at the place of meeting (boys, from the ages of twelve to sixteen, are better for going through the bushes than grown-up men), a game cart, plenty of spare ammunition, and a good luncheon for everybody. At the beginning, a line should be formed, the same as a single line of skirmishers. It is the gamekeeper's duty to see that both gentlemen and beaters strictly keep this line, as it is a great preventive to accidents. If the line be not kept, and stragglers allowed to go here and there, they have every chance of getting a few lead-drops inserted in their corporations, which is very unpleasant, besides being dangerous. After the line gets the word to advance, the work of death soon begins, and shouts of "Mark rabbit!" "Mark hare!" "Mark pheasant!" "Mark woodcock!" &c., pass along the line; and Pop, pop! go the guns, like file-firing from sections. It is astonishing how well some sportsmen kill at this kind of shooting: whatever gets up, be it hare, rabbit, woodcock, or pheasant, if they only get half a glance at it, Bang! goes the gun, with deadly effect. But sometimes a woodcock will pass along a whole line, and, after being honoured with a royal salute, gets off scot free. The beaters should be relieved of the game they may be carrying as often as possible: it may be laid down on the side of the road, where the game-cart can come along and pick it up. The numbers of the different kinds being carefully taken at each deposit, keeps things all square, and shows the day's sport at a glance. Where estates are large, and plenty of game, battue shooting is no doubt the best way of killing it down; but it is too much of a wholesale style to be classed a good sport; it is just a continual blaze away, kill or no kill.

There seems to be an agitation just now rising amongst farmers against the game-laws, and no doubt with good cause. Farmers suffer greatly. from game, and get no remuneration for it in any way. On many large estates, although the whole of the game is fed at their expense, they never receive a single head, as the proprietor has got into the greedy, selfish habit of sending it all direct to market as soon as it is killed. Were the tenants allowed to kill a few rabbits and hares for their own table, or received a fair share from the proprietor, I have no doubt it would make the farmers and the game-laws agree. But if a proprietor wishes to keep up a great quantity of game, he ought to pay for it, either by lowering the rents of his tenants, or valuing the damaged crops, and paying the farmers accordingly. Farmers are greatly to blame themselves, as they take their farms without any definite settlement on the point, treating it lightly, not having yet been bitten; and when he comes to see that it is a serious matter, he finds he has no way of redress, and so has just to add it to the weather, and grumble on.

Curling, since nearly the beginning of the year, has been the great attraction for sportsmen, most of whom prefer "the roaring game" to any other game, and a rare time of it they have had. The Royal Caledonian Curling Club have had their meeting, and a splendid day they got, the ice in capital condition, and freezing keenly all day. The result was again in favour of the South side of the Forth men. Although the North are a good many clubs stronger than the South, yet the South very often wins, which proves that they are better curlers than the North. Why they should be, I know not, as the north have gene

rally most practice. However, they must just struggle on, like the Cantabs with the Oxonians, and hope to win some day.

There has been a very severe storm all over Scotland, the effects of which will be seen and felt amongst the game, if it does not disappear soon. It commenced on the last day of 1866, and still (Jan. 24) the earth is bound hard and fast, covered with a great quantity of snow; but it is gradually disappearing, having been a partial thaw during the past two days. In many parts of the country the snow was from eighteen inches to two feet deep. Where it had drifted it was quite impassable, nearly putting a stop to travelling both by road and rail. Rabbits and hares and other game must have been very hard-up for food during the past two weeks. Nature seems to have favoured the feathered tribe more, having provided an extraordinary crop of haws this seasonthat is, the seed of the hawthorn. It is very often noticed that when there is an unusual quantity of haws it is sure to be a severe winter, so well does Nature provide for the wants of her children. A great many birds would actually starve during a long storm were it not for the haws, such as blackbirds, thrushes, fieldfares, woodpigeons, and many others. Squirrels also make haws their principal food during a storm, although they are said to store away plenty of food for the winter. All lochs and nearly all rivers have been fast-frozen up, and wild-fowl may be seen flying about, seeking where to rest their feet and obtain food. Here and there in the woods you come upon little springs of water, which seem to resist any amount of freezing-power. They are generally tenanted by a woodcock or a brace or two of mallards.

How grand, solemn, and beautiful the woods looked after the late heavy fall of snow! No one has seen and felt the real beauty of a heavy fall of snow unless he has seen it far away in the woods, where all is silent as the grave, where every twig bears its own load of snow. The whole forest looks like a vast pile of snow, fantastically streaked with the dark-coloured branches.

The present storm will no doubt destroy a great quantity of the salmon spawn. There is so much snow on the ground, and all the rivers frozen up, that when the fresh' does come, it will be a regular torrent down the burn, clearing all before it. The ice, in its passage down, rakes the bottom of the river, and must carry away a great amount of spawn.

LITERATURE.

One of the handsomest books of this or any other season is "ELAINE," by Tennyson, beautifully illustrated by Gustave Doré. Never were an author's ideas more artistically carried out. As a New Year's gift, "Elaine," published by Moxon, in Dover-street, will prove a most attractive one. Messrs. Moxon deserve the highest praise for producing this exquisite gem.

Mr. Newby, the most indefatigable of publishers, has brought out three very good novels-" PHILIP THE DREAMER," " BEATING TO WINDWARD," and "THE MASTER OF WINGBOURNE." As good spe

WINTER SPORTS IN THE NORTH.

