474- Bibliographical Notices, 



full list of the localities for the Mosses, Characese, Lichens, Algae, 

 and Fungi. 



Although we have made a few objections to parts of this book, we 

 nevertheless can recommend it very strongly to the notice of our 

 readers, especially to those who may contemplate a Highland tour. 



Seasons with the Sea-horses ; or Sporting Adventures in the Northern 

 Seas. By James Lamont, Esq., F.G.S. London : Hurst and 

 Blackett, 1861. 



A SHORT visit to Spitzbergen, in 1858, whilst yachting on the coast 

 of Norway, convinced the author that "wonderful sport, and of a 

 most original description, was to be obtained there by any one who 

 would go at the proper season, with a suitably equipped vessel and 

 proper boats, manned by a crew of men accustomed to the ice and 

 to the pursuit of the walrus and the seal." In the spring, therefore, 

 of 1859 Mr. Lamont prepared his expedition ; and after some little 

 delay he started, in company with another keen sportsman. Lord 

 David Kennedy, for Hammerfest, whence they took a regular " jagt " 

 or sealing-sloop, with boats, harpoons, lines, lances, blubber-knives, 

 casks, provisions, &c., and with a " Skyppar " and crew of Norse- 

 men. We will not follow our adventurers through their weary wait- 

 ings in fogs and mist, their exciting boat-hunts after seal, walrus, 

 and bear, their scrambling chases of the white bear on the coast-ice, 

 and their more pleasant stalking of silly reindeer on the land — result- 

 ing in the killing of 46 walruses, 88 seals, 8 bears, 1 white whale, 

 and 6 1 reindeer — besides some other 20 walruses and 40 seals slain 

 but lost, — but we propose to avail ourselves of some of the many 

 scraps of natural-history information that this very interesting book 

 . on Northern sports aflPords. We must premise that our author is not 

 a mere sportsman, blind to everything but his victims and the general 

 aspect of the scenery around. On the contrary, he has his eyes open 

 to zoological, botanical, and geological phenomena ; and in the last- 

 mentioned department of science especially, though an amateur, he 

 has not been by any means unsuccessful in recording facts of im- 

 portance, and in bringing home useful material for geologists to 

 work upon, as the Appendix to his book, and the Journal of the 

 Geological Society, attest. 



Mr. Lamont scarcely leaves Hammerfest before he finds something 

 to observe about ptarmigan, mosquitoes, cod-fish, and the arctic 

 shark ; the last (sought after for the sake of his liver and there suiting 

 " cod-liver oil ") affords such good sport, between Finmarken and 

 Bear Island, where he is fished for with lines baited with seal-blubber 

 at from 100 to 150 fathoms, that "a summer month with Squalus 

 borealis " will perhaps be the title of one of next year's sporting 

 books. 



The habits, character, and features of the Great Spitzbergen Seal 

 {Phoca barbata) are given at pages 55 et seq., and full instructions 

 how to shoot him through his brain, small as it is, are carefully laid 

 down. Ten feet long, six feet in circumference, weighing 600 pounds, 



