if furriers can there be found well to dress skins so large !"

And so they rode on-the lord in silence: but soon he began to sigh heavily. Still he seemed to wax more and more sad in spirit; and his sighs grew deeper and more quick. Then inquired the knave of the lord what sudden affliction, or cause of sorrow, had happened. "Alas!" replied the wily master, "I trust in Heaven's goodness, that neither of us two hath to-day, by any frowardness of fortune, chanced to say the thing which is not for, assuredly, he that hath so done must this day perish." The knave, on hearing these doleful words, and perceiving real sorrow to be depicted on the paleness of his master's countenance, instantly felt as if his ears grew more wide, that not a word or syllable of so strange a discovery might escape his troubled sense. And so, with eager exclamations, he demanded of the lord to ease his suspense, and to explain why so cruel a doom was now about to fall upon companionable liars.

Hear, then, dear knave," answered the lord, to the earnestness of his servant; "since thou must needs know, hearken! and God grant that no trouble come to thee from what I shall say. To-day, we ride far; and in our course is a vast and heavy-rolling flood, of which the ford is narrow, and the pool is deep; to it hath Heaven given the power of sweeping down into its dark holes all dealers in falsehood, who may rashly venture to put themselves within its truth-loving current! But to him who hath told no lie, there is no fear of this river. -Spur we our horses, knave, for to-day our journey must be long."

Then the knave thought,-long indeed must the journey be for some who are now here: and, as he spurred, he sighed heavier and deeper than his master had done before him; who now went gaily on; nor ceased he to cry-" Spur we our horses, knave, for today our journey must be long."

Then came they to a brook. Its waters were small, and its channel such as a boy might leap across. Yet,

nevertheless, the knave began to tremble, and falteringly asked-" Is this now the river where harmless liars must perish ?" "This! ah! no," replied the lord: "this is but a brook ;- -no liar need tremble here." Yet was the knave not wholly assured, and, stammering, he said—“ My gracious lord! thy servant now bethinks him, that he to-day hath made a fox too huge that of which he spake was verily not so large as is an ox; but, stone and bone, as big as is a good-sized roe!"

The lord replied, with wonder in his tone,-" What of this fox concerneth me? if large or small, I care not.-Spur we our horses, knave, for to-day our journey must be long."

Long indeed, still thought the serving-groom; and in sadness he crossed the brook. Then came they to à stream, running quickly through a green meadow, the stones showing themselves in many places above its frothy water. The varlet started, and cried aloud"Another river! surely of rivers there is to-day no end: was it of this thou talkedst heretofore?" "No," replied the lord; "not of this." And more he said not: yet marked he with inward gladness his servant's fear. "Because, in good truth," rejoined the knave," it is on my conscience to give thee note, that the fox of which I spake was not bigger than a calf!" "Large or small, let me not be troubled with thy fox: the beast concerneth me not at all!"

As they quitted the wood, they perceived a river in the way, which gave sign of having been swollen by the rains; and on it was a boat. "This, then, is the doom of liars," said the knave; and he looked earnestly towards the passage-craft.-" Be informed, my good lord, that reynard was not larger than a fat wedder sheep!" The lord seemed angry, and answered-"This is not yet the grave of falsehood: why torment me with this cursed fox! Rather spur we our horses, for we have far to go." "Stone and bone," said the knave to himself; "the end of my journey approacheth!"

Now the day declined, and the shadows of the travellers lengthened on the ground;-but darker than the

twilight was the sadness on the face of the knave. And as the wind rustled the trees, he ever and anon turned pale, and inquired of his master if the noise were of a torrent or stream of water. Still, as the evening fell, his eyes strove to discover the course of a winding river. But nothing of the sort could he discern; so that his spirits began to revive, and he was fain to join in discourse with the lord. But the lord held his peace, and looked as one who expects an evil thing.

Suddenly the way became steep, and they descended into a low and woody valley, in which was a broad and black river, creeping fearfully along, like the dark stream of Lethe, without bridge or bark to be seen near. "Alas! alas!" cried the knave, and the anguish oozed from the pores of his pale face.-"Ah! miserable me! this then is the river in which liars must perish!" "Even so," said the lord: "this is the stream of which I spake but the ford is sound and good for true men. Spur we our horses, knave, for night approacheth, and we have yet far to go."

