The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-27 00:00:00

AMERICA.

SOUTHAMPTON, FRIDAY MORNING.
The United States mail steamship Arago, Capt.
D. Lines, arrived off Cowes shortly before midnight,
and went on to Havre. She brings New York
mails of the 14th inst., 400 dols. in specie and 15,912
bushels of wheat for Havre, 24 pasengers for
Southampton, and 73 for Havre. She has had
strong westerly winds during the passage.
Among the passengers are Captain Cecil Johnson
(bearer of despatches) and Mr. James Lesley,
United States Consul to Lyons.
The steamers Africa, Anglo-Saxon, and Europa
had arrived out respectively at New York, Quebec,
and Halifax.

At 7 a.m. on the 15th, in lat. 40.40, lon. 70.30,
the Arago saw a four-masted steamer steering west,
supposed to be the City of Manchester ; on the
16th, in lat. 42.10, lon. 64.40, saw a barque steamer
steering west, supposed to be the New York, from
Southampton ; and on the 26th, off the Eddystone,
exchanged signals with a Hamburg steamer, steer-
west.

Advides from Western Virginia state that the
rebels troops under Lee, on the morning of the 12th,
commenced an advance upon both positions occu-
pied by the National troops at Elkwater and Cheat
Mountain Summit. They succeeded in surrounding
the Summit, but were subsequently dispersed by
reinforcements sent from Clarksburgh. Their ad-
vance on Elk Water was also stopped by shells from
Loomis' Battery. During a slight skirmish on the
13th, near Elk Water, two rebel officers—one of
them Colonel John A. Washington, late of Mount
Vernon—were killed.

Despatches from Washington state that no move-
ment of the National troops took place on the 13th.
The rebels, however, in the afternoon, moved a
large body of men from Fairfax Court-house to-
wards Falls Church, with the purpose, as was sup-
posed, of resisting any occupation by the National
Wednesday, when the skirmish took place near
Lewinsville. Signal fires were seen in the direc-
tion of the rebel camp on the night of the 13th,
indicating probably that the troops had occupied
the positions assigned them. Government had
received reliable information that the strength of
the rebels at Fairfax Courthouse and vicinity was
110,000, the estimate being based upon the number
of rations issued. Beauregard was there in person.
A number of important arrests were made in Bal
tim ore on the morning of the 13th, some of them
before daylight, including Hon. Henry May; Mem-
ber of Congress; all the members of the Legislature
from Baltimore County ; Mayor Brown; F. H, li
Howard, editor of the Exchange ; Thos. J. Hall
jun., editor of the South, and others. Among the
members of the Legislature were—Ross Winans,
Charles H. Pitts, Lawrence Sangston, S. T. Wallis,
T. P. Scott, Henry M. Morfit, W. G. Harrison, and
Messrs. Dennison, Quinlan, Warfield, Thomas,
Bruce, and Lynch. It was also reported that Ben-
jamin C. Howard, the "Peace" candidate for Go-
vernor, was among the number. These arrests
were all made in pursuance of orders from Wash-
ington.

The New York _Herald says:—" These arrests
have developed a deep laid scheme on the part of
the Maryland rebels to aid those on the other
side of the Potomac, which plot would, doubtless,
have partially succeeded but for this action of the
youthful chieftain. The Maryland Legislature
was to have met on the 17th inst., when an Act,
already prepared, was to have been passed de-
claring Maryland out of the Union. On the same
day the rebel forces, aided by ex-Commander
Buchanan, on the eastern shore, and other rebels
above Washington, were to have crossed into Mary-
land and taken military possession of the State,
while Mayor Brown was at the same time to head
a demonstration at Baltimore city of a like nature.
The arrest of these men, and the suppression of the
two rebel papers, the Exchange and the South, will
leave the Legislature powerless to act, and take
away the head from the plug-uglies of Baltimore."

A gentleman sent to China on an agricultural
mission by the French government, M. Eugene Simon, has
made a valuable report on the fish and fisheries of that
country, and has also despatched specimens of several kinds
which he thinks capable of being bed in Europe. He
speaks of these in the highest terms, and says that it would
not be difficult to select for ty or fifty species worthy of ob-
servation. Amongst others is the Lo-in, or king of fish,
classed as Crenilabrus by Dr. Bridgman, measuring some-
times six or seven feet in length, weighing from 501bs. to
2001b5., or even more, and said to be equal to the famous
salmon of the Rhine. Then come the Lien-in-wang and
the Kan-in, almost as good and even larger in size than the
other; the Li-in, finer than any carp in Europe, and weigh-
ing sometimes 301bs. ; and the lii-in, or Tsi-in, which does
not weigh more than 10 or 121bs. or so, and is the finest and
most delicate of all in flavour, partaking at once of the cha-
racteristics of the truut and sole. M. Simon also speaks of
the immense care which the Chinese in former times paid
to the embedment of their rivers, the directing of their
course through mountains and along plains, and in the for-
mation of immense lakes, in which millions of fish find re-
fuge from all but omnivorous man.

LOOK OUT FOR SHARKS:LA correspondent, writ-
ing to a contemporary, from Undercliffe, Isla of Wight,
says :—For some days past two or three sharks have been
seen off the coast of the Undercliffe. On Wednesday I
noticed one of these " interesting creatures" about 200
yards from the beach, at low water, cruising quietly along
(his tins occasionally showing above the surface), and appa-
rently enjoying the warmth and calmness of the sea.
Sharks have not been seen here for fourteen years. May not
them tropical intruders occasion the scarcity of fish which
fishermen say has existed all the season ?—West Sussex
0414,