1886.] REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 583 



backwoods settlers stack the hemlock bark while clearing the forest 

 land, and carry it in during the sleighing season to the tanneries, 

 receiving a certain value per cord, in money or store goods. Formerly 

 the payment was chiefly made in leather, when every man was his 

 own shoemaker ; but times have changed since those early more 

 primitive days, and the wives and children would disdain to wear 

 the home-made boots and shoes that were manufactured out of 

 coarsely-dressed leather by the industrious father of the family in 

 the long winter evenings, as he worked by the light of the blazing 

 log fire with his rude tools and wooden pegs. 



" The old shanty life is a thing of the past ; the carding and 

 spinning, the rattle of the looms, even the knitting needles, are not 

 now so constantly seen in the hands of the wives and daughters as 

 formerly. Eailroads and steamboats, schools, and increase of popu- 

 lation have wrought great changes in the lives and habits of the 

 people. Villages and towns now occupy the spots where only the 

 dark forests of pine and hemlock, maple and beech, once grew. The 

 trees disappear indeed before the axe and the fire, but they reappear 

 now as ornaments planted by tlie hand of taste in the gardens, and 

 as shade trees in the streets of the towns and cities ; and this is 

 good, it speaks of taste and culture. The hemlock, however, is less 

 frequently seen about our dwellings, beautiful as it is, for it is tardy 

 in growth, and does not take kindly to cultivation. Its natural soil 

 is dry, rocky, or gravelly land." 



The Scottish Gcograijhical Magazine. Printed for the Society by 

 T. & A. Constable, Edinburgh. 



Lieutenant A. W. Greely's Anniversay Address, dealing chiefly 

 with recent Arctic discoveries, is the leading article in the December 

 number of this spirited monthly. Two articles on Iceland, one 

 dealing with the great volcanic crater, and the other with the 

 mountainous regions of the interior, will both be found interesting to 

 Scottish geographers. Dr. Thomas Muir's short and pithy paper on 

 the Caroline Islands completes the number. 



TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



Catalogue of Forest Trees, Conifers, Shrubs, etc. Season 1885-86. 

 Ben Eeid & Co., Nurserymen, Aberdeen. 

 Rose List. Ben Eeid & Co., Aberdeen. 



