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His dogs 'no merry circles wheel,
But, shivering, follow at his heel;
A cowering glance they often cast,
As deeper moans the gathering blast.

The trees are now stripped of their foliage. The separation of the leaves from their branches is termed the fall; and, in North America, the season in which this takes place is universally known by that name. The falling of leaves is not always in consequence of the injuries of autumnal frosts, for some trees have their appropriate period of defoliation, seemingly independent of external causes. The lime (tilia europaea) commonly loses its leaves before any frost happens; the ash seems, on the contrary, to wait for that event; and at whatever period the first rather sharp frost takes place, all its leaves fall at once. The fall of the leaf can be considered only as a sloughing or casting off diseased or worn-out parts,' whether the injury to their constitution may arise from external causes or from an exhaustion of their vital powers. Hence a separation takes place, either in the footstalk, or more usually at its base, and the dying part quits the vigorous one, which is promoted by the weight of the leaf itself, or by the action of autumnal winds upon its expanded form. Sometimes, as in the hornbeam, the beech, and some oaks, the swelling of the buds for the ensuing season is necessary to accomplish the total separation of the old stalks from the insertions,

How fall'n the glories of these fading scenes!
The dusky beech resigns his vernal greens;
The yellow maple mourns in sickly hue,
And russet woodlands crown the dark'ning view.
Dim, clust'ring fogs involve the country round;
The valley, and the blended mountain ground,
Sink in confusion; but with tempest wing,
Should Boreas from his northern barrier spring,
The rushing woods with deaf'ning clamour roar,
Like the sea tumbling on the pebbly shore:
When spouting rains descend in torrent tides,
See the torn zig-zag weep its channelled sides.

Leaves undergo very considerable changes before they fall: ceasing to grow for a long time previous to their decay, they become gradually more rigid and less juicy, often parting with their pubescence, and always changing their healthy green colour to more or less of a yellow, sometimes a reddish hue'. 'One of the first trees that becomes naked is the walnut; the mulberry, horse-chesnut, sycamore, lime, and ash, follow. The elm preserves its verdure for some time longer the beech and ash are the latest deciduous forest trees in dropping their leaves. lopped trees, while their heads are young, carry their leaves a long while. Apple-trees and peaches remain green very late, often till the end of November: young beeches never cast their leaves till spring, when the new leaves sprout, and push them off: in the autumn, the beechen leaves turn of a yellow deep chesnut colour.'-(White.)

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That highly-esteemed fish, the salmon, now ascends rivers to deposit its spawn in their gravelly beds, at a great distance from their mouths. In order to arrive at the spots proper for this purpose, there are scarcely any obstacles which the fish will not surmount. They will ascend rivers for hundreds of miles; force themselves against the most rapid streams, and spring with amazing agility over cataracts of several feet in height. They are taken, according to Mr. Pennant, in the Rhine, as high as Basil: they gain the sources of the Lapland rivers, in spite of their torrent-like currents: they surpass the perpendicular falls of Leixlip, Kennerth, and Pont Aberglasslyn. At the latter of these places, Mr. Pennant assures us that he has himself witnessed the efforts of the salmon, and seen

1 American trees and shrubs in general, and such European ones as are botanically related to them, are remarkable for the rich tints of red, purple, or even blue, which their leaves assume before they fall. Hence the autumnal foliage of the woods of North America is, beyond all imagination, rich and splendid.

scores of fish, some of which succeeded, while others miscarried in the attempt, during the time of observation. At this time, nets or baskets are placed under the fall, and numbers are taken after an unsuccessful leap'. It may be added, that the salmon, like the swallow, is said to return, each season, to the self-same spot to deposit its spawn.

The value of this article of life has advanced equally with every kind of food, even in situations where salmon were most abundant. The amazing disproportion in the present price of Severn salmon to that of twenty or thirty years ago, when it was sold from threepence to sixpence per lb., is attributed, in a great degree, to the several weirs (contrary to Act of Parliament) upon the river, constructed so as to prevent the smallest salmon fry from escaping, as they proceed towards the sea. It is a known fact, that the fry have been taken in such quantities, that the captors have been obliged to throw them away. Another mode of incalculable destruction arises from the practice of netting the fords when the water is low, by which means the salmon spawn, deposited upon the sand and gravel, being loosened by the net, is swept away, and becomes food for fish of an inferior quality, such as chub, roach, dace, &c. The above, combined with other causes, such as the speedy conveyance now afforded, not only to the metropolis, but to all

A curious mode of taking this fish, called salmon-hunting (as practised at Whitehaven), is mentioned by Mr. Bingley: 'When the tide récedes, what fish are left in the shallows are discovered by the agitation of the water;-the hunter, with a three-pointed barbed spear, fixed to a shaft fifteen feet long, plunges into these pools at a trot, up to the belly of his horse. He makes ready his spear, and, when he overtakes the salmon, strikes the fish with almost unerring aim; that done, by a turn of the hand, he raises the salmon to the surface, wheels his horse towards the shore, and runs the fish on dry land without dismounting. From forty to fifty fish have been killed in a day; ten are, however, no despicable booty.'

parts of the country, have fixed a worth upon the salmon which will not quickly admit of reduction'.

The stock-dove (columba anas), one of the latest winter birds of passage, arrives from more northern regions, towards the end of this month. Before our beechen woods were destroyed (observes Mr. White), there were myriads of them, reaching in strings for miles together. At this time, twenty have been killed in a day; and an old sportsman assured me, that, with a large fowling-piece, he had shot seven or eight at a time on the wing, as they came wheeling over his head. The food of these numberless emigrants was beech-mast and some acorns, and particularly barley, which they collected in the stubbles; they also eat the young tops of turnips.

The wild pigeons, which migrate in large flocks into England at the approach of winter, build their nests in the hollows of decayed trees, and commonly have two broods in the year. In a state of domestication their increase is prodigious; and, allowing them to breed nine times in the year, the produce of a single pair, at the expiration of four years, may amount (according to Mr. Stillingfleet) to the enormous number of fourteen thousand seven hundred and sixty-two. The varieties of the domestic pigeon are very numerous. Of these, the carrier pigeon is most worthy of notice, having been made use of, from very early times, to convey intelligence on the most important occasions, and it never fails to execute its commission with unequalled expedition and certainty.

The farmer usually finishes his ploughing this month. Cattle and horses are taken into the farmyard; sheep are sent to the turnip-field; ant-hills are destroyed; and bees are put under shelter.

'In February, 1809, a Severn salmon, weighing nineteen pounds, was sold at Billingsgate for the immense sum of ONE GUINEA per pound.

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'DECEMBER must be expressed with a horrid and fearful aspect, clad in Irish rugge, or course freeze, girt unto him; upon his head no garland but three or four night-caps, and over them a Turkish turbant; his nose red; his mouth and beard clogd with iseickles; at his back a bundle of holly, ivy, or misletoe, holding in furd mittens the sign of Capricornus.'-(Peacham, p. 421.)

'December had his due appellation given him in the name of winter-monat, to wit, winter-moneth; but after the Saxons received Christianity, they then, of devotion to the birth time of Christ, tearmed it by the name of heligh-monat, that is to say, holymoneth.'-(Verstegan, p. 62.)

December, last of months, but best, who gave

A Christ to man, a Saviour to the slave.
While, falsely grateful, man at the full feast,

To do God honour, makes himself a beast. CHURCHILL.

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