they ascend or descend a steep rocky mountain road, on stones hewn into a step-like form, they first try with one foot gently, if the stone they touch is firmly placed; and in this the rider must not consider that he is wiser than the animal that carries him, nor interfere with the process, if he would not imperil his neck. When they descend a very steep and slippery place, they, with sagacious instinct, draw their hind legs together under them and slide down. In colour, they are generally of a dun or yellow hue, like the small Norwegian cows. When together grazing in small herds in the mountain passes they evince great courage in defending themselves if attacked by wolves or bears.

Of late years, in most of the provinces of Sweden, Societies have been formed for the special purpose of improving the breed of horses for farming and agricultural purposes. In the province of Merika (called also the province of Arebro), in the centre of Sweden, there is a society which, some few years since, imported from France at considerable expense, as we were informed, five entire horses and fifteen mares of the Percheronne breed. Other societies; in different provinces, have, since then, decided upon making similar essays; and so soon as sufficient evidence has been acquired of a probable success in such speculations, there is little doubt that a more general impulse will be given in Sweden to the improvement and maintenance of a breed and standard of horses, better than hitherto reared in the agricultural districts of that country.

Lastly, in regard to the general character of the cattle. As in all other northern countries, they are generally of a small size, and though crossed with a larger breed from other countries, their produce soon degenerate in size, because the grass in the short three summer months is less nourishing than the grass of the more southern countries whence they came; and in the long winters, fodder of all kinds is usually so scarce that the cattle in the remoter provinces are frequently half-starved. Instances of this dearth of fodder during the severity of a Swedish winter have been such, that the peasantry in several provinces have been compelled to unthatch their outhouses to keep part of them alive. R. P.

A DAY WITH THE MACKEREL.

To one confined through the year to the dull monotonous routine of city life, in which the mind is inordinately taxed, while the physical man is necessarily deprived of the due amount of healthful regulated exercise conducive to that ideal equilibrium the mens sana in corpore sano, a day's sea-fishing, albeit in unartistic amateur fashion, is by no means a mean or despicable treat. There is an ancient receipt for "nettle soup" which includes with a small quantity of the vegetable ingredient a rather considerable portion of very substantial "animal fibre," and as this latter has always been supposed to influence a little the success of the preparation, so, after a somewhat similar manner, it may be considered that the accessories of the sport which is the subject of the pre

sent sketch are very often, under certain circumstances, the most enjoyable part of the fare. Indeed, there is no doubt that fine weather, brisk champagny sea-air, and pleasant companionship, go far to enhance one's aptitude for a day's enjoyment; but independently of those, there is in the occupation per se an abundance of pleasant and healthful excitement for many, and very notably for those who are unwedded to or possess no taste for any of the grosser pleasures which unhappily are the usual relaxation of " a life in the crowd." In connexion with this subject, I have often asked myself if the stream of insanity which is in these days constantly trickling into our public and private asylums be in a great part but a poisonous secretion from the vices and dissipations of our cities-whether its latter increase can be owing in any degree to the fact that there are so many in our century who uniformly ignore "Nature" as their guide and their hostess, when they seek rest and respite from the toils and the obligations which the trying wrestle for daily bread" imposes.

Our fishing-ground is the fine bay of T-, about seven miles from the city of W, and is seventeen minutes' drive by rail. A beauti ful morning in the middle of September last found me at the boat-cove of the little town situated at its south-western extremity, where my friends S. and H., fully equipped, were awaiting me. Our equipment on those occasions simply consisted of a suit of waterproof garments, our fishing-gear, some plethoric sandwiches, and a flask of a peculiar amber fluid which shall be nameless. Individuals acquainted with the effect produced by the "odour of brine from the ocean' on that peculiarly sensitive portion of our being, the gastric region, never on any account neglect the precautions which the latter accompaniment embody. "The Nancy," the tidiest little yawl in the bay, with her crew of three, lay in mid-channel-an artificial cutting through the low sharp rocks below the shingly beach-ready to receive us. "The Nancy" is a gem of a boat in a heavy sea, riding as buoyantly as a cork, and often saved us from an uncoveted shower-bath of brine, and her crew are in every respect unexceptionable. Her coxswain, Johnny K.-a lowsized active lad, of some thirty years, with a pleasant pair of blue eyes and two rows of the handsomest white teeth I ever saw-is as safe and deft a hand as ever grasped a tiller; Billy M., a squat, athletic man, whose low-browed and ferocious mastiff-like face is a sad libel on a merry and innocent heart, as perfect an adept at cutting a "lash" as ever a mackerel need hope to be flayed by; and as for our skipper old Jack P., he can twist a yarn with any old "salt" who ever wore, and worthily, the mantle of Munchauson in the "foke-sel" of a seventyfour. My two fishing companions are experts. S. particularly, like Nimrod of old (but in a different groove), is a "famous hunter" of fishes. He had not lost, I believe, an available day of any season for the past ten years, and yet every new excursion found him as fresh and enthusiastic as in the early days of his novitiate. I doubt if Gheber ever worshipped the sun more passionately than he the ocean-at least when the mackerel are plenty therein. A minute, and we are afloat! and while the men are rowing our craft clear of the pointed sunken rocks into deep water, and loosening the sails from the mast, we begin to make ready our gear. This is very simple in its nature. There is first (beginning at the end) the hook, sometimes single, occasionally with a

