The National Register.
London, England, 1812-11-15 00:00:00

708

BRIGHTON' Nov. 10. —The enormous fish, last week, hr ought on
shore at this place, was e•esterdav suld by the proprietors in the usual
way of their disposing of other fish, (commonly known by the name of
a Dutch Auction ;) it was put up at 1501. and kept reducing al. at a I
time, till it came to 701. when it was purchased by 11r. Wel'er, who
exhibited it during the day, and which produced to him niany pounds.'
The emolument which this animal has produced to the fishermen has
been very large ; ae are assured by the party that they have received t
between two and 3001. In the afternoon of yesterdey,
announcing that the fish would be open, d this day, were distributed '!
round the town, and numbers of geuderucu utten.ded to witeess the
operation.
This fish, we are now perfect'y satisfied, is the Squalos ,Theree!ts, or
Basking Shark, as described in " The Philosophical Transaetiens for
1808," and is also described in the " British Zoology, vul. iii. p. 70! 1
Upon opening this fish the company present were much sun prizeit at the
enormous size of the liver, which coesists of two lobes, measuring in
length upwards of 11 feet, each being 16 inches thick, and is step- 1
posed to weigh considerably above tee o tons. An assay has been nen:e,
and the oil proves to be of a very superiour quality, yielding about
eight parts in ten of pore oil.
ANOTHER MAIL Roserta.—On the evening of Friday se'nnight,
the postman carrying the mail from Maryport to Cockermouth, was
stopped within a mile of the latter place, and robbed of the bat of
letters from Maryport tot Cockermouth. and also the bag for London.
by two footpads, who pulled him from his horse ; and whilst one of 1
the villains held a pistol to his head, with threats, the other unloosed 1
the bags, with which they made off. leirtunately the bags contained
nothing of consequence.
Afraerie took place at the Star Inn, Eastgate, Rochester, en Theirs- 1
day last, between some Odicers of the Navy and the leend;ord, in
which a youth of the name of Acres had his belly rippt d open, but is
likely to do well. The Officers were taken into custody.
FRLNCH Pit I sob: ERS.—Eight French Officers lately broke their pa-
roie of honour, and escaped from Andever. The following particu-
lars of their escape and detection have since transpire!. They went r!
off in the night, saddle horses being provided for them ; six of them
rode double horses, preceded by two other horses, on each of which
was mounted an officer, accompanied by two Feglish conductors,
who were to receive 6001. to cover all expenses. They arrived on the
coast near Christchurch, opposite the Needles, on the' ,1 ot October,
where there was a smuggler's vessel from Weymouth, in wailing fir
them ; but the wind was so completely contrary, and it blew such a
burr cane at the time, that it,was deemed improper to go on beard.
They. in consequence, prevailed on a cottager to take them in, im-
posing the French Officers on the cottager for Guernsey mercha .ts,
who were pursued by. the Revenue Officers. They remained con-
cealed in the cottage till the sth of October. At eleyee o'clock that
night, they went on board the vessel, the wind being fair for the coast
of France • however, they had been to sea but a very short time,
when a violent storm arose, which drove them back to the same pl Ice
where they got on board. The vessel was not able to put them
ashore; some of them were in consequence nearly drowned, not being
able to swim, and the sea being up to their necks. At this time it
was about three o'clock. It was their intention to have returned to
the cottage, but on account of the darkness of the morning, ani the
noise occasioned by the storm, two of the Officers missed the others
and their conductors, and could not find the cottaee. They wan'iercd
about till day light, and then made enquiries of peasants and others
that they met with. From their conduct, they were suseected to be
Officers who had broke their parole of honour, and they were at
length charged with being so. They behaved very cendidty ; and one
of them who spoke English very well, after very little hesitation, con- •
fessed the whole of their proceedings, and that he believed the other
six were ink cottage ; but he could not tell where it was: The cot-
tage was, after some difficulty, traced, and the other six officers dis-
covered there. The business came under investigation b: fore G . 11.
RoseeEsq. at'. P. the acting Magistrate of that reighbouehoed, who
wrote up to London to the:Transport Board .! and Adkins and V ickata
thei3owitreet.Officers were dispatched in pursuit of the conductors.
'flies have succeeded iii taking into custody Rose the mute' of the
vessel.. Adkins took Culliford the principal condector at lichester.
He had been convicted before for a similar offence, and when he was
apprehended then it required four men to secure him. Desperate re-
sistance was therefore expected, but Adkins contrived to follow him
into a stable, and with the assistance of a man, h Ott handcuffs on him
before he knew he was in custody. The Officer conveyed him to
Southampton; where he underwent an examination last Wednesday
before Mr. G. H. Rose, when he was identified by one of the French
Officers, and several oeherewitnesses who coribborated in testimony.
e was fully coren*tted.for trial. Vickery is in pursuit of others con-
cerned in the trausaction,
The cstualties in Chatham Dock-yard,Pdoring the last week, have
becumoie-than-usually predominant, not less than live persons having
lost.ifiee lives by eravning. .Twcs men fell overboard from the Dic-
tattr, one woman from *4t ulgrave, and twd men front
the Sceptre, one of Which nut 'his bed en his back and never rose
afterwards.