for artists aud amateurs to appreciate the merits and value of the collection, as well as for the public to have their minds opened and improved by the creations of art. Then too will the archæologist be supplied with data upon which to speculate, perhaps to the correction and amplification of our knowledge of the most civilized nations of antiquity. Nor must we fail to predict, and with perfect assurance, that ere long the country will come to a sense of the value of Mr. Fellowes's services, to whose knowledge, enthusiasm, and perseverance the Museum is indebted for the possession of these great treasures. Contrast this grateful sentiment with the indignation with which certain officials and persons in power will be visited, when it is known, that in consequence of their vandalism the country not only has been prevented from obtaining, all but gratuitously, and at the most trifling expense, such a collection of inestimable antique sculptures as would alone have filled a grand museum, but that those which have at length been deposited in our national repository, though but a handful, comparatively speaking, would never, it is probable, have reached our shores. Our extracts from the narrative of Mr. Fellowes can require no comment, nor any very pointed allusions on our part to individuals. That account, though incidentally and as delicately as duty could allow, will lastingly expose the indifference and perverseness of sundry persons and boards from which other things might have been looked for. But it may vex and exasperate our readers still farther, when it is distinctly stated that not merely is much wanted to complete the pieces which have been removed, but that the specimens, of which we are now enabled to form a pretty accurate estimate, were merely a few of such as lie on the surface; that they were found in one spot, about a quarter of a mile in extent; that while but a scanty sample of those of Xanthus was removed, Mr. Fellowes has discovered thirteen other ruined cities, each containing works of art; and that only a few days were devoted in the present instance to the business of discovery, with all the other inadequacies and apathies already pointed to. But we have not yet mentioned what has been done, nor what may be the gatheringsin of future explorers. Enough has been discovered and performed to show to other nations where, for the asking, fifty-fold more might have been got; sufficient have been the riches gathered on the top of the ruins to tempt other countries to dig to the bottom.

We have not patience to proceed farther with the expression of regrets at opportunities lost; nor can we trust ourselves to speak of the inexplicable conduct of Captain Graves, or any of the other positive hindrances which Mr. Fellowes had to encounter. The negative were sufficiently provoking; but why should apparently deliberate obstacles have been thrown in the way? Why should so much diplomacy and time have been wasted, when only about eighty tons of stone were brought away?

VOL. I. (1843,) No. III,

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A few facts more, and we have done for the present. One of the rarest monuments, ready for exportation, was left behind; the sculptnres, which had been carefully packed in cases, were opened at Malta, and pitched down into the hold of the vessel that brought them to England like so much ballast; the marks of abrasion and stains of dirt are yet visible on many of them; and in one instance a Grecian hero bears on his shield the initials of some British tar scratched with a knife.

ART. V.-A Voyage round the Coasts of Scotland and the Isles. By JAMES WILSON. 2 vols. Edinburgh. Black.

YACHTING in the Mediterranean and along the shores of classic lands bids fair to become a fashion with our aristocracy; and it is one to be applauded. It is in keeping with the grandest features in our history, and departed will be our might when at the thoughts of the sea Britons turn sick; it is worthy of the people of an ocean-girt isle; and never, while our daintily-bred dames brave the deep in quest of novelties, shall the effeminacy of town-life or the luxuries which opulence can always command, be able to charm away the manhood of the nation. But we would not have our pleasurevoyagers forget home and Albion's coasts, where our jolly tars are bred, where nature has been wondrously prodigal of beauty and varied magnificence; and where, too, story is ever ready to serve you with the most soul-stirring and romantic passages. We therefore would with heartiest welcome have received Mr. Wilson's volumes, even although there had been in them but one-half of the entertainment and novelty which they offer; nor are we without the trustful feeling that his book will wile to the strands and to many a creek of our domestic territory, ere another summer has fled, some from among the upper walks of our unaffected lovers of the picturesque, some of the wise and the good, who cherish a generous curiosity, —a sentiment which we hold to be in beautiful harmony with real beneficence in whatever sphere for action its exercise can have scope.

Mr. Wilson's volumes are the production of a richly-furnished mind, and of an enthusiast. They abound with ornate descriptions; with anecdotes and stories characteristic of the parts and of the people visited; with scientific and antiquarian notices;-a genial and manly sentiment in every passage giving a most acceptable flavour to the whole. In a word it is the production of the fittest sort of Scotchman to do justice to the ways of Scotland. Hearty and happy, observant and informed, hospitably entertained wherever he went, and as true an appreciator of the fire-side comforts, whether lowland or highland, as he is warm in his admiration of nature, or of the sim

plicities and unsophistications in any shape, his volumes afford reading of a useful as well as a highly attractive class. Our only objections are hardly of such a nature in respect of a work of this kind, as to affect its merits; for they mainly relate to externals, and that slightly :-Mr. Wilson's style is over-polished and dressed, and therefore too fine to be always equal to the needs and character of his subjects; and what is somewhat worse, his humour has oft the appearance of pains-taking search, rather than of spontaneous and irrepressible burst; the ornamental elaborated language in these cases particularly having far less the character of coy or quaint beauty than of forced fancy.

Mr. Wilson enjoyed a rare opportunity for making his voyage, and such indeed as hardly any single individual, unless master of a yacht, can look forward to; for it was in the Princess Royal, a Government cutter of 103 tons, built for the fishery service, and in company with the Secretary of the Commissioners of that board, that he sailed; starting from Greenock on the 17th June, 1841. We now must cite a few passages, and without regard to connexion of incident, reminiscence, character, or scenery, unless the inherent matter be considered alone; for in this respect there are many specific as well as generic kinships. And yet while touching at island after neighbouring island, and in such out-of-the-world ways as among the islands and the deeply indented coasts of Scotland, there is sufficient diversity, at the same time that our author's sympathies are adequately enlarged and his fancy amply luxuriant, to furnish on each occasion agreeable fare. One word more,-persons who may imagine that the bleak shores of the main land of Scotland, and still more that the small islands, scattered like sentinels in the adjacent waters, must be barren of points for the tourist's attention, or if not entirely so, that these characteristics have been often enough described to forbid much fresh entertainment now, will find themselves mistaken on a perusal of this book. It is true a number of years may elapse before any considerable change is manifested by the people of such unfrequented spots; and there may be few things over which the spirit of innovation can ever exercise a sway. But then these very simplicities and singlenesses afford to the observant and accurate mind, topics that must necessarily elicit distinct views and portraitures, so as to become illustrative of classes of truths that are universal; at the same time that we naturally take a special interest in the primitive, the strikingly indicative, and whatever may seem destined to undergo a vast change, such as steam must work in the regions under notice.

But there are many novelties to the great majority of mankind to be observed, and that must also awaken speculation as well as reflection, both profitable and amusing, in the character, the aspect, and the annals of a Scottish islet dropt as if at random and to be un

cared for amid the waves of the mighty main and raging sea. When we come, for example, to St. Kilda, that has been not only so stationary during the rapid march of mind and manners, and which offers comparatively so few susceptibilities for revolution or alternation, the reader will yet find that the limited sphere has points for contemplation which are strongly attractive, and that will not soon loose hold of his sympathy.

Rusticity if it amount not to rudeness, and backwardness if it have the element of primitive life rather than of irremovable stupidity, will always interest, will ever be within the scope of the picturesque. For instance, when we are informed that in fishing for crabs, the men poke them behind, as soon as seen crawling along below, with their long staves; that these crustaceans, the moment they feel themselves thus molested, turn round to revenge the indignity, which indignity is extended by a slight shaking of the pole, as if the fisherman were in pain or terror, and that the angry creatures clinging all the closer are thus rapidly hoisted into the boat,- -we meet with an illustration of simplicity that is agreeable to the imagination, proving at the same time that the person who first practised this method must have been an experimenter as well as an observer. One must also suppose that the disciples of such a discoverer are led by their practice to trains of reflection of a proper and instructive kind; one of these trains perhaps being similar to that which guided the author to this moral, "that neither crab nor Christian should ever lose his temper."

It would afford no information, and therefore no interest, were we merely to name the places and points at which our Voyager touched, or were we only to catch at some specific notice or peculiarity. It will be more satisfactory to give samples, both as regards subject and mode of treatment; having our eye to a few of the passages that appear to present things the least familiar to the generality of people. We first of all land at Canna, and have along with an account of, to most Englishers, an unheard-of island, that of a spot in the deep to which a knowing few steadily direct their course.

Canna, though small in itself, may be regarded as a central point among our Hebrides. It is exactly half way between the Mull of O'e, the most southern part of Islay, and the Butt of Lewis, the most northern portion of the western isles; and it is also nearly equidistant from South Uist upon its western, and the coast of Inverness-shire on its eastern side. Our friends could therefore behold a vast tract of Skye and the Outer Hebrides, of Mull and the Mainland, with Coll, Tiree, and countless other islands.

The proprietor of Canna keeps eighty milk cows, and so must be rather well off both for cream and butter. He has also, of course, other stock in the way of cattle, besides 300 sheep, and never houses his beasts, with the exception of cows about to calve. He was formerly tenant of the island, but being successful in farming and other things (Canna lies a long

way from the Custom House), he was enabled to make the purchase for himself. The want of a regular mode of conveyance must be of disadvantage, but we understand that dealers make their way here from all quarters of the country notwithstanding. About fifty years ago a fat cow sold for 21., and now he obtains 71. for two-year-old stots and heifers. When a calf dies, the people are in use to take off its skin and lay it loosely on another calf, and so the cow allows the latter to suck her, and herself to be milked, which she would not otherwise do but for this device—which, however, is probably known to the pastoral experience of other districts. Mr. M'Neill has a couple of large farms on the other side of the island, which are let. The population, by the recent census, we understand to have been 260. The Canna-nites are a peculiar people (for these parts) in their religious persuasion, being all Roman Catholics, except the laird's and one other family. Both parties, however, are upon an equality in this respect, that there is a church-for neither. But once a month the minister from Eig, and the priest from that island, come over in separate boats (we could scarcely expect rivals to row in the same) on Saturday evening, to officiate on the ensuing day— the former in the "Muckle hoose,” as the laird's is called, and the other in some smaller, or, at least, less favoured dwelling. At a short distance from the landing-place are the remains of an old chapel, and a stone cross carved with the figure of a man on horseback. The people of Canna fish a good deal with the long line, and both catch and cure ling.

*

*

We next alight upon certain fishing-ground at Loch Ainort:

Outside its

Having run into Scalpa Sound, Loch Ainort opened on us. mouth were several curing vessels, lying, as we thought, too close upon the fishing-ground; so, in order that we might neither show nor imitate a bad example, we came to anchor at some distance within the Sound. Large shoals of herrings had been ascertained to be in this quarter, and numerous fishing-boats were lying along shore on both sides, their nets drying on the beaches, and little tent-like habitations, made of sails, erected here and there, for the accommodation of those who had arrived from a distance. From some of these ascended diagonally streaming wreaths of pale blue smoke, but ere long, as the evening shadows fell around us, the fires seemed extinguished, and the various boats were seen shooting out from every creek and bay towards the fishing-grounds. They are not allowed to place their nets either before sunset or after sunrise, lest the shoals should take alarm. As this was the first fishery of any importance we had as yet fallen in with, we felt anxious to witness the proceedings, so retiring to bed soon after twelve, we rose again before two, and taking our small boat, were in the midst of the herring fleet just as they had begun to draw. Several were unsuccessful, some only partially so, while others, which we came along-side of higher up Loch Ainort, were hauling in the treasures of the deep like countless wedges of pure silver. Their drifts were shot across the Loch, some boats having five or six barrels of nets, others as many as eight or nine. A barrel measure extends about a hundred yards, the nets are attached together, the whole forming what is called the drift, which, being shot in a straight line, is anchored at either end with heavy stones, and supported immediately by corks and buoys. The breadth of the net is four or five fathoms, and it