double bite; this is attached to a piece of strong gut, about eighteen inches long, either simple or fine twist, and not unlike a first violinstring; this in turn is fastened to a scope, or foot-line, of tough marline, about two and a-half fathoms in length; the scope, at its end, is connected with a five or six-inch rod of whalebone; this latter is banded to the lead, which is an oblong or conical piece of that metal, of about two pounds weight, and both finally tied on to the line proper; this is of stout cord, the diameter of a goose-quill, and about sixteen fathoms are generally contained upon the reel. The best bait for mackerel is decidedly a lash from one of their own tails, a bit of plaice, a sprat, or even now and then a piece of red cloth has been tried, to help to wean them from their cannibalistic propensities, but never yet with a success which showed a proper appreciation of the fisher's humane intention.

We are now standing across the bay towards a clear bottom, and running parallel with the sands-the finest in the kingdom, or perhaps in Europe, with the exception of those of Ostend. The ladies' bathing machines are opposite, ranged in long lines, like battalions of infantry. We can notice even some of the dripping naiades themselves, taking their post-gentacular dip, who appear to us in their dark bathing dresses. like bronze figures in relief against the silver frost-work of the beach serf. Farther on, the tall canvass-covered machines for the rougher sex, on their high wheels, are massed like cavalry in position. The pillared headlands in the distance are- -"Ready, all! Wareheads!" bawls the coxswain. A rattling jibe of the mainsail! and in an instant we are on our seaward tack, while gathering way under a lively, but somewhat unsteady south-easter. Splash go our leads into the sea, and eight fathoms of each of our lines are running out rapidly behind us! The day is beautiful; the steel-blue sea is lustrous with the gold of the autumn sunshine; the waves, as they dance gaily by, are coruscating, as with the light of diamonds; the whole air seems teening with some life-giving exhilarating balm; groups of sea-birds light around us, and are lolling tamely on the undulating surface; and "The Nancy" herself, like some huge albatross, with her wide wings spread to the breeze, sweeps gracefully on, as if instinct with the joyous influence of the scene.

"If the mack'rel are as hungry as they wor this mornin'," remarks Billy, "begorra we'll have to unship our ballast: we caught twelve dozen afore break'ast."

"Faix, and there's some of em left yit," cries the skipper; "for the gulls are very busy out beyont."

A sensation at the end of my line, as if a mouse were pulling at the bait!—a decided tug, tug now; and after a slight upward jerk to fasten the barb, I begin to haul-in with rapid, but even motion. There is little resistance until I come to the scope, for the fish usually swim with the line, to avoid "hurting hisself," as Billy once informed me; but when it comes near the surface, and its long polished body shows gleaming like a blade of burnished steel in the water, it leaps convulsively, and darts madly from side to side, its spasmodic struggles reminding one forcibly of those which a kite sometimes makes in a strong breeze before it mounts upwards. On board now, and freed from the hook, in his writhings he beats a tattoo on the floor of the boat, not very unlike that which a fashionable lady plays upon a door-knocker. The appear

ance of the mackerel is peculiar and familiar to us all. I doubt if there be a more beautiful fish in the ocean: a flower might almost envy the delicacy of its tints and the loveliness of the design which Nature has traced upon it. In connexion with its appearance it may therefore be worthy of remark that I have never yet, out of vast numbers, been able to compare any two of the species upon whom the pattern, i. e. the arrangement of the striping, was exactly alike!

The mackerel generally swim in schools; so that when one line effects a capture, the other two (only three lines can be used at a time for scoping, two at the weather and one at the lee side of the boat; the effort to employ more is rendered a failure by frequent entanglement and all its consequent annoyances) are nearly certain to follow suit. This was our case at present. My lead was hardly recast, before D., with compressed lips, lifted eyebrows, and a concentration of delighted expectancy in his eyes, was also busy with a prize, and almost at the same instant H. was to be seen in the bow of the boat engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter with the enemy. The sport was now fast and furious. Billy was like a modern Briareus: he seemed to have a hand everywhere, unhooking fish and putting on bait. The skipper was exultant at our luck, and quite demonstrative in his duties as tallyman, announcing the arrival of every new prisoner as if through a speaking trumpet, and occasionally apostrophising a poor wounded captive as being a "bully-fish!" and "fat enuf for broth!" When this, our first battue, was over, we could reckon at least two dozen full-grown mackerel.

