Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/668

 658 oyster-cultivation on the coasts of Brittany and Normandy. The spat is collected on artificial trusses of branches, or on builder’s débris, where it is grown to maturity, and can easily be transported from one place to another. Oyster-banks have thus been formed where there were none before, and old beds have been re-stocked, and are now yielding large supplies, amply remunerating their proprietors for the expenditure of capital and labour.

Is it not as possible to enter on a systematic cultivation of the water as it is of the land? We think it is; and we have the industry of Commachio to bear us out, as likewise the co-operative or free fishermen of Whitstable, who derive a large revenue from their oyster-beds. The humble fisherman of La Bresse, Joseph Remy, who re-discovered pisciculture (for fish-breeding was well known and largely practised by the ancients), could not dream of the great results which would ultimately flow from his discovery. There are no other useful members of the animal world susceptible of similar cultivation: fish alone yield their young in such incredible numbers as to convince us that, under proper conditions, there is no end to the supply; and the fact of the impregnation of fish-eggs being an external act is, of itself, a convincing proof that man was destined ultimately to cultivate the water upon the same principle as he cultivates the earth—viz., to sow the seed, that it might germinate, and, in course of time, ripen into a great and remunerative food-harvest.

the changing sky,

Under the clouded moon,

The earth gapes, white and dry,

But the rain cometh soon;

Yes! down from yon low skies

Rushes, at last, the rain;

Woman forlorn, arise!

Thou hast not crouched in vain,

Rizpah, daughter of Aiah.

Brave men have told the king,

How, scared away by thee,

Each ravenous fowl takes wing,

And wolves and panthers flee:

How thou hast wrestled here,

Despising ease and sleep,

Without a thought of fear,

Because thy love is deep,

Rizpah, daughter of Aiah.

Therefore, in sight of all,

A proud tomb is begun,

To hold the bones of Saul,

And Jonathan, his son;

There too, in calm repose,

From insult safe, shall dwell

The stately forms of those

Whom thou hast watch’d so well,

Rizpah, daughter of Aiah.

And whilst the ages roll

Through Time’s unsounded deep,

Thy true and tender soul

A magic life shall keep;

Maidens shall muse alone,

And mothers’ hearts be stirr’d,

Where’er thy deeds are known,

Where’er thy name is heard,

Rizpah, daughter of Aiah.