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justify this unprecedented zeal-this propaganda in favour of the scheme, this extortion of an annual contribution of £360,000 from a helpless and embarrassed ally?

We should be sorry if these remarks were construed as implying anything like a feeling of hostility to the scheme of the Euphrates Valley Railway. We do not believe that, with a charge of from £4 to £5 per ton for the land transport of goods from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, this railway will lower the freights and add to the commerce between England and the Far East. We do not

believe that it will do away with the necessity of the passage round the Cape; but we can understand that the railway, carried through the heart of Asiatic Turkey, and touching close upon the confines of Persia, may at some future period exert a vast influence on the civilization of the Near East, and that it will re-create and become the channel of a commerce renowned in antiquity, but of which at this day faint traces only remain. But in our comparison of the two schemes proposed for the purpose, not only of shortening, but of generalizing our communications and trade with the East, we have wished to make it clearly understood that the scheme supported by Government, whatever its other advantages may be, falls short of those of a direct ship communication with the East held out by the promoters of the Isthmus of Suez Canal. And we cannot repress our astonishment at the fact, that while the most onerous, but no doubt necessary, concessions on behalf of the Euphrates Valley Railway were extorted by direct diplomatic action from the Sultan's Government, the promoters of the Suez Canal have in England had to encounter the contemptuous silence and the sneering incredulity of the Government, while at Constantinople they were met by the formidable antagonism

of Lord de Redcliffe.

This is the more extraordinary and inexplicable, as M. de Lesseps does not, it appears, ask for any undue amount of protection, nor solicit extraordinary favours. He makes no demand for the extortion

of a guarantee from the Turkish Government. All he asks is the suspension of Lord de Redcliffe's hostility to a scheme in favour of which the Sultan's sympathies are strongly enlisted. Since it is desirable that the Sultan, as Suzerain of Egypt, should ratify the charter granted to the Suez Canal Company by the Viceroy, all that M. de Lesseps asks is, that the influence of this country should not be exerted against our own interests, and against the interests of Turkey and of Egypt. Again, for the protection of the Company and the success of the undertaking, it is necessary that the canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea should be guaranteed as a neutral passage' by a declaration to that effect from the great naval powers. At the late Conferences in Paris, the subject of this declaration was mentioned by M. de Morny, but it was dropped out of deference to Lord Clarendon, who declined discussing the point. In fine, in this important question of a short ship route to the East, England stops the way. The undertaking, which is neither more nor less than the completion of Lieutenant Waghorn's plan, has the goodwill of France, the support of Austria, Sardinia, and Holland. It requires no guarantees, and it makes no demands for the pecuniary support of this country. But its execution has hitherto been delayed by the hostility of Lord de Redcliffe, and the refusal of Lord Clarendon to be a party to those international arrangements which are indispensable to its safety and success. This hostility is the more formidable from its being most guarded in its manifestations. It disclaims all political motives, and confines itself to expressing doubts of the possibility of a scheme which has for its supporters the ablest engineers of Europe; and of the commercial success of a speculation whose soundness has been declared by the active co-operation of the great capitalists and the commercial corporations of all countries of Europe. Doubts, founded upon a passage in St. Jerome, have been expressed of the possibility of navigation in the Red Sea, which, according to the

1856.]
unanimous testimony of all naval
men who surveyed it, is less dan-
gerous and more practicable, less
visited with violent gales, and better
provided with natural harbours of
refuge, than the British Channel.
It has been said that a quick com-
munication being established by
means of the overland mail for ad-
vices and samples, the delay of
vessels proceeding round the Cape
is good for commerce and agreeable
to merchants. In short, so many
untenable and ridiculous arguments
have been scraped out of holes and
corners, and arrayed against this
scheme by the few who have dared
to enter into open opposition to
it, that it is not unreasonable to
suspect the existence of stronger
motives for hostility, even less pro-
ducible than the flimsy arguments
we have quoted.

British Trade and the Mediterranean Ports.

