had never been remembered, and it was then attributed to want of fish in the sea (An. Reg.), probably occasioned by some submarine convulsion driving the fish away. In 1799, a black worm, similar to the one named above, destroyed whole forests in America, stripping the trees, so as to leave them as bare as in winter. (An. Reg.)

In 1833, birds increased prodigiously, and, in consequence of the drought, were driven to desperate measures. In September the rooks, in Gloucestershire, took to robbing orchards. (Public Journals.) A writer in a London journal says, small birds so much increased in the vicinity of Marlow, that two whole crops of corn, besides beans, peas, and fruit, were devoured by them. (St. James's Chronicle, Feb. 1. 1834.) 66 After the cessation of the black death, marriages were almost without exception prolific; double and triple births were more common than at other times" (Hecker, p. 79.); and such was the case after the cholera, in 1833 and 1834, as it is generally remarked. In February, 1834, abundance of mackerel, in innumerable shoals, visited the coasts of England, as in 1833.*

In September, 1785, vast numbers of the West India shark appeared in the British Channel, and many were taken by the Brighton fishermen. (An. Reg., 1785.) In 1783, unusual numbers of wasps and aphides appeared; and thousands of acres of turnips were destroyed by the sawfly. (Gilbert White, Nat. Hist. Selborne.) In 1785, aphides infested the south of England. (Ibid.) In 1796, damage to the amount of 100,000l. was done to turnips in Devonshire, by the black fly. (Jardine on White, quoting Kirby and Spence.) In 1762 and in 1782, myriads of yellow flies visited the coast of Norfolk. (Phil. Trans., 1783.) They are described as being seen to be blown over from the sea, and piled dead on the shore in heaps. They were parents of a black cankerworm, which in those years did infinite damage to turnips. They were so numerous, that, in their search for that plant, they covered the roads, gates, and hedges. So, at the epoch of the black death (1333-1359), "the insect tribe was wonderfully called into life, as if animated beings were destined to complete the destruction." (Hecker, p. 44.)

If we go to the Scriptures, we find the palmerworm, the caterpillar, the cankerworm, the locust, the frog, &c., described as miraculously increased at certain epochs, and

* Mr. Bakewell, in a letter, alludes to this fact in conjunction with the earthquakes at Chichester, which have occurred between Sept. 1833 and March, 1834: a very probable connection. Three of those earthquakes, those of September, November, and January, were felt here,

often introduced, in intimate connection with convulsions of the elements, as the agents of divine wrath.* In this respect, the pagan as well as the Jewish historians agree; for Pliny, speaking of the locust, says, "Deorum iræ pestis ea intelligitur." (Nat. Hist. xi. 29.)

The conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing notes is self-evident, if we consider that the years individually mentioned were marked by striking evidences of a disturbed state of the earth and atmosphere. Without farther reference, it may suffice to say that every one of those years was distinguished by earthquakes, meteors, or other phenomena: and, to pass over 1333-1348, the epoch of the black death, and 1817, that of the cholera, we may take 1783 as an example; a year marked by most surprising convulsions. † Indeed, it will be found that, at all periods of telluric disturbance, some extraordinary movement takes place in the kingdoms of animated nature; and, whenever there is an indication of the kind, it will be discovered that the excitement occurred at a time when the atmosphere has been unaccountably heated, the seasons affected by some extraneous modifying cause of change, and the volcanic force especially developed. On this subject, I have not the slightest doubt; for it is capable of positive demonstration, if we may believe the testimony of undisputed facts, as they are registered in the calendars of naturalists. Take the links where we will, in the chain of terrestrial phenomena, we find them preserving the character, the consistency, and the order of a series, which, examined in detail, or viewed in the mass, leads to the conclusion, that each member has the same governing law, and that, if followed up, each will be found to centre in volcanic agency. This position will, in future observations, be satisfactorily tested and proved: the arguments derived from that branch of the enquiry affecting animal life being the first general evidence to its truth. It is anticipating to say more now, than that, if the other cases bear out the assertion, the irruption of the mice in Scotland and Ireland, the incursion of the bears and cankerworms in Canada, and the movement amongst the boars of France, &c., all point out 1833 as a peculiar year; and to what are we to attribute these so recent occurrences, but to some result of that great cause which has shaken the earth, the sea, and the air, and rendered the last few months more memorable for earth

