dred Families are noticed, together with a great number of ancient seals, and subjects in stained glass, &c,--we find the author commencing with the Dolphin, who as he darts, the waters blue Are streaked with gleams of many a hue, The arrangement of subjects, indeed, can have but very slight reference to the classification of the naturalist, as Mr. Moule is obliged to admit; and therefore the dolphin as well as the whale are considered fishes in heraldry; the former being held as the chief of fish, just as the lion is the chief of beasts, and the eagle of birds. The dolphin was used as a device on the early Greek coins of Sicily, as also by certain of the Romans. But we cite a later and more familiar example. As a well-known symbol of the principal seat of the Greek empire, the dolphin was adopted as a device by the celebrated Aldus, the best but not the earliest printer of Greek, whose works are known to every scholar; as an original benefactor to the literature of the age in which he lived, he stood high; and as an editor he was considered of the first rank *** The classical and tasteful devise of Aldus, a dolphin entwined on an anchor, was adopted by Mr. Pickering, for his Aldine edition of the British Poets; with an eye probably to this prophetic distich, Would you still be safely landed, On the Aldine anchor ride: Never yet was vessel stranded With the dolphin by its side. The dignitaries of the church have drawn largely upon the finny tribes for devices on their coats of arms. This was natural enough, in accordance with the play upon names, so frequent in heraldic symbols; such as in the case of of John Fysher, Bishop of Rochester, of Bishop Spratt, and of Archbishop Herring. But the hierarchy have not been content with such obvious suggestions as identity of name affords; for they have frequently had recourse to "canting arms," the armes parlantes; thus exhibiting themselves as mere punsters. We quote some examples: and first of the flying fish, As typical of his own extraordinary elevation, Dr. Robinson, who became Bishop of Carlisle in the reign of Elizabeth, appears to have assumed for his armorial distinction this remarkable fish, not painted according to its true form, but as it was then believed to be, a fish with wings. ** Henry Robinson entered Queen's College, Oxford, in 1568 as a servitor. He was consecrated Bishop of Carlisle in 1598, and died in 1616. A brass plate bearing his portrait, with his arms and an inscription, was placed on the wall in the chan cel in his own cathedral when he was buried, and another near the altar of Queen's College chapel. This beautiful fish, at the time of Sir Francis Drake's " successful voyage of discovery, for which he was knighted by Queen E ̈izabeth, was but little known. Nothing" says his biographer, "surprised the crew more than the flying fish, which is nearly the same size with a herring, and has fins of the length of his whole body, by the help of which, when he is pursued by the bonito, and finds himself on the point of being taken, he springs up into the air, and flies forward as long as his wings continue wet; and when they become dry and stiff, he falls down into the water and dips them again for a second flight. This unhappy animal is not only pursued by fishes in his natural element, but attacked in the air by the don or sparkite, a bird that preys upon fish." The arms of Bishop Cheney contained a less graceful pun. The habits of the burbot are not unlike those of the eel, and from its lurking and hiding itself in holes like the rabbit, it is called the coney-fish, whence it was doubtless assumed, with the coney, in the arms of Bishop Cheney, as a pun on his name. These are here given impaled with those of the see of Gloucester, created by King Henry VIII. in the year 1542, who endowed the bishopric with the revenues of the monastery, founded in honour of St. Peter at Gloucester, the church of which he ordained should be for ever the cathedral of the see. The arms of the bishopric were composed from the emblem of the patron saint, azure two keys in saltier or. But what are we to say of the composition of Bishop Attwater's arms, who was held in great esteem by Cardinal Wolsey, and who combined three crayfish with the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus? Every one knows that St. Peter's symbol is the keys; but he is also by legendary devices associated with the fish of heraldry. A popular-idea assigns the dark marks on the shoulders of the haddock to the impression left by Saint Peter with his finger and thumb when he took the tribute money out of the fish's mouth at Capernaum; but the baddock certainly does not now exist in the seas of the country where the miracle was performed, although it ranges over a considerable space both north and south. The dory, called Saint Peter's fish in several countries of Europe, contends with the haddock the honour of bearing the marks of the Apostle's fingers. an impression transmitted to posterity as a perpetual memorial of the miracle: the name of dory is hence asserted to be derived from the French word adore, worshipped. The fishermen of the Adriatic call it it Janitore, the gatekeeper. Saint Peter being well known as the bearer of the keys of Paradise. Saint Peter was the first of the followers of Christ to declare the glories of salva tion, and his artless simplicity and humble character gave effect to his preaching on the minds of the earliest converts. As this saint is the especial patron of fishermen and of fishmongers, the boat used for fishing in the Thames is called a Peter-boat; and the keys, the emblem of Saint Peter, form part of the armorial ensigns of the Fishmongers' Company. But further, we are told, that "the type of the connexion between the dignity of the church and the humble employment of Saint Peter is not entirely disregarded by the sovereign pontiff: his signet, the fisherman's ring, l'anello del piscatore, represents Saint Peter drawing his nets; and the celebrated Naviculo di Giotto, in mosaic, over the portal of St. Peters church at Rome, is designed from the same subject." A few miscellaneous passages must still have room found for them in our pages, in addition to those that have been quoted from this elegant volume: seeing that it contains not only the fruits of a wide circuit of reading in a sphere not generally traversed, but that these fruits, whether embracing poetry, anecdote, natural history, or antiquarian themes, are collected with taste and a judicious desire to please. Already we have alluded to Bishop Fysher, and the play upon his name. He was, we are further informed, the son of a merchant of Beverley, in Yorkshire; and being a zealous champion of the church of Rome, was beheaded in 1535. It is added, "his death was not improbably hastened by his accepting the title of Cardinal, when the King enraged said, Let the Pope send him a hat when he will; mother of God, he shall wear it on his shoulders!'" To this we subjoin the interpretation of an heraldic device, which pointed to religious persecution. "King Philip II., after his marriage with Queen Mary of England, assumed as a device, Bellerophon fighting with the Monster, inscribed Hinc Vigilo, implying that he only wanted a favourable time to combat the heresy of the kingdom." Our next specimen is of a less serious nature. Speaking of unnatural animals, which appear in the heraldry of all nations, Mr. Moule says, "It is related that an Austrian nobleman asked an English ambassador at Vienna, whose arms presented a griffin, 'in what forest that beast was met with?' to which the ambassador readily answered, 'the same in which the eagles with two heads are found.'' We conclude with some observations and illustrative facts relative to mermaids. The relation of a being half fish and half human, is of the earliest authority; Berosus mentions a fish, Oames, worshipped iu Chaldea, which had the body of a fish with the head and hands of a man: a compound deity, imagined, probably, iu allusion to some stranger who had arrived in a ship, and had instructed the people in the arts of civilization. In Canada the Nibanada, half human, half fish, dwells in the waters of Lake Superior, according to the fanciful mythology of the Indians. The accounts of the appearance of mermaids are very numerous; there is testimony enough to establish their former existence in history, exhibiting instances of the credulity, not of the mean and illiterate, but of men of learning the best instructed of any in the ages in which they lived. It is very rare that more than one mermaid is reported to hav been seen at a time, but it appears that on the coast of Ceylon, some fishermen, in the year 1560, brought up at one draught of the net no less than seven mermaids and mermen, of which fact, several jesuits were witnesses. The physician to the Viceroy of Goa, who examined them with care and dissected them, asserted that internally as well as externally, they were found conforinable to human beings. In the museum of Surgeons' Hall, is preserved a fish which is classed by the naturalists of the present day among the mammalia, a species of that kind which gave rise to the fabulous story of the mermaid; it is about eight feet in length, and bears resemblance to the seal. The fins terminate, internally, in a structure like the human hand; the breasts are very prominent, and their situation on the body has led, no doubt, to the popular belief: in other respects the face of the fish is far from looking like that of the human race, and the long hair of the mermaid is entirely wanting. It was brought from Bencoolen in Sumatra, in December, 1820. A form enormous! far unlike the race Of human birth, in stature or in face. Advocates for the existence of the mermaid are not wanting in modern times, and it has been found necessary to show that such a creature, as it is usually described, must be utterly defenceless in the wide ocean, and consequently the prey of the shark and every other sea-monster that approached, being without speed to fly or