servedly admired, since it perfectly suits the place in which it stands.

The entrance to the arsenal is always shut, to prevent the interruption of the workmen by the curious; among whom, also, might be mixed evil-disposed persons, or the accomplices of the galley-slaves, whose least culpable project would be to assist their escape. After having passed the gate, where a ticket of admission must be shewn when the party is not accompanied by a superior officer, we find ourselves in the great building-yard.

They were then repairing the Indomptable, and three ships were on the stocks. The work was going on with that activity, which the august Chief of the Empire knows how to impress on those whom he employs. The ship-wrights worked day and night, and on Sundays. Here every one is in a hurry, and yet no confusion Occurs. The workmen chaunt provincial songs to the sound of their tools. Galley-slaves carry the beams, the planks, the anchors, the cables, and perform the hardest work. They are distinguished by a particular dress, and their sharp cries unite with the horrible clanking of their chains.

"If the model of the Muron had afforded us pleasure, what was our delight at seeing the identical frigate? She carries 36 guns. The basin, constructed by the celebrated engineer Grogniard, was entitled above all to our attention; it is an astonishing work, considering the numberless obstacles which were to be vanquished before it could be executed, and the inconceivable operations to which the nature of the place obliged him to have recourse.

'When large ships were built, they were launched formerly by the same means, which were employed in launching ordinary vessels but the danger of this operation, for a mass so enormous, was incalculable. The builders have, therefore, contrived to remedy this inconvenience by the construction of a basin, in which the water of the sea is admitted to the vessel, and conducts it into the port. The genius of the engineer, Grogniard, knew how to conquer difficulties, which seemed to oppose themselves to the execution of such a project; difficulties, too, which were augmented by the envy, bad faith, and personal interest of his enemies. This wonderful work is at the extremity of the dock-yard, towards the sea: for its execution, M. Grogniard made an enormous raft, on which he placed the enormous caisson in which they were to build the basin.

'It was intended, at first, to make this caisson on shore, and to launch it into the water in the same way as a vessel is launched: but the artisans were fearful of its foundering, and therefore constructed it on the spot on which they meant to sink into the sea. It was filled with iron and brass cannon, to the number of 1800, ånd of the heaviest weight that could be found. After having thus sunken the caisson, they built within it the basin, in the shape of a vessel, with hewn stone. This basin, or dry dock, is 180 feet long, 80 broad, and 18 deep.

When the entrance of this basin is closed, and they wish to lay it dry, 28 pumps are worked by strong galley-slaves, who in eight hours perform the operation. To repair a vessel, she is conducted into this basin, which is closed by means of a bateau-porte, that is, a little box-like vessel, each extremity of which slides in a groove. When water is to be let into the basin, they unload this little vessel, and the sea lifts it up. This conical boat, which shuts up the entrance of the basin, moves in different groves cut in solid masonry, according as the bason is wanted to be of greater or less length. Here ships of war are built and repaired.—When the hull of a vessel is finished, she is conducted to the port, to be masted, rigged, and armed. The business at the port corresponds to that which is going on in the yard. At the extremity of the mole is a machine for getting in the masts. Here also the galley-slaves fill the casks with water from a fountain appropriated to the use of the navy; here they collect and coil the cordage, &c. All resembles the buzzing of a hive of bees, or the activity of an ant-hill.

'Vice-admiral Latouche had required the construction of a fireship; it was finished, and put at the disposal of the commandant; it was designed to act against the English, who shewed themselves every day in our road.

'The English, joined with the Spaniards, possessed themselves of Toulon in 1793, during the war of the Revolution; and, on evacuating the port, they burnt and sunk many vessels. We have tried to raise them, but some hulls remain which we cannot move, excepting piece meal, by diving. We have brought forty-four divers from Naples, who are paid five franks per day, and have the half of all that they bring up. Among these articles, however, few are of great value, since in most places the fire consumed the vessel to the interior of the wood, which proves that it must have burnt a long time under water: but every thing which is metallic is of use. The divers employ in this business chissels and knives, six feet long, which have a beam for the handle, of a given dimension. They thrust the edge wherever they choose, and, by the aid of a rammer worked in a boat by the galley-slaves, they drive the instrument into the wood. Whatever is detached by this operation is instantly fished up. Each diver, before he goes down, makes the sign of the cross, and does not remain under water more than two or three minutes.'

The mast-house, the spinning-house, the rope-house, (or rather stone-arched walk, 320 toises or 640 yards long.) the sail-yard, the smiths-shop (resembling the cavern of the Cyclops,) the foundery, the cooperage, the timber-yard, the carvers' shops, &c., are all distinctly noticed, followed by an account of the several magazines, (the general depôt having been burnt by the English, and not yet rebuilt,) of the armoury, (which, since it was stripped by the English, has not regained its former splendour,) of the modelroom, &c. but my extract has been already protracted to an inconvenient length; although I must find room for the following

account of the Tunny fishery, which is of as much importance in the Mediterranean, as the salmon and herring fisheries are in the north of Europe. There are several modes of fishing for the tunny, but the best and most certain are the thonnaire and the madrague.

