whole we were disappointed in our sport. I must not omit to mention that my young friend Charley, like a dutiful son and affectionate brother, sent his lucky capture up to Quebec the same evening by the mail-cart, with a letter to his ingenious little sister, thanking her for having tied him so captivating a fly.

This was my last excursion to Jacques Cartier for the year 1816, but I found plenty of practice for the trout-rod in the River Charles, about two or three miles above Quebec, as well as in the River Chaudiere, above and below the Falls on the South side of the River St. Lawrence. This beautiful stream runs into the St. Lawrence about two miles above Quebec, nearly opposite Wolfe's Cove, and works the extensive saw-mills the property of the late Sir John Caldwell, then the Receiver-General of the Province, which are situated on its bank. At the tail of the dam I have frequently met with excellent sport, as well as immediately under the beautiful Fall of the Chaudiere, about three miles up the stream. If any of my brother fishermen should perchance visit the capital of Lower Canada, and heed not a walk of two miles and upwards through a swamp and thick brushwood, I can assure them that they will be amply rewarded for their labor by going as far as they can penetrate above the Falls. I discovered the secret accidentally, in consequence of having accompanied an intimate friend on a pedestrian expedition up this river, which he was engaged to survey as an Officer of Engineers by the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. Captain Catty and myself set out on this exploring tour, accompanied by Indian and Canadian guides, bivouacking in the woods and living al fresco. While he was employed in taking bearings, levels, sights, distances, and other little trigonometrical and geometrical observations, I amused myself with my trout-rod, and it is more than probable that an artificial fly had never been thrown on that water before. My talented companion had no reason to regret my having armed myself with my fishing-tackle, for during the week we were out in the woods I supplied the whole party with trout, which were dressed by our followers in the most primeval manner imaginable. The fish were particularly well-flavored and delicate; so that, with cold ham, tongues, biscuits, and plenty of cognac and cigars, we contrived to pass our evenings in the wigwam very cheerfully; and I know not when I passed six days more agreeably than with this well-informed and gentlemanlike companion. Captain Catty subsequently completed his survey of the Chaudiere, having ascended nearly to its source, and he was complimented by the House of Assembly for the able manner in which the arduous and difficult task had been performed. Poor fellow! he is one of very many of my old Canadian friends who have been taken away; and but few remain of those kindred spirits with whom I was on the most intimate terms and in daily and hourly intercourse. But a truce to melancholyreflections! Let us "return to our muttons," as the French schoolmaster says.

There is very good trout-fishing in the neighbourhood of Quebec. In the Montmorency River the fish are numerous, but never run to a large size, seldom exceeding half a pound, and but few even up to that weight: small dark flies are best for this river. In the Chaudiere, a showy red palmer, brown drake, red ant, and yellow sally will be found

the most taking. In the Charles, dark flies must be used also: brown palmers, spiders, blue duns, hawthorn and willow flies, all dressed on larger hooks, will command success. In the upper part of the Charles, towards Old Lorette, there is very capital pike-fishing at the bend of the river in the still-water. In this, as well as all the smaller rivers in Lower Canada, will be found a voracious and very delicate fish called the Poisson Doré. It affords capital sport, and is taken either with a live-bait or by trolling. I have killed as many as a dozen and a half during a morning's fishing: they average from a pound and a half to three or four in weight, and afford very pretty picking.

The Major, Captain Griffiths, Mr. Hamilton, and myself made three or four trips to Chateau Richer during the latter part of September and the month of October, and great was the slaughter we committed. Those of my brother bog-trotters who may have had the good fortune to wade through a Canadian swamp will bear me out in the assertion that the snipes are finer and fatter in North America than in any other quarter of the globe: they are in truth splendid birds, and superior in flavor to the European or Asiatic migratories. The woodcocks, however, are very much smaller, and inferior as a luxury for the table to our birds at home: they differ materially in color also: their plumage has a light reddish tinge, which to the covert-shooter on his first essay in a North American wood is apt to take him by surprise; so much so that a friend of mine, on bringing down one of these birds for the first time, called out to me and swore he had killed a double robin red-breast. A Canadian partridge-or at least the thing so called, for it is a libel on our plump and juicy bird to designate it as a partridge is a dry, stringy, tasteless (no not tasteless, for it is a mass of turpentine) morsel; it partakes (in appearance at least) more of the ptarmigan: it is never found in stubble or field, but it perches on the pine tree, and from feeding on the berry, mast, and gum, its flesh is so strongly impregnated with the turpentine which exudes from the back that the only chewable substance to which I can compare it is a piece of deal board-phaugh! the very recollection of this pitch-pine abomination makes me shudder to this very day! To make up for fieldshooting, however, the swamps afford the finest sport it is possible to conceive: the snipe-shooter of Europe can form no idea of it; and the enthusiast in this exciting sport would be amply repaid by a visit to the marsh of Chateau Richer; and he would moreover have an opportunity of seeing the finest country in the world. The trip to New York in these days of steam-navigation is performed in a fortnight. From the States let him proceed to Upper Canada, visit the Falls of Niagara, cross Lake Erie to Kingston, come down the Ottowa, and "hi presto!" he will find himself at Montreal, only one hundred and eighty miles from Quebec.

