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many years before, by a Jew in London, who was dead before the duke thought of his seal, and which had been shown to the others as a pattern, afking him if he would cut a seal the same with that. examining it a little, Mr Berry answered readily that he would. The duke, pleased and astonished at the same time, cried out, "Will you by G-d!" Mr Berry, who thought this implied some sort of doubt of his abilities, was a little piqued at it; and turning round to the duke, whom he had never seen before, nor knew; Yes (said he,) Sir; if I do not make a better seal than this, I fhall take no payment for it.' The duke, highly pleased, left the pattern with Mr Berry, and went away. The pattern seal contained, indeed, the various devices on the thirty-two compartments, distinctly enough to be seen, but none of the colours were exprefsed. Mr Berry, in a proper time, finished the seal; on which the figures were not only done with superior elegance, but the colours on every part so distinctly marked, that a painter could delineate the whole, or a herald blazon it, with the most perfect accuracy. For this extraordinary exertion of talents, he charged no more than thirty-two guineas, though the pattern seal had cost seventy-five. Thus it was, that, notwithstanding he pofsefsed talents of the most su perior kind, and afsiduity almost unequalled, observing at all times a strict economy in his family, Mr Berry died at last, in circumstances that were not affluent; which adds one more to the numerous list of examples, that genius seldom tends to augment the domestic prosperity of man. And that

unless a man of eminence in arts appreciates his own works properly, and is so fortunately situated as to be brought forward to public view, during his own life time, he may be suffered to live neglected, and die without having tasted of the fruits of that genius.

Besides eminence as an artist, Mr Berry occupied a high degree of respect among the circle of his acquaintance, on account of the integrity of his moral character, and the strict principles of honour which on all occasions influenced his conduct. He married a daughter of Mr Andrew Anderson of Drefsalrig, a man of the strictest probity, with whom he lived in habits of the most cordial intimacy. By her he left a numerous family of children, who now promise to become distinguished members of the community to which they belong.

Mr Berry died on the third of June 1783, in the fifty-third year of his age.

The portrait from which this engraving is taken, is a very striking likeness, which the engraver, with his usual ability, has happily catched in the figure that accompanies this number.

ANECDOTE.

AUGUSTUS, king of Poland, had passed for a prodigy of strength. At the table of the emperor, he took a silver dish, in which there was wine, and having made a globe of it, confined the wine in it close every way; then squeezing it with his fingers, made the wine play to the very roof of the apartment,

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ORIGINAL ANECDOTES OF HUNTING.

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Hunting to those who derive their ideas on that subject from what they observe in highly civilized countries, can only be considered as a frivolous amusement; but if they extend their views to an early state of society, where man is forced to contend for dominion with the ferocious beasts of the desert, or to find a subsistence from the animals he can subdue, it becomes a subject highly interesting. An eastern prince, at a very early period, was celebrated as a mighty hunter before the Lord;" and the names of Hercules and Theseus have become immortal because of their peculiar eminence in this art. Indeed nothing so much discovers the vast pre-eminence that man enjoys above all the other parts of the animate creation as the history of hunting. Ransack every corner of the globe, in every state of society you find man pofsefs a decided dominion over all other animals. By observing their faculties, their habits, and propensities, he learns equally to subdue the strongest, and to overtake the swiftest of the animate creation. Nothing cludes his grasp; and the ingenuity that the most savage tribes discover, in the ait of overcoming the animals that mo lest them, or those that minister to their subsistence, will often fill with astonishment the minds of the most civilized people. It is these uncultivated people alone, who from necefsity are obliged to study the manners of the brute creation with attention, that civilized nations can acquire a proper knowledge of these creatures. To the naturalist, therefore, the history of hunting must prove extremely interesting, and to no man can they prove indifferent. For the anecdotes respecting hunting in Russia, that shall occur under this head, the Editor is obliged to his respec able correspondent Arc ticus. For those respecting the American Indians, he is indebted to Mr Patrick Campbell, who has been so obliging as to allow him to extract with freedom, from his "Travels in North America," now in the prefs, many very curious articles of this kind, which will be marked as they occur.

Mode of hunting the bear in Russia. To encourage the peasants not to destroy the bear clandestinely amongst themselves, for the skin, hams, grease, &c. (all profitable articles ;) at least not to destroy them in a certain district round Pe

tersburgh, within the range of the imperial hunt, an edict offers, for every bear pointed out by a peasant, a sack or cool of corn for seed, with ten rubles in money, which he receives at the grand huntsman's office in St Petersburgh; and when it is considered what they lose by not killing it themselves, by the destruction of their corn, and by the time employed in coming to town, and attending the chace, the reward is not too great.

First bear chace.

Four winters ago, a peasant having given information at the grand Veneur's office, prince Galitzen, of a bear having been found in a wood about twenty versts beyond her majesty's country palace of Ranenbome, the Veneur Potemkin, the second in the department of the imperial hunt, set out in pursuit of it, with a number of huntsmen, armed, as is usual on these occasions, with guns, spears, and cutlafses, or des couteaux de chase. The Veneur was accompanied on this occasion, by the two senators count Alexy Rosomoffky, and Mr de Sadouofffky, with the master of the horse, general Ribender, and Mr John Farquharson, a British gentleman, and a keen sportsman *. On the arrival of the party in the indicated wood, the peasant pointed out the winter habitation of the bear, who at that season is remarkably lazy; the hunters immediately took two pieces of thread net, such as is used to catch partridges, and after cutting a little avenue through the brush wood with their cutlafses, for some way behind and before the bear, lined the walk they had thus cut out for the animal,

* I mention these names on this occasion, as some of the facts may appear too wonderful to be believed without this precaution.

with the two long pieces of net, a fence, weak as it may appear, which that strong and furious animal never ventures to break; so that they are sure he will endeavour to escape in the direction of the avenue, at each end of which, certain death awaits him, from the gentlemen hunters at one, and the huntsmen at the other. This preliminary arrangement being made, the huntsmen began to make as much noise Behind him as pofsible, to drive him in the opposite direction, where the gentlemen were waiting in silence to fhoot at him on his approach, supported by a rank of spearsmen, who advance in case of the hunters missing their aim, and being afsailed by the fur ous anima, re d red a ways so by the discharge of a gun, especially if he is wounded,

There happened t ing worth mentioning in this first chace, except that the bear, instead of running in the expected direction, from the noise, towards the noble sportsmen, turned sudde.ly on the hallooing huntsmen, and overtured one of them (though without injury,) before he was dispatched by the

rest.

It is curious, however, to observe, in the above simple arrangement, the wonderful effect of the thread net, which sets as effectual bounds to the liberty and course of such a vigorous animal, as if made of bars of iron; such is his instinctive aversion to what has the appearance of a toil; and it is likewise singular that the Russians fhould have discovered this trait in bruin's character, which I presume is new even to your able writer on the philosophy of natural history; as may pofsibly be another in the character of the black game to be mentioned farther on,

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