It has been said-not indeed by the organs and partisans of the Government, but by well-meaning persons in a private station, with easy access to the writings of obsolete political economists,-that the execution of the Suez canal would be a means of destroying the commercial preponderance of this country; that Venice and Genoa long flourished as the road to the East lay across Egypt; that the discovery of the sea route to India ruined the naval states of the Mediterranean, while it laid the foundation of British greatness; and more to the same effect. We need not enter into an historical discussion on this point, nor weary our readers with an essay on the rise and fall of the naval states of the Mediterranean. enough for our purpose to look at results. Portugal and Spain, the first discoverers and navigators on the route round the Cape, are far ahead of us on that route, and yet their share in the Eastern trade is merely nominal. If the return of commerce into its old route to the East were disadvantageous to this country, and to the advantage of the towns in the Mediterranean, then our commerce ought to have suffered by the opening of the overland route, and our loss would have been

It is

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No

the gain of Marseilles and Genoa,
Trieste and Venice. Nothing of
the kind has taken place. Such
fears do not disturb the equanimity
of the Dutch, who are much in
the same position with ourselves
with respect to the Mediterranean
towns and the proposed canal; and
yet, if the Dutch have any fault as
a commercial nation, it is an excess
of caution. Such fears, at all events,
cannot be the motive of the hostility
shown by the Government to the
scheme of the Suez Canal,-because
the Euphrates Valley Railway, with
its Mediterranean port of Seleucis,
falls fully as much within the
scope of this apprehension as the
Suez Canal, with its Mediterranean
port of Pelusium or Tineh.
doubt, in common with Holland and
the German ports in the Baltic and
North Sea, the towns in the Medi-
terranean and Adriatic expect to
profit from the opening of a short
ship route to the East. But even
the most sanguine do not for one
moment indulge in any delusions as
to the portion of the Eastern trade
which must fall to the share of this
country, whose Eastern possessions
-whose factories and stations
throughout those waters-assure it
the lion's share in whatever exten-
sion increased facilities for traffic
may give to trade with the East.
And, if we seem to forget it, it is
remembered on the Continent that
a canal through the Isthmus of Suez
must always be under the control of
the power which commands its inlet
and outlet by means of Malta and
Aden. For that very reason the
consent of England to the canalisa-
tion of the Isthmus of Suez is abso-
lutely necessary; and not less neces-
sary is it for this country to come to
a clear understanding of the com-
mercial and political questions in-
volved in the undertaking. The
junction of the two seas has been
proposed, and one-half the news-
papers of the kingdom have pub-
lished the banns. If any one knows
of any just cause or impediment why
these two should not be joined, let
him speak now or be silent ever
after.'

SKETCHES ON THE NORTH COAST.

BY A NATURALIST.

No. V. THE LAND'S END.

THE migratory birds which breed

in this country gather together, previous to their departure, during the month of September. At that time large flocks of the lapwingwhose pensive complaint is then silenced congregate upon the sands, and the assembled swallows dash buoyantly through the air, or cluster about the willows that dip their slender branches in the stream. These have hardly quitted our shores before the first woodcocks arrive. It is difficult to fix the precise time of their coming; but for some years I have seen the first cock of the season upon the first or second day of the October full moon. I have not the least doubt that they select the moonlight (and not close, foggy weather, as Mr. Selby asserts) for their southern voyage, which, from the very small numbers ever observed at sea, is probably accomplished during the course of a single night. I often find them among the rocks on the shore the morning after their arrival, so exhausted that it is difficult to flush them. They commonly, however, alight among the turnip-fields, which supply a sort of shelter, where they remain until they are sufficiently recruited to make for the inland covers. If the winter is to prove severe, the woodcock is speedily followed by the snow-bunting, or 'snaw-fleck,' as it is picturesquely known in Scotland. Previous to the severe storms of 1854-5, large flocks had appeared by the beginning of November; during the mild season of 1850. I did not notice a single bird until after Christmas. These, with the fieldfare, the snipe, and the golden plover, are the most characteristic of our migratory land-birds; but nearly all the rarer sea-birds belong to this class.

