fly does not place them promiscuously about the body, but constantly on those parts which are most liable to be licked with the tongue; and the ova, therefore, are always scrupulously placed within its reach. Whether this be an act of reason or of instinct, it is certainly a very remarkable one. I should suspect, with Dr. Darwiu, it cannot be the latter, as that ought to direct the performance of any act in one way only.

Whichever of these it may be, it is, without doubt, one of the strongest examples of instinct, or of the most circuitous reasoning any insect is capable of.— The eggs thus deposited, I at first supposed were loosened from the hairs by the moisture of the tongue, aided by its roughness, and were conveyed to the stomach, where they were hatched; but, où more minute search, I do not find this to be the case, or at least only by accident, for when they have remained on the hairs four or five days, they become ripe, after which time the slightest application of warmth and moisture is sufficient to bring forth in an instant the latent larva. At this time, if the tongue of the horse touches the egg, its operculum is thrown open, and a small active worm is produced, which readily adheres to the moist surface of the tongue, and is from thence conveyed with the food to the stomach. If the egg itself be taken up by accident, it may pass on to the intestinal canal before it hatches; in which case its existence to the full growth is extremely precarious, and certainly not so agreeable, as it is exposed to the bitterness of the bile.

I have often, with a pair of scissars, clipped off some hairs with the eggs on them, from the horse, and on placing them in the hand, moistened with saliva, they have hatched in a few seconds. At other times, when not perfectly ripe, the larva would not appear, though held in the hand under the same circumstances for several hours; a sufficient proof that the eggs themselves are not conveyed to the stomach.

It is fortunate for the animals infested by these insects, that their numbers are limited by the hazards they are exposed to. I should suspect near a hundred are lost, for one that arrives at the perfect state of a fly. The eggs, in the first place, when ripe, often hatch of themselves, and the larva, without a nidus, crawls

about till it dies; others are washed off by the water, or are hatched by the sun and moisture thus applied together.

When in the mouth of the animal, they have the dreadful ordeal of the teeth and mastication to pass through. On their arrival at the stomach, they may pass, mixed with the mass of food, into the intestines;. and, when full grown, on dropping to the ground, a dirty road or water may receive them.-If on the commons, they are in danger of being crushed to death, or of being picked up by the birds who so constantly for food attend the footsteps of the cattle. Such are the contingencies by which nature has wisely prevented the too great increase of their numbers, and the total destruction of the animals they feed on.

For the Pocket Magazine.

A RAMBLE

INTO

THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND, DURING THE SPRING OF 1816.

"Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits."

SHAKSPEARE.

SOME time previous to the close of the College Session, I thought with delight on the fast approach of that period, when I should put into execution a plan I had long entertained, of making a pedestrian excursion into the Western Highlands of Scotland. By my Edinburgh friends I was advised, on account of the little foliage then upon the trees, to defer my tour until the season of the year should be more advanced. This I deemed too insignificant a reason for delaying my departure, as I am an ardent admirer of nature at all seasons, and more particularly so, when "The spring

Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing."

SHAKSPEARE.

No sooner, therefore, had the much-desired day

April the 25th, 1818, arrived, than tired of the confinement of an attendance on classes, I laid aside my books for awhile, and filled my little portmanteau with a few necessary articles, in readiness to leave Edinburgh on the following morning.

It being my desire to view the country from as various situations as possible, I determined to proceed as far as Glasgow by water, and perform the remainder of my journey on foot. I found upon enquiry, that, according to my wishes, the tides fortunately, at this time, would allow of my reaching Grangemouth by the Tug steam-boat, which runs daily on the Firth of Forth, between this place and Newhaven, soon enough to meet the Union canal-boat near Falkirk, which conveys passengers and goods thence to Glasgow.

Every thing being thus prepared, I seated myself, about nine o'clock on Thursday morning, outside the Newhaven stage, a one-horse coach; in these parts called, perhaps from its craziness, a noddy. The little village of Newhaven being but a mile and a half from Edinburgh, it was not long ere we reached it, although the vehicle was well filled with passengers, and loaded with their luggage, and the horse almost as ricketty as the machine which he drew. On the pier stood a motley groupe of persons, waiting for a conveyance to the Tug, which was lying at some distance from the laud. Among these "guidfolk" were some old Scotch countrywomen, who, beholding with terror the rough waves of the Firth, and receiving unsatisfactory answers to their laughable enquiries concerning the safety of such an aquatic excursion, gave up their intended voyage, and returned to Edinburgh, in order to seek a safer conveyance home by land.

