ntatico.

_Vide Rime degli Arcadi, Venice_, MDCCLXXIX.

* * * * *

LAWS RELATING TO BACHELORS.

(_To the Editor._)

At page 53 of the present volume, your Correspondent "E.J.H." in his
remarks on "Laws relating to Bachelors," states at the conclusion
thereof as follows:--

"In England, bachelors are not left to go forgotten to their solitary
graves. There was a tax laid on them by the 7th William III., after the
25th year of their age, which was 12_l._ 10_s._ for a duke,
and 1_s._ for a commoner. At present they are taxed by an extra
duty upon their servants--for a male, 1_l._ 5_s._, for a female,
2_s._ 6_d._ above the usual duties leviable upon servants."

Your Correspondent certainly must be in error upon these points, as the
additional duty to which bachelors in England are liable under the
present Tax Acts, for a male Servant, is only 1_l._ (the usual duty
leviable for such servant being 1_l._ 4 _s._); and there is
not, that I am aware of, any law in existence in England taxing any
person in respect of female servants.

R.J.

_Alton, Hants._

* * * * *

THE NATURALIST.

DEER OF NORTH-AMERICA, AND THE MODE OF HUNTING THEM.

(_From Featherstonehaugh's Journal._)

Deer are more abundant than at the first settlement of the country.
They increase to a certain extent with the population. The reason of
this appears to be, that they find protection in the neighbourhood of
man from the beasts of prey that assail them in the wilderness, and from
whose attacks their young particularly can with difficulty escape.
They suffer most from the wolves, who hunt in packs like hounds, and
who seldom give up the chase until a deer is taken. We have often sat,
on a moonlight summer night, at the door of a log-cabin in one of our
prairies, and heard the wolves in full chase of a deer, yelling very
nearly in the same manner as a pack of hounds. Sometimes the cry would
be heard at a great distance over the plain: then it would die away, and
again be distinguished at a nearer point, and in another direction;--now
the full cry would burst upon us from a neighbouring thicket, and we
would almost hear the sobs of the exhausted deer;--and again it would be
borne away, and lost in the distance. We have passed nearly whole nights
in listening to such sounds; and once we saw a deer dash through the
yard, and immediately past the door at which we s