In the days I write of good dogs were scarce in the capital of Lower Canada; but there have doubtless been many excellent sportsmen there of late years, who have left a good breed of setters and pointers behind them. The Guards, the Seventh Hussars, and the Royals I have no doubt took out some high-bred ones with them. In the year 1816, however, so much attention was not paid to the breeding and judicious crossing of these valuable and useful animals as in the present day: and VOL. I.-THIRD SERIES, N. S.-No. 5.

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even in this enlightened age much remains to be done; for while cups and prizes are held out as rewards to the breeders and runners of greyhounds, and enormous sums are given for pet-spaniels with pugnoses-why not cross them with a Coast-of-Guinea Nigger, and make them quite flat?-those noble animals the setter and the pointer are comparatively neglected. It is strange that no one of our aristocracy should have originated the idea of encouraging the improvement in the breed of these useful allies in the field; but a suggestion has been made, and that too by a practical man, and one well qualified to carry out the idea which he has with praiseworthy zeal given publicity to. This individual is Mr. Brailsford, the celebrated dog-breeder and breaker of Melton Mowbray. He has addressed an admirable letter to the Editor of Bell's Life in London, dated I think on the 19th of February last. In this manly straightforward communication he stands forward as the champion of our four-footed companions in the field. Mr. Brailsford proposes, as an encouragement to dog-breeders, that a cup, prize, or sweepstakes should be contended for in the field before competent judges, and that the dog which behaves the best and gets the greatest number of points should reward his owner, breeder, and breaker by winning for him the purse or cup. Mr. Brailsford's reputation as a breeder of setters and pointers is well established. There is no man in England who possesses so fine a stud of high-bred dogs, and certes no man has sent such splendid specimens from his kennels. All our influential sportsmen and crack shots of the day have been supplied by him, and those matchless animals which Lord Chesterfield lately disposed of were all bred by Mr. Brailsford. I trust and hope that some public-spirited individual will second this admirably conceived idea, and that some of our noblemen and landed proprietors, all of whom shine conspicuously in the field, will afford him the benefit of their countenance and support, not so much for his individual advantage, as with a view to the melioration and perfection of the breed of those noble and most intelligent animals which contribute so largely to our amusement. Half the dogs miscalled setters and pointers are mongrels; and it is only by public exhibition, as well as competition, that the true merits of a really thorough-bred dog can be tested. There are more curs shot over during a season than people are aware of; and I for one hope to see the day when the breeding of setters and pointers will occupy the attention of my brother sportsmen, which I am convinced has only to be awakened to induce them to fall in with Mr. Brailsford's suggestion, who deserves the thanks of every true lover of the dog and gun for having started the idea, and I wish him every success in his projected enterprise.

Here I am digressing again from Canada to Melton Mowbray; but as our shooting season at Quebec was drawing to a close, I ventured to say a word or two about a good dog, without which the sportsman in Canada would be out of his element. Our winter commenced on the seventh of November; but a Canadian winter is a winter per se, and is deserving of a separate chapter to do it justice. I will, therefore, close this, as I fear I have already trespassed not only on the Reader's patience, but beyond the space usually allotted for my humble pro duction. Until next month then I give my goose quill a holiday.

THE NEW FOREST HOUNDS:

AND A FEW WORDS ABOUT

MR. FARQUHARSON, MR. DRAX, AND SIR WALTER CAREW.

