"UNDERGROUND; OR LIFE BELOW THE SURFACE."

Kumara Times, Issue 919, 10 September 1879, Page 2

"UNDERGROUND; OR LIFE BELOW THE SURFACE."

Onr American friends appear to hd going ahead in literature as in every; thing else. One of their latest and finest production* is a book entitled " Underground ; or Life below the Surface.," by Col. Thos. W. Knox,.of the New Y»rk Herald, one of the most popular writers .the States have produced. This work is 1 having an immense sale all over the known world and nowhere ought it to find a mora ready welcome than on our own West Coast, seeing that although tlv»roughty interesting and instructive t<r all classes, it is, from the nature of its contents, doubly attractive to a mining community. The subjects throughout aio treated in a very able manner and their name is " Legion." As a matter of course, a hirge portion of this entertaining volnms is devoted to mining, pure and simple, from the earliest goldmining among the ancients down to the piesent day, including an account of the discovery of the Californian goldfields in '49, particulars of the earliest finds in New South Wales and the great rushes to Ballarat and elsewhere,which followed clo«e .upon the birth of Victoria as a colony distinct from NewSouth Wales. Mining iu llussia and Af'ticu, the quicksilver mines of Mexico, lard, coal, and copper mines all find a place in this book, and there are also depicted many other phases of underground life in various parts of the world from time immemorial, embracing such a variety of subjects as the Mammoth Cave of Kentuckey, Low life in Paris, Chinese opium dens, the S mth African diamond fields, excavations of ancient buried cities, war and prison adventures, etc. One of the most interesting chapters ; .s upon the great silver mines of Nevada where H. T. P. Comstock and party were the first to " strike it.rich," in the Big Bonanzas from the mammoth lode bearing the name of the discoverer. There are in all, seventy-one chapters in the book, the whole being written in a thoroughly free and easy style by one who has, himself, roughed it in many climes, and throughout there is an extensive sprinkling of -lively anecdotes, which tend to make this edifying work as intensely interesting as the most facinating book of travels. It contains 1016 papers of reading matter and 125 engravings, put together in a strong handsome binding, from the press of the well known publishers, the J. B. B. Burr Co, La, Hartford ,Conn, U.S. a, The agent is now in Kurnara obtainin»the names of subscribers, and we an-

tikipate *or him a very large number, as it is m b<>ok which would he tinmeans oi affording light i ending for many an idle hour anil ought to find a place in the dwelling of every mine v.