and redeemed by the passion, of the Author. But the connecting
links are so slender, nay, so frequently omitted, in the
original, that a certain degree of paraphrase in many of the
stanzas is absolutely necessary to supply them, and render the
general sense and spirit of the poem intelligible to the
English reader.

* * * * *

TO THE SPRING.

Welcome, gentle Stripling,
Nature's darling, thou--
With thy basket full of blossoms,
A happy welcome now!
Aha!--and thou returnest,
Heartily we greet thee--
The loving and the fair one,
Merrily we meet thee!
Think'st thou of my Maiden
In thy heart of glee?
I love her yet the Maiden--
And the Maiden yet loves me!
For the Maiden, many a blossom
I begg'd--and not in vain;
I came again, a-begging,
And thou--thou giv'st again:
Welcome, gentle stripling,
Nature's darling thou--
With thy basket full of blossoms,
A happy welcome, now!

* * * * *

NATURAL HISTORY OF SALMON AND SEA-TROUT.

[_On the Growth of Grilse and Salmon_. By Mr Andrew Young,
Invershin, Sutherlandshire. (Transactions of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh. Vol. XV. Part III.) Edinburgh, 1843.]

[_On the Growth and Migrations of the Sea-Trout of the Solway_.
By Mr John Shaw, Drumlanrig. (Ibid.) Edinburgh, 1843.]

The salmon is undoubtedly the finest and most magnificent of our
fresh-water fishes, or rather of those _anadromous_ kinds which, in
accordance with the succession of the seasons, seek alternately the
briny sea and the "rivers of water." It is also the most important, both
in a commercial and culinary point of view as well as the most highly
prized by the angler as an object of exciting recreation.
Notwithstanding these and other long-continued claims upon our
consideration, a knowledge of its natural history and habits has
developed itself so slowly, that little or nothing was precisely
ascertained till very recently regarding either its early state or its
eventual changes. The salmon-trout, in certain districts of almost equal
value with the true salmon, was also but obscurely known to naturalists,
most of whom, in truth, are too apt to satisfy themselves rather by the
extension than the increase of knowledge. They hand down to posterity,
in their barren technicalities, a great de