"THREE hours rail, and one by coach, and here we are in the finest part of the New Forest!" Such was the exclamation of a traveller just booked from London, whence he had emerged to enjoy a fortnight's holidays at Christmas. Our hero being a Sportsman, it is almost useless to say that the New Forest hounds formed a prominent feature in his programme; and such being the case, we may as well at once jump in medias res and discuss their merits. This pack has been only got together since November last, and from what they have already done, there is every reason to anticipate well for the future. Their present Master, Mr. Shedden, appears to be very popular in the field, as well as at the board, and although sometimes severely tried by an over-eager Field, he manages to keep his temper pretty well. When he does find broad hint necessary, he gives it in a gentlemanlike and quiet manner, rather contrasting with one of his predecessors in office, Mr. C, who was noted for the strong language he made use of. On one occasion Mr. Capostrophised a Gentleman who had ridden across the scent in his usual manner, adding various oaths more or less appropriate under the circumstances; upon which the latter began to shew fight, and putting himself in a menacing attitude, said, "I tell you what, Sir, I didn't come out here to be d-d."-" Then you may go home, and be d-d," was the laconic reply. It must be confessed that Masters of Hounds have their patience sometimes sorely put to the test; but good humor and a gentlemanlike deportment are imperatively necessary, especially in a Subscription Pack, and the New Foresters may congratulate themselves on having a leader who possesses both.

Of hounds, they muster twenty-eight couple, thirteen couple of which were drafted from the Quorn as being too fast! so this will give the Reader an idea of the pace in the Forest. It is to be regretted, however, that the rest of the pack are far behind these in point of speed: the consequence is, you may sometimes see six couple of hounds running in view, then a small section of the Field, then the remainder of the pack, followed by the slower equestrians a state of things, which, although it may be an accommodation to all parties, is hardly according with old established rules. However, this fault every day will amend, and probably by next season it will not even exist.

Mr. Shedden has nine or ten as good horses as any man need wish to throw his leg across; amongst the lot may be honorably mentioned a chesnut of great power and courage, and a bay, one of the neatest and safest fencers we have ever seen. But we must really apologise to our readers, as well as to our friend the traveller we mentioned above, for taking the words out of his mouth, and henceforth we will allow him to tell his own story.

"A friend, truly a friend in deed," says he, "having offered to mount me, at half-past eight o'clock on the morning of the 31st of December 1842, I left the parsonage of a small village in Dorsetshire, where I was then staying, to meet the New Forest Hounds. The appointed place was Brockenhurst House, the hour a quarter before eleven. I had fourteen miles to ride to covert across a country I had never before been in, and the greater part of it a wild barren moor full of bogs, out of which it is no easy matter to extricate man or horse if they are unlucky enough to step into them. Added to all this, I was going to hunt the same horse I rode to covert, so I think I was very clever in getting safely to Brockenhurst at ten minutes before eleven, having only missed my way once, and without having ruffled my own temper or turned a hair of my horse. Just as I trotted to the top of the hill to the right of the village, I heard a 'halloo,' and, as luck would have it, three or four men in scarlet galloped past at the moment just on the other side of the fence; so without much deliberation as to the course to be pursued, I reined up my hunter, put my spurs to his sides, and cleared a stiffish bank, which was the only impediment between me and the objects of my pursuit. A beautiful sight then presented itself to my admiring eyes-an extensive plain of several miles prettily studded with wood, with the sea in the horizon on one side, and the noble trees of the old Forest on the other: in the foreground were the gallant pack, and fifty or sixty Sportsmen on horseback, the majority in scarlet

coats.

"The Master and two or three others had the new-fashioned boot (without the top), which in a woody country is greatly to be commended on the ground of economy as well as comfort, and I should think servants must be strong advocates for them, for to clean a pair of tops after a hard run amidst the black bogs of the Forest must sometimes be no easy task. I had not much time to contemplate the scenery, for I had hardly got amongst the Field, when another halloo' was heard, and away went men, dogs, and horses as if the existence of each depended on outdoing the other. The first twenty minutes we went at a racing pace; at Ladycross Lodge there was a check of a few minutes; then away again through the Forest; but Reynard, finding that too hot to hold him, again made for the open, and led us through some of the inclosures on the skirts of the Forest. Here were some fences that puzzled even the knowing ones, and certain roads and lanes had more than their due share of equestrians.

"The Huntsman, Joe Peckham, having had a very severe fall the day previous, was obliged to leave the principal part of the work to his Master; and very well did the latter do it. Two or three times he lifted the hounds, and hit off the scent with great judgment as well as celerity; and having resigned his chesnut, which was rather too fiery for an inclosed and awkward country, and mounted the bay I have already mentioned, he took his fences in gallant style, and went to work in good earnest. I saw him take three leaps following in which he had not a single imitator: two of these were into a lane and out the other side, in which his horse just seemed to hop across like a cat, without the least exertion to himself or his rider. The last fence had been lately made up, and there was a wide ditch on the inside this I was not aware of,