This sport obeys a certain periodicity, the cause of which is recog nizable in the gregarious habits of the fish. On one tack we would come into contact with two or perhaps three immense schools, when the number of our take would be largely added to; on another, not a solitary straggler could be met with. Our intervals of rest were not, however, wholly unemployed. Luncheon was to be done justice to; then old Jack had a story-legendary, or perhaps one of some comical personal experience-to relate; and anon the "witching weed" (to my mind nowhere more enjoyable than on the sea) was to bestow its modicum of beguilement. Occasionally, our amusement was varied by pulling up a good-sized gurnard of the grey or brown species. When lying wounded in the boat, the gurnard (vulgo, gurnet) now and then assumes a remarkable appearance. In its spasms, its pectoral fins be come erect and distended, and form a beautiful white frill about its throat; and anon, while gasping in the strange element, its projecting eyes and swollen head and throat make it resemble some huge antediluvian Esopian frog, who appears aiming at the proportions of a contemporary ox. They also at intervals emit a peculiar moaning sound, somewhat like the drone of the bagpipes, which the fishermen poetically conceive to be their death-song!

By this time our luck and the wind somewhat subsided together. We were now outside and a little to the west of the bay, and close under those immense barrier cliffs (brown schist of the lower Silurian), upon which is spent the perpetual force of the mightly Atlantic. The coast here is very broken, and pierced by numerous caves. The skipper directs our attention to one immediately opposite, which, he informs us, is the present home of "Navereen," or the little saint-a character which cannot be entirely apocryphal, as it is alluded to in a history of

our local antiquities. "Navereen," or the little saint, is, according to old Jack, a small stone image, which some fifty years ago belonged to a ruined church, then standing at the top of a neighbouring cliff.

In some subterranean convulsion, or owing more likely to the wearing action of the sea upon its base, a huge portion of this cliff became detached and fell into the sea, carrying with it the ruin and a portion of the graveyard around it. "Navereen" was submerged with the rest; but made its way after a time (whether by a miraculous power of locomotion as Jack asserts, or to divers physical causes, need not be here discussed) to one of the caves in the vicinity, where it was often visited by the local fishermen. On one occasion-and here begins the legendary portion of our tale-it happened that some "Goth" of a fellow, out on a day's cruise, entered the cave to see "Navereen;" and, desirous of giving a practical proof of his contemptuous incredulity regarding her wonderful gifts, proceeded to illtreat the image, actually knocking a large splinter off one breast; when, wonderful to tell, blood was seen to flow copiously from the wound, and the next day "Navereen was found to have abandoned her residence, and from thence to have taken up her abode in the gloomy-looking cavern which Jack had just pointed out to us.

After a little time the wind had entirely died away. The sea was now becoming calm and smooth as a lake, changing rapidly to a beautiful greenish opal, and tinged in the mellow sunset with a deep metallic lustre. The whole western sky was glowing with amber and orange and amethyst, and the distant hookers loomed fair and still, as if painted upon the gorgeous background. Far away, where sea and sky blended imperceptibly, a tall phantom-like ship seemed as if suspended in mid heavens. The scene was beautiful beyond description; and, if our day in the bay had nothing more to offer us than the deep feelings of repose and admiration excited by it, we would consider ourselves amply repaid! We had to row back to the Cove, for our sails had now become perfectly useless. During our return the coxswain directed my attention to the surface of the bay near us, which appeared as if sprinkled thickly over with a fine brown powder. Upon examination, I found to my surprise that myriads of living insects-chiefly flies, but with them immense numbers of spiders and other long-legged creatures-were crawling upon the top of the waters. I am not enough of a naturalist to explain the occurrence, and I doubt much if your readers will rest satisfied with our Coxswain's hardly-philosophical solution of the matter-which is, that at this season, every year, a regular suicidal mania prevails amongst those humble representatives of some of Nature's very interesting types; or, as he more plainly expresses it, "That they always go out into the say at this time o' the year to dhrown thimselfs!"

Darkness greeted us on terra firma. We had a very delightful day, but hardly an average result in the way of fish-some fourteen dozen or so in all. This, however, was owing entirely to the wind having so abandoned us. From my experience on this, as on many other similar occasions, I will briefly say, in conclusion, that not alone to the mere pleasure-seeker will "A Day after the Mackerel" prove a treat, but even for the invalid of restless nerves and irritable constitution there will be found nothing more soothing as a sedative, and nothing more healthful as a recreation.