Soon seizing a corner in a small boat, I bade adieu to Mid Lothian, and all its kind inhabitants. We were some time in coming up to the steam vessel, and not before the surge had very thoroughly soaked myself and others, who happened to be exposed to its heedless rage. With considerable risk of losing a hand or foot by the violent agitation of the two boats, we at length gained the deck of the Tug. This was the first steam-vessel I had entered, and the accidents which had happened in them, suddenly recurring to my

memory, gave rise, for a short time, to a disagreeable sensation of danger. This, however, gradually subsided as my attention became engaged with the view around me.

The Forth is here an arm of the sea, about seven or eight miles in breadth. The counties of Mid Lothian and Fife, on the opposite shores, have but slight re semblance to any part of England with which I am acquainted. Small hills, almost wholly destitute of trees, run along the coast of Fifeshire; beyond these, at a considerable distance, the Ochel range of mountains terminates the view towards the north. The southern side of the Forth is less diffuse in high grounds, but more bountiful in wood. Here Leith and Edinburgh supported, if I may be allowed the expression, by the huge buttress of Salisbury Craigs and Arthur's Seat, with the commencement of the Pentland Hills, whose summits had scarcely lost "their wintery cap of snow," gave a striking character to Mid Lothian, and, despite of all its want of richness, presented a landscape possessed of no little novelty in the eyes of a young English traveller. Behind us, towards the east, the Forth quickly widening, mingled its waters with the German Ocean; and, before us, the protrusion of the Ferry Hills from Fifeshire appeared, until we approached very near Queensferry, to unite the two counties. In this direction the Firth is studded with small islands, or, as they are locally called, inches. They are, for the most part, uninhabited, except by wild rabbits and sea-gulls. On one I observed the remains of an old church, now the abode of a few soldiers; on another, called Inch Garvie, an old castle has been converted into a little battery. Several of them appeared to be formed of basaltic rock. To one my attention was directed by a Scotch gentleman: its top was as white as snow, arising, he informed me, solely from the dung of the sea-gulls!

A raw, cold wind blew across the water, forming, at intervals, an opening in the dense and inky-coloured clouds, through which some rays of the sun burst, and caught the prominent objects in the scene around me, producing an effect well adapted to the rough cast of the country. Nor were the ancient white-washed and

spacious mansions of the Scotch lairds wanting, to enliven the continual sameness of the barren soil upon the shores; among them Lord Roseberry's, on the southern, and Lord Moray's, on the northern, were the most conspicuous.

Finding myself rather chilly, I endeavoured to become warm by pacing the deck, and in this experienced one of the inconveniences of a steam-boat. During this short promenade I passed through two extremely different climates: at the head and stern I was benumbed with cold, but, while over the engine, was as hot as if I had been placed in an oven. Added to this, the unpleasant regularity of the engine-crank did not much prepossess me in favour of steam-boats.

The splashing wheels soon swept us through the short strait of Queensferry. This ferry forms a connecting link in the north road of Scotland; and, in consequence of the sudden convergence of the sides of the Forth, is scarcely two miles across. The contractors for this ferry, I have understood, pay annually to government 3000l. The waters soon widen again, and then gradually decrease towards their source, at the foot of Ben Lomond. Our former prospect being now entirely excluded from our sight by the Ferry Hills, the view was wholly changed. At a distance of about thirty miles in front, we beheld a number of high mountains covered with snow; the highest of these, my companion informed me, was "lofty Ben Lomond," the main object of my excursion. The shores still continued to be high grounds, and seats still continued to peep forth from among the trees, which here are rather abundant. In general, these seats are huge, ponderous fabrics, much more spacious than commodious or elegant. Little closets, in external appearance resembling Moorish watch-towers, are affixed to several parts of these buildings, chiefly to the corners. Lord Elgin's, however, on account of its chaste exterior, so different in this respect from the neighbouring mansions, suddenly attracted my attention. Its particular architecture, from the slight and distant glance I obtained of it, I could not discover: its tout ensemble, however, struck me as being similar to an elegant Grecian temple.