Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/34

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [us xn jm,vio. 1915.

deported thither in 1797, and will be re- membered by all through ' La Fille de Madame Angot.' I regret that I have mislaid or lost the specific reference in the somewhat rare volume. I do not call to mind any use of the word in the records of his fellow-exiles Barbe-Marbois, Laffon de Ladebat, or Ayme. As for the possibility of discovering what term is in use in the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, no information has thus far been procurable ; but it seems likely that the old name has spread over all the original French pos- sessions on this side of the Atlantic. Whether French settlements in the Far East or the South Seas (Saigon, New Caledonia, the Marquesas Islands), or, again, the ancient colony of La Reunion, can furnish results the present writer cannot say. The pursuit of the wary insect proves him to be somewhat elusive difficult (as a colleague says) to place one's finger upon.

PAUL T. LAFLEUB. McGill University, Montreal.

WOLVES IN FRANCE. In The Graphic of 12 June, 1915, there is a thrilling picture of horses being recently attacked by wolves at the Chateau de Monjustin, which is about twenty miles from Belfort, between Vesoul and Villersexel. They are supposed to have been driven by stir 01 war from Argonne or the Vosges. It is about sixty years since beasts of their kind were seen in this district, and people are not rejoicing over the visitation.

In my ignorance I had supposed that wolves were almost extinct in France. However, they were not so in 1870 and later, as ' L' Abbe Roitelet ' (by Ferdinand Fabre) gives evidence. We are told of a wolf-hunt in the Cevennes when more than 150 valiant men, armed to the teeth, went out to meet an enemy which had increased and strength- ened during the Franco-German War :

" La guerre nous avait enlev4 les hommes valides jusqu'au dernier, et Dieu sait le* nombre de ceux que ces effroyables Prussieris de malheur nous pnt tues. Tu devines si ces temps d'epreuve, mauvais h mes ouailles, furent bons aux loups du Marcou, du Roudil et de Saumail ! Les betes sauvages de Tirebose regnaient souverainement sur la region. Personne ici n'etant capable de tirer un coup de fusil, malgre les chiens qui ii'ayaient pas deserte 1'Espinouze et veillaient toujours aux bestiaux, les loups par bandes, non seulement rodaient ii toute heure du jour et de la nuit autour de nos bergeries, rapinant un chevre, rapinant un mouton, mais ils menacaient les metairies, guettant les enfants pour se jeter dessus si d'aventure ils essayaient de mettre le nez dehors. A Ginestet un pauvre petit de trois ans, qui jouait au seuil du

cabaret de la Bergonde, fut attaque, mordu a la tete, traine a cinquante pas parmi les buissons, presque completement devore." Pp. 07-9.

Let us hope that war's alarms may not reveal any lupine remanet in the ^British Teles. ST. SWITHIN.

HENRY COLBUBN. (See 11 S. xi. 474.) In a recent valuable note upon Charles Marsh, MB. RALPH THOMAS refers incident- ally to the large number of books published by Mr. Colburn in 1828. Having regard to the high price of paper at that time, and to the slowness of printing on the old machines, the number was very remarkable in pro- portion to the number of readers a century ago, and was no doubt largely due to the great publishing crisis of 1826 having re- moved so many of his rivals.

It may be interesting, therefore, to glance at Colburn's literary output at this time. The Diaries of Evelyn and of Pepys had been previously launched by him. In 1826-8, besides those of many other writers of note in their day, his list of publications con- tained new works by Mrs. Shelley, William Hazlitt, Horace Smith, Benjamin D'Israeli, J. H. Lister (the author of ' Granby '), William Godwin, Lord Normanby, W. Savage Landor, Thomas Roscoe, Plumer Ward, Lady Dacre, Tom Hood, the brothers Banim, Bulwer Lytton, Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Campbell, Colley Grattan, Lady Morgan, Leigh Hunt, Theodore Hook, Lady Charlotte Bury, the Rev. George Croly (author of ' Salathiel '), and, a few months later, Capt. Marryat and G. P. R. James. As these names have application only to new works, and not to reprints, they add further signific- ance to MB. THOMAS'S remark. R. B.

Upton.

"CHAPEL," NAUTICAL TEBM. " To make or build a chapel " and " to chapel a ship " are nautical phrases (explained in Falconer, Smyth, Dana, and other authors, both English and French) for the act of turning a ship round in a light breeze, when she is close - hauled, without bracing the head- yards, so that she will lie the same way as she did before. This is usually occasioned by negligence in steering or by a sudden change of wind. The origin of the phrase is not so easily obtained. Littre has, under the head of " chapelle," an explanation of the nautical phrase" faire chapelle,'' with the addition : " This is a wrong spelling which has prevailed over the good, which is chapel, or chapeau"

Littre does not give the word chapel, but under " chapeau " he has the nautical phrase