cal vegetation, and longed for the spreading oak, the noble elm, and graceful ash of my native land! Here they are unknown. The evergreen cork and pepper tree, groves of olives of a whitish-gray tint, intermixed with the lemon, the orange and fig-tree, of a deep rich green, cover the land. The quantity of oil produced from these olives is immense; and it is well it is so, in a country where there is little pasture-land, and where no sort of care is or ever has been bestowed on the rearing of cattle; consequently, the meat is very bad-almost unwholesome; and there is little or no butter or milk except that given by the numerous herds of goats which seek their scanty meals high up amongst the rocks. The cows and oxen subsist, in a great measure, on the rind of the Indian fig, and the dried leaves of the maize or Indian corn. At a certain season of the year, the sheep are fed on the rind of oranges and lemons, from which the juice and spirit has been extracted, chiefly for the English market. these seas, a prodigious size, also serves as an article of food. I have seen some, full five feet across from one point of the star to another; it is eaten boiled, and resembles hard salt gristle covered with slime. In the spring, broad beans are eaten, raw, after dinner; also a kind of turnip, raw likewise; in the winter these are replaced by large uncooked fennel roots. Asparagus grows wild in the fields and gardens, none taking the trouble to cultivate it; it is exceedingly bitter; this remark applies to many other vegetables, but the bitterness is in some degree disguised by the manner in which they are served up; for the water in which they have been boiled being squeezed out, is replaced by a plentiful supply of lemonjuice and olive oil. Some families who have traveled, live in the French style; but I have heard of a French cook, that was brought out by a Sicilian gentleman, who, when he saw the scanty manner in which the Palermo market was supplied, and the quality of the viands exposed for sale, threw up his arms in wild despair, and declared he had nothing left to do but to hang himself. I one day saw an English bottle-jack, which had been offered for sale in the palace in which I resided; it was being exhibited every where as a curiosity. They called it a clock, and were lost in amazement at the perfection to which the arts and sciences were carried in England, which they pronounced to be a wonderful country. I merely remarked that it would be useless to purchase the clock, as it would be next to impossible to procure the joints it was its duty to roast. People seemed to agree with me, and the machine remained unsold. The manner of living and eating of the Sicilians forms as great a contrast to our English ideas as can well be imagined; the people, rich and poor, eat of things as far removed from our notions of what is fit for table, as would be the diet of the cows and sheep from the ideas of any well-bred English animal of those species. In walking one day through the streets of Palermo, I came upon some people surrounded by a number of bushel-baskets, piled high up, with what appeared to me at a distance round white pebbles. On approaching nearer, I found they were common garden-snails. I asked for what purpose they were intended, and was informed they were a favorite article of food with the Sicilians. Close by was a fire made be- During the winter months, good veal tween four stones, and a large iron crock from Sorrento is brought over by the or pot set thereon full of this aliment, steam-boats from Naples to Palermo, and hitherto unappreciated by me, but which is bought up at a high price by the genwas in process of preparation for sale for try. The native beef is always eaten the benefit of the public, by being boiled stewed, or in the form of sausage-meat; with some green herbs and tomatoes. I otherwise it would be too hard for any afterwards had the advantage of partak- teeth or any digestion. The Sicilians ing of this dish at the table of a Sicilian are, however, even greater maccaroni-eatnoble, who, with his family, sucked the ers than the lazzaroni of Naples, and in snails out of their shells with delight. I this way console themselves for the want forced myself to eat two of them out of of meat. Every one begins dinner by eatpoliteness, of course, as it is considered ing a large plateful, piled as high up as it want of good breeding to refuse any dish can be handed to him; and as it is prein Sicily. The entrails of fowls are care-pared with extremely strong cheese, oil, fully washed, cooked and served up. The tomatoes, and a kind of very bitter fruit, polypus we call star-fish, which attains, in fried in slices, it is a portion formidable for any English man or woman to get through. When such is the ordinary fare in a palace, it may be imagined what it must be among the poor, and one can well understand the enormous benefit bestowed on them by the tunny-fishery. The thon, as it is called in French, or tunny, is a fish but little known in this country, as it never visits our shores. In Paris it may be seen exposed for sale in small quantities, preserved in oil, but never fresh, for even with the aid of the Marseilles Railway it could scarcely reach Paris before spoiling the season of the fishery being principally in the hot months of May and June. This fish, whose flesh is very solid, some say resembling veal, forms in Sicily the chief food of the lower classes during the summer, and is a source of wealth to some of the richest Sicilians. It is migratory, proceeding in shoals like its smaller brethren, the herring and mackerel. In the early part of April it begins