more attention to the beauty and qualities of that animal than to those of others, or that in reality he changes more sensibly and sooner than they in transmitting form and in procreating his kind.

The first means to guard against sudden and infallible degeneration were suggested by reflection and confirmed by experience. It was thought, and reasonably. so, that the good and the beautiful in all animated beings was dispersed in small groups over the face of the earth, and it was seen that the portion of beauty in each climate always degenerated unless it was united with another portion taken from a distance; hence the different peoples of the earth recognized successively the absolute necessity to mix the races, and to renovate them frequently with foreign races. Hence the peoples of Asia, of Northern Africa, and of Europe eagerly sought to give to the mares of their country Arab horses, to which those parts of the world are chiefly indebted for their finest breeds. Thence, also, in modern times attention was continually directed to provide the most reputed breeding-studs of Germany with Barbary, Turkish, Spanish, Hungarian, and Italian stallions; and hence, eventually, the care taken by the English to furnish their breeding-studs, at any price, with Arab, Barbary, Turkish, Danish, and other stallions. In this manner it was that in each region endeavours were made to prevent the inevitable debasement in the crossings; as also, the abasement of nature, whose impress becomes sooner or later disfigured, according to the climate and the food, for everywhere a term arrives at last, when matter wholly dominating over the form, changes, deteriorates, and vitiates it. This truth is so constant that if it be long neglected by ceasing to introduce into any European stall foreign stallions, the generations would eventually become extinct."

Though the examples of amelioration which he cites further on are addressed more especially to his countrymen at the period he wrote, and having in view alone those deriving from Southern races, yet the good sense comprised in what he says in that respect may be profited by from a different point of view than that which he seems to indicate. It is therefore with Huzard senior, a writer of more modern date, contemplating the subject of the regeneration of the horse in France from the stand point of yet more enlightened observation and experience, that we concur, and would have the prospective degeneration of our English thorough-bred race prevented by the resort to what he admits as sole principle of action for the attainment of a sound regeneration. "The horse of the East, the Arab only," is, in his opinion, "the source to which we should recur at frequent intervals," and those words merit especial attention on this side of the water.

"The Arab horse does well with all races, even with those that are larger and wholly different from him in shape. It may be said that, in infusing his forms into those of the race with which he is crossed, he communicates his qualities to it. It is not always in the first generation that this mingling of the forms is shown; we have elsewhere shown that those first productions were ill-put-together, but that if they were waited for to get race from them by crossing them again, their produce, better put-together, were nearer to the forms of the father and of the mother. Thus, for instance, an Arab horse crossed with a Norman mare will not produce a handsome foal; but that foal,

excellent by the qualities of his ascendants, will give others which will be handsomer and not less good than himself. Thus" (said he, adverting to us, the English, in illustration of his argument)" did they with a patience and perseverance, which it is very desirable we should imitate, await the results, which they could not anticipate should be middling or bad; and they have been amply indemnified for their outlay, their persistence, and expectations by the regeneration and improvement of all their breeds."

A great truth was enounced in that remark of M. Huzard senior, one that should not be less recognized as the guiding principle in the present day, by the successes of those who had the good sense to foresee and patience to await the issue that placed our Anglo-Arab blood-horse for long years in front-rank of all the improved equine types of Europe. We need scarcely moot, for the reader's consideration, how much greater would now be that condition of assimilation that would favour the ready re-infusion of the Arab's ascendants of quality-his energy, temperament, organization, respiration, speed, and endurance-many of which are constantly proclaimed to be on the decline in our race-horse of the present day, and with some too-frequent justification, as exemplified by the performances of so large a majority of the numbers of two and three-year-old competitors which now every season sink so soon into the general ruck of mediocrity, if not " used up" or defunct before they have obtained even the adult age of their kind (4 years), the age before which no horse born and bred in our climate is physically capable of sustaining the ordeal of frequent exhaustive fatigue.

To that point, however, we shall revert more fully hereafter, and will here address our attention to the system of "breeding in-and-in," which, as regards all improved Western equine races produced by crossings, is condemned by the most experienced breeders and ablest writers on the subject.

[To be continued.]

DOWN

AND

UP AGAIN.

BY GREVILLE F.

"Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless continuity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful and successful war,

Might never reach me more! My ear is pain'd,

My soul is sick with every day's report

Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill'd.”

CHAPTER IV.

The following portions of a partly-oblitered MS., written in the blank intervals of an old ledger, and saved from the wreck of a vessel off Yarmouth, probably the jotting of some returning American settler

destined never to greet his friends again, were kindly culled and transcribed for my delectation and that of my friends. They were referred to at various intervals, but I give them in the best shape that presents itself:

"We were upon the banks of a small stream, which contributes its mite to the waters of the Penobscot river, when an opportunity presented itself of testing the strength of my nerves. It was during the midnight hour, when even the trees seemed to sleep profoundly. Not a zephyr moved a twig, and the silence which reigned was painful. Rendered somewhat restless from the combined circumstances of the previous day's labour and a hard bed, I lay musing upon an account which I had read of a midnight attack upon a company of militia, during the sanguinary struggles of the Revolution, by a party of savages. In the midst of my reverie I fancied that I could almost hear the stealthy footsteps of the wily Indian, when a sudden scream from a tree top, nearly over the spot where I lay, brought me upon my feet at a bound. Seizing my gun, I looked aloft to discover the author of my sudden fright. By the light of the fire, which still burned in the front of the tent, I saw a pair of large eyes, resembling those of a cat. In an instant the woods echoed with the sharp report of my gun, when down came his owlship with a thud to the ground."

"To those," I remarked parenthentically, "who have the pleasure of the acquaintance of Dr. Dimond, of Twickenham, that gentleman's beautiful grounds afford great delight from the fact that their exquisite retirement encourages a large number of owls to breed in the more lofty trees of the domain, and their freedom from molestation induces them to pursue their natural and interesting habits, as if perfectly careless of the observation of the naturalist.

"It is not generally known that owls are sometimes fish-poachers. Even the long and mysterious circumstance of the disappearance of the gold and silver fish from the Duchess of Portland's marble pond at Bulstrode, was cleared up by watching the common brown owl helping themselves at night to the gold and silver piscatory diet. Owls have likewise probably been the cause of more ghost stories than any other living thing."

"Fear," rejoined the Doctor, "will invest almost any trivial circumstance in the profound stillness of the night with an undue importance. Are you aware that the passion of fear determines the spirits to the muscles of the knees, which are instantly ready to perform their motion by taking up the legs with incomparable celerity, in order to remove the body out of harm's way."

"Yes," replied Captain Laws, "and I do not hesitate to add that too much fear will take away the power to run altogether, and that many a man has got credit for standing fire that otherwise would have taken to his heels. What a brave soldier is most afraid of is fear:

The brave man is not he who feels no fear,

For that were stupid and irrational;

But he whose noble soul its fear subdues,

And bravely dares the danger Nature shrinks from.""

Here is a nice slice of bear :

"The tramping of timid deer, attracted by the waning light of our watch-fire, or roving beasts of prey, allured by the savory vapours of

