-Sketch of the gife stub cugUnbcrings of ge ISaiUant. 



OW tenaciously does memory retain her 

 hold on the pleasures of our early days ! 

 The scenes, the events, and the people 

 in whom we then took delight, are ever 

 after remembered with peculiar satisfaction. And 

 this is especially, perhaps, the case with reference 

 to the books which afforded us entertainment then; 

 there are never any pages so fresh and so life-like 

 to our feelings as those. My readers may probably 

 recall to mind many such favourites of their youth ; 

 it is the case with myself. Among others, I still 

 retain an agreeable reminiscence of Le Vaillant's 

 Travels, a book which, it has been well remarked, 

 excels in the graphic power and life of its descrip- 

 tions which give them, indeed, all the charm of 

 romance. His accounts of birds are such as could 

 only be supplied by one with whom it was a pas- 

 sion to follow them into their most secluded 

 haunts, and watch all their actions ; while his per- 

 sonal narrative is a sincere and faithful record of 