The thonnaire, provincially tounairé, is, in some places, only an enclosure formed by nets for catching the tunny. Seamen are placed to observe the arrival of the fish, and to give a signal by hoisting a flag. Vessels then come to the spot at which the fish have assembled; some of the people encompass them with nets, and some drive them towards the shore, where they catch them with other nets. At St. Tropez, and on the coast of Provence, the tounaïré is a net in a spiral form; in which the tunnies, when · caught, are almost always dead, because it closes their gills and choaks them, for which reason the madrague is preferred, which takes all sorts of fish. It is supposed that the name madrague or mandrague, probably used by the antient Marsellois, was derived from the Greek, which signifies a fold, enclosure, or fence It is, in fact, a vast enclosure, composed of three large nets, divided by others into many chambers or compartments. Before the net, towards the open sea, is a long passage (allée), formed by two parallel nets, which is called chasse. The tunnies, running in between them, enter the madrague; and, passing from chamber to chamber, they arrive at last at what is called the chamber of death, or the corpou, or corpus. After every thing has been made ready, the fishermen draw up the nets of each chamber, in order to force the fish to enter that which would prove fatal to them. George, the king of the madrague, soon joined us with his fishermen: we followed him to the corpou, and he threw some drops of oil on the sea, and entirely covered his head with a cloth, to enable him to perceive whether any fish were in the enclosure.* He had fastened at the bottom of his vessel an ass's head, to entice the tunnies, which generally go to the edge of the corpou to see this head. The king of the madrague, after having performed his examination, makes a signal to the proprietors, or to those who rent under them, if the fishing has been successful. When it is abundant, the notice is communicated by other signals, and all the boats are pushed off, filled with persons attracted by curiosity; who, surrounding the madrague, rend the air with their songs and acclamations.

Nothing extraordinary attended the fishing at this time. The net contained only small fish, which is always a proof that no tunnies are on the spot, because, if they were, the small fish would have been devoured. The tunny-fishery has been less productive since the war, for they are easily frightened, and the firing of the

We repeated the experiment after him, and found that the oil diffused on the surface did, in fact, enable us to discern the fish more easily:*

batteries, placed along the coast, appears to have kept them at a distance.

'Two madragues are at Saint Tropez; and the spot on which they are placed is rented of the Government at 10,600 francs. Their maintenance is, moreover, an object of considerable expense. Two nets are necessary to each, because a shark sometimes entangles himself in them and breaks them; they are also exposed to other accidents, and unless means of replacing them were provided, the fishing must be discontinued. Each net costs 3000 francs, or about 1507. sterling.

For the net of the corpou, 250lbs. of cork are required, which sells at 15 francs per quintal, or hundred. This net sometimes remains for a year or two in the sea: but those which form the internal chambers and the chasse, or entrance-passage, are changed every six months. The sea, in the spot on which the madrague is fixed, is forty fathoms deep.

'The tunny, called scombre thon, or scomber thynnus, Linn., has been in request from times the most remote: the writings of the antients often make mention of it, and its figure is consecrated on their medals. The Romans held it in the highest estimation as an article of food; and Pliny has not deemed it beneath him to notice the precedence which they gave to certain parts of this animal over the rest; they preferred the flesh of the belly, and this is the part of which epicures in the present day are most fond.

The tunny is eaten fresh in all places to which it can be conveyed sweet. Different methods of keeping it are employed. The antients, who were acquainted with several processes, called the salted tunny milandryum, (Plin. xxvi. 7.) because it resembled in colour the shavings of the oak somewhat burnt. Now the practice is to cut the tunny into slices, which are salted, or rather pickled, being dipped in oil after it is impregnated with the salt. The oil which is detached from these fish, when they are washed, and which is pressed out before they are seasoned, is used by tanners. The price of the pickled tunny varies according to the quantity furnished by the madragues?'

BALLAĎ.

"The sea is glass, and mirrored there

Are the bright round moon and her star-train fair;
And the bark leaps on like a living thing,

As the reckless rowers laugh and sing,

And shout as they pass each lagging sail,
That woos in vain the fickle gale

From the arms of night.

England's darling hope and heir,

And the flower of England's youth are there,
And calm and bright as the moon-lit sea,
The life of the young and the gay must be;
And time with them as swiftly flies

As the bark that over its surface lies,
Like a beam of light!

A shock-a shriek!-and the young and brave
Are wrestling all with the whelming wave-
Their lips are still from the wine-cup wet,
The merry burden is ringing yet;

And lo! they drink of the bitter surge,
And the booming billows yell their dirge,
With the struggle, white.

England's court is clouded o'er-
England's king will smile no more.
Oh! the many that giddily sweep
Over the world's delusive deep,

Nor dream of the shoal or the sunken rock,
Till ruin yawns with the fatal rock,

In the haven's sight!"

H.

To the Editor of the Hobart Town Magazine.

SIR,-The sciences of Anatomy and Physic being so much dependent upon a proper knowledge of the principles of the circulation of the blood, I conceive that any new hypothesis must be interesting to your medical readers; under this impression, I beg to offer you the following analysis of the motions of the heart, in the hope that it will be thus brought under the notice of many who might not otherwise have seen it. It is an extract from a treatise on the diseases of the heart, recently published by Kidd, and from the pen of the celebrated Dr. J. Hope. The Doctor divides his treatise into six parts :

1.-Anatomy and Physiology.
2.-Inflammatory affections.
3.-Organic affections.

4.-Nervous affections.

5.-Miscellaneous affections.
6.-Cases.

Each of the above are elaborately explained, and from the first part, the following extract is taken,-p. p. 28 to 30.

OF THE MOTIONS OF THE HEART.

"1. The auricles contract so immediately before the ventricles, that the one motion is propagated into the other, almost as if by continuity of action, yet the motion is not so quick that it cannot readily be traced with the eye.