Vide Rime degli Arcadi, Venice, MDCCLXXIX.

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LAWS RELATING TO BACHELORS.

(To the Editor.)

At page 53 of the present volume, your Correspondent “E.J.H.” in his remarks on “Laws relating to Bachelors,” states at the conclusion thereof as follows:—­

“In England, bachelors are not left to go forgotten to their solitary graves.  There was a tax laid on them by the 7th William III., after the 25th year of their age, which was 12_l._ 10_s._ for a duke, and 1_s._ for a commoner.  At present they are taxed by an extra duty upon their servants—­for a male, 1_l._ 5_s._, for a female, 2_s._ 6_d._ above the usual duties leviable upon servants.”

Your Correspondent certainly must be in error upon these points, as the additional duty to which bachelors in England are liable under the present Tax Acts, for a male Servant, is only 1_l._ (the usual duty leviable for such servant being 1_l._ 4 s.); and there is not, that I am aware of, any law in existence in England taxing any person in respect of female servants.

R.J.

Alton, Hants.

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THE NATURALIST.

DEER OF NORTH-AMERICA, AND THE MODE OF HUNTING THEM.

(From Featherstonehaugh’s Journal.)

Deer are more abundant than at the first settlement of the country.  They increase to a certain extent with the population.  The reason of this appears to be, that they find protection in the neighbourhood of man from the beasts of prey that assail them in the wilderness, and from whose attacks their young particularly can with difficulty escape.  They suffer most from the wolves, who hunt in packs like hounds, and who seldom give up the chase until a deer is taken.  We have often sat, on a moonlight summer night, at the door of a log-cabin in one of our prairies, and heard the wolves in full chase of a deer, yelling very nearly in the same manner as a pack of hounds.  Sometimes the cry would be heard at a great distance over the plain:  then it would die away, and again be distinguished at a nearer point, and in another direction;—­now the full cry would burst upon us from a neighbouring thicket, and we would almost hear the sobs of the exhausted deer;—­and again it would be borne away, and lost in the distance.  We have passed nearly whole nights in listening to such sounds; and once we saw a deer dash through the yard, and immediately past the door at which we sat, followed by his audacious pursuers, who were but a few yards in his rear.—­Immense numbers of deer are killed every year by our hunters, who take them for their hams and skins alone, throwing away the rest of the carcass.  Venison hams and hides are important articles of export; the former are purchased from the hunters at 25 cents a pair, the latter at