strength to resist. Mermaids could only exist in the sea, like other defenceless fish, by going in large shoals, and preserving their race from destruction by their numbers; but if so, the disputed fact of their existence would long ago have been cleared up. "Few eyes," says Sir Thomas Browne, "have escaped the picture of a mermaid; Horace's monster, with woman's head above and fishy extremities below, answers the shape of the ancient syrens that attempted upon Ulysses." The syrens were three in number, inhabiting au island off Cape Polorus ; these nymphs, emblematical of the alurements of pleasure, are represented as beautitul women to the waist, and otherwise formed like fish, deriving their name from the more obvious part of their character-singing. Their melodious voices charmed all who approached them, till Ulysses, shunning their enticements, passed the dangerous coast in safety, and the point where the syrens destroyed themselves was afterwards known in Sici'y as Serenis. In another part of "The Heraldry of Fish," we find these observations. Few points of natural history were formerly less known than fish; the dolphin and the whale belonging in modern science to a class which is yet but imperfectly investigated, were fishes to the earlier naturalists. The seal, or sea-calf of heraldry, was also considered a fish, and permitted by the monkish rules to be eaten on fish days. The otter, it is true, had a like distinction, which is noticed by Isaak Walton. The tritons and mermaids of classical mythology were purely emblematical; but, upon not improbable grounds, have been derived from the amphibious habits of the seal. The last mermaid that engaged the attention of the uaturalists is now known to have been skilfully manufactured by a Chinese from the upper parts of a monkey and the tale of a salmon, for the purpose of deception. This singular creature was brought to Batavia from some of the neighbouring islands in a perfect state of preservation. The lower parts of the body, enveloped in its scaly covering, was lost in the natural form of a fish; but in appearance was little calculated to realize the fanciful idea of an animal famed for its personal beauty. 343 ART. V.-Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa. By ROBERT MOFFAT. Snow. MR. MOFFAT has been twenty-three years an agent of the London Missionary Society in Southern Africa; and has recently paid a visit to his native country, from which, however, he is about to return to pursue his labours of love among the heathen, or at least among tribes to whom he and other Christian philanthropists have within these few last years carried the Gospel, and where they have made the first inroads upon horrid barbarism and the dreariest moral darkness. He tells us that of those who began at the same period with himself the career of missionary toil, the greater number have sunk into the grave; and he is especially reminded of one, "much honoured and endeared, whose tragical death, of all others, has most affected him. John Williams (author of a "Narrative of Missionary Enterprizes in the South Sea Island,") and he were accepted by the Directors at the same time, and designated to the works of God at Surrey Chapel, on the same occasion. The fields of their service were both arduous, although of a widely different character. After much trial and many dangers, both have been permitted to return to their native land, and to publish narratives of their respective labours. Thus far they run parallel; but here they part company. The Martyr of Ersomanga' has finished his course, and rests from his labour; while his early friend still lives amidst the conflict. The writer now feels that his work in England is done, and that the spirit of the stranger and the pilgrim is stealing powerfully over him. He longs once more to brave the mighty ocean; and eagerly anticipates the hour when he shall again reach the shores of his adopted country, and appear in the midst of the children of the Wilderness." This touching passage we find in the preface, dated May 24, 1842; and we take it on ourselves confidently to state that the parallelism of the two missionaries will be felt with regard to the stirring and arresting character of their narratives. We observe that the thirtyseventh thousand of the "Enterprises in the South Sea Islands" is preparing for publication; and a similar announcement, we predict, will, before many years elapse, herald the "Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa." Indeed, for the mere reader of travels, of hairbreadth escapes, of arousing incidents, of strange scenes, and of wild life, it will be difficult to find a work to surpass the present; while to the philanthropist and the Christian, it holds out the most affecting subjects and also the most inviting and encouraging prospects. In a word, the volume before us abounds with deep and varied interest. While novelty and diversity characterize its contents, the vigorous and unaffected spirit of the narrator invests these with a |