to leave the ocean, entering the Mediterranean by the Strait of Gibraltar. The thon, notwithstanding its great size, is a timid fish, and likes smooth water; for this reason, and for the facility of finding the small sardines, anchovies, and marineplants on which they feed, they coast along the shore, taking refuge in rough weather in the numberless gulfs and bays formed by the sinuosities of the land, and where the sea is often unruffled when it is agitated outside. They thus proceed on their journey, and are caught in great numbers on the coast of Sardinia and on the Ligurian shore; but where man makes the greatest havoc in their ranks is on the coast of Sicily. I should premise that it is the intention of the tunny to coast along the shores of Italy, go through the Strait of Messina, and pass the summer in the Black Sea. It often happens, however, that when they arrive at the strait, the agitated state of the water, caused by the meeting of the current from the Adriatic and that coming through the strait-the Scylla and Charybdis of the ancients-frightens them so much that it induces them to change their route, and coast round Sicily, intending to reach the Black Sea by that longer but calmer voyage; this is the reason they fall a prey in such numbers to the Sicilians, who have their prisons of net-work ready to receive them. Neither time nor expense is spared in getting these ready for sea, and the amount of both required may be inferred from the following figures: the nets are 1400 or 1500 feet long, nearly 300 wide, (in parts,) and from 50 to 100 feet deep; in fact, for three months before the fishery begins, hundreds of men are employed in repairing the boats and other gear, and in making new nets. In many parts of these, very great strength is required, for the fish they are to inclose measure from five to seven feet long, and their girth is nearly as great. In this country, where there are no rope-manufactories, the proprietor of the tonnara has to procure ship-loads of sparto or Spanish grass from Valencia, and hemp from the Naples market, and then to make his own ropes, afterwards to be converted into nets; so that the courtyard of one of the most ancient and magnificent palaces of Palermo is seen to serve all the purposes of a rope-walk, whence the produce is conveyed to Solanto, where the making of the nets begins. Solanto is a promontory covered with small cottages, the dwellings of the fishermen engaged in the tonnara, and which cluster round an ancient Norman castle, the residence of Blanche of Castile during her sojourn in these parts, and now the summer habitation of the proprietor of the fishery. It stands on a projecting point of rock, in a highly picturesque situation; from its balconies, the fish may be seen swimming in the waters below, and the view stretches far over the sea, away to the Lipari Isles, and along the coast to the point of Cefalu. This settlement is in full activity from March till July. The men enter into an engagement with the proprietor of the tonnara in the month of February; they agree for a certain amount of daily wages, and, after all expenses have been paid, and a certain profit secured by the owner, they get a percentage on the extra profits; they are thus deeply interested in the success of the affair. As soon as the heat sets in, they no longer sleep in their houses, but lie down on the open beach, and start up to their work at the first break of dawn. About the first week in April, the nets being completed, are put into large boats or barges, with an abundant supply of large stones and anchors. It is necessary that the water should be comparatively still for the letting down of the nets. There are strong under-currents in the Mediterranean, called in the Sicilian dialect, rema; and as it is absolutely necessary the nets should stand perpendicularly in the water, and form walls of net-work, it would be useless to sink them while these currents prevail, as they would be forced into a slanting position, and the chambers could not be formed. Watchers, whose duty it is to look constantly down into the water, are therefore set to announce when the rema ceases; and as it is quite uncertain at what moment it may terminate, the boats and men are kept in readiness from the break of day to evening, in order to put off at any instant, and profit by the favorable moment for lowering the nets; until this be accomplished, all is at a stand-still. Sometimes a delay of many days takes place, for these currents are of most uncertain duration and return, and many anxious eyes are bent on the shining surface of the sea, when troops of fish are beginning to pass by, and no prisons are ready to receive them! It may not be generally known to English readers, that St. Anthony is considered as the patron of fishermen; to account for which the Sicilians say, that one day he began to preach to the heathens; but as they remained incredulous, he turned round and addressed the fishes, who came out of the water in crowds to listen to him; on which the people who witnessed the miracle became converted in great numbers. As soon, then, as the nets are fairly in the sea, the protection of St. Anthony is implored, and a large branch of olive, some ten feet high, which has been previously blessed in the church, is fixed in the center of the tonnara. The priest then makes the circuit of the nets in a boat, pronouncing a blessing as he goes. This is the last preparation, and to the Sicilians the most important, for their religion enters into all they do. The nets, then, being fairly established, and in perfect order, two watchers are placed at the opening of