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gardens. All human endeavours to diminish their numbers would appear like attempting to drain the ocean by a pump.”

As in the days of Mr. Moffat and Capt. Gordon Cumming, so it must have been in those of Pharaoh, of whose land the sacred historian records that the locusts “ covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened ; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left ; and there remained not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.”

But let us return to our author. We most of us can remember the old legend of “ the foolish English fowler,” who shot his neighbour's pig by mistake, as the poor brute, busied in his search for acorns, suddenly darted forth in anticipation as it were of evil. And we ourselves can well remember, during our Oxford days, a lineal descendant of William of Wykeham's, then a Fellow of his College, shooting a tenant's pig, which he mistook for a hare, in Stanton St. John Wood; for which deed, as may be supposed, no roasting-pig was ever so well roasted as he was : our hero, however, was not ashamed to look this pig in the face, for it was dressed and actually served up at the high table for the Senior Fellows' dinner! But while such accidents occur to a learned clerk and an inexperienced fowler, we confess ourselves aghast at hearing the great lion-slayer own to a similar mishap. IIe actually smites, hip and thigh, a team of waggon-horses which, in the dark, he mistakes for a herd of quaggas. But let him tell his own story :-“ About this time the moon shone forth faintly. I galloped on after the troop, and, presently conuing up with them, rode on one side, and dismounting, and dropping on my knec, I sent a bullet through the shoulder of the last quagga : he staggered forward, fell to the ground with a heavy crash, and expired." And again on wounding a second, he says—" On my approaching, the quagga tried to make off, when I sent a ball through his shoulder, which laid him low. On going up to him in the full expectation of inspecting for the first time one of these animals, what was my disappointment and vexation to find a fine brown gelding, with two white stars on his forehead! The truth now flashed upon me ; Strydom and I had both been mistaken, the waggon-team of a neighbouring Dutchman had afforded me my evening's shooting.”

The next point, attractive to the naturalist, is the pursuit of the gemsbok or oryx-an antelope, which, according to Mr. Gordon Cumming and others, has given rise to the fable of the unicorn, from the circumstance that its long straight horns, when seen en profile, appear like one horn. This supposition has most probably arisen from ancient carving, in which the oryx appears to be represented as having but one horn; because, if seen in a state of nature, the animal could not fail to undeceive the spectator as to its being more than a unicorn. The chase of this remarkable antelope is described by our author with much power and animation : he mounts a couple of pad-boys, who are directed, if possible, to ride the oryx to a stand-still ; while the wary hunter, riding hard for his line, manages to get within casy shot as the panting animal strains past him. The pad-boys, however, who are light Hottentots or Bushmen, have not so easy a task of it: a tearing chase of five miles, tail-on-end, carries them like a whirlwind across the bushy plain. The exciting scene is thus described :-“ The gemsbok now increased their pace: bat Cobus' horse, which was a good one with a very light weight, gained upon them at every stride, and before they had reached the opposite side of the plain he was in the middle of the foaming berd, and had turned out a beautiful cow with a pair of uncommonly fine horns. In one minute be dexterously turned her in my direction, and, heading her, I obtained a fine chance, and rolled her over with two bullets in ber shoulder. My thirst was intense, and, the gemsbok having a fine breast of milk, I milked her into my mouth, and obtained a drink of the sweetest beverage I ever tasted.” • Mr. G. Cumming is not “a slothful man :" he not ouly “ roasts what he takes in hunting," but turns its luxuries to account. Wellington, when be forced the French to retire at the Douro, sat down to the dinner which was actually “ dished up" for Soult: Mr. G. C., in like manner, appropriates, without loss of time, the lacteal feast which nature bad provided for another.

With respect to riding down the gemsbok, after the fashion of Capt. Cornwallis Harris when he boarded the Giraffe, the hunter must have had a most exciting chase, not a little enhanced by the dangers of the undermined ground over which he galloped, and the wild country into which his quarry led him. When the present Sir Arthur Chichester wished to kill up the fallow deer in his park at Youlston, he mounted his hunters, and, with lance in hand, pursuing the herd at speed, he transfixed as many as he required on the occasion. But Sir Arthur did this within the limits of a fine grassy park, and with relays of horses at command. Not so Mr. G. Cumming: the animal he pursues is the wild denizen of the desert, whose strength is his swiftness, and whose home is the boundless plain.

