for disposing of the body, might have been done with impunity; but ultimately he proposed that we should take him, and that I should proceed by that night's diligence to Bona and lodge a procés verbal. This did not quite suit my views. Being bound over to prosecute at the assizes scarcely seemed to come in among the pleasures of an autumn tour; so I suggested, as a kind of friendly compromise, and to settle the matter on the spot, that it would be better to thrash him, especially as there were plenty of sticks lying ready to hand. There was a particular fascination, too, about the idea of this mode of punishment. He was a stately-looking scoundrel, and picturesque withal; and as he roared and rubbed himself under castigation, there would have been that incongruity about his appearance which Sydney Smith says is essential to a sense of the humorous-to say nothing of the strict justice of the infliction. Cheret, however, wisely I have no doubt, objected to this as being a half measure, and only calculated to get us into a scrape; so we let the poor fellow go, with a promise that he should be arrested the next day, and shot at the earliest convenience of the authorities. No doubt he did not perceive the second figure when he fired; and his motive was probably either a desire of plunder, or of knocking over a Christian, or possibly a mixture of both.

A night or two afterwards I was in the diligence bound for Bona, when, just about the spot mentioned by the carriers, the horses began to snort and plunge violently, and the driver to call them pigs and brigands, after the manner of French Jehus in difficulties. At this, a stout gentleman, who had been asleep in the opposite corner of the coupé, woke up, and said, 'C'est un lion dans les broussailles; on le rencontre souvent ici,' and went to sleep again; but, whether or not he was right in his conjecture, the darkness of the night prevented me from ascertaining.

Once again, notwithstanding previous disappointments, I was induced to try my luck. Being at the pretty little town of Jemmapes, on

the road between Bona and Philippeville, led away by glowing descriptions of the scenery and sport to be found, I accompanied a garde forestier, Fannet by name, up into the mountains between the town and the coast. As far as I could judge in a two days' ramble, the accounts I had received were not exaggerated. The scenery was something like that of Devonshire, but on a larger scale, richly-wooded hills and winding valleys opening out here and there into park-like expanses, dotted with noble evergreen and cork oaks; and as for game, there was evidence enough to show that it was not scarce. Wherever the acorns fell the tracks of the wild boars abounded; and once or twice we got glimpses of their black backs, like porpoises rolling in a sea of foliage, as they plunged through the underwood of some ravine. Panthers, too, seemed to be plenty, from the frequent occurrence of their footprints, and of spots where they had torn up the soil with their claws, stretching themselves, I presume, or, as our Arab guide put it, by way of 'fantasia.' Of lions we saw nothing, though we heard a good deal. A plucky old lady, the wife of the forester at whose hut we put up, said they used to come and roar in the little garden before her door. She did not mind it now, she told me, though when she first came to live there she did not like it at all, especially when her husband was from home. It made her feel lonely, she said, and she used to keep a candle burning all night.

One morning, in one of the higher valleys, we came upon a colony of apes holding a noisy public meeting on some subject which seemed to admit of a vast variety of opinions, and I confess with shame that I was led to put up the rifle and cover one of the orators. But happily the reflection, 'What would Professor Huxley say?' joined with a certain 'am-I-not-a-man-and-a-brother' expression about the creature, checked me in time, and saved me from a crime worse than even monkeycide; for here there was not tail that I could have pleaded in excuse.

Our attempts here show what a Will-o'-the-wisp kind of pursuit this sport is. The first night we selected a spot where the traces of the panther were numerous and fresh. It was a well-known place, too, evidently; for up in a tree hard by was one of the nests the Arabs build for themselves when they try for a lion or a panther. But nothing visited us, nor did we hear anything except the chattering of the apes, and once, miles away among the hills, a deep moaning sound, which swelled gradually into a prolonged bellow, and died away again as it had commenced. Distant as the sound was, there was no mistaking what Jules Gérard calls 'la voix du maître. In the morning we heard that a panther had been seen at a spot lower down the valley, and there we placed ourselves for the night. Next day we found that if we had

kept to our first position, we should most likely have met with him, for he had been observed in that direction. Finally, at Jemmapes I learned that on the evening of the day we left the hills a lion had passed down the valley, close to the place where we had been sitting the night before.

From all I have heard from the mouths of old hands, it would seem that this kind of thing enters largely into the experience of the hunter in Algeria. Still I cannot regret the trials my patience underwent in this way; for I look back upon these rambles as some of the pleasantest episodes of a pleasant tour. As Campbell says, speaking of this same land:

The echo of these wilds enchanted me; And my heart beat with joy when first I heard

A lion's roar come down the Libyan wind.

6

FRASER'S

FROM state of the weather has

ROM the most ancient times

been, as it still is, a subject of intense and general interest. Amidst the Greek places of worship the Temple of the Winds occupied a conspicuous position; and the fine conception and treatment by the great Roman poet, of 'Eolus enthroned,' rises at once in the memory of every Latin scholar

Celsâ sedet olus arce, Sceptra tenens; mollitque animos, et temperat iras.

From China to Lapland the worship of the winds still prevails; whilst in the variable climate of Europe, the ordinary salutation, 'Good day,' pervading almost all living languages, is the key-note of conversation, and the general substitute for the older and more solemn forms of greeting. The sacrifices to the gods, the appeals to omens and witchcraft of the ancient pagans, and even the vows, processions, masses, and votive offerings (still sanctioned by at least one branch of the Christian Church), afford conclusive proofs of the intense interest which this question, so fraught with importance to mankind, continues to excite; whilst the progress of scientific investigation is eagerly welcomed, and already partially received and acted on, in many highly enlightened quarters.

The public anxiety as to the state of the political weather throughout

VOL. LXIX. NO. CCCCXI.

Béranger.

Europe may be not inaptly compared with that manifested as to the condition and prospects of the physical atmosphere; with the essential distinction that political clouds and tempests, wars and rumours of wars, are, at least in some degree, subject to human control.

The ambition of foreseeing the signs of the times, and, if possible, of directing and applying the conflicting elements and forces which act with sudden and overwhelming power upon the fortunes of mankind is common, not only to all master minds, but to all men of enterprise and energy, whether in the political or the scientific world. This passion receives a powerful stimulant in the shape of applause on the attainment of any distinct success, which at once excites it to further progress, and consoles it against occasional failure.

The career, position, and character of the Emperor of the French afford a striking political illustration of what is here suggested. Ever since his accession to the Imperial throne he has striven, and not without success, to wield the wand of Prospero over the fate and fortunes of nations.

We are happy to observe that the omens which in November, 1863, were unfavourable, underwent a most propitious change on the 1st of January, 1864. In answer to the annual address of the Corps Diplomatique, representing expectant

S