The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-31 00:00:00

BRISTOL AND SOUTH WALES UNION.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
on Thursday, at Bristol ; Mr. C. Thomas presided.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said he was exceedingly sorry that the ac-
count they had to present to the shareholders was no
better than it was that time six months. The inte-
rest on their borrowed money had now, however,
been reduced, and that, with the steady increase in
the traffic, he had hoped would have tended to re-
duce the balance against them, but the gales of No-
vember last had put them to considerable expense
in repairing their piers and pontoons at the New Pas-
sage. The charge for the insurance which had been
effected upon their two steamboats used in crossing
the river Severn would be considerably reduced in
the present half-year. Negotiations were pending
with the Great Western Railway Company which
it was hoped would tend to considerably improve
the revenue.

Mr. F. TOTIIILL seconded the motion for the
adoption of the report, which was unanimously
carried, and the retiring directors and auditors were
re-elected.

S T OURBRID G E.
The half-yearly meeting was held at Stourbridge
on Thursday ; Mr. Ackroyd in the chair.
Mr. Adcock, the secretary, read• the report, which
stated that satisfactory progress had been. made in
the working of that portion of the line open for
traffic, and the directors recommended that the
minimum dividend secured by the Working agree-
ment with the Great Western Company should be
declared at the rate of 4 per cent per annum. The
work on the extension line was still proceding, and
it was expected would be completed for through
traffic in the course of a short time.
The report Lva22,2:1_10,E1e.c.122111.2.c..1i1i1.1end declared .

••••!!!!"—_!__
There
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[Ayr. - -
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Vel
xai
tcceui:soe_
butm
vaDitityenDteoaryFo,u—sio'oouftneniusotf
eI
have been s 4
much in the backwoods hunting and prospecting
that I could not get in the humour to write ; and in-
fact there is very little indeed to write about in.this
piace, except the bankrupt state of the country.
Everybody in it talks about getting out of it as soon
as he possibly can, but under existing circumstances
he doesn't know how to set about it. I would have
leftlong ago if I could have arranged the prelimi-
naries. All the summer I have been farming ; that
I have played out in the full. I then started with
another fellow to hunt during the winter, selling,
what we killed in the town. We made our head
quarters near the town of Nanaimo, the great Pacific
coal depot. Here they are only working one pit, and
that is most sadly mismanaged. There is coal all
over the country, and at Nanahno several really
good seams crop out, which, if worked properly,
would make this a most important town on this
coast ; but the people in office have a very happy
way of spoiling anything they attempt ; there are
so many " bummers" to pay and support, that they
have no money left to work the coal as it should be
worked. There are rumours of two other con r_
panics starting very soon, but no one knows auy-
thing about it. I believe, though there is a com-
pany at work on an island up at the north of this
one, " Queen Charlotte Island," this is supposed to
be good anthracite coal ; I only hope they may all,
fortu!' oduotn ebl le fl
ioery tehteh
sake
on
co f n
will beex tb
egneenfietreadti
by
them, but I really believe that there are far better
prospects of coal here than from the gold that
is likely to be discovered. We have had
our usual autumnal gold excitement ready
to make fools of all who wish to try thr.iir
fortunes in the spring. What I shall do then
thaxeAltAltei;l4s44ot,optin4g..l.4:l4,9.l
thought that mining was bad enough, Tacit
struck something worse this time. I alwaykliad a
. ,
strong notion of spending a winter on the hunt : I
thought that one might spend a pleasant time shoot.
jug some deer, probably a panther or bear or twD,
and expected it would be like boating, or any pica..
sure of the kind one sees in the old country ; here it
is really desperate, grim hard work. I'll try and
describe it. Imagine a country very similar to the
highlands of Scotland, or any place where there are
any steep rocky hills and gullies, with patches of
very heavy timber, swamps, and streams. You start
before daybreak, shoulder your Kentucky rifle
weighing about 221b5., and off you are, over moun-
tain and stream. You are not out 10 minutes before
you are wet through, boots, leggings, and clothes.
Take care of the nipple of your rifle, or that will be
wet too ; the best preventive is to pour some melted
fat on it. Well, after travelling. about half an.hour,
you see a fat buck or a doe—we will - say a doe, us
does are fattest this time of the year, standing on
rocky hill-side. Look out ! she is uneasy ; she
smells you. Now, if you can only reach that rook
to your left, you will get a splendid shot at 4-ier.
Crawling over the snow, swinging yourz:elf
cautiously treading so as not to crack anything,
you reach a place from where, if you only succeed
in springing on to the log in front of you, you will
be in full sight of her. You balance yourself well,
and make the attempt ; but, alas ! it is an old dead
log without any bark, slippery as ice ; your foot
slips, you nearly break your neck, the rifle barrel
strikes your head, and you land neck and heels in
three feet of soft snow. Worst of all, the doe is.
bounding away over the rocks, 15 or 20 feet at a leaf).
You may whistle or halloo as much as you like ; she
dislikes your movements too much to stop. Well,
you recover yourself, see your rifle is not wet, shake
the snow out of your neck, and off once more. After
having travelled nearly all day, wet, weary, and
hungry, you have succeeded in killing two deer ;
one hangs about two miles from home, and the one
you have just killed is about three and a half. He.
is a buck, and when his head is off, and his inside
out, he weighs about 751bs. Now comes the work.
I cannot describe what you will have to endure,
over logs, up bluffs, through snow-bottoms up to
your middle, sweating and tumbling—you get into
your places.where it is like beim?: on the treadmill
„„1,, ";- 4,41 nprumation fiout te-scription) ; the snow is so deep that every step you
endeavour to take your foot falls back into the same
place ; however, you do get home ; then you have
to go back to where you left the other deer, and
pack him in before dark. Then when 'you have
finished your frugal meal of venison and tea boforo
a huge log fire—the only comfort a hunter has—
you compare notes with your chum, talk over the
events of the day, how many deer you saw, &c. ; in
short, fight your battles over again. This occurs
day after day, only varied in details ; sometimes
you kill nothing, sometimes three or four (a deer is
worth 10s.) ; sometimes you see tracks of wolves or
panthers ; sometimes you see the brutes themselves,
very seldom the latter though. Deer-stalking may
be first-rate fun in Scotland ; but when a man has
to hunt and shoot his deer, and then pack it home,
it is too much of a good thing.—Believe me, truly
yours, JOHN FOTHERINGHAM.