The oryx, from its long pointed horns, which are nearly straight and little divergent, is a dangerous animal in close quarters; and naturalists tell us that when the lion, pressed by famine, has attacked it, he has not only been beaten off with disgrace, but even paid for his temerity with his life. Mr. G. C. approached one that had been wounded, and very nearly paid dearly for his folly; "for," he relates, “ lowering her sharp horns, she made a desperate rush at me, and would inevitably have run me through, had not her strength at this moment failed her, when she staggered forward and fell to the ground." This description will remind the reader of Mr. St. John's perilous position when in close quarters with “ the muckle hart of Benmore."

Mr. G. C. has devoted two very interesting pages to the habits of the ostrich, and the manner in which the little Bushmen secure this magnificent bird. He tells us, and we confess to have been ignorant of the fact before, that the hatching of the eggs is not left, as is generally believed, to the heat of the sun, but, on the contrary, the cock relieves the hen in incubation. “When a Bushman finds an ostrich's nest," he says, “he ensconces himself in it, and there awaits the return of the old birds, by which means he generally secures the pair. It is by means of their little arrows that the majority of the fine plumes are obtained which grace the heads of the fair throughout the civilized world.” After shooting his first ostrich, a fine old cock, he describes the power of his leg, and says, “ the thigh is very muscular, and resembles that of a horse more than of a bird. In the act of dying he lashed out, and caught me a severe blow on my leg, which laid me prostrate."

Possessing as our author does many of the best qualifications of a zoologist, it is much to be regretted that he did not devote more of his attention and time to the ornithology of South Africa ; he would have undoubtedly reaped a rich harvest, and contributed largely to our present imperfect list of African birds. Le Vaillant, Lichtenstein, Burchell, and Colonel Smith, have done much, it is true ; but still from Mr. Gordon Cumming's long sojourn in the far interior, his keen observation, and his untiring energy, we might have looked for specimens of ornithology with which those naturalists were unacquainted, and which would have given an agreeable colouring, and a scientific interest to his present work. The contrast between him and Waterton is remarkable; the latter dwells upon the song and the beauty of the feathered race of Guiana, the cassique and the campanero, while the former expatiates on the vast herds of game, the grin lions, and the fierce rhinoceroses of the African forests. They, each of them, tell a good snake story; but of that, “ more anon, Horatio.”

THE RISE AND DECLINE.

BY HARRY HIEOVER.

Not of the holy Roman empire. No, friend Gibbon; though not blessed with a superabundance of sense, I have just enough to prevent my usurping the privilege of men of your ilk and standing, or to treat on subjects so far beyond the calibre of my mind. I choose a minor theme, and yet one on which I by no means enter in the full conviction of being adequate to grapple with its importance ; for important it is, ay, more important to us every-day folks of 1851 than is what was done ages past ; for though the decline of a vast empire, and the causes of such decline, may be, and doubtless are, important, as beacons to warn other generations of probable results, yet tempora mutantur and men mutantur ; 60 the same causes might not now produce the same effects.

Those versed in or seeking ancient lore may hold the doings, or even sayings, of the great of former ages in high veneration : far be it from me to undervalue the utility of such deep research, but taking perhaps a narrow view of such mattors, I cannot but conceive that, as regards the present day, what was done by Belisarius, or even his master Justinian, is of less import to many than what is now done by a Log, or Newmarket tout.

Belisarius compared with a Newmarket tout ! exclaims somo one, the attributes and pursuits of whom are far superior to mine. Ay, good sir, even 80 ; and if through the rascality of a leg, or the information of a tout, you had been ruined, or something like it, you would agree with me in saying he is a more important personage on the present world's wide stage than was Belisarius, Justinian, or Tiberius, and his companions, whose conversation the old general smiled at-which, by the bye, had it been on the merits of horses instead of men, might have been, as the old man said, more“ natural to their age." .

This same tout and leg ought to be, both as individuals, beneath the consideration of mankind. This we will allow; but ought and are differ widely as to effects ; and though we know well enough what they ought to be, and verily where they ought to be, while they are here they are very important personages, and quite worthy consideration. We know, in one sense of the word, that the consideration should be a neat piece of twisted hemp of the very best quality ; but there is another consideration, which is the best, quickest, and most promising means of getting the vegetable applied to its proper purpose. This once found out, a fig for free trade ; for, so far as this article goes, if we did not grow it here we would not grumble at any price for its importation for so laudable a purpose.

Whatever people may assert to the contrary, there is an inherent pride in us all that will ever cause self-congratulation on finding ourselves borne out by the corroboration of others as regards any opinions or ideas we may have promulgated. As this feeling actuates the wisest and best informed, it is quite certain its influence will be quite as strong with those not having like pretensions.

