our strength so far aided her struggles, that at length we had the gratification to place her on her legs on the dry bar, apparently none the worse for the occurrence, though five minutes more delay would have been fatal to her, as the strong flood tide was already foaming into the harbour, and in less than ten minutes nearly the whole bar was one entire sheet of water.

The mare had indeed a most narrow escape, for when first we commenced our labours we thought them all in vain, for as fast as we dug, the sand was so soft and watery, that it continued to fill up the pit, so that our task seemed both an endless and a hopeless one; still we persevered, and by degrees the water drained away, till at length we could throw out the sand almost in solid masses. Thus ended our day's muscle gathering, and doubtless the days of many of these shell fish were lengthened by the unforeseen accident that marred our pursuit, although I have little doubt that had we attempted to pass the bar only one half hour later, such an accident would never have occurred at all.

Upon the whole, therefore, we pronounce that the dangers to be apprehended from quicksands in these parts have been much magnified; at the same time, particularly during spring tides, it will be more prudent not to attempt to pass over any places of this character very soon after the ebb tide has left them bare, and above all to be careful not to pass between two deep pools that are placed within a couple of yards or so from each other."

Quicksands, if they run but shallow, are often exceedingly serviceable to the fishermen, being great places of resort for the sand launce, which they catch by means of a peculiar kind of hook adapted to the purpose, about which we shall have something more to say hereafter; for there is much worse sport than catching sand launce, particularly when it is varied by chasing flounders and other fish through the pools, and the duckings incidental to the pursuit, but which our present limits preclude us from saying any

more.

EVILS OF BETTING.

BY YORK.

The difficulties which have existed from time immemorial of compelling persons to pay their bets when disposed to evade a settlement have invariably operated most injuriously to racing. When it is remembered that the strong arm of the law is insufficient to compel men to pay debts which are denominated legal, should they be disposed to avoid their liquidation by secreting their gains, how much more difficult must it be to enforce payments over which the administrators of the law politely decline to interfere.

Incomprehensible as the law is acknowledged to be, there is not

a greater anomaly than its recognition of bets on horse-racing, for sums not exceeding ten pounds in amount, and holding illegal all contracts for a greater stake.

The rules adopted at Goodwood, and most judiciously responded to at other meetings, relative to defaulters, will doubtless be productive of the most salutary effects among the regular frequenters of the ring; but little or no protection is afforded to the numerous speculators in country places, such as Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Worcester, and many other parts of the kingdom, where, if the sums be not individually large, they are numerous. Nothing has appeared of late years so prejudicial to the interest of the Turf as the innumerable Derby and Leger Lotteries, which have been established to so great an extent in every country town. "Sweeps," as they are vulgarly, though not inappropriately termed, for they are worthy only of the class whose name they are allied to, and if confined to the members of that trade would be well enough; but unfortunately they extend far and wide, and are the means of inducing thousands of persons totally unacquainted with racing to enter into speculations which can only be productive of benefit to the projectors, and ultimate loss to those who engage in them-the publicans at whose houses they are got up. It is only wonderful that any man with the slightest knowledge of figures, and the ability of calculating chances, will throw his money away in so improvident a manner. For example, there can be but one winner of a race, I believe every man will acknowledge. If a person purchases a ticket in a lottery for a stake in which one hundred horses are engaged, the price of which ticket is one sovereign, it is clearly ninety-nine to one against his drawing the winner-that is, he must expect to win once in ninetynine years, or expend ninety-nine sovereigns before he becomes the successful subscriber; on which occasion he has to expend some five or ten pounds in champagne, per centage, and other drawbacks, before he draws the money. It is true, and will be argued on the other hand, there are a great number of horses in the betting, and he who is fortunate enough to draw a favourite can hedge, but in this arises the serious mischief. The holder of that favourite is necessitated, if such be his determination, to attend at the betting publichouse of the town in which he lives (if there be any betting men who frequent it), or entrust his commission to some betting friend in London or Manchester, who kindly undertakes to negociate for him, who at the same time kindly takes care of himself, and ere long informs the holder of the lottery ticket that no one would take less than forty to one, although the quotation is only twenty-five, but which the aforesaid kind commission friend has laid, in consequence of coupling the bet with another, suitable and profitable for himself. Thus, if a man stands his little stake out, his chances of winning are very remote; if he hedges, being lucky enough to have drawn a horse in the betting, he has very little prospect of realizing any profit. A man having a fancy for two or three horses will find it a much better speculation to take the odds about them; in that case he has the opportunity of exercising his judgment in making the selection, in the other it is all chance.

