muca, indeed, was this the case, that I have been informed, that in some old indentures between master and servant, it was a common stipulation on the part of the latter, that he should not be obliged to eat salmon more than four times in the week!"

The more remarkable fact, too, is, that this mismanagement and consequent decrease has occurred in proportion as larger capital has been embarked in the trade, and greater public and private interests become involved in its success; together with bounties from the legislature for its support, and a variety of other shifts (for they deserve no other name) held out by the government, which have all proved misplaced and abortive. There is a fatality about these fisheries which must puzzle political economists-they have had a free trade and a monopoly,

and been equally ruined in both. The stake-nets, seem, in many places, to have been a free (or rather a freebooting) trade, as lawless and destructive as that of the seals and grampuses, and yet to have turned to little or no account; and the monopolies are equally declared to have declined in the hands of the corporations. We are now a fish-importing people, while a century has hardly elapsed since Spain, France, and Holland, severally paid very large sums annually for permission to fish on the coasts of this kingdom. Such is the historical fact, contrasted with the present condition of the British fisheries-a trade which has, in its course, within the last twenty-five years, been an exception to every other in which the United Kingdom has been concerned.

North Pole Expedition. The expedition, it will be recollected, sailed in May, 1824, and very soon encountered the mortifying obstacle of being embayed within mountains of ice crossing Baffin's-bay: they were eighty days encircled with in this icy barrier, and the occurrence took place during our summer months of June, July, and August. They were only twelve days extricated from this position, when the state of the weather, and frozen obstruction of every object around them, rendered it absolutely necessary they should seek winter-quarters, which they did in a small inlet called Port Bowen, on the 1st of September, 1824.

In this situation, the crews of the Hecla and Fury remained nearly ten months, during which time they were left entirely upon their own resources, for not a single native visited them in their winter-quarters, nor was the shore which they occupied stocked with the same quantity of game, or indeed animals of any description in the same numbers as in that where the former expedition had wintered. The specimens brought home by the sailors are merely of the common sea-fowl-they had only two of the arctic foxes; they saw none of the native dogs; the white bears, however, abounded, and afforded occasional sport on the ice. It was quite impossible

to penetrate the shore any distance inland, the surface being entirely composed of conical heaps of ice, with deep ravines intervening; and the short expeditions which were made by captain Hoppner and lieutenant Sherer, were made by coasting on the ice, and skirting the land to the southward and northward.

With the exception of these little excursions, in which the ship's crews were indulged as far as was consistent with their safety, the time was spent in gymnastic exercises, in dramatic representations, and in masquerades in each ship on alternate fortnights, into which it would seem a good deal of spirit and character was infused., The ordinary dress of the seamen, wrapped up as they were during the winter in their fleecy clothing, as a protection from the nipping severity of the weather, was in itself sufficiently grotesque; but when to this was superadded the more fantastic and gayer variations of costume of the officers, a very decent set of masks appears to have been got up. The business, however, at length got monotonous and tiresome, notwithstanding the praiseworthy and considerate attention of the officers, and the constant supply of every thing which could administer to the health and comfort of their crews; and the return of summer in the present year, which detached the blockading masses of ice, was hailed with the most lively satisfaction by all hands. The ships got under weigh on the morning of the 20th of last July; but two days after, were driven back to Lancaster Sound by adverse weather, which drifted immense icebergs against their track. At this time it blew very fresh, but on the 24th they

succeeded in working down the western shore, which they were exploring, when they again encountered heavy floating masses of ice, and the Hecla was thrown very nearly on her beam-ends. These impediments continued with more or less danger until the 1st of August, when the Fury was driven on shore with great force by the impulse of the ice, and in such a situation that a bold perpendicular craggy cliff out-topped her mast-head more than 500 or 600 feet. She was, however, with great difficulty, by the united exertions of both crews, removed a little from her situation of imminent peril, and hove down for repair in a more convenient spot; but on the 19th of August the situation of the Hecla herself became so critical, that it was absolutely necessary to change her position; or else she must have likewise drifted ashore; and the only alternative was, to abandon the Fury to her fate, after removing her crew, stores, &c.

At this time, the sea was getting tolerably clear; but captain Parry, under the circumstances of the shipwreck of the Fury, and the consequent alteration in the condition of the means of prosecuting his original object, determined upon returning to England without further delay. On the 1st of September, the homeward voyage began, and the necessity of this was the more regretted, because, for a day or two before, the ice was getting more detached, and there was in the distance, and between icebergs, a very clear prospect of comparatively safe sea-room, with (as the sailors say) a perceptible current setting in, which in their judgment denoted the proximity of an open ocean. The distant view in this

direction was studded with small islands, the position and shape of which exactly resembled that given by captain Franklin of the sea view he obtained, in the extreme point of his severe land-journey from Hudson's Bay.

Though there were no natives seen by our seamen during this expedition, there were abundant tracks to show that the inlet at Port Bowen was occasionally the resort of human beings, for the remains of artificial caverns were found in the snow, and fragments of culinary vessels of rude construction. Places were also explored, which, judging from their shape, and the decayed bones that were thinly scattered on the spot, appeared to be cemeteries.