the first chamber, to announce the entrance of the fish. The men lean over the edge of the boat, hav to screen them from the sun, and to throw a shade on the water, on which they drop a little oil from time to time to render it smooth; by these means they can see what is passing in the blue depths below. The watchers are relieved every three hours, and remain at their post immovable and in perfect silence from before dawn till evening. When they see a troop of fish enter, they close the entrance to the nets; the tunnies go round and round till they come to the opening into the second chamber, and so on till they arrive at the chamber of death. The men then hoist a signal, which, being perceived on shore, a red flag is run up on the castle-tower, which is saluted with cries of "Bandiera a Solanto!" (The flag at Solanto,) and the boats put off with the men requisite to weigh the net. At length the wished-for signal is given, and the boats having arrived at the appointed spot, (about a mile from the shore,)ing a tarpauling spread over their heads, the stones and anchors are made fast at intervals to the lower edge of the nets, in order to sink them to the bottom, the upper edge being floated by pieces of the cork-tree; they are cast into the sea by two boats' crews, parting from one point, and lowering them in such a manner as to form a succession of squares, loud cries of joy announcing the completion of each chamber. To understand this term, it must be remembered that we have said the nets form walls of net-work, openings being left between each chamber by which the fish are to enter, and which can be closed at will, by raising from the bottom to the top of the net, a door or curtain which lies reefed below till the fish enter; it is then drawn up behind them, thus preventing their escape. Finding the opening to the second chamber, they enter, and are inclosed by the raising of a curtain, as in the first; and so they go on through the several chambers, until they reach the last and fatal one, called the "chamber of death." At the bottom of this last room is a square of net-work, immensely strong, called the leva, exactly fitting to the four sides of the net-walls; this can be raised and lowered at pleasure.* Sometimes the fish remain hours, or even days, in the center divisions of the nets, and will not go to the last, as if they knew the fate that awaited them there; and there is no means known either of forcing or enticing them forward-they must be left to themselves. I was once present at a very large "take" of tunnies at Solanto. The object of forming these numerous cham-vanced into the second chamber, the first is opened bers is, that one troop of fish having entered and ad- to admit new-comers. The graceful three-masted launch of the proprietor put off from the shore one morning early, when the red flag on the castle-tower announced that fish were in the chamber of death. She bounded, propelled by six young rowers, over the sapphire waters, more deeply blue than the sky overhead, and we were soon at the scene of action. The movable floor of net-work, (leva,) was being rapidly hauled to the surface of the water; the fishermen uttering loud cries of joy, as their practiced eyes already perceived in the blue depths their monstrous prey in great numbers. The flying-fish, which by chance had got into the net, sprang high into the air, and were caught by the lookers-on. The scene soon became painfully and intensely exciting. We could see the imprisoned victims rushing wildly round and round, trying to escape, and casting the water, lashed into foam by their struggles, high into the air. At length when the net was within six or eight feet of the surface, it was made fast at the four corners, and the battle began. Each man seized his sharp, hooked weapon, and plunging it into the fish, dragged them, with loud shouts, alive into the boats; blood spouted in great quantities from the wounded creatures, covering the men and reddening the waves for a long distance round. The butchery continued till all were taken; the efforts of two or three men being required to secure each fish, as they are very strong. Once out of the water, however, they soon die. People of all ranks take the greatest delight in this scene, and come from long distances to witness it. They do not call it fishing, but killing, as in fact it is. The boats are towed to the shore, and the fish are sold to dealers from all the neighboring towns and villages, some buying one fish, some two or three, according to the population to be supplied. and, as in the hight of the season the tunny fetches only a farthing a pound, it may be imagined what a boon it is to people eating little or no meat. Immense quantities are salted down, and form the winter provision, whilst a considerable portion is exported. This tonnara of Solanto (eight miles from Palermo by land) is one of the best on the coast of Sicily, from its position, having a large gulf before it, into which the tunny are sure to come. That of Signor Florio, called Arinella, is less productive; but it has the advantage of being nearer the capital, consequently there is less expense attending the fishery, and better prices are obtained. The fish which remain unsold on the beach of Solanto at the ringing of the "Ave Maria,” (at sunset,) are taken in boats to Palermo. The voyage is about ten miles by sea, and is sometimes attended with difficulty and danger; the cape Zaffarana having to be doubled, where boats and cargo together are sometimes lost. When a large haul is secured on a Saturday morning, quantities are sent off to Naples by the steamer, which always leaves on that day.