The rules which are in existence respecting the running of horses by persons who have not paid up their stakes, are good as far as they go, but something more is evidently wanting to render them positively effective. Stringent as laws may be-whether they relate to the legislative enactments of a nation, or whether they be rules established for the guidance of a certain portion of the community, who may be said to adopt laws applicable to their own peculiar cases, and which laws are compulsory by general consent and usage-it is almost, if not quite, impossible to frame them in such a manner as to secure them from some infractions. At the same time it must be remembered that laws are seldom passed until the evil ways of some person or persons point out the necessity of protecting the honest and well-disposed from the designs of the crafty and dishonourable: thus a precept is as it were established before the means of redress present themselves, and like a disease, the prevention of which is more easy than the cure, it becomes a source of difficulty to eradicate the mischievous example which has been established."

The identification of the ownership of race horses would be a most important feature in the present laws of racing, and as an adjunct to the laws relating to defalcations in the payment of stakes, appears to be indispensable. A man may run as many horses as he pleases in the name of his friends, providing those friends will acknowledge the transaction; and a man having once asserted a fact, is not very likely to convict himself by disclaiming an act which on the outset he proclaimed as being in accordance with the laws and usages of the society which he is desirous to move in. Thus a man whose payments have been punctually attended to, or one who never having possessed a horse cannot have any obligations of the kind, patronizes a known defaulter by entering and naming his horse for certain stakes as his own property; having done so, it is not probable that he will disavow his own act, which carries with it an implied declaration, because a disavowal would vilify him at once, and render him not only open to public censure, but public accusation also.

In order to render the present restrictions more effective, it appears requisite that every horse should be entered in the name of the person to whom he absolutely belongs; and if the entry be for a stake in which he receives a nomination-such as the Goodwood Stake, Liverpool Cup, and such like engagements, which are maintained by the united subscriptions of numbers who do not possess horses-the name of the owner of the horse should in all cases succeed that of the original subscriber, that no entry to nominations in such stakes should be valid without the express authority of the original subscriber; to whom all the penalties should appertain in cases of the owner of the horse setting at defiance the laws respecting the said ownership and payment of stakes, in like manner that they would be available against the owner of the horse. This might in some measure reduce the number of subscribers to such stakes, but there is no question of its being a powerful means of purifying the Turf of many of the pollutions with which it is now overburthened; and I think few will deny but a more concentrated, at the same time more creditable body would be far more conducive to the interests of racing than

the present condition of the component parts can ever be expected to produce.

To render the laws of racing more perfect, a more systematic registry of pedigree and identity appears to be required. The Stud Book is all very well as far as it goes, but it is open to many errors, and still more so to any wilful misrepresentations. The information from which it is compiled being derived from breeders, it is clearly in their power to make such returns as may serve their own purposes, and which there is no doubt is occasionally done; in this there is not the slightest blame attributable to the publishers, or the slightest dereliction of duty or want of exertion apparent on their part. A plan might, I am of opinion, be devised which would not only render the identity of racing stock more certain, but which would assist very materially in reducing the labours and the expense of compiling the Stud Book, and by which the facilities which now exist of running three years old for two years old, and four years old for three's, would be almost defeated. The suggestion is to appoint certain persons to superintend districts-Clerks of Races, for instance, who should register all thorough-bred stock brought to them by the breeders at the time they are with the mares, and who should enter the peculiar marks and characteristic distinctions of every foal on the payment of a certain fee, part of which to go to Messrs. Weatherby, and part to the Clerk of the district: from such data the Stud Book would be a much more authentic publication than it can be under the present arrangement. A law to the effect that no horse should be eligible to be entered, or run for any stake, unless his pedigree and description were entered in accordance with the aforesaid proposition, would impose the necessity of every breeder desirous to train or sell, of making the required entry; which the Clerk of the district, having inspected at the time, could at any future period identify with considerable certainty, and being constantly in the neighbourhood would be enabled to make occasional observations, if he had reason to suspect nefarious intentions.

