They are each of the full size of a collar adapted to a small Highland horse; the one formed of trap or whin-stone, and the other of a fine-grained red granite. They are not, however, to be regarded as the primitive substitutes for the more convenient materials of later introduction; on the contrary, a close imitation of the details of a horse collar of common materials is attempted, including the folds, the leather, nails, buckles, and holes for tying particular parts together. They are finished with much care and a high degree of polish, and are described as obviously the workmanship of a skilful artist. Mr. Skene, who first drew attention to these remarkable relics, suggests the peculiar natural features of Glenroy having led to the selection of this amphitheatre for the scene of ancient public games, and that these stone collars might commemorate the victor in the chariot race, as the tripods, still existing, record the victor in the Choragic games of Athens. But no circumstances attending their discovery are known which could aid conjecture either as to the period or purpose of their construction.
THE OFFSPRING OF DRUNKENNESS.
From an interesting lecture on drunkenness, and on popular investments, recently delivered by the Rev. J. B. Owen, M.A., of Bilston, we select this impressive enumeration of the crimes mainly springing from drunkenness. Drink was the desolating demon of Great Britain. They had spent in intoxicating drinks during the present century as much as would pay the national debt twice over! There were 180,000 gin drinkers in London alone, and in that city three millions a year are spent in gin! In thirteen years 249,006 males and 183,921 females were taken into custody for being drunk and disorderly. In Manchester no less than a million a-year were spent in profligacy and crime. In Edinburgh there were 1,000 whisky shops—160 in one street—and yet the city contained only 200 bread shops. Of 27,000 cases of pauperism, 20,000 of them were traceable to drunkenness. In Glasgow the poor rates were £100,000 a-year. "Ten thousand," says Alison, "get drunk every Saturday night—are drunk all day Sunday and Monday, and not able to return to work till Tuesday or Wednesday." Glasgow spends £1,200,000 annually in drink, and 20,000 females are taken into custody for being drunk. And what were some of the normal results of such appalling statistics? insanity, pauperism, prostitution, and crime. As to the insanity affiliated on drink, the Bishop of London stated, that of 1,271 maniacs, whose previous histories were investigated, 649, or more than half of them, wrecked their reason in drinking. As to its pauperism, it is estimated that not less than two-thirds of our paupers were the direct or indirect victims of the same fatal vice. As to its prostitution, its debauching influence was remotely traceable in the 150,000 harlots of London, and in their awful swarms in all our large towns and cities. Its relation to crime was equally conclusive. In Parkhurst prison, it was calculated, that 400 out of 500 juvenile prisoners, were immured there, as the incidental results of parental debauchery. The Chaplain of the Northampton County Gaol, lately informed the lecturer, that, "of 302 prisoners in this gaol, during the last six months, 176 attributed their ruin to drunkenness; 64 spent from 2s. 6d. to 10s. a week in drink; 15 spent from 10s. to 17s.; and 10 spent all their savings. Is it not remarkable," he added, "that out of 433 prisoners in this gaol, I have not had one that has had one sixpence in a saving's bank, nor above six that ever had sixpence in one? On the contrary, I have many members of friendly societies, of course of unsound ones, which with two or three exceptions, all met at public houses; and there they learned to drink, and became familiarised with crime." Judge Erskine declared at the Salisbury Assizes in 1844, that 96 cases out of every 100 were through strong drink. Judge Coleridge added, at Oxford, that he never knew a case brought before him, which was not directly or indirectly connected with intoxicating liquors; and Judge Patteson capped the climax, at Norwich, by stating to the grand jury, "If it were not for this drinking, you and I should have nothing to do!" Of the 7,018 charges entered at Bow Street Police Office, in the year 1850, half of them were for being drunk and incapable; and if they added to these the offences indirectly instigated by intoxication, the proportion rose at least to 75 per cent.
AN OLD PIKE.
In the year 1497 a giant "Jack-killer" was captured in the vicinity of Mannheim, with the following announcement in Greek appended to his muzzle:—"I am the first fish that was put into this pond by the hands of the Emperor Frederic the Second, on this 3rd day of October, 1262." The age of the informant, therefore, if his lips spoke truth (and the unprecedented dimensions of the body left little doubt on that point), was more than two hundred and thirty-five years. Already he had been the survivor of many important changes in the political and social world around, and would have swam out perhaps as many more had the captors been as solicitous to preserve his life as they were to take his portrait. This, on the demise of the original, was hung up in the castle of Lautern, and the enormous carcase (which, when entire, weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, and measured nineteen feet) was sent to the museum at Mannheim, where, deprived of its flesh, and caparisoned de novo, it hung, and haply yet hangs, a light desiccated skeleton, which a child might move.
BURMESE BOAT.
The curious boat which is here depicted in full sail is one of those which is used by the Burmese on the river Irawadi. They are called hnau, and Captain Yule gives the following description of them in his "Mission to Ava:"—
"The model is nearly the same for all sizes, from the merest dinghy upwards. The keel-piece is a single tree hollowed out, and stretched by the aid of fire when green, a complete canoe, in fact. From this, ribs and planking are carried up. The bow is low with beautiful hollow lines, strongly resembling those of our finest modern steamers. The stern rises high above the water, and below the run is drawn out fine to an edge. A high bench or platform for the steersman, elaborately carved, is an indispensable appendage. The rudder is a large paddle lashed to the larboard quarter, and having a short tiller passing athwart the steerman's bench.