LITERARY NOTICES, 



275 



haunt the burial-places of the north African em- 

 pires ; and no iuvocation can break the dcath- 

 eluniber of Asia Minor. Acorns perish in the 

 Boil which once nourished the oaks of Baehan; 

 outraged Nature refuses to be reconciled. With 

 the glory of the Orbis Romanus the s^pring-time 

 of our earth has departed, and what America 

 mistakes for the prime of a new year is but the 

 lingering mildness of an Indian summer. 



The career whose swiftness is our national 

 boast has led us upon a road which has never 

 been far pursued with impunity ; the rapidity of 

 the destruction of our tree and game production 

 is far more unparalleled than the growth of our 

 cities ; the misery of the Old World has not 

 taught us to avoid its causes, and the history of 

 its etfects will not fail to repeat itself. On the 

 frozen shores of Lake Winnipeg and the inacces- 

 eible heights of the central Kocky Mountains a 

 few remnants of the old forests will probably 

 survive ; but the great East-Americansylvaniais 

 already doomed ; if we persist in our present 

 course, our last timber-States, Maine, Michigan, 

 and North Carolina, will be as bald as northern 

 Italy in fifty years from now, and our last game 

 will soon retreat to the festering swamps of 

 southern Florida. 



The temperate zone of America will soon be 

 the treeless zone, with a single exception. In 

 the sierras of southern Mexico large tracts of 

 land still combine a generous climate with a 

 rich arboreal vegetation. Mexico, like our own 

 republic, has her backwoods States, but their 

 security from the inroads of the destroyer is 

 guaranteed by better safeguards than their re- 

 moteness from the great commercial centers. 

 The ruggedness of the surrounding sierras, the 

 supposed or real scarcity of precious metals, 

 and the independent character of the aboriginal 

 population, all conspire to make the alturas or 

 mountain forests as unattractive to the imperi- 

 ous Spaniards as they are inviting to freedom- 

 loving visitors from the North. 



To my rambles and adventures in these altu- 

 ras, to their scenic charms, their strange fauna 

 and vegetable wonders, I have devoted this vol- 

 ume ; but I have rarely touched upon the min- 

 eral and agricultural resources of a region which 

 should remain consecrate to the Hamadryads 

 and their worshipers. The cities of the inter- 

 vening "civilized" districts, too, I have only 

 mentioned as wayside stations for the benefit of 

 non-pedestrian tourists. New Spain makes no 

 exception from the general rule that the nations 

 of Europe have transformed their American de- 

 pendencies after the image of their mother- 

 countries, and only he who leaves the cities far 

 behind can f irget that Mexico was colonized 

 under the auspices of St. Jago and Ximenes. 



This collection of " Suramer-huid Sketches" 

 is, therefore, neither a record of a pilgrimage to 

 the shrines and cathedrals of Spanish America, 

 nor a bid for the patronage of Southwestern 

 land-agencies, but rather a guide-book to one 

 of the few remaining regions of earth that may 

 give us an idea of the tree-land eastward in 

 Eden which the Creator intended for the abode 

 of maukiud. lu the terrace-lands of western 



Colima and Oaxaca, near the head-waters of the 

 Rio Lcrma and the mountain-lakes of Jalisco, 

 and in the lonely highlands of Vera Paz, we may 

 yet see forests that have never been desecrated 

 by an axe, and free fellow-creatures which have 

 not yet learned to flee Irom man as from a fiend. 



An Elementary Treatise on Analytical 

 Geometry, embracing Plane Geometry 

 AND AN Introduction to Gecmetry of 

 Three Dimensions. By Edward A. 

 Bowser. New York : D. Van Nostrand. 

 1880. Pp. 287. 



Professor Bowser has produced a very 

 excellent text-book, and has successfully 

 accomplished his object of presenting his 

 subject in a clear and concise manner, suit- 

 ed to the ready comprehension of the class 

 of students for which it is designed. The 

 demonstrations have been selected with re- 

 gard to their being of recognized excellence, 

 from all available sources, and when a line 

 of proof could be simplified it has been 

 done. 



The Minor Arts. By Charles G. Leland. 

 London : Macmillan & Co^ 1880. Pp. 

 148. Price 90 cents. 



The regard in which decorative work of 

 all kinds is at present held has given a 

 commercial value to many of those minor 

 arts which have been heretofore viewed only 

 in the light of accomplishments, and pursued 

 only as a pastime. A large field of remu- 

 nerative and agreeable employment is thus 

 opened up to numbers of persons who could 

 in no other way use their time and abilities 

 to such advantage. These arts are mostly 

 simple, and can be learned sufficiently well to 

 enable the student to do at least passable 

 work with a fair amount of diligence and at 

 an inconsiderable cost. With the object of 

 presenting such practical instruction in the 

 use of the materials and the kind of work 

 that can be made from them as the novice 

 needs, in a convenient and easily accessible 

 form, Mr. Leland has prepared the present 

 little manual. The volume opens with a 

 consideration of leather-work, of which there 

 are three kinds, that known as cuir bouilli, 

 in which the leather is softened and then 

 molded, stamped, or otherwise shaped ; 

 sewed leather, and sheet-leather ornaments, 

 such as leaves, flowers, etc. Mr. Leland de- 

 votes his attention chiefly to the first kind, 

 which he shows is capable of producing in 