See, amongst other passages, 1 Kings, viii. 37.; Joel, i. 4.; Psalm lxxviii. 43-48; Exodus, vii.-x., &c.

+ See, amongst other writers, Gilbert White, part 2. near the end.

quakes, floods, meteors, and hurricanes, &c. than perhaps any previous period on record, since 1348?

But I pass on to a few remarks, not actually connected with the preceding ones, but arising from the subject; reserving the full enquiry, as to the claims of 1833, to another occasion.

I have stated above, that the want of fish, to which the emigration of the bears in 1817 (that remarkable year) is attributed, was "probably occasioned by some submarine convulsion." That fish are frequently affected by the disengagement of some invisible mephitic vapour, sometimes destroying them, and sometimes driving them away from their natural haunts, is not difficult to be maintained. The British Channel has, since 1817, experienced two phenomena which, I believe, have never hitherto been recorded; and, as bearing on the topic before us, and exactly, in some points, paralleled by well-attested facts, it may serve a double purpose to state the particulars.

A little before Christmas, 1827, immense multitudes of fish were found floating along the coast of Sussex (about Rye and Hastings) in a stupified and helpless state; and, at low water, being unable to get back into the sea, were picked up by thousands at the water's edge. They were chiefly conger eels, many of enormous size, but several were fish never before seen by the fishermen. This lasted several days. The period in question was preceded by a thick fog. The cause assigned by the common people was, a heavy fall of snow, with a south wind, which, with frost and starlight nights, blinded the fish" !!! I give these statements as I received them from my brother-in-law, Mr. Beaumont of Winchelsea, who had them from Mr. Tilden, of that place, who ate of the fish, as did hundreds of persons, without any bad effect.

On making enquiries, I have found that, about the end of January, or the beginning of February, 1830, a similar occurrence took place along the coasts of Dorset and Hants; and, as far as my informant recollects, dog-fish were very numerous. They were washed ashore, and collected in abundance as food, at Bourne Mouth, and the Dunes at the entrance to Poole.+

* Lieut.W. B. Stocker, R.N., late signal officer at the flag-head station, mouth of Poole harbour.

+ Poole is one of the worst fish-markets in the kingdom: there is no dependence upon it for anything. A gossip story is afloat, which endeavours to account for this barrenness. I give the current version. It happened, a few years ago, that myriads of very fine mackerel were taken off the coast; and so great was the draught of them, that, instead of realising a fortune, the fishermen were obliged to let the people carry away as many as they would. In anger, therefore, they cast back the fish,

The journals of the Philosophical Society have recorded an instance equally singular. In November, 1775, after an unparalleled drought, accompanied by universal and various sicknesses amongst the natives, a dense fog settled over the island of Sumatra, the wind being constantly in the south, and, during its prevalence, it was observed that the sea round the island was covered by innumerable multitudes of dead and dying fish, of all kinds and sizes, the cat-fish and mullet being the most frequent. They were driven on the beach, for more than a month, by the tide, in prodigious numbers. and were eaten by the natives. Mr. Marsden, who relates the fact, endeavours to account for it by a want of the usual supply of fresh water to temper the salt; an explanation worthy of the ichthyophagists of Sussex. Had the existence of volcanoes and the frequent occurrence of earthquakes in the island been considered, perhaps the mortality amongst the fish might have been differently explained, by an excess of salts rather than an excess of salt. We are not without evidence to bear upon the most probable solution of this and the two preceding statements, which agree with the latter in all particulars as to the fog which prevailed, and the harmless state of the fish as food. I will not in this place say more of these fogs, nor of the diseases and drought in Sumatra at the time; but simply put them in countenance by a reference to what is related of the year 1348, when, according to the report of the College of Physicians of Paris, fogs during 28 days, in the time of the great mortality, covered Arabia, India, Crete, Germany, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, corrupting the waters of the sea, so that the fish died. *

