at the bill for the abolition of imprisonment for debt in
America "works well," as applied to New York; and the system is
consequently to be put in general force all over the Union--a fact, which,
as a poet like Mr. Watts would say, adds another leaf to America's laurel.
But the paper which announced this gratifying intelligence, relates in a
paragraph nearly subjoined to it, a circumstance in natural history that
seems to have some connexion with the affairs between debtor and creditor
in the United States. It informs us, that up to the present period of
scientific investigation, "_no chalk_ has been discovered in North
America." Now this is really a valuable bit of discovery; and we heartily
wish that the Geological Society, instead of wasting their resources on
anniversary-dinners, as they have lately been doing, would at once set
about establishing the proof of a similar absence of that article in this
country. Surely, our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic, will not
fail to take the hint which nature herself has so benificently thrown out
to them; and instead of abolishing the power of getting into prison, put
an end at once to the power of getting into debt. The scarcity of chalk
ought certainly to be numbered among the natural blessings of America. Had
the soil on that side of the ocean been as chalky as this, America might
have been visited by a comet, like Pitt, with a golden train of eight
hundred millions.--_Monthly Magazine_.

* * * * *

THE NATURALIST.

ANGLING.

(_From the Angler's Museum, quoted in the Magazine of Natural History_.)

Every one who is acquainted with the habits of fish is sensible of the
extreme acuteness of their vision, and well knows how easily they are
scared by shadows in motion, or even at rest, projected from the bank; and
often has the angler to regret the suspension of a successful fly-fishing
by the accidental passage of a person along the opposite bank of the
stream: yet, by noting the apparently trivial habits of one of nature's
anglers, not only is our difficulty obviated, but our success insured. The
heron, guided by a wonderful instinct, preys chiefly in the absence of the
sun; fishing in the dusk of the morning and evening, on cloudy days and
moonlight nights. But should the river become flooded to discoloration,
then does the "long-necked felon" fish indiscriminately in sun and shade;
and in a recorded instance of his fishin