The barnacle goose may be seen flying over the bay in the latter days of September, or feeding cautiously among the stubble-fields near the shore. Then, towards the close of October, flocks of the northern

reld arrive, along with the red

throated diver. For several years I have observed a pair of gooseanders in the bay at this time; after a few days' sojourn they leave for the South, and do not return until the spring migration. During November the greater number of the sea-ducks make their appearancethe pochard, the wigeon, the eider, the pintail, the golden eye. Great northern divers have been shot by the end of October (one was killed last year on the 26th); but these are always young birds, and a fullgrown specimen in perfect plumage can rarely be obtained until after Christmas. In fact, during very mild winters, the old birds sometimes do not come so far south, being better fitted than their offspring to stand the severities of a northern winter.

A rocky headland or ness about a mile seaward-the peak of the crescent which protects the bay from the south-is a favourite station for sea-fowl shooting during the autumn and spring migrations. The hard granite is worn and bleached by the incessant turmoil of four thousand years eaten away by the bitter tears of the storm. It is a solitary and a desolate place; and a sense of loneliness gathers upon the sportsman (for it is visited by no one besides), as, surrounded on all sides by the sea, he watches the great waves toiling along, like the immortal German ohne Hast, ohne Rast. Half a mile to windward, he can discern the swift heave of a billow, that, with the screaming and clamorous sea-birds, has been driven from some northland shore with swift but silent footfall the bright tumult approaches; for one moment, its flashing mane, like a war-charger's, streams in the gale; and then, pouring out the wrath and bitterness of its stormy career in one desperate onset, it dies vainly upon the land! Like the spectacle in a theatre, or a picture by Stanfield, one obtains in this way the entire splendour and sublimity of a storm at sea without risk or damage,

1856.]

A Morning among the Sea-Fowl.

or the terror which sickens the heart as the crazy timber creaks, and strains, and labours in the seatrough. For a couple of hours at high water the communication is cut off with the mainland, and the fowler must wait for the ebb before he can return. So, setting to work, he selects a deep ravine, and builds up around him a sort of temporary shelter, in which, with lighted pipe, he makes himself snug for the day. The morning is dark and misty; the wind blows strongly from the north-east, driving the passing birds in upon the land; and thick clouds of sleet pass at intervals across the sea, and

Lash with storm the streaming pane.

The sportsman selects a morning of this kind, because in such weather the sea-fowl are less wary and observant, and are, moreover, forced to approach closer to the shore, as they follow the outline of the coast to the south. Flocks of the purple sandpiper are flitting uneasily among the rocks, and the oyster-catcher, in its battered finery, appropriates the stormiest pinnacle. Then a mottled crew of black-headed gulls and snowy terns wear up patiently round the point. The wings with which he is provided are put in requisition, and no sooner do the birds perceive them flapping along the rock than, with feminine curiosity, they hover over them, and noisily communicate their impressions to each other. But these are not the birds for whom he waits, so he forbears to fire. In a few minutes afterwards a flock of harelds beat swiftly by, keeping cautiously off the land. One, however, has lingered behind, and for the advantage of a short cut (short cuts are proverbially the longest), it passes right over the point, and brings itself within shot. Heels over head it goes-down with a smash upon the stones, as though every bone in its compact little body were broken. The hareld is, however, very tenacious of life, and exceedingly difficult to kill. I once shot a drake who was passing overhead; he fell from a height of twenty or thirty yards into the water; during the time I was loading, he lay to all appearance quite dead, with his white belly turned up; but before

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the boat could reach him he had come round, and flew off quite jauntily, as though used to a little shock of this kind every day of his life. Cormorants, divers, and many different gulls follow rapidly-sometimes within, oftener out of range. But the bird that best answers to the wing has not yet made its appearance, the storm not having lasted long enough, perhaps, to drive him from his Norwegian fastness. The great Glaucous gull is indeed a noble bird, the largest and most kingly of the gulls; and though by all our ornithologists described as excessively rare, hardly a storm from the north-east passes without great numbers being seen on the Scotch coast; and so tame and unsophisticated are they on these occasions, that I have known three or four dozen shot in the course of a single forenoon. Here they come at length, a flock of some twenty or thirty; and as they catch a glimpse of the fluttering pinions they steady themselves on their long wings, and watch it curiously and earnestly until the shot is fired which scatters them in all directions, amid a white shower of feathers. A company of the little auk succeeds,-another bird never seen on this coast except after a severe and protracted storm. At such times I often find them dead on the beach; and some years ago one was taken alive in the kitchen garden, into which it had probably been pitched by the wind, and out of which it could not escape -as, like several others of the same wing-formation, it is unable to rise from the land. It lived for some days, but was ultimately killed by a Skye terrier, who possibly took it for a rat. The rotche is a charming little bird-a quaint edition in duodecimo of the razor-bill or the marrot. As beside these there are many other varieties, a couple of hours spent at such a spot on a stormy morning is by no means unprofitable to the fisher-people, most of whom eat and relish these sea-birds. Cormorants, after they have been buried for a day or two, are highly esteemed; the different gulls and ducks are considered not unpalatable, but the guillemots and divers are only resorted to in cases of extreme necessity. None of them, however, are