* This tonnara formerly belonged to the kings of Naples. The grandfather of his present majesty often superintended it in person, and amused himself for hours, sitting on the shore, bargaining for his fish with the dealers. The average profit obtained may be reckoned at a thousand a year. Sword-fish are sometimes taken in the net with the tunny, or alone; these are not dragged into the boats with hooks, but carefully towed ashore after them. *The evenings of Saturday and Sunday are always devoted by the family of the proprietor to amusement, in which the fishermen and their daughters are allowed to have a share. A dancing-master, accompanied by two musicians, is brought from Palermo, who generally set us dancing interminable quadrilles; not the stiff kind of walk now inThe first take of tunny that I witnessed dulged in by English and French society, but a was on the seventeenth of April; the num-really lively dance, composed of the figures of the ber in the net was found to be sixteen. They were sold on the beach at Palermo, for a sum equal to £70 sterling; this large price, averaging nearly one shilling a pound, was obtained because it was the first haul of the season. The greatest activity prevails during the first half of June. Prayers are offered up daily to St. Anthony, from the first to the date of his fête, the thirteenth. He is entreated to implore from Almighty God a plentiful take of fish; ordinary quadrilles, Caledonians and Lancers mixed up together, he calling out in bad French each evolution that had to be performed, and keeping us All the village-girls dance in continual movement. polka, waltz, and mazurka, as well as any lady at Almack's, on the evenings in question. They were allowed to come with their fathers and brothers to see the dancing-the gentlemen of the household choosing one of them from time to time for a partner; very often several of them were called on to Amongst themselves, the tambourine is the favorite up the number for an English country-dance. instrument, to the music of which they dance the Tarantella." make Their flesh, which is much superior to that of the tunny, is sold; but the roe is carefully preserved for the private eating of the proprietor, as it is considered a great luxury. On the 29th of June, St. Peter's Day, the tunny-fishery ends. The nets that have formed the chambers are cut, sink to the bottom, and perish. The leva, which is the strongest part, as it has to support the whole weight of the fish as it is raised through the water at every successive haul, is carefully laid up, and, with some slight repairs, serves for the last scene of existence to tunny of other years. THE PRINCE OF WALES, K. G. HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF young prince was subsequently invested WALES, Heir-Apparent to the throne of with the Earldom of Chester, which has England, is expected to arrive in Canada since been included in the patents of a few days hence, as is well known to the creation. The Scottish titles of the public. London papers of a recent date prince are derived from Robert the announce his departure for Canada to Third, in whose reign they were vested take place July 11, with a large retinue, in the heir-apparent to the crown of Scotin the steam frigate St. George, under land forever. On the tenth of September, the command of Captain the Hon. Francis 1849, her Majesty granted to her son and Egerton. The Earl of St. Germans, the heir, Albert Edward Prince of Wales, Lord Steward of the Queen's Household, and to his heirs, Kings of Great Britain attends the Prince. and Ireland, forever, the dignity of the To honor the visit of the Prince in Earl of Dublin, of the United Kingdom, some humble measure, and to gratify a in memory of her Majesty's visit to that feeling of laudable interest, as we believe, portion of her dominions. His Royal in the minds of our patrons, we embellish Highness takes his seat in the House of our present number of the ECLECTIC with Peers as Duke of Cornwall. a fine portrait of this royal personage, The rank and position of his Royal accompanied with a biographical sketch. Highness are thus explained in “Dod,” We trust both the portrait and the sketch an efficient authority in all matters of will be regarded by our Canada friends precedence: "The Prince of Wales has especially with pleasure and personal been at all times regarded as the first gratification. subject in the realm, the nearest to the His Royal Highness Albert Edward throne, the most dignified of the Peers of Prince of Wales, Duke of Saxony, Prince Parliament, and though not exercising any of Saxe Coburg Gotha, Duke of Cornwall political power beyond his vote as a legis and Rothsay, Earl of Chester, Carrick, lator, yet regarded by all men as the and Dublin, Baron Renfrew, and Lord of most eminent personage in the state the Isles, K.G., and Heir-Apparent to the next after the sovereign; the Prince of throne of England, was born at Bucking- Wales is the heir-apparent; the heir-preham Palace on the 9th of November, 1841. sumptive may be brother, uncle, nephew, The heir-apparent derives his titles, niece, or even a more distant relative of partly by inheritance and partly by the sovereign; but the prospect which an creation, from the circumstance of King heir-presumptive may possess of eventEdward the First having, in politic con-ually succeeding to the throne gives him cession to the Welsh chieftains, created no place in the scale of precedency: the his heir "Prince of Wales," a few days rank he holds is merely derived from conafter his birth at Carnarvon Castle. The sanguinity. But the station of the Prince |