BY NORVAL.

Battue-shooting is now the favourite mode of killing game. The advance of the age has changed the method of shooting, like as it has changed everything else. All slow work is now cast in the shade, and things must be done wholesale. But whether the battue system is better sport than the solitary system depends on circumstances, generally on the build and habits of the sportsman. A day's battue-shooting is a campaign against the game, quite an institution. The gamekeeper has been busy night and day since the last day's shooting, very likely a year ago, breeding, rearing, and watching his game, with the tender care of a shepherd. A gamekeeper must be unwearied in his attention night and day, or he will not be able to have a good show of game on the battue day. He has many evils to put up with, such as a bad breeding season, disease, vermin, and poachers. It is a very difficult thing to find a thoroughly good gamekeeper. Many gentlemen think that when they get a strong rugged Highlandman from the far North they have got a good gamekeeper. He may do very well for watching poachers, but a gamekeeper ought to be more than this: he ought to understand the nature of dogs; to have a good command of his temper, so that he may break them properly; he should also understand the breeding and diseases of dogs; to be able to rear pheasants; to kill rabbits with snares, traps and ferrets; also to trap all kinds of vermin. This requires him to be well versed in natural history, so that he may know the habits of the different animals and birds he has to deal with; he should also be a good detective, so as to be able to cope with clever poachers; he must be a strong, healthy man, with a good nerve, to enable him to turn out, at a moment's notice, on a cold winter's night. Now, all this takes years to learn; it is therefore absurd to suppose that any man can be a good gamekeeper all at once.

The fashion now is for the gamekeeper to go over his ground about a week before the battue day, and stick a piece of white paper into the mouth of every rabbit's hole, by cutting a short pin, making a slit in the top, and inserting the paper. The rabbits are obliged to come out in a day or two for food, and will not return to the holes again so long as the paper is there; so they lie out, and afford good sport on the battue day; after which the papers should be taken out, as they might frighten the rabbits away to some other place. The slightest fall of snow makes the papers of no effect, as it makes the ground all white, and the papers are not seen. The slaughter is also increased by running a net along the sides and at the farther end of the coverts to be shot, to prevent the hares from breaking away.

When six or seven guns are to shoot-(that is, six or seven gentlemen, with two guns and a loader each: sportsmen now generally use breech-loaders, but some still stick to the old muzzle-loader: some great shots use these breech-loading guns, but the third is only useful where the game is very plentiful)-on the battue morning the gamekeeper should have from fifteen to twenty beaters mustered

at the place of meeting (boys, from the ages of twelve to sixteen, are better for going through the bushes than grown-up men), a game cart, plenty of spare ammunition, and a good luncheon for everybody. At the beginning, a line should be formed, the same as a single line of skirmishers. It is the gamekeeper's duty to see that both gentlemen and beaters strictly keep this line, as it is a great preventive to accidents. If the line be not kept, and stragglers allowed to go here and there, they have every chance of getting a few lead-drops inserted in their corporations, which is very unpleasant, besides being dangerous. After the line gets the word to advance, the work of death soon begins, and shouts of "Mark rabbit!" "Mark hare!" "Mark pheasant!" "Mark woodcock!" &c., pass along the line; and Pop, pop! go the guns, like file-firing from sections. It is astonishing how well some sportsmen kill at this kind of shooting: whatever gets up, be it hare, rabbit, woodcock, or pheasant, if they only get half a glance at it, Bang! goes the gun, with deadly effect. But sometimes a woodcock will pass along a whole line, and, after being honoured with a royal salute, gets off scot free. The beaters should be relieved of the game they may be carrying as often as possible: it may be laid down on the side of the road, where the game-cart can come along and pick it up. The numbers of the different kinds being carefully taken at each deposit, keeps things all square, and shows the day's sport at a glance. Where estates are large, and plenty of game, battue shooting is no doubt the best way of killing it down; but it is too much of a wholesale style to be classed a good sport; it is just a continual blaze away, kill or no kill.

There seems to be an agitation just now rising amongst farmers against the game-laws, and no doubt with good cause. Farmers suffer greatly. from game, and get no remuneration for it in any way. On many large estates, although the whole of the game is fed at their expense, they never receive a single head, as the proprietor has got into the greedy, selfish habit of sending it all direct to market as soon as it is killed. Were the tenants allowed to kill a few rabbits and hares for their own table, or received a fair share from the proprietor, I have no doubt it would make the farmers and the game-laws agree. But if a proprietor wishes to keep up a great quantity of game, he ought to pay for it, either by lowering the rents of his tenants, or valuing the damaged crops, and paying the farmers accordingly. Farmers are greatly to blame themselves, as they take their farms without any definite settlement on the point, treating it lightly, not having yet been bitten; and when he comes to see that it is a serious matter, he finds he has no way of redress, and so has just to add it to the weather, and grumble on.

Curling, since nearly the beginning of the year, has been the great attraction for sportsmen, most of whom prefer "the roaring game" to any other game, and a rare time of it they have had. The Royal Caledonian Curling Club have had their meeting, and a splendid day they got, the ice in capital condition, and freezing keenly all day. The result was again in favour of the South side of the Forth men. Although the North are a good many clubs stronger than the South, yet the South very often wins, which proves that they are better curlers than the North. Why they should be, I know not, as the north have gene