our evening meal, often startle us from our slumbers. Once, while on a timber-hunting excursion, the night being very mild, and feeling too much fatigued to make the usual preparations for security, we built our fire near a large prostrate tree. When we lay down, our heads were near the fallen trunk, which protected us somewhat from the current of air; but we were without covering, except the spreading branches above. It was not long before we heard a heavy tramping some little way off. It approached nearer and nearer, until the animal seemed directly upon us. As I lay upon my back I turned my eyes upward, when they met the full gaze of a large bear, which stood with its fore-paws on the log directly over my head. In an instant I sprang upon my feet, and, seizing a brand from the fire, I hurled it after him, at the same instant making the woods resound with my voice. Alarmed at my sudden motions, and more than all at the fiery messenger, which emitted thousands of sparks as it whizzed along after him, glancing from tree to tree in its course, at each concussion emitting new volleys of fiery particles, he, without stopping to apologize for his intrusion upon our sleeping apartment, plunged into the forest at full speed. By the rustling of dry leaves and the cracking of fallen. limbs, we could hear him a long way off, with unabated energy fleeing from the object of his terror. Next morning we came across an old she-bear and her cubs. We had a spirited little dog with us, who instantly encountered the bear; but one blow from her paw completely disabled him. His injuries proved so serious that we were obliged to kill the little fellow, much to our regret; for, of all places in the world, the companionship of a good dog is most valued in the woods. One of our men caught a cub; it struggled and whined, which soon attracted the attention of the old one. She at once rushed after the man, who was soon glad to drop his prize; but not until the old dam had nearly torn his clothes from his back. Since agricultural interests have invited men far into the interior in the vicinity of lumber berths, where large tracts of land have been cleared up, less value is attached to, and less use made of, meadow hay than formerly, as English grass becomes more plentiful, is more available, and is much better in its quality. A distinguishing characteristic of this kind of business is the unceasing encounter by our lumbermen with the blood-thirsty millions of flies who swarm and triumph over these sanguinary fields. The black fly and the mosquito can only reach the exposed parts of the body; but to the midget every portion is accessible. He insinuates himself under the collar, the wristband, and through the texture of the garments, and the whole region between the shirt and the skin is a field for his operations. But, notwithstanding the labour and annoyances of meadow life, there are pastimes and adventures to be met with. A shot now and then at some stray deer which may chance to stroll upon the meadow to graze; the hooking of beautiful trout, pickerel, and other delicious pan-fish afford agreeable relief from ennui: such spoils secure agreeable changes of diet. Here, also, very frequently are skirmishes had with the common black bear. If Bruin is not intentionally pugnacious, he is really meddlesome-nay, more, a downright trespasser-a regular thief an out-and-out' no government' animal, who, though neither profane nor yet immoral, still, without apostolical piety, would have 'all things common.' The peculiar traits of character secure to him the

especial attention of mankind, and ever make him the object of attack. Though formidable as an enemy, it is hard to allow him to pass, even if he be civilly inclined, without assault.

"While two men were crossing a small lake in a skiff, on their return from the meadows, where they had been putting up hay, they discovered a bear swimming from a point of land for the opposite shore. As usual in such cases, temptation silenced prudential remonstrance; so, changing their course, they gave chase. The craft being light, they gained fast upon the bear, who exerted himself to the utmost to gain the shore. But, finding himself an unequal match in the race, he turned upon his pursuers, and swam to meet them. One of the men, a short, thick-set, dare-devil sort of a fellow, seized an axe, and the moment the bear came up inflicted a blow upon his head, which seemed to make but a slight impression. Before a second could be repeated, the bear clambered into the boat; he instantly grappled the man who struck him, firmly setting his teeth in the man's thigh; then sitting back upon his haunches, he raised his victim in the air, and shook him as a dog would a wood-chuck. The man at the helm stood for a moment in amazement, without knowing how to act, and fearing that the bear might spring overboard and drown his companion; but, recollecting the effect of a blow upon the end of a bear's snout, he struck him with a short setting-pole. The bear dropped his victim into the bottom of the boat, sallied, and fell overboard, and swam again for the shore.

Medical aid was procured as soon as possible, and in the

course of six weeks the man recovered from the effects of the bite. But one thing saved them from being upset-the water proved sufficiently shoal to admit of the bear's getting bottom, from which he sprang into the boat. Had the water been deep the boat must inevitably have been capsized, in which case the consequences might have been more serious.

"One afternoon, about two o'clock, while several men were making their way up a small stream, their attention was arrested by a sound which resembled distant thunder. Each moment the noise grew more distinct, accompanied by a tremulous motion of the earth. Still nearer and yet nearer it approached, with a rushing sound, intermingled with loud reports. Between our boatmen and the forest at the south-west spread an area of meadow land. Looking in this direction, a dense column, rising high in the heavens, was seen whirling in the distance, and approaching with incredible velocity. They barely effected a landing when it came upon them. In an instant their boat was hurled into the tops of the trees over their heads, while they were only able to retain their position by holding on to the small undergrowth, and escaped unhurt. The hurricane, in its passage across the meadow, seemed to lose its force, so that by the time it reached the opposite side of the meadow its power was broken, and its career of destruction ended. In its passage it laid a strip of forest level some seventy rods wide and thirty miles long. No tree within this limit withstood its fury. The toughest and stateliest mingled in wildest confusion with blanched trunks, yielding sapling, and slender undergrowth."

Virgil finely describes such visitations: