to meet with are, partridges, woodcocks, grouse, snípes and wild ducks. Partridges are in some seasons very plentiful; and one of the Laxey miners told me that, a few days before my visit to the mines, he had killed thirteen at one shot. Whether he made use of a gun or drew his long bow I did not inquire.

I did not hear of any fresh-water fish except the trout. Fish of this species, generally small, abound in many rivers. I was in company with one gentleman, very fond of angling, who caught with a fly in the Peel river, in the course of a month, one hundred and one dozen.

Some beautiful species of Molussa, the Actinea Rufa Lin., are seen adhering to the rocks where pools are formed, waiting for their prey with extended arms. Of this genus perhaps may be the battlecock mentioned by Townley. It is said to possess nearly all the desirable properties of the turtle, not excepting the green fat, and to make excellent soup. Although some gelatinous animals are not, in their natural form, very tempting to the eye, I know not why they should not make a nutritious and perhaps palatable soup. What could be more

disgusting at first sight than the periwinkle or the oyster, unless the turtle itself be excepted?

Whe

Noxious reptiles are not to be found. ther they would be able to live and multiply is not agreed upon. Giraldus notes a dispute between the Kings of England and of Ireland for this little domain, which was agreed to be amicably settled by the introduction of venomous reptiles from England which would not live in Ireland. The reptiles lived, and the King of England consequently took possession of it.*

This island, like the Hebrides, is destitute of woods and of almost all trees not planted. Sometimes I observed a little brushwood, and at others have had pointed out to me places where bushes and hazle trees used to grow. The subject reminds me of a speech of Dr. Johnson, rather surly to be sure, made to the proprietor of one of the Scottish isles, when talking of his woods: Sir, I have had pointed out to me what I took for heath: if you could shew me any thing like furze

Hollinshed's Chronicles, fo. Vol. I. p. 37.

it would be something."

Furze requires

a better soil than heath. It is plentiful on the uncultivated, low, and hilly lands of Man, but does not appear upon the mountains.

30

CHAPTER III.

On the Population, Climate, Buildings, and Agriculture of the Island.

BEDE relates that in his time (the eighth century) the population of the island did not exceed three hundred families.* He calls the Isles of Man and of Anglesea, Insula Menaviæ, distinguishing one by the Northern, the other by the Southern Menavia.† Hollinshed, who wrote in the year 1584, says, "there were formerly thirteen hundred families in this island, but now scarcely half that number. In the year 1667 the island contained 2531 men between the ages of sixteen and sixty years.

Here follows a detailed account of the population at three distinct periods, the years 1726, 1757, and 1792.

* Ecclesiastical History, Book II. Chap. 9.

+ Petrus Bertius Beverus, editor of Ptolemy's Geography, supposes the Menaviæ of Bede to be the Hébudæ or Hebrides: but this can hardly be the case, since Bede speaks of them as only two. B ß ß. K&P. ß.