned a friend to buy a fine 
fish and have it sent to Mrs. R., with R.'s best love. The friend saw 
the idea, bought the biggest halibut he could find in market, and 
sent it with the bill. Seventy pounds of fish for dinner! 
A MississiPPiAN has a cat of which he tells the following story : 
“I was sick a short time ago, and this cat w ould come from the ta- 
ble to the bed frequently. She finally caught a mouse, and brought 
it to the bed, laying it down beside me. I threw it off, but as soon 
as I did so the cat would bring it back, until I thought she wanted 
me to eat it; so I made believe I ate it, and the cat went away ap- 
parently satisfied. And before night the same day she brought me 
a striped squirrel, and each day for the three days I was in bed she 
brought game, with the same result; she never would leave until I 
had pretended to lat it.'' 
•Large glass carboys, such us are used for sulphuric acid, are ex- Land and Water gives the follow ing: “A poor fellow, a carter, 
Calient things for the transport of small fish. named Colville, residing at Crossgates, near Dunfermline, left home 
a few days ago accompanied by his dog. He did not return that 
day, but on the following afternoon the dog arrived home in a very 
excited state, and behaved in a most eccentric manner, apparently 
endeavoring to attract the attention of the inmates. Seeing that 
the animal continually rushed off in the same direction, and that 
he evidently wanted some one to go with him, Colville's friends re- 
solved to follow him, fearing something had happened. The dog led 
them straight away some distance to a disused coal-shaft, where it 
stopped aud refu- ed to go any further. The worst being now con- 
jectured. grappling-irons were procured, and eventually, after much 
Iroubie, the dead body of Cbhdlle was brought to the bank.” 
Levi Day committed suicide at Porter, Wednesday evening, by 
shooting himself with a gun heavily loaded with buckshot. He tied 
one end of a string to the trigger and the other end to a bed post, 
and, seating himself in front of the fire-place, discharged the gun by 
pulling the muzz'e toward his right breast, the heavy charge passing 
entirely through his body, killing him instantly. 
Mr. Ai>bert Campbell, of Weston, Vt., went out fishing a few 
days ago in Mount Tabor. While he was busily engaged in making 
hib way up a stream, and at the same lime hooking the seductive 
trout, he noticed a furious pawing m the water in the shadow of an 
old tree a few feet ahead. He se zed a club and ran toward the spot. 
He jomped upon the log, and just as he did so the nose of a large 
black bear was pushed above the water and was being rapidly fol- 
lowed by the body. In a moment he raised his club and struck a 
severe blow across the protruding nose. To his astonishment, the 
bear fell over dead without a struggle. Mr. Campbell was so over- 
come wita excitement and became so weak that he was obliged to 
lie down awhile. After recovering his strength he procured assist- 
ance, and the bear was taken out and found to he a large one, weight 
ing 400 pounds. 
The Great Auk, an Extinct English Bird.— The great auk 
{Alca %mpmnifi')y though possessing in past years a fair right to bein- 
eluded among Bri'ish birds, has long been extinct in our i>land8. 
Its existence elsewhere may even be questioned. If still inhabiting 
our planev it is rigorously confined to regions high up in the Arctic 
circle. There is no certain English specimen of the bird now ex- 
isting, although some seventy examples of it may be found in Eng- 
lish collections, and of two or three of these there is little doubt 
that they w’ere blown ashore on our coasts. It may be interesting 
to gather up the most recent notices of this very rare bird in our 
islands. Probably the last that has been seen in English waters was 
picked up dead near Lnndy Island in 1829. Thompson states that 
one was obtained on the long strand of Castle Freke (in the west of 
the County of Cork) in February. 1844, having been w’ater-soaked 
in a storm. It is not stated whether this bird was dead. Agaiiu 
the same author states he had “little doubt that two great auks 
were seen in Belfast Bay on Sept. 23, 1845, by H. Bell, a wild fowl 
shooter. He saw two large birds the size of great northern divers, 
but with much smaller wings. He imagined they might be young 
birds of that species until he remarked that their heads and bills 
were ‘moch more clumsy’ than those of the Colynd)us glacialu. 
They kept almost constantly diving, and went to an extraordinary 
distance Qach time with great rapidity." All this exactly answers 
to what is known of the great auk, with its curious rudimentary 
wings. Probably one of the last eggs taken is in the collection of 
Canon Tristram. It was found in 1834 at Gier-fugleshier. on the 
south coast of Iceland. The last notice of it which reached civili- 
zation from the Arctic regions is that Mr. Hayes was told by the 
Governor of the Danish settlement of Godhavn, in Greenland, that 
“one had recently been seen on one of the Whale-fish islands. Two 
years before one had been actually captured by a native, who being 
very hungry, and wholly ignorant of the value of the prize he had 
secured, proceeded at once to eat It, much to the disgust of Mr. 
Ilausey, (the Governor) who did not learn of it until too late to 
come to the rescue." This happened in 1869. The great auk seems 
but too surely following the wingless dodo and moa. The type is 
as unfitted for the present age as would be the plesiosaurus in the 
valley of the Thames.— Magazine. 
The Bird Qitestion.— In an article entitled “ The Bird Question," 
published ifi the seventh volume of the Transactions of the Illinois 
Horticultural Society, showing the indispensable agency of birds in 
holding the Insect world in check, it is admitted, nevertheless, that 
: if any species of bird should actually become so numerous and in- 
jurious as to interfere essentially with the cultivation of any im- 
portant crop, it would fall into the same category with noxious in- 
sects, and that it might therefore become necessary to reduce its 
numbers. I have since questioned very much the propriety of dis- 
seminating this doctrine, because, though it may be theoretically 
true, it remains to be proved that any such case has really occurred, 
or that it is likely to do so: and the danger is that any admission of 
this kind is so liable to be taken by thoughtless persons as a sanc- 
tion fordestroying these beautiful and almost universally useful 
creatures, under circumstances which could by no means justify the 
cruel practice. As staged in the article referred to, there are, fortu- 
nately, only a very few species of birds which have been accused of 
being seriously injurious to the farmer or the horticulturist, and 
these feed largely upon insects during all parts of the year except 
the few weeks in which they regale themselves upon the ripening 
fruits. The two species of birds which have been signalized as most 
injurious to the horticulturist, on account of their habit of pecking 
into ripe grapes, and thus damaging more than they devour, are the 
cpiaint-voiced catbird, and that elegant ornament of our grounds, the 
Baltimore oriole or golden robin. Both of these are active destroy- 
ers of insects, and like the great majority of birds, feed their young 
exclusively upon this kind of diet. They have both frequented my 
garden the present season, and I have been much interested in 
watching the assiduity with which a pair of catbirds fed their young 
with various kinds of worms or larvte, their nest having been built 
in a syringa bush which was trained against the side of the house. 
I have also observed the golden robin in its search after insects, and 
on one instance saw a female alight upon the perpendicular trunk 
of an apple tree, cliuEing to it with much tenacity, though not with 
the ease of the woodpecker. She would sometimes even stand with 
her head downward, then let go her hold and catch In a new place; 
and once darted off after a moth, which she had dislodged from its 
hiding place. And this is just the situation where she would be 
most likely to capture the codling moth as It emerged from its pupal 
covering under the bark.— 
1 
