require it; and you on your part, if you want capital, let me know the object and the amount."

be a

Creation, said I, as I got into the street, if Solomon knew only half as much as that man does about money, he'd a built his temple all of solid gold. There is one idea fully carried out at any rate. A man that has many ideas may clever man, but a clever man never makes money he has too much genius. Well how many ideas ought a man to have then? Why a man ought to have one great idea, and some small ones to rub against it, so that they may all be kept bright. The grand one is to be taken care of and never lost sight of, the little ones will do for daily use, and serve as small change. The more ideas you have beyond them, like the more wild land or self-righteousness you possess, the poorer you be,

AT LEAST THAT'S MY IDEA.

AN EXTENSIVE PLAN OF REFORM. 153

CHAPTER VI.

AN EXTENSIVE PLAN OF REFORM.

FROM Jordan we proceeded to Sable River, but nearly all the inhabitants were absent at Port Jolly, where a great political meetin' was to be held, and thither we directed our course immediately.

"Mr. Slick," said Eldad, "did you ever see such a beautiful schoal of mackerel in your life, as we are now passin' through? the water is actually alive with them. Instead of reformin' the provincial government, what a pity it is these folks wouldn't reform their habits; and instead of makin' speeches, and wastin' their time, turn to and make seins, and catch the fish that Providence has sent in such immense num

bers up to their very doors, leapin' out of the water to show themselves, as much as to say, come and catch us before the Yankees do, for you have the best right to us, seein' the coast is yours. Were you ever up to Labrador,

Mr. Slick?"

"No," sais I, "never."

"Oh! well, you can't form no notion of the fisheries, all the way up along that shore. Nothin' but seein' could give you any idea of the salmon, the cod, the mackerel, and the herrin'. My eyes! what millions upon millions of herrings there are there, when the spring opens.'

"Yes," said the Captin, "it defies the power of language almost to convey an idea of them. They remain durin' the winter, it is thought, up in those icy regions, and when the weather moderates they take a tour south, as far as Carolina. The drove or herd gives them their name, for Heer signifies an army. As soon as they start, you can trace them by the grampus, the whale, the shark, black backs, dog-fish, and porpoises, that follow in hot pursuit, while seafowl of all kinds hover over them, and charge on them continually. This keeps them in a compact body for safety; for how it is I can't say, but a whale never was known to ventur' into the

main army, tho' he will cut off detachments, and takes hundreds and hundreds of them down at a gulp. Their numbers positively alter the appearance of the water sometimes, which actilly sparkles with different colours, as the rays of the sun are reflected by their scales and fins. If I was to tell you in miles how long and broad this host is, you could scarcely credit it. After a while they divide into smaller armies, and seek their own haunts, and the quality varies accordin' to the food. The Bay of Fundy detachment is of splendid quality. They are smoked, as you know, and sold in small boxes."

Know," sais I, "to be sure I do. Why there aint nothin' like a 'Digby chicken,' hardly anywhere. Further up the bay they are still fatter, but they don't know how to cure them as the Digby boys do."

What they feed on," said Cutler, “I never could discover, for I have opened them again and again, and never could perceive either animal or vegetable matter in them. And yet I know, for I have tried them, they will actually rise sometimes to a fly. Blowhard says it's a seaflea, and spawn-like substance, that the eye can't discover in water without a magnifier, that they subsist on. But oh! Mr. Slick, the Bay of

Fundy shad, aint they a golorious fish! They are superior to what they have on the Atlantic shore, either here or in the States."

The

"I guess they be," said I, " and far before those of the Severn to England, they brag so much of. To my mind, they are preferable to salmon, only the everlastin' little bones are so tormentin', aint they? Lord, I never shall forget a grand party I was at to Canada once, in the shad season. ball-room was got up in a hurry, and the plaister warn't quite dry; the evenin' was hot and the winders were open, and in come a cloud of shad flies from the St. Lawrence, that the Lord always sends before them to feed on. They stuck to the walls, and filled the ladies dresses, choked the lights out, and then went down your nose and mouth by the hundreds. If it warn't fun, it's a pity. When we went into supper, the floor of the dancin'-room looked like a battle field, strewn with the dead, wounded, and dying.

"Oh! in the way of nateral wealth and actual poverty, Nova Scotia beats all natur. The land is chock full of coal, iron, copper, freestone, asphalt, slate, gypsum, grindstones, and the Lord knows what. And the coast chock full of harbours, and the waters chock full of fish. I say, Cutler, if we only had it, lick! wouldn't we make a great