cities eight months in the year, and who only resort to this Eden during the summer solstice, must not expect to gain the peach-bloom tint so exquisite once on the cheeks of Newport's fair daughters; and it is reasonable to believe, that the deterioration in the home-born of this generation is owing to the change for the worse in the food, exercise, dress, and hours of amusement, of the present day, as compared with the good old primitive habits of Newport society sixty-five years ago.

There is another noticeable fact with regard to the climate of Newport. In Boston, which is only about seventy miles from Newport, there prevails, in the spring of the year, a north-east wind, which, if not unhealthy, is unutterably disagreeable, producing in many a painful stricture across the chest, and exciting inelegant, if not irreverent, expletives, such as I should not be willing to repeat. To enjoy this east wind in perfection, just embark from Boston in a fishing "craft," in the month of May, bound to the Bay of Chaleur; and you will find nine times out of ten, before you have passed Cape Cod, that you have imbibed enough of it to suffice for a lifetime.

Now, in Newport, one is seldom annoyed by a north-east wind: it becomes tempered by its overland journey. I never felt obliged to increase my clothing, or to guard my ears and lungs, on account of it. The intense frigidity of northern blasts is so softened by the warmth of the Gulfstream, that the climate of Newport in the winter and spring is much milder than that of Boston. I often visited the beach in winter, when the wind was strong from the south-east, to hear the roar of the breakers, and to watch their wild and grand crests as they rushed on the shore; and was surprised to find that the temperature of the water would have answered for bathing, if the atmosphere had been equally

warm.

It was ascertained by the owners of the beach farms, that the immense shoals of fish, thrown in by the surf, might be easily caught in seines of sufficient magnitude, and converted, by the help of kelp and sand, into a valuable compost. I have already alluded to the seine fishery at the beach, but have not spoken of the effect of the compost upon the olfactory nerves of those who visited the island. It was urged by them, that

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there could be no greater nuisance than the putrid fish-heaps intended for manure, and that the health of the town would be endangered by allowing its continuance. I was well acquainted with the facts of the case, being a clerk to the owners or agents of four of the largest of the beach farms. The manufacture of the nets required the importation of large quantities of seine-twine from England, and furnished employment to a number of men and women. Now and then, large barley crops were needed for the manufacture of malt, at one establishment in town, and at several in Albany. To obtain these crops, alternate layers of sand, fish, and seaweed were spread upon the land, I believe in August and September. Whenever other culture was preferred, then the three articles above mentioned were turned into muckheaps. The effluvia was unmistakable; but none were annoyed save those who were particularly sensitive. When last passing from Tiverton to the island, I was regaled with this fragrant memorial of boyish days. I never heard of any deleterious effects from the use of the manhaden-fishery as a manure. There have

been such striking changes since I left my native place, that it is hard for me to identify localities, once familiar, especially tracts of land fertile under grass and tillage, now built over, or appropriated to floriculture. One spot I well recollect, the lot on the beach road, now belonging to Mr. Sears. Its yield of grass was so heavy in 1801, that the owner had to remove portions of it, as fast as cut, to neighboring pasture lands, to be cured.

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.. Perhaps one of the most remarkable celestial phenomena, certainly the greatest in our day and generation, occurred on the 16th of June, 1806, at 10 o'clock, A.M. There had been much anxiety lest the weather should prove unfavorable; but this did not prevent juveniles from preparing a quantity of smoked glass, with which to screen the eye in its persistent gaze upwards; and so bitant was the demand upon the glaziers, that, in some instances, perfect panes were broken, to serve the purpose of partial obscuration.

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The daybreak presaged a brilliant morning. The air was profoundly still, and laden with

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the sweet breath of dawn. As the hour of the eclipse approached, the sky gradually darkened ; the birds returned to their nests; and the fowls went back to their roosts, sure that the even-tide had come, inviting to their accustomed repose. Every house had its expectant gazers. The noise of the streets subsided to the quietude of shady covert. The harbor where I stood, presented the loveliest scene imaginable. Vessels, with their passive, loosened sails, waiting the usual morning breeze; Fort Wolcott, with its banks of emerald green; and the sea enveloped in a semi-transparent haze, — rendered those moments among the most memorable of my life. When newspapers reached our lovely island, the day following, it was amusing to scan the notices of the great event. Prose and poetry, in every style and measure, vied in illustrating the momentary total eclipse of the world's great luminary.

VALUE OF REAL ESTATE. By reference to the tax-book in Newport in 1852, I ascertained that only twelve non-residents, alias summer visitors, were named as owners of real estate,