"My life is dear to me," said the trembling servingman; and thou knowest that were it lost my wife would be disconsolate. In sincerity, then, I declare, that the fox which I saw in the distant country was not larger than he who fled from us in the wood this morning!"

Then laughed the lord aloud, and said-" Ho, knave! wast thou afraid of thy life? and will nothing cure thy lying? Is not falsehood, which kills the soul, worse than death, which has mastery only over the body? This river is no more than any other; nor hath it a power such as I feigned. The ford is safe, and the waters gentle as those we have already passed: but who shall pass thee over the shame of this day? In it thou must needs sink, unless penitence come to help thee over, and cause thee to look back on the gulf of thy lies, as on a danger from which thou hast been delivered by Heaven's grace." And as he railed against his servant, the lord rode on into the water, and both in safety reached the opposite shore. Then vowed the

knave, by stone and bone, that from that time forward he would duly measure his words; and glad was he so to escape. Such is the story of the lying servant, and the merry lord, by which let the reader profit.

London Magazine.

BRITISH FISHERIES.

WE are yet imperfectly acquainted with the natural history of the herring. Its winter habitation has generally been supposed within the arctic circle, under the vast fields of ice which float on the northern ocean, where it fattens on the swarms of shrimps and other marine insects, which are said to be most abundant in those seas. On the return of the sun from the southern tropic towards the equator, the multitudinous host issues forth in numbers that exceed the power of imagination. Separating about Iceland into two grand divisions, the one proceeds to the westward, filling in its progress every bay and creek on the coast of America, from the straits of Bellisle to Cape Hatteras; the other, proceeding easterly, in a number of distinct columns of five or six miles in length, and three or four in breadth, till they reach the Shetland islands, which they generally do about the end of April, is there subdivided into a number of smaller columns, some of which taking the eastern coast of Great Britain, fill every creek and inlet in succession from the Orkneys down to the British channel ; and others branching off to the westward, surround the coast of the Hebrides, and penetrate into the numerous friths and lochs on the western shores of Scotland. Another shoal, pursuing the route to Ireland, separates on the north of that island into two divisions, one of which passing down the Irish channel, surrounds the Isle of Man; the other pours its vast multitudes into the bays and inlets of the western coast of Ireland. The whole of this grand army, which the word herring em

phatically expresses, disappears on the arrival of the several divisions on the southern coasts of England and Ireland, about the end of October, to which period, from its first appearance in April, it invites the attack of a variety of enemies, besides the fishermen, in every point of its route. In their own element the herrings furnish food for the whale, the shark, the grampus, the cod, and almost all the larger kind of fishes; and they are followed in the air by flocks of gulls, gannets, and other marine birds, which continually hover about them, and announce their approach to the expectant fishermen.

Whether

To keep up this abundant supply, and to provide against all the drains which were intended to be made upon it, nature has bestowed on the herring a corresponding fecundity, the spawn of each female comprehending from thirty to forty thousand eggs. these eggs are deposited in the soft and oozy banks of the deep sea, abounding with marine worms and insects, and affording food for winter's consumption, or whether they lie within the arctic circle amidst unremitting frost, and six months perpetual darkness, is yet a doubtful point; but the former will probably be considered as the less objectionable conjecture.

The esculent fish, next of importance to the herring, in a national point of view, is the cod-fish, which is also considered among the number of those which migrate from the north, in a southerly direction, to nearly the same degree of latitude as the herring. But there is reason to believe that its constant residence is on the rough and stony banks of the deep sea, and that it is rarely found beyond the arctic circle, and there only sparingly, and in the summer months. On the great bank of Newfoundland, on the coasts of Iceland, Norway, Shetland, and the Orkney islands, on the Well-bank, the Dogger-bank, the Broad Forties, on the northern, western, and southern coasts of Ireland, the cod is most abundant, and of the best quality in some or other of these situations, the fisheries may be carried on with certain success and to great advantage, from November

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