We will come at once to an elucidation of these circumstances. Sir W. Hamilton, in his account of the great earthquakes, in Calabria, in 1783, says :-" A circumstance worth

with oaths and imprecations, into the sea: and, ever since, the mackerel and some others have kept at a respectful distance. I have, in publishing this anecdote, no desire to offend the Nereids and Tritons of the Brownsea Island oyster-beds: I quote it only as a possible instance of the phenomenon alluded to above. I may, however, safely state that there was scarcely ever a place, on so many waters, where (except a few harbour plaice) so few piscatory delicacies were to be met with. When the corporation would fare sumptuously, they must reserve their banquet till the arrival of a Torquay boat, which occasionally, in bad weather, puts in here. I say this, though, with all deference to the myriads of salt cods and caplins from Newfoundland, whose odorous presence proves Poole to be a piscivorous "county." As the corporators are fond of "incorporations," they might endeavour to put our poissonaille on good terms with the authorities; and propose an enactment by which, in future, the flat-fish and their neighbours may be on dining terms with the gastronomists.

* Vide Hecker on Black Death, translated by Dr. Babington, p. 131.

remarking, and which was the same on the whole coast of Calabria that had been most affected by the earthquakes, is, that a small fish called cicirelli, resembling what we call in England white bait, but of a greater size, and which usually lie at the bottom of the sea, buried in the sand, have been, ever since the commencement of the earthquakes, and continue still to be, taken near the surface, and in such abundance, as to be the common food of the poorest sort of people; whereas, before the earthquakes, this fish was rare, and reckoned amongst the greatest delicacies. All fish, in general, have been taken in greater abundance, and with much greater facility, in these parts, since they have been afflicted with earthquakes, than before. I constantly asked every fisherman I met with on the coast of Sicily and Calabria, if this circumstance was true; and was as constantly answered in the affirmative, but with such emphasis, that it must have been extraordinary. I suppose that either the sand at the bottom of the sea may have been heated by the volcanic fire under it, or that the continual tremor of the earth has driven the fish out of their strongholds." (Phil. Trans., vol. lxxiii.)

The same writer, describing the eruption of Vesuvius (in 1794), observes:-"A few days ago, a shoal of fish, of several hundred weight, having been observed by some fishermen, at Resina, in great agitation at the surface of the sea, near some rocks of an ancient lava that had run into the sea, they surrounded them with their nets, and took them all with ease, and afterwards discovered that they had been stunned by the mephitic vapour which at that time issued forcibly from underneath the ancient lava into the sea. The divers there

(near Portici) likewise told me, that, for the space of a mile from that shore, since the eruption, they have found all the fish dead in their shells, as they supposed, either from the heat of the sand at the bottom of the sea, or from poisonous vapour." (Phil. Trans., 1795.)

Mr. Wright of Glasgow visited Graham's Island on the 20th Aug. 1831. He says, in the account published in the Penny Magazine (No. 114. for Jan. 4. 1834, p. 10.), that the people with him found, on the south-east side of the island, on a strip of beach, "half dead and stupified, a fine large pescespada, or swordfish. This they secured, and carried back with them to Sciacca, where they found it weighed upwards of 60 lbs. English. The fate of the fish," says Mr. W., "must have arisen from its coming too near the hot and contaminated water, which on all sides surrounded the island to a greater or less distance." *

*It is forestalling the subject, but it is right to add here, that my conjectures respecting the storm of June 11. and 12. 1833, were realised, by the