immediately look to your gun to ascertain whether the barrel is not choked up with snow ; for if such should be the case, and you have occasion to fire, you may find the charge escaping at more places than one: a serious consideration-especially if you have a wife and family looking to you for support.

9. Take care you do not shoot your neighbour's ducks, mistaking them for wild ones, otherwise you may find yourself before his worship ; a pretty finale to a morning's diversion.

10. Do not sit with wet feet; and if you have occasion to put on water-boots, always wear thick woollen stockings beneath them. Boots must never be allowed to become hard ; and the best dressing you can put upon them is common grease ; which, however, must not be melted in, otherwise you will find the wet enter. The great secret to make boots waterproof is to have them well seasoned; and for this reason they should be made some time before required. Hang them up in a room not too warm, and the first time you wear them give them a good wetting ; this will cause the pores of the leather to swell and fill up, and so the moisture will be repelled. As the boots are worn, and repeatedly dressed with grease, they will become what we wish them to be, namely, waterproof; but without proper seasoning, no composition will make them so. I will here mention that should you have occasion to dress any garment or boots with boiled oil for the purpose of waterproofing such things*, it is of importance that the oil is well boiled, or what the professionals call killed, which will not be till it burns a feather: any thing having oil applied to it will never dry if the oil is not sufficiently boiled.

11. If you wound a duck, and you are unable to find it, on no account allow your dog to go hunting about and making a mud in the water ; but go quietly and cautiously to work, looking under the different stubs and hollows of the bank, and ten to one but you will see it, after a little time, pop its head up to gain fresh air. If your dog goes jumping about, and knocking the carth and sticks into the water, every particle of scent will be destroyed; and when the water is discoloured, your eyes will be of no assistance to you. Should you fail to discover the bird, leave the place, and return in an hour or two; and very likely you will then be successful. I have frequently recovered a duck some days after I had shot it, and which I have invariably found below where it fell. True it is they occasionally make make up the stream; therefore each way should be tried before the search is abandoned.

12. A retriever at this work is indispensable, but it must be a well-trained one: it is better to be without a dog than to have one which spoils your sport. It is difficult to obtain a good retriever, and one perfectly broke will always fetch a good price ; therefore I would advise the sportsman, if he can procure a puppy of a good breed, to break it himself. This will be attended with little diffi

cully if there is a will ; and the sportsman, if he is a thorough one, will take pleasure in teaching the young idea. In my opinion, seeing the dog's work, which you have yourself broken, constitutes more than half the pleasure of shooting.

13th, and last rule. Be careful on frosty mornings that your thumb does not slip off the cock of the gun before the sear has caught the tumblere; otherwise you may stand a chance of bagging your friends, or, to say the least of it, your favourite dog. I have seen many an accident nearly occur from this happening; but the best plan to prevent it or any other casualty, is to adhere to this determination: Never allow your gun to be pointed even for a moment towards any person.

I have now said my say. Dear reader, before I address you again the present year will have rolled out its length; leaving only for us the recollection of its pains and pleasures : that you may have found the catalogue of the latter to outnumber the former, I sincerely trust; and that such may be the case through the coming year.

In offering this article, the last for one thousand eight hundred and fifty, I feel I cannot do so without an endeavour (faintly though it be) to return thanks to the readers of this magazine for the kind reception they have given to my papers. I thank them heartily; and if I have afforded them one half-hour's amusement, or have imparted any information that may have been considered useful, I am amply rewarded. Christmas, jolly holly Christmas with its pretty red berries, its yule log, and its wassail-bowl-will ere long be here; then let all who have the means keep up the old customs. Let the plump turkey, the monster pudding, and the mince pic grace the board ; and leave not out the wassail-bowl, nor the snapdragon, which causes many an innocent laugh. But whilst we thus enjoy ourselves, let us not forget how many there be who have not the means of thus marking the festive season : of those let us make glad such as we can, and pity those we cannot assist. Let us do this, and the good things set before us will taste all the better (for a good action gives a wonderful relish to a feast); the Christmas ale will go down with a greater relish ; and the bee's-wing port, or the bumper of Burgundy, will brighten the ideas and open the heart to still further acts of kindness. As I shall not have an opportunity to address the reader till after the season I have been alluding to has passed away, I will now offer you my best wishes. May you have a merry Christmas--yes, many of them ; may you have, as the old saying has it,

“ A pocket full of money, and a cellar full of beer;" and what is niore-health, strength, and a disposition to enjoy them : and so hoping, I beg to be allowed on the 25th of December to drink your very good health, and the health of every true sportsman

" For he's a jolly good fellow,

And so say all of us."

THE DONCASTER CUP RACE, 1850.

LORD ZETLAND'S VOLTIGEUR BEATING LORD EGLINTON'S

FLYING DUTCHMAN,

BNGRAVED BY E, HACKER, PROM A PAINTING BY MR. H. NISBETT,

“ Here Euclid and the royal Charles

Contended head to head;
Here Voltigeur and Russborough

Ran in the struggle dead;'
And the bright fame The Dutchman bore
Was dimmed, eclipsed, and fled."

-MARTINGALE.

We have much pleasure in presenting our readers-on this, the "opening day' of the second half of the nineteenth century-with an engraving of perhaps the most exciting race which occurred during the first. The painting from which it was taken is from the easel of Mr. H. Nisbett.

Our readers are of course aware that articles have been entered into to run The Flying Dutchman, 8st. 83lbs., against Voltigeur, 8st. for £1,000, h. ft., over Knavesmire, on Tuesday, May 13th. It is hoped by the racing sons of Old Ebor that the two days' races, to the first of which this great event will lend such eclat, will be the means of re-establishing the Spring Meeting, which has been discontinued ever since 1843. Most heartily do we wish them good luck, as they have come out like trumps with £500 of added money: The racing interests of the Doncastrians in the matter were well looked to by their “ wide awake” Clerk of the Course and Race Secretary, who, finding that their Spring Meeting would be too early, offered to guarantee £200 added money, for one day's sport, if the match came off there. In spite of Lord Eglinton's well known predilection for Doncaster, he left, we believe, the choice between it, York, Ascot, and Newmarket, to Lord Zetland, who very naturally decided in favour of the second-named. We are very glad that neither of the southern trysting places were fixed upon, as it would have been a great pity for two Yorkshire bred and trained horses to wander right away into Suffolk to have a trial, right out of the ken of the great majority of the sporting “ tykes”

“ Some of 'un foaled

On Sir Tatton's own wold," who will infallibly talk about nothing else for the next 133 days, and sport “ crouns" and “pots” on it without ceasing. We should conclude that Nat or Marlow and Marson will be “up,” as the Voltigeur hamper, though somewhat low, is quite within Job's reach. In fact, in July, 1849, he rode thrice and won twice for Lord Strathmore, at Goodwood, at 5lbs. less. Although the Doncaster race undeniably proved Voltigeur to be an animal who could both race and stay, it was far from