XVI OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



cannot but be of the most salutary character, when vigilance, caution, 

 fertility of resource, coolness, and courage are all required to circumvent 

 and conquer the wary and formidable monsters, against whom the brute 

 strength of man is wholly unavailing. It is a real war that is to be waged 

 with an enemy worthy of human prowess, and taxing some of the finest 

 qualities to the utmost. What better school can be found for the soldier to 

 practise during peace — the stratagems and arts of war ? And what is more 

 likely to sharpen his courage and confidence, on which at such a time must 

 be his main reliance ? Add to these exciting pursuits a practical knowledge 

 of military evolutions and tactics, and a proper sense of subordination to 

 authority, and the elements most indispensable to a soldier will be com- 

 plete. 



The practical part of the work which gives rise to these comments is also 

 calculated to be extremely useful, and must not pass without notice. Here 

 the sportsman will find rules as to dress and baggage, and vehicles and 

 beasts of burden, and general accoutrements and utensils, as to provisions 

 and ammunition, and, above all, as to weapons, which will be eminently 

 serviceable to him in taking the field amidst the primseval forests and 

 pathless mountains, where auxiliary or extraneous assistance is out of the 

 question, and a man must depend upon his own forethought and ingenuity 

 to avoid or to extricate himself from the numerous accidents that beset him 

 in his adventurous course. The volume is concluded by a clear, vigorous, 

 and interesting treatise of a theoretical and practical nature, on muzzle- 

 loading and breech-loading arms, and rifle-shooting, with remarks on 

 uniform, the whole of which deserves the earnest attention, not only of the 

 sportsman but of the professional soldier and the volunteer. 



As our author is of a very observing turn of mind, he frequently describes 

 the appearance and dimensions, and likewise the habits of the animals that 

 he kiUs, and indulges in graphic sketches of the trees and vegetation of the 

 tropics, so that the lover of natural history will be gratified, not, indeed, 

 with a profound, but a popular and pleasing account of animal and vege- 

 table life. In general, it is in quest of game that our author explores the 

 picturesque grandeur or beauty of primitive nature ; but sometimes the 

 thirst of daring enterprise, and the admiration of towering mountains, 

 leads him far above the haunts of bird or beast, to regions in which the 

 awful glacier, resplendent with rainbow colours, opens its treacherous 

 chasms, and the thunder of the avalanche makes sublime and appalling 

 music, amidst the toppling crags and the precipitous rocks. The Caucasus 

 is the scene of this exploit, and El-Bruz the mountain which, at imminent 

 risk, and with the actual loss, in returning, of one of his attendants, our 

 author ascends. 



