Not bad description this, by the author of "The Beggar's Opera," and only wrong as to the dog opening; your proper spaniel is mute as a harem slave.

A retriever is indispensable for this as well as pheasant shooting. If possible, set a marker on an eminence, as you will flush many birds without a chance, but which will not fly far. If a woodcock be known to be in a bush or clump, set a man to beat it out towards you from the other side. Use No. 7 or 8 shot. Be cautious in using any but very old pointers or setters in coverts, they are sure to get spoiled, and will require re-breaking.

The ardent angler will now look forward to the opening season, and be getting his tackle into order. Trout should be well fed these mild winters, and the high mean temperature of the water must hurry on the hatching of ova. Deep-sea fishing is now prosecuted by our hardy fishermen, the cod and haddock being in prime condition. The severity of the gales of recent seasons will be long remembered, especially on the eastern coast. How long are these adventurous boatmen to be denied the small Governmental gift of harbours of refuge, while millions of sterling money are squandered on every pet project in the South? This is a real grievance, and the question should be unceasingly agitated in Parliament and out of it. Meantime, philanthropists could not expend their money to greater calculable advantage than by presenting fishermen (one for each village) with metallic barometers. This curious and most interesting instrument may be seen at the shop of Mr Gardner, optician, Gordon Street, Glasgow, who, with his unfailing urbanity,

will cheerfully explain its action to any inquirers. The instrument is not easily broken or deranged, and its general use around our stormy coasts would annually save a great number of lives and much valuable property.

On moors, as well as everywhere else, trapping must now be carried on with vigour. Polecats' tracks should be carefully looked for when snow falls, and be followed up to any distance. These destructive vermin will travel a long way at this season. They are easily caught when once their route is found, by the simple method of boring into the ground a deep hole of a few inches in width, placing a bait within and a trap on the outside. The polecat has an inquisitive and fatal propensity to poke its nose into all cavities, just as the domestic cat must examine a new patch on a carpet, and by this means this otherwise shy marauder may be easily taken. Figure 4 flag traps should be kept continually set for weasels; they cost nothing, and should be at every corner where a ditch or any water whatever flows. The best steel traps are those with bowsprings, although few gamekeepers are of this opinion. Guns when laid aside should be well cleaned, oiled, and have their muzzles stopped to exclude the air. This is the best season to have new guns made, and the sportsman will best suit his purpose and that of true economy by ordering the highest class of work from a respectable tradesman. Yet do not mistake us, gentle reader; although of the craft, we are not crafty. Go to your favourite artist, but, oh, never be tempted by glitter and varnish to purchase for an apparently low figure (but affording twice the profit of the modest-looking tool), that worst of all investments, a flashy, cheap gun.

No. II.-FEBRUARY.

"And lastly came cold February, sitting

In an old wagon, for he could not ride,
Drawne of two fishes for the season fitting,
Which through the flood before him softly slyde
And swim away; yet had he by his side

His plough and harnesse fit to till the ground,
And tooles to prune the trees, before the pride

Of hasting Prime did make them burgein round.
So past the twelve months forth, and their dew places found."

SPENSER.

THE author of "The Faerie Queene," in his allegorical description of this month, the last of the twelve according to the arrangement of his time, must have had in his poetic eye some such weather as the February of 1858. A waggon drawn by "fishes for the season fitting," according to the sign of the Zodiac, might not always be quite consistent with the truth, but would be quite applicable to recent years. The variety of weather in this month has been beyond the reach of description or anticipation. We have seen the rivers and lakes locked up in thick-ribbed ice in one year, in another we have filled our pannier with goodly trout, upon a river whose surface gently trembled under genial zephyrs, -the Garnock to wit. This uncertainty as to whether winter had fully poured out the phials of his wrath, or yet lay treacherously waiting for another attack, caused our forefathers to watch the

weather narrowly, and draw omens from that of parti

cular days:

"The hind had as lief see

His wife on the bier,

As that Candlemas-day

Should be pleasant and clear."

Sir Thomas Browne mentions that this opinion prevailed over Europe, according to the Latin couplet—

"Si Sol splendescat Mariâ purificante,

Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante."

Which we may attempt to freely render (eheu! for the days when we went to school, Latin was as mother's milk, and Greek the cream!)

Upon the purifying feast,

Should Phoebus brightly shine,
That winter's blast is not yet past
You surely may divine.

Again,—

"If Candlemas be fair and bright

Winter will have another flight;

But if Candlemas-day be clouds and rain,
Winter is gone, and will not come again."

Won't he?-we are not quite so sure of that, all traditions, suppositions, and depositions to the contrary notwithstanding, having no faith in weather-prophets beyond the space of six hours and three-quarters, or thereby. Sceptical on this point from our earliest infancy, when we always prognosticated the weather we wished to have, our unbelief was rendered absolute by the month of November in 1857, which period we passed in the Highlands. Such a month of sunny skies and genial breezes! we have a lingering affection for

it ever since. Yet every morning some ancient fisherman predicted wrath and woe for all this amenity. It was too good to last; it was unnatural; it was contrary to all rule and precedent; "Ah, you'll see a storm for this ere a week goes o'er." Yet it did last, and the furze bloomed, the shrubs budded, and the sun shone brightly on, and no chaos followed, save in the commercial weather-a-lack and a-well-a-day! Your ancient Delphic oracle would have caught at this, declared the "smash" to be plainly foretold in some of its ambiguous responses, and great would have been Apollo! Seriously, we know not whether the wind rules the weather, or the weather the wind, but the latter seems to depend entirely upon the direction of the former, and not upon any particular governing cause within itself, and still less upon the moon. to gratify those who still adhere to lunar influences, we append to this chapter Dr Adam Clarke's "Weather Prognosticator." The probability of the recent mildness of our winters becoming permanent, through the average temperature having risen, is very vague. The same anticipations have been formed again and again, and succeeding winters of intense severity have upset all attempts at reducing this branch of meteorological science to certain rules. "The wind bloweth where it listeth; "—and while philosophers can calculate eclipses, measure space, and weigh the stars as in a balance, they cannot tell us from what direction the wind shall blow in an hour hence.

But

On the first day of this month the season for pheasant and partridge shooting ends, and it is now close-time for