the beverages brewed from them; and we might
suppose that the foaming tankards would reasonably
be obtained in this way. But no; free trade
allows ale and beer to flow hither and thither as it
will; and the East Indians and Australians seem
more willing to pay the market-price for Bass
and Barclay than to turn brewers themselves.
Clothing materials, food and drink, metals in
various forms and stages of preparation—these
are the three great classes of imports from the
old country; and considering how weighty
metals are, we may well be surprised that it
should be worth while to send them so far and
in such large quantities. Iron and steel, copper
and brass, lead and tin, plates and sheets, bars
and rods, castings and forgings, cutlery and
tools, millwork and machines, manufactured
goods—from tin-tacks up to steam-engines—
three millions sterling worth of these went to
India in 'sixty-three; and indeed all the
forty-six children show that they understand
the productions of Birmingham, Sheffield, Low
Moor, and Wolverhampton, as well as those of
Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Burton-upon-Trent.

BIRD-FANCIES.

CONSIDERING the really marvellous character
of the instinct of migration in birds, and the
curious circumstances which have been observed
as resulting from it, it is not wonderful that
strange conceits should have arisen among
theorists.

In the Harleian Miscellany, a curious collec-
tion of documents printed from some of the
manuscripts of that name, may be found (vol.ii.
p. 583) a paper which, although it bears neither
name nor date, appears to have been written
about the middle of the last century, by a person
of no less scientific pretensions than Dr. Charles
Morton, at that time secretary to the Royal
Society. It is stated to be the production of an
eminent professor, for the use of his scholars,
and now published at the earnest desire of some
of them; so that his theory, wild and extravagant
as it was, not only received the countenance
of his scientific position, but found supporters
ready to pin their faith to their professor's
sleeve. The paper is entitled, An Inquiry into
the Physical and Literal sense of that Scripture,
Jeremiah viii. 7—"Yea, the stork in the
heaven knoweth her appointed times; and
the turtle and the crane and the swallow
observe the time of their coming." The author
commences by a critical examination of the
passage, and discovers that the expression "the
stork in the heaven," is proof that the bird had
left the earth. He also calls attention to the
phrase, "the time of their coming," remarking
that it might more properly be rendered tempus
itineris—the time of their journey. He then
goes on to remind his readers that the
birds had never been seen upon that journey,
and hence deduces this marvellous result:
"Therefore the stork (and the like may be said
of other season-observing birds, till some place
more fit can be assigned to them) does go unto,
and remain in some one, of the celestial bodies;
and that must be the moon, which is most
likely, because nearest, and bearing the most
relation to this our earth, as appears in the
Copernican scheme; yet is the distance great
enough to denominate the passage thither an
itineration or journey." Very true.

However we may be disposed to look upon
the theory, this last position may safely be
granted, and even Hans Pfall, in Edgar Poe's
ingenious story, who is the only person whose
journey to that satellite we have distinctly
traced, was supposed to have consumed nearly
nineteen days in the transit, even by means
of his swiftly-moving balloon. The astute
professor, however, felt himself bound to meet
certain objections and difficulties which
occurred even to his aspiring mind. He
presents them manfully before his disciples, and
meets them boldly, if not scientifically. And,
first, the distance—a serious matter, truly, but
not such as to daunt him. The distance is
undoubtedly formidable. It is calculated, however,
that the extreme velocity of a bird's flight would
accomplish it in two months; the travellers
would spend three months in the moon, and two
more months in their descent to this sublunary
sphere; and then there would remain just five
months which they could pass with us. Could
anything be more neatly calculated, and does
it not bear the impress of truth upon the very
front of it? But an objector might be so bold
as to remark that they would surely starve upon
such a long journey or itineration. Why, no,
observes the professor. For it is to be noticed
that "at their departure they are very succulent
and sanguine, and so may have their
provision laid up for the voyage in their very
bodies." Objector remembers that hibernating
animals do thus consume their own fat, and the
professor, perhaps, bearing in mind the same
fact, goes on triumphantly, "besides, they would
probably be asleep all the way, which spares
provisions." Objector being so satisfactorily
met by the theorist in that quarter, timidly
ventures to imagine that the poor birds could never
go on flying for two months at a stretch! Well,
it does appear an extraordinary flight. But let
us meet that difficulty by supposing that there
are between this and the moon "many globules
or ethereal islands," of which we can take no
cognisance, but of which the birds might well
avail themselves as so many landings in their long
aerial staircase. Suddenly the objector remembers
an insuperable obstacle, and triumphantly
reminds the theorist that the moon revolves
round the earth every twenty-eight days, and,
fly as fast as they may, the birds would never
catch it. Dolt! exclaims the professor, fairly
losing his temper at the puerility of the objection;
do you not perceive that if they set out
at full moon, they will, after flying just two
months, arrive also at full moon, when the
satellite is just in the same position with regard
to the earth as when they started? After this,
objector falls into despair, and makes no further