TURTLE-HUNTING

IN TEXAS AND THE GREAT CAYMAN.

BY P. S. J.

During the whole night of the third of February, it blew a severe gale from the north-west, raising a heavy sea, and chilling the whole atmosphere to a very disagreeable extent; we therefore remained at anchor between Live Oak Point and Lamar, two most picturesque towns situate in the extreme bend of Aransas Bay, a somewhat extensive inlet on the coast of Texas. The craft in which I was on this

occasion domiciled, was the Gale Borden, a small schooner in the revenue service of the republic, sent out by order of President Sam. Houston to select a proper site for a Custom-house, as near as safety would allow to the frontier of Mexico. With morning a cessation of the norther came, and, weighing anchor, we sailed down the bay en route for Turtle Cove, which had been strongly recommended to the commission on board as a proper and fitting harbour on which to establish the public office.

About eleven, the weather still continuing to be chilly, we came up to and joined company with the Shamrock schooner, Captain Wyhant commander, which, being attached to our expedition, and having the pilot aboard, led the way to the inlet alluded to.

The unusual coolness of the morning, though physically unpleasant, yet had one agreeable feature about it, as it promised a good supply of turtle, if the representations made to us concerning the extraordinary abundance of this amphibious beast in Turtle Cove were not exaggerated. The mouth of Aransas Bay, towards which we were now proceeding, is formed by a somewhat broad channel between the islands of Mustang, or wild horse, and that of St. Joseph; at the northern extremity of the former, which coasts the shores of Texas for nearly seventy miles, is situate the cove we were in search of, and which about mid-day we entered, preceded by our companion, the little Shamrock. It was a small bay, shaped somewhat like an horse-shoe, about a mile wide, and in depth a little more than a league. I never yet entered a place more admirably adapted for the purpose for which it was intended-that of a secure harbour for the craft trading up and down the coast, as well as for a port whence the produce of the soil could be transported to the towns, up to which larger shipping could come. Turtle Cove itself had a bar, admitting nothing which drew more than seven feet water, but this could easily be removed. It abounds too with numerous varieties of fish, and everywhere almost is intersected with beds of delicious oysters.

We had not entered the bay more than a mile and a half, when the sun burst forth from behind a cloud, and about the same instant I descried on the beach a couple of small turtle. The night had been so severely cold that, as we were led to expect, these animals had left the water, and sought refuge on shore; where, completely benumbed and chilled by the pinching wind, they lay perfectly helpless, waiting until the vivifying rays of the sun should restore animation to their limbs, and enable them to re-enter that element in which the animal delights chiefly to dwell. Our boat, into which I and the Custom commissioner had leaped, was scarcely twenty yards from the schooner's side, when a loud cry re-called us, and accordingly pulling back we found that our captain having examined with his glass the extremity of the bay, found it completely strewed with turtle of all sizes and descriptions. A quarter of an hour had scarcely elapsed ere our anchor was thrown over the side, our sails snugly furled, and six of our party pulling for the shore to capture as soon as possible the delicious animal, which lay awaiting our coming in almost utter helplessness. The scene presented the most extraordinary and, to me, most novel appearance I had ever witnessed. The bay had here nar