* This letter is written by an old member of the London
Working Men's College, who emigrated to Vancouver's
Island about four years since.

The English Cattle Supply.

The Times, alluding to the Cattle Trade, Re-
port, says that the number of beasts last Mon-
day fortnight was 2,140, on Monday week it
was 4,157, while yesterday it was but 2,310.
Strange to say, however, notwithstanding this
diminution in the supply, the price of beef shows a
further fall. On the 12th of March the price of
prime beef was 55. 10d. the stone; last week it fell
to 55., and this week it is 4s. 101 The deficiency
in the number of cattle, like the abundance of last
week, is due to variation in the foreign supply. the
importation by water from parts of the United
Kingdom being still insignificant. - The number of
foreign animals at the market, which was 3,490 last
Monday, was yesterday
but 1,910, and this was
more than four-fifths of the whole. These
numbers represent the cattle actually offered for
sale at the market ; but the Custom-house return
of the total weekly importation tells the same tale.
In the week ending the sth of March the number
of cattle imported was 2,855 ; in the following
week they were 2,823 ; in the week preceding the
19th inst. they were 4,171 ; while during last week
they fell to 3,102. The fall in the price of beef can
only be ascribed to a greater abundance in the dead-
meat market, and the satisfactory anticipations
which we have indulged on this head are so far
more than fulfilled.
Nevertheless it appears from these returns that
to the extent of about half the number of cattle
most important
is,this criti-
England is still dependent upon the foreign supply
by Tonheisosfupthpley
which used formerly to be offered for sale at the
at • •
events which the country has had to consider since
the first introduction of the Cattle Plague. c.lN.a
.Iletinroopmoelinr
affected
e cted markets.
The total number of oxen imported duri-no. the
„,
year 1864 from Holland was 77,481, while the im-
portation from all other countries amounted to
68,908. Taking into account also the number of
cows and calves, the total importations of Dutch
cattle were 144 against but 81,399 from all
other countries. It appears, therefore, that after
to-morrow we shall be suddenly deprived of two-
thirds of our foreign supplies, and that at the very
moment when this uource of supply has become of
the first importance to us. 1N or does this repre-
ount of the evil. It is difficult to
sent the whole am
such a prohibition can long be re-
suppose that
stricted to Dutch cattle. German
nt become equally dangerous -with those
an moment
from Holland ; and if these two sources were
simultaneously cut off, we should, according to our
present circumstances, be deprived of our whole
foreign supply. It is abundantly evident from
such a fact as that which has occasioned this sum-
mary Order how entirely insufficient are our pre-
sent systems of inspection to prevent the introduc....
tion of diseased animals.

California has set an example worthy of imita-
tation by excluding bushels and selling and pricing agri-
cultural produce by weight alone.

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