en completely
eaten down by them. Many persons are in consequence falling on the
expedient of catching them in wires and pitfalls in order to diminish them.

The ravages committed by the opossums, in like manner, are almost equally
ruinous to the hopes of the farmer, in addition to the attacks of
bandicoots, kangaroo rats, and the other almost innumerable (and certainly
as yet unknown to naturalists) species of small quadrupeds that every
where inhabit the wild bush and underwood of this island. Mr. Nicholas, of
the Clyde, accompanied by his servant, lately, in the course of half a
dozen evenings, and within the range of a moderate-sized field, killed no
less than 340 of these opussums in the immediate vicinity of his own house.

[The beneficial result of this surrender need not be explained. The lives
and properties of the settlers will now be secure, and the wild natives
become useful members of society. The passing of man from the opposite
states of barbarism and civilization is one of the most pathetic episodes
in the drama of human life. In the _Morning Herald_, where we find the
above extract from a recent _Hobart Town Courier_, it is pertinently
observed, "When we find one of those natives of Van Diemen's Land had lost
an arm which had been torn off in a trap, and that the wound was healed,
the question naturally suggests itself, after all that we have heard of
late about 'anatomical science,' what is the science of the wilderness
that performed such a cure?" We fear it will puzzle the heads of all the
colleges in Europe to solve this problem.]

* * * * *

THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

LORD BYRON.

[The _New Monthly Magazine_ promises an abundance of light, summer reading
in Lady Blessington's Conversations with Lord Byron. They are of that gay,
jaunty character which editors, booksellers, and readers think so
peculiarly adapted for the season. Here are a few specimens:]

JOURNAL OF CONVERSATIONS WITH LORD BYRON.

_By the Countess of Blessington._

*** Our readers will recollect those letters in the second volume of
Moore's Byron, addressed to Lady B----, which confer such additional value
on that work. The whole of the journal, in which those letters, given by
Lady B---- to Mr. Moore, were entered, (and which journal was never shown
to Mr. Moore, nor indeed till now confided to any one,) is in our hands,
and will appear, from time to time, in the _New Monthly_, till conc