A good deal of Mediterranean coral is exported to India, which, however, draws the largest portion of its supplies from the Persian Gulf. The produce of the fishery at Messina is stated by Spallanzani, to amount to 12 quintals of 250 pounds each.

The manner of fishing coral is nearly the same every where. That which is most commonly practised in the Mediterranean is as follows:-Seven or eight men go in a boat, commanded by the proprietor; the caster throws his net, if we may so call the machine which is to tear up the coral from the bottom of the sea; and the rest work the boat, and help to draw in the net. This is composed of two beams of wood tied crosswise, with lead fixed to them to sink them; to these beams is fastened a quantity of hemp, twisted loosely round and intermingled with some loose nettles. In this condition the machine is let down into the sea, and when the coral is pretty strongly entwined in the hemp and nets, they draw it up with a rope, which they unwind according to the depth, and which it sometimes requires half a dozen boats to draw. If this rope happens to break, the fishermen run the hazard of being lost. Before the fishers go to sea, they agree for the price of the coral; and the produce of the fishery is divided at the end of the season, into thirteen parts; of which the proprietor has four, the caster two, and the other six men one each ; the thirteenth belongs to the company, for boathire, &c.

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE FISHERIES.

In the preceding sketches, we have only noticed these fisheries which make a prominent figure in commerce.* We have said nothing of those which have for their object the supply of the table with fresh salmon, shad, trout, turbot, sole, perch, alewives, smelt, white bait, carp, pout, eels, lobsters, clams, oysters, crabs, prawns, shrimps, and multitudes of others. Fishing not only constitutes one of the great branches of human industry and enterprise, but it supplies a large portion of the food of the entire human race. Along the sea coasts, which are the most thickly settled part of the world; on the banks of rivers, and the borders of lakes, the inhabitants of every zone look to the waters for a considerable portion of their subsistence. Of course, we have no means of making reliable estimates as to the consumption of the whole world, but we suppose that if we include all species, and the smaller kinds, it can hardly be less than an annual average of fifty to each person; and if we estimate the population of the globe at 800,000,000, we shall have an aggregate of 40 thousand million fishes, devoured every year by mankind!

*The number of oysters consumed in Great Britain is probably not less than 50,000,000, annually. Salmon fisheries, says Marshall, rank next to agriculture, as a means of supplying food. The value of the salmon, caught in Scotland alone, is $750,000 a year. Our own shad fisheries are immense. The exports of cured fish from the United States are valued at about $750,000 a year.

HUNTING.

CATTLE HUNTING.

THE Pampas of South America are vast plains extending from the banks of the La Plata to Chili; their northern boundaries are not distinctly known, but they stretch to the south as far as the rivers of Patagonia. These immense level territories like the steppes of Russia, having scarcely any elevations, exhibit a prospect resembling that of the sea, terminated only by the horizon. They are somewhat diversified with paths and clefts or ditches, which collect the rain water and which commonly end in lakes, as there is no declivity of surface to carry the streams to the sea. Yet there are wide tracts in which no water is found; and trees are extremely rare except a few small ones around the lakes. The soil is generally a black earth of little depth, lying on a bed of coarse white chalk, so that it is difficult to dig wells.

These plains exhibit a sea of waving grass, sometimes 900 miles in extent, with hardly an interruption of wood or hill. The succulent and nutritive herbage of the soil affords pasture to many of those countless herds of cattle that rove unowned and unvalued over a great portion of South America, and whose hides

and tallow form a principal article of the trade of Buenos Ayres. Wild horses also abound in these natural meadows. They wander from place to place, against the current of the winds, and are sometimes met with in such numbers that travellers across the plains are surrounded by them for weeks together. Sometimes dense troops of them sweep over the country at full speed for hours, and it is with the greatest difficulty that the traveller can avoid being run over and trampled to death.

Troops of savages are sometimes scouring these plains and occasionally attack travellers, but their attempts are only successful when made by surprise, or when a few individuals of the party straggle from the main body. The route across this country is often pursued by the compass, as there are few landmarks or traces by which the road can be discovered for many hundred miles. Travellers go in covered carts or caravans, made almost as commodious as a house, with doors to shut, and windows on each side. Mattresses are laid on the floor, on which the passengers sleep for the greater part of the journey. These vehicles are drawn by oxen, and accompanied by baggage horses and mules. They set out in the afternoon, two hours before sunset, travel all night, and till an hour after sunrise. They then rest and partake of the provisions brought with them or taken by hunting on the journey, for which purpose many travellers carry dogs and hunting horses. During the day excessive heats prevail, from which they can get no shelter except what their vehicles afford. Sometimes no water is to be met with during several days' journey, and they

often suffer for drink unless relieved by showers of rain. Travelling is sometimes impeded by violent showers which lay the whole country under water. The westerly winds, too, or Pamperos, which descend from the lofty Cordilleras, not meeting with anything to check their impetuosity, acquire here an inconceivable degree of fury, and are a great annoyance to the traveller.

To this general account we may add the graphic description of the Pampas furnished by Capt. Head. On leaving Buenos Ayres, the first of these regions is covered for one hundred and eighty miles with clover and thistles; the second region which extends for four hundred and fifty miles, produces long grass; and the third region which reaches the base of the Cordilleras, is a grove of low trees and shrubs. The second and third of these regions have nearly the same appearance throughout the year, for the trees and shrubs are evergreens, and the immense plain of grass only changes its color from green to brown: but the first region varies with the four seasons of the year in a most extraordinary manner. In winter the leaves of the thistles are large and luxuriant, and the whole surface of the country has the rough appearance of a turnip field. The clover in this season is extremely rich and strong, and the sight of the wild cattle grazing in full liberty in such pasture, is very beautiful. In spring, the clover has vanished, the leaves of the thistle have extended along the ground, and the country still looks like a rough crop of turnips. In less than a month the change is most extraordinary: the whole.region becomes a luxuriant wood of enormous thistles, which

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