NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Evening Star, Issue 3464, 30 March 1874, Page 2

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The Wottern World, Picturesque Sketches of Nature nnd Natural History in North and South America. By W. H. G. Kingston. T. Nelson and Sons, London and Edinburgh. Win. Hay, Princes street, Dunedin. . The general demand for .» class of works calculated to inform as well as interest 4s rapidly being met by Meters Nelson and Sons. The progress of education has created this demand. • The bare outline of branches of knowledge that used to satisfy; are not now sufficient. Abstract terms of science are not synonymous with science itself ; and through beingdrawn from unfamiliartonguet, they convey no ideas to those who are not acquainted with the languages from which their roots are derived. And apart from this impediment to the study of science, the

necessity for wading, through numberless volumes made up of dry details is more than the general class of readers'can find time for. Jt would require long study of phyiib&l geography and natural history for any per* sou.to acquaint himself with all the facts and their relations to each, other that Mr Kingston has combined in the very delightful book we are nowwriting of; and when, after years of labor all the necessary facts had been gathered together, they might, and most probably would, be retained in the memory without that skilful and systematic arrangement which gives to each a place in a comprehensive picture ; for'that'is really the character of the' work Mr Kingston has produced. His generalisations have method in them. He acquaints flis readers with the physical features of the continent, and in a few pages he puts them before the imagination in Such a fpjrai as tp be easily remembered. He shows how those phyaipal features tend to influence the flabitp and mode of life of the inhabitants, and weaves into the narrative illustrations not only pertinent ? to it but conveying a lesson in ethology calculated tp prepare tbo mind for applying it to thp study of other sciences, such as plutolqgy, as Beqrq denominates political economy, ortho philosophy of'history. The intimate connection between the circumstances of men and their advancement from barbarism to civilization is ably pointed out by Buckle. In his chapter on the physical laws, he says, “Beginning, then, with climate, food, and soil, it is evident that these three physical powers are in no small degree dependent upon each other; that is to say, there is a very close connection between the climate of a country and the food which will ordinarily be grown in that country; while at the same time the food is itself influenced by the soil \fhioh produces it, as also by the elevation or. depression of the land, by the state of the atmosphere, and in a word, by all those conditions to the assemblage of which the w»»*ne of Physical Geography is, in its largest sense, commonly given.” Mr Kingston, without the parade of it, illustrates these facts. He tells of life in the ioy north, on the prairie, on the lakes and rivers, and in the forests; he tells of tribes and their modes o* hfe that must, at no distant date either merge into and be lost in, the vS* Vpu£ tions now taking possession of their: - oldie out and be forgotten in name, eveepting m such records as the “Western World.” jjf tells of animals and their baWt. ** th eir growth, of the forests localities,' and the ©occupations t6 Which they give rise; of birds anS insects" and reptiles and hshee. ' He tells of the use of thwn * of the “odes adopted for their capture or destruction, and

all this in a style that interests more than; romance, because, although depicted on the imagination with equal liveliness, ■ there is : the consciousness that all is worth reinemhenng through its being true. One extract will illustrate the descriptive' power with : which this book is written. It is under the ■ head “Theßuffalo” : Let us set off from a farm in the Western States, on the‘border of the prairie. We have one or two nights to camp out before we reach the buffalo grounds. Mounting our horses by break of day, after an early breakfast, we ride on with the wind in our faces, and at length discover across the plain a number of dark objects moving slowly. They are buffaloes, feeding as they go. We see through our fieldglasses that there are calves among them. It is proposed that some of our party should ride round, so as to stampede the herd back towards ns, and thus, by dividing them, enable ns to get in the centre. We wait for some time, when we see a vast mass of hairy monsters come tearing over a hill towards us. We have shot several of the bulls, but our object is to secure their calves and cows. As the herd approaches us, it swings round its front at right-angles, and makes off westward. We dash forward, and divide it into twO parties. We also separate, some of our hunters following one part ef tbie herd, the others the remainder. The enthusiasm of pur horses equals our own. Away wo go * nothing stops us. Now we plunge with headlong.bounds down bluffs of caving sands fifty feet High tvhile rthe ;buffaloes, crazv’With, terror, kre scrambling half-way up the opposite side. Now We are on the very haunches of our gaine ; now before us appears a slippery buffalo 1 Wallow. We see it just in time to leap clears but the next instant we are' in the middle of one. ■ Qur horses,- with frantic plunges, soramble’out ; and oa we; go; We get'closer and closer to ; the buffaloeSj Wheli a loud thundering of trampling hoofs’ sounds behind us. Looking over our shoulders, ithere, in plain sight, appears another herd, tearing ; down on our rear. For nearly a unlein width stretches a line of angry, faces, a rolling surf of wind-blown hair, a row of quivering lights burning with a reddish-brown hue—the eyes of the infuriated animals. Should our horses stumble, our fate will be sealed. It is certain death to bo involved in the herd, So is it to turn back.. In an instant we .should be trampled and gored to death. Our only hope is to ride steadily in the line of .the-'stampede, till we can insinuate ourselves laterally, and break out through the sido of the herd. ’ Yet the hope of doing so is but small. On we rush rapidly as before, when suddenly, to our great ..satisfaction, the herd before us divides into two columns, to pass round a low hill in front. Still on we go,' pushing our horses up the height. We reach'the summit, the horses panting fearfully, and the moisture trickling in streams from their sides. But now the rear column comes on. They see ua, not fifty rods off, but happily pay. no attention to us. We dismount, facing the furious oreaturet: Should they not divide,: but comeover the: hill, in ,a few.jnomonts we, must be trampled tp death. The herd approaches to within a bundred yards of the hill. We lift our rifles and deliver a couple of steadily aimed bullets at the fore-shoulders of the nearest bulls. One gives a wild, jump, and limps on with three legs ; the others seem at first unhurt ; but just as they reach the foot of the mound, they both fall ■ down. The whole host'are rushing over them. We rapidly re-load, The fate of their comrades, however,' sends a panic info the hearts of ; the herd. Another falls just when they are so close that we could have sprubg on their backs. At that moment they divide, and the next we are standing on a desert ; island, a sea of billowing,backs flowing round on either side in a half-mile current of crazy buffaloes. The herd is fully five minutes in passing us. Mr Kingstdntells us in his preface that his “ object Has been to produce a work calculated, to: interest the family circle rather one of scientific pretensions.” He has succeded in his design, and'has been-ably assisted by the engraver. The work abounds with illustrations ,of high-class art, and is most elegantly bound.