Islands Discovered.-Extract from the agent to Lloyd's at Singapore, dated the 7th of September, 1824: "The Francis and Charlotte, arrived from the north-west coast of America, discovered three islands on her passage. The following is an extract from the master's log:- At daylight on the 26th of May, saw three islands, bearing due north by compass, distant 8 or 9 leagues. They are not laid down in any of the latest charts, nor mentioned in any modern work. Their size appeared small and their height moderate the one most western appeared in the horizon like a small hillock; the others, undulating and lower. The most eastern was the largest: the distance between them, 2 or 3 miles in an east north-east and west south-west direction. We had a good sight for the chronometer at 7 a. m., which places the islands in long. 114. 48. m., and the latitude (of this we cannot be equally certain) above 16. 11 north.' Pro

bably the latitude is nearly correct, as they had an observation at noon, and the ship had been running due west. There can be no doubt of the longitude, as captain Johnson's chronometers are so good, that after being five months without an opportunity of ascertaining their rate, he made Pedro Branca to a mile. His lunars, also, were never ten miles different from the chronometers."

French Guyana. - A commission, nominated by baron Milius, governor of French Guyana, set out some time since to explore the sources of the Oyapock and the Maroni. This commission returned on the 24th of January last; and though a variety of circumstances prevented the completion of its object, yet it proceeded a considerable distance from the mouth of the river Oyapock, and entered into an alliance with the tribe of the Oyampis. Ounanica, the chief of this tribe, took an oath of fidelity to the king of France. M. Bodin, commander of the French expedition, invested him with the uniform and insignia of captain, and during this ceremony, the French flag was hoisted by Ounanica, who gave a fête upon the occasion, enlivened by dancing. The tribe of Oyampis is composed of about 6,000 individuals, and is not far from that of the Emerillons, which is also very numerous. Among the useful things which were brought by baron Milius, is some cotton, cultivated by the Oyampis, which is extremely beautiful, and is said to be much superior to that of Cayenne and even of Pernambuco. In a great part of its course, the Oyapock is barred by cataracts and waterfalls, which in some places are at an immense elevation; one of these cataracts is

or

shoal, and bears, from the windmill to the southward of Point Lefchimo, N. by W. W.; from the S. E. extremity of the island of Corfu, N. N. W. W.; from Black Island, N. 62 deg. W., N. W. by W. W., distance eight miles; and from Corfu lighthouse, S. 35 deg. 30 min., E. or S. E. S. nearly, distance 10 miles. "The third is also a single light at the east side of the island of Payo, upon a small island at the entrance of Port Gayo. The light is upon a tower, which bears from the south end of Payo shoal W. 5 deg. S. or W. S. nearly; from the north end of ditto, W. 11 deg. S. or W. by S. nearly. The centre of the shoal is 1 miles distant from the light, and the S. E. point of Corfu bears from it N. by W. W.; S. E. extremity of Anti Payo, S. E. E.; Black Island, N. a little easterly; N. E. end of Payo, N. W. a little westerly. This light is particularly useful to the small coasting vessels running for Port Gayo (or what is more commonly called Payo harbour) in bad weather, as also to all vessels passing through the south channel.

"The fourth is a single light on the rock Tignoso, in the entrance of the north channel. It is a most valuable light to vessels passing through this channel to guide them clear of the Boat and Sarpe rocks. The N. E. point of Corfu Island bears from it S. W. nearly; Corfu light shut in behind this point; the Sarpe rock bears from it S.; S. W. point of Albanian coast, S. by E.; Boat rock, E. nearly half a mile distant, with 16 and 20 fathoms water between them. S. W. extremity of the land about cape Linguetta N. W. N.; and the north point of the island Melue, W. by N. N. Just

open to the northward of the north point of Corfu."

Directions for the North Channel by night." In coming for this channel, when you make out the light, steer straight for it; and I would recommend all ships with a leading wind, to pass between the light and island of Corfu, to avoid the Boat rock, which is not larger (above water) than a small boat, bottom up, and has a shelving reef stretching off from it, N. W. N., about 120 fathoms, with from two to seven fathoms water upon it. This channel, between the light and Corfu, is six-tenths of a mile broad, with 30 fathoms water in the middle, and steep-to on both sides. After passing the light, steer S. E. by E., or E. S. E., bring the light to bear N. W. N., and keeping it on that bearing, will lead you clear of the Sarpe rock, which lies just to the southward of the N. E. point of Corfu. This is a very dangerous shoal by night, it being nearly level with the water, and so steep-to, that the lead is of no use. When you get sight of Corfu light, bring it to bear S. by W., and by keeping it so, it will lead you clear of all danger, and right up to the east end of the island of Vido, pass mile to the eastward of that island, then steer in, and anchor any where between the island and town of Corfu.

"Ships passing through the north channel with variable or a beating wind, will find it better to pass to the northward of the light, and then it must not be brought to the westward of S. W. by W. W. until you are a good mile to the eastward of it (to avoid the Boat rock), or until Corfu light beans S. by W.: when the north channel light bears W. a little southerly, it is on with the Boat