calculated, I think, to obtain a reputation in polite gastronomy. The cormorant is a miraculous combination of grease and fat, and over a multitude of minor delinquencies rises a predominant flavour of stale fish in the last stage of decomposition. Much may be overcome with the aid of science; but I defy Alexis Soyer himself to remove from the scrath an ineradicable taint of rancid oil. And if the cormorant, as I have said, is the bird most esteemed in marine cookery, what must the others resemble? However, as a sportsman is not entitled to eat his own game (though from the practice of certain gentlemen, it would appear that he is entitled to sell it), these gastronomic considerations do not concern him, nor need they deter him from enjoying a sport remarkable for its novel and various interest.

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The migration of birds was a subject little understood by our immaculate ancestors, and all kinds of theories were promulgated by naturalists to account for their annual disappearance. That the swallow lay all winter in the water, was regarded by Pontoppidan as an article of belief which it was heretical to question. Everybody knows,' he says, that toward the winter, after they have chirped about a little, or, as we say, sang their swallow song, they fly in flocks together, and plunge themselves down in freshwater lakes, and commonly among reeds and bushes, whence, in the spring time they come forth again, and take possession of their former dwellings.' This incontestable truth' had shortly before been contested by George Edwards, who is accordingly attacked with much asperity by the clerical naturalist. I have fallen upon a curious little work on this subject, entitled, An Essay towards the probable Solution of the Question-Whence comes the Stork?-quite a curiosity in its way, being really an ornithological interpretation of a passage in Jeremiah.

The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow the time of their coming' (chap. viii. v. 7.) Though my copy unfortunately is without date, I believe it, from internal evidence, to have been written some time during the reign of Charles I., probably about 1630.

It is by no means a bad specimen of a century when Biblical criticism and subjective speculations were resorted to for an explanation of the facts of nature, in preference to the facts themselves. I do not know if you are acquainted, my dear Juniper, with the conversational life of that century; but if you are, you cannot have failed to notice how curiously the text of Scriptureespecially of the Old Testamentis wrought and twisted into the language. Glance over the tracts in the Somers Collection, and you will scarcely find a speech or pamphlet which is not to a remarkable extent garnished with Biblical quotations. An ambitious statesman goes to the scaffold; a patriot draws the sword of the Lord and of Gideon; an unscrupulous lawyer defends the prerogative; a wit sends his mistress a copy of his profligate rhymes; and each severally exhibits the most familiar acquaintance with the words of the Hebrew Scripture. fashion was of course at its height during the tyranny of the Commonwealth, but it survived, at least in the phraseology of the Whigs and Dissenters [Shaftesbury never addressed his peers without lugging in a lugubrious denunciation from the Pentateuch], till a much later period. The author of the inquiry into the conduct of the Stork is very strong in this line, and if Biblical criticism could have explained the facts of nature, his speculations would perhaps have been verified

ere now.

The

The popular belief, which we have given in Pontoppidan's words, our speculative naturalist at once rejects. Depend upon it, he argues with considerable shrewdness, the swallow would prefer warmer quarters during winter than the clay.clumps at the bottom of rivers. Besides, if they really did sleep, would they not be more dull and drooping towards bed-time? But this is not the case; on the contrary, their cheerfulness at that time seems to intimate that they have some noble work in hand, and some great design to set presently upon.' Moreover, as the words of the Vulgate are tempus itineris, the journey they make must be to some distance, which could hardly be averred if they only went to the bottom of the

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