It is some years since I ventured an opinion, quite contrary to the then almost universal one, as regards race-horses being public property, or what is tantamount to their being so, namely, that the disposal of them, and what they are to do, should be in accordance with the expectations the public may be pleased to form. I am, and ever have been, surprised so preposterous an idea should ever have been entertained by as sensible persons as has been the case. I ventured, but (figuratively speaking) with fear and trembling, to differ entirely from the general opinion ; but now I have great right to feel my confidence strong and vigorous; for when such authority as Captain Rous throws a new light on the subject, I may well be proud on finding my ideas justified by one whose opinion is not to be disputed in such masters.

It must be well known to all the readers of that great organ of all sporting matters, Bell's Life in London (and such readers comprise, I should say, every man who is, or has been, connected with British sports, and indeed most of those who ever took the slightest interest in them), that the sporting editor of that journal has ever been the warm advocate of the boxing ring, upon the principle that it encouraged and kept alive a manly bearing, a fearless habit, and a sense and appreciation of fair encounter purely British ; and, in fact, in spite of all the ultra-saintly sentiments now become a kind of fashion, plain truth and experience convince us it did so. We now find the same journal, which would ever have continued the best patron of the ring, turns disgusted from it--not from any change of opinion as to its salutary effects on the minds and habits of Englishmen, but from a proper and well-founded disgust at the purposes to which it has been turned. Why has it been thus metamorphosed ? Because those who used influence in its proceedings totally threw aside its legitimate purposes and intents, and converted it into a mere source or means of corruption and roguery, and to carry out their projects would stop at nothing ; no, not at murder if it could be perpetrated with impunity. It requires no second sight to forebode that, under such a system, no man of influence or respectability will, in a very short time, be found to even allow his name to be mentioned as a patron of the ring. It was not so when Gulley, Peirce, Belcher, Greyson, and Crib contended, and Jackson taught ; then the names, and indeed presence, of the highest of our aristocracy supported such men and the ring, and such would have supported it till now if the ring would have gone on so as to support itself ; but when, after a man had been afforded every liberal means during his training, been guaranteed a liberal sum if he only did his duty by his patrons, it was found that a set of miscreants stepped in, undermined his principles, and bribed him to their own purposes, the warmest patrons of a sport truly characteristic of their country turned loathing away from that by which they were only made the means of filling the pockets of the refuse of society -a sad but warning lesson this for the turf.

The rise of the turf, like that of most things that hold out any promise of being permanent, was slow and gradual, from the time when racing formed one of the sports in Smithfield, where Thomas Williams, for a trifle, rode his bay horse a match against William Thomas's chesnut, a given space--we will not call it, in more racing terms, length; for probably its length, like the respective weights of the riders, was only guess-work. “To yonder tree !” yonder barn or hedge, most likely decided the distance ; and we inust not be surprised should we be told that a drink of water to refresh the steeds, prior to their exertion, was administered ; nor need such procedure, if it did take place, more astonish our modern trainer than would the fact that I have seen foreign post-horses taken to the water-trough before starting on their stage, surprise one of our (late) Hounslow post-boys.

How racing matters progressed till we find horses running at Nowmarket, we need not state here ; but that there was an end and aim in its progression contemplated, we may infer to have been certain. That amusement, and a laudable rivalry as to the merits of the horses of those engaging in such sport, was its primum mobile, I should consider most likely to have been the case ; after that, in a national point of view, it's tending to an improvement and care in the breed of horses probably first gave rise to the royal gift of kings' plates. Thus far, all went well : a hundred paid expenses, and the pride of owning the winner of a royal plate satisfied such men as usually in those days were the owners of race-horses. Certain advantages no doubt the initiated held and used against those knowing less of such matters ; but they were fair advantages, such as, their horses being more judiciously bred, got into better form in point of training; and as matches were much more in vogue then than now, the best judge of the relative qualifications of horses made his match with high odds in his favour. This was all fair and gentlemanly : as one man selecting better sort of horses as his hunters, and having them in better condition than another, is better, and deserves to be the best carried. We unquestionably heard, eren in the earlier days of racing, occasionally of jockeys (as it was then terned) “ riding booty.” Such jockey was then probably the only person employed in the transaction ; but the systematic plan of rendering horses unable to win was scarcely ever heard of. If in those days any nefarious trick was played, it was by those absolutely concerned in the horse ; but latterly, the rascality is set on foot by parties who most probably never saw the horse in his stable.

Where first arose this change in the projectors and perpetrators of such arts? I should say its first origin was making racing a money speculation, instead of the pursuit and amusement of a gentleman,

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