highest polish; and, when polished, reflecting the light in the most varied manner, like the surface of a crystal; and, from the wavy form of the fibres, offering a different figure in whatever direction it was viewed. A new species of mahogany has been lately introduced in cabinet-work, which is commonly called Gambia. As its name imports, it comes from Africa. It is of a beautiful colour, but does not retain it so long as the Spanish and Honduras woods.

The publication of his Sylva, by Evelyn,⁵ gave a considerable impulse to planting in the time of Charles II.; but in the next century that duty was much neglected by the landed proprietors of this country. There is a selfish feeling, that the planter of an elm or an oak does not reap such an immediate profit from it himself, as will compensate for the expense and trouble of raising it. This is an extremely narrow principle, which, fortunately, the rich are beginning to be ashamed of. It is a positive duty of a landed proprietor who cuts down a tree which his grandfather planted, to put a young one into the ground, as a legacy to his own grand-children: he will otherwise leave the world worse than he found it. Sir Walter Scott, who is himself a considerable planter, has eloquently denounced that contracted feeling which prevents proprietors thus improving their estates, because the profits of plantations make a tardy and distant return; and we cannot better conclude than with a short passage from the essay in which he enforces the duty of planting waste lands:—

"The indifference to this great rural improvement arises, we have reason to believe, not so much out of the actual lucre of gain as the fatal vis inertiae—that indolence which induces the lords of the soil to be satisfied with what they can obtain from it by immediate rent, rather than encounter the expense and trouble of attempting the modes of amelioration which require immediate expense—and, what is, perhaps, more grudged by the first-born of Egypt—a little future attention. To such we can only say that the improvement by plantation is at once the easiest, the cheapest, and the least precarious mode of increasing the immediate value, as well as the future income, of their estates; and that therefore it is we exhort them to take to heart the exhortation of the dying Scotch laird to his son: 'Be aye sticking in a tree Jock—it will be growing whilst you are sleeping.'"

KITCHINERIANA.

(From the Housekeeper's Oracle, by the late Dr. Kitchiner.)

The Greek commanders at the siege of Troy, and who were likewise all royal sovereigns, never presumed to set before their guests any food but that cooked by their own hands. Achilles was famous for—broiling beefsteaks.

Instead of "Do let me send you some more of this mock turtle"—"Another patty"—"Sir, some of this trifle," "I must insist upon your trying this nice melon;"

The language of hospitality should rather run thus:—"Shall I send you a fit of the cholic, Sir?"

"Pray let me have the pleasure of giving you a pain in your stomach."

"Sir, let me help you to a little gentle bilious head-ache."

"Ma'am, you surely cannot refuse a touch of inflammation in the bowels."

The man who makes an appointment with his stomach and does not keep it disappoints his best friend.

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

EMIGRATION.

(Concluded from page 300.)

[We resume the description of the Swan River Settlement, which will be further illustrated by the annexed outline.]

The animal productions, we may take for granted, are generally the same as those of New South Wales. The human species, in their physical qualities and endowments are the same. Most of them wore kangaroo cloaks, which were their only clothing. They carry the same kind of spears, and the womera, or throwing stick, as are used by those in New South Wales. In the summer months they frequent the sea-coast, where their skill in spearing fish is described as quite wonderful. In winter they mostly adhere to the woods on the higher grounds, where the kangaroos, the opossum tribe, and the land tortoises are plentiful. These, with birds and roots, constitute their sustenance. They have neither boat nor raft, nor did the party fall in with any thing resembling a hut. They made use of the word "kangaroo" and other terms in use at Port Jackson. The party saw only the three kinds of animals above-mentioned, and heard the barking of the native dog; no other reptiles but iguanas and lizards and a single snake presented themselves.

Of birds, the list is somewhat more extensive. The emu is frequent on the plains, and that once supposed "rara avis," the elegant black swan, was seen in the greatest abundance on the river to which it has lent its name, and particularly on Melville lake. Equally abundant were numerous species of the goose and duck family. White and black cockatoos, parrots and parroquets, were every where found. Pigeons and quails were seen in great quantities, and many melodious birds were heard in the woods.

Seals were plentiful on all the islands. Captain Stirling says that it was not the season for whales, but their debris strewed the shore of Geographer's Bay. The French, in May and June, met with a prodigious number of whales along this part of the coast, and sharks equally numerous and of an enormous size, some of them stated to be upwards of two thousand pounds in weight. Vlaming mentions the vast numbers of large sharks on this part of the coast, and he, as well as the French, found the sea near the shore swarming with sea-snakes, the largest about nine or ten feet long. Captain Stirling's party procured three or four different kinds of good esculent fish; one in particular, a species of rock-cod, is described as excellent.

"The bottom of the sea," says Captain Stirling, "is composed of calcareous sand, sometimes passing into marl or clay. On this may be seen growing an endless variety of marine plants, which appear to form the haunts and perhaps the sustenance of quantities of small fish. When it is considered that the bank extends a hundred miles from the shore, and that wherever the bottom is seen, it presents a moving picture of various animals gliding over the green surface of the vegetation, it is not too much to look forward to the time when a valuable fishery may be established on these shores. Even now, a boat with one or two men might be filled in a few hours."

The island of Buache is admirably adapted for a fishing town. The anchorage close to its eastern shore in Cockburn Island is protected against all winds; and the island itself, of six or seven thousand acres, of a light sort of sand and loam, is well suited, as Mr. Fraser thinks, for any description of light garden crops. The side next the sea is fenced by a natural dyke of limestone, coveted with cypress, and in many