the jaw, nor could he, with all his efforts or his floundering, get free.

"Sister,' cries the youngest princess, 'I have certainly caught a monstrous fish; I never perceived any thing struggle so at the end of my line before; come, and help me to draw it in.' They both now, therefore, assisted in fishing up the diver on shore; but nothing could equal their surprise upon seeing him. 'Bless my eyes;' cries the prude, 'what have we got here? this is a very odd fish to be sure; I never saw any thing in my life look so queer; what eyes, what terrible claws, what a monstrous snout! I have read of this monster somewhere before, it certainly must be a tanlang, that eats women; let us throw it back into the sea, where we found it.'

The diver in the meantime stood upon the beach, at the end of the line, with the hook in his mouth, using every art that he thought could best excite pity, and particularly looking extremely tender, which is usual in such circumstances. The coquette, therefore, in some measure influenced by the innocence of his looks, ventured to contradict her companion. Upon my word, sister,' says she,

I see nothing in the animal so very terrible as you are pleased to apprehend; I think it may serve well enough for a change. Always sharks, and sturgeons, and lobsters, and craw

fish, make me quite sick, I fancy a slice of this, nicely grilled, and dressed up with shrimp sauce, would be very pretty eating. I fancy mamma would like a bit with pickles above all things in the world; and if it should not sit easy on her stomach, it will be time enough to discontinue it when found disagreeable, you know.' Horrid!' cries the prude, 'would the girl be poisoned! I tell you it is a tanlang: I have read of it in twenty places. It is every where described as the most pernicious animal that ever infested the ocean. I am certain it is the most insidious, ravenous creature in the world, and is certain destruction if taken internally. The youngest sister was now, therefore, obliged to submit: both assisted in drawing the hook with some violence from the diver's jaw; and he, finding himself at liberty, bent his breast against the broad wave and disappeared in an instant.

Just at this juncture the mother came down to the beach, to know the cause of her daughters' delay; they told her every circumstance, describing the monster they had caught. The old lady was one of the most discreet women in the world; she was called the black-eyed princess, from two black eyes she had received. in her youth, being a little addicted to boxing in her liquor. Alas, my children,' cries she, 'what have you done? the fish you caught.

was a man-fish; one of the most tame domestic animals in the world. We could have let him run and play about the garden, and he would have been twenty times more entertaining than our squirrel or monkey.'-'If that be all,' says the young coquette, we will fish for him again. If that be all, I'll hold three tooth-picks to one pound of snuff, I catch him whenever I please.' Accordingly they threw in their line once more, but, with all their gilding, and paddling, and assiduity, they could never after catch the diver. In this state of solitude and disappointment they continued for many years, still fishing, but without success; till, at last, the genius of the place, in pity to their distresses, changed the prude into a shrimp, and the coquette into an oyster. Adieu.

LETTER LXXXVIII.

FROM THE SAME.

The folly of remote or useless disquisitions among the learned.

I

AM amused, my dear Fum, with the labours of some of the learned here. One shall write you a whole folio on the dissection of a caterpillar. Another shall swell his works with a description of the plumage on the wing of a