Description of the principal Elevation of the New Church of NORTH LEITH.

WE have this month the pleasure of presenting to our readers a view of the principal Elevation of the Church of North-Leith, with its spire, after the plan of BURN, now nearly completed and we shall at present add a few particulars touching this

structure.

The whole of the building appears to be a purely Grecian edifice: fronting the east, and from the face of the columns to the back-wall, we find it is in length 116 feet.

The extent of the front exhibited in the view is rather more than 78% feet, and the church is calculated to accommodate, with convenience, two thousand two hundred persons.

The proportions of the portico are, in our opinion, taken from the little Ionic temple on the Ilyssus, near to Athens-indeed it appears to be entirely similar. The first story of the steeple is Doric, and bears a close resemblance to the temple of Minerva; the second is Ionic; and the third is Corinthian.

The spire is fluted, and its height from the ground to the top of the Cross is 158 feet.

• We are not quite sure if this termination of the spire is in this instance quite appropriate, because a cross has but little con

The ceiling of the church is partly coved, and partially ornamented, and the walls are plastered in imitation of

stone.

the

regu

Even the minutest part of this building, where design is requisite, appears to us to possess some affinity the gallery, in place of being pannelto Grecian buildings. The fronts of led, like every common place church, or not pannelled at all, like the unCharlotte Square, possesses common church of St George in lar entablature of the columns, which are Ionic, and fluted. The pulpit also has Corinthian columns, and the top of it is classically finished, with the entablature of this order-taken, we think, from the temple of Lysicrates, design for the purpose. which is certainly a very appropriate

The estimated sum for finishing the church and spire of North-Leith, we understand, was only £.8500; and although some additional expense has been incurred, from the great depth of the foundations, the total outlay, we are assured, will not exceed £.9000.

John Russel, builder in Leith, who, The work was undertaken by Mr we are informed, has executed his part entirely

nexion with a Grecian building, and farther -because a vane would have been useful to the parishioners, who are chiefly composed of sea-faring people.

entirely to the satisfaction of his employers, and of the architect.

The foundation was laid in the month of March 1814, and the church will probably be opened for divine service sometime in the course of this year.

from spawning, and the white-bait may therefore be expected to occur in the Tay, if indeed that little fish be the fry of the shad. As such it was considered by the late Mr Pennant.

It is well known that Mr Lightfoot wrote his Flora Scotica in consequence of travelling over Scotland and its islands with that celebrated tourist in the year 1772. Mr Pennant's pur

HISTORY.

SHAD, (Clupea alosa, Lin.)

This was described by Willough by by the name of Mother of Herrings, and has been long known to frequent the Severn and the Thames. But there was some doubt concern ing the propriety of ranking it as a Scottish fish. This has now been removed, several specimens having of late been taken in the estuary of the Tay, and communicated to that distinguished naturalist, Dr Fleming of Flisk, who kindly transmitted one to the writer of this article. This specimen measures 1 foot 5 inches from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail. When full grown, however, the fish generally exceeds 2 feet in length. It is nearly destitute, too, of the dark spots on the sides described by authors, and represented in the figures published; but in all other respects it agrees with the characters of the shad given by Pennant, Shaw, and others. It may indeed be remarked, that Pennant mentions a variety of the shad called the twaite, to which our specimen seems to accord; and it may be added, that Mr David Pennant, in the new edition of his father's British Zoology, suggests the probability that the twaite and the shad may correspond to the feinte and alose of Duhamel, and may possibly prove to be distinct species.

In the spring months the shad ascends rivers to spawn, and it returns to the sea in autumn. The specimens taken were probably on their return

Mr Lightfoot attended to the botany of the country. When the latter, some years afterwards, came to publish his Flora, his friend furnished him with an introductory Faunula; and in this little piece Mr Pennant says, p. 62. “I have no certain proof of the shad having been taken in Scotland; but its fry, the white-bait, appears near Aberdeen."

Now, as remarked by Dr Fleming, it is an awkward circumstance that, at the distance of thirty years after the publication of that work, an English naturalist of respectability (Mr Donovan) should publish as a new discovery, that the white-bait is the fry of the shad!

After all, the fact of the white-bait being the young of the shad, does not appear to be firmly established. Mr David Pennant, already alluded to, seems inclined to consider the white bait of the Thames as identical with the Franc blanquet of Duhamel; and he mentions that that naturalist, having observed the Franc blanquet in milt and roe in the winter months, was apt to view it as a distinct species.

The flesh of the shad is eaten, but is not desirable. The Severn shad, however, seems to form an exception: it is so excellent, that, in Gloucester, we are told, shad sells at a higher rate than salmon. It is a common fish in the great continental rivers, the Rhine, the Elbe, and others; but it is not there relished.