December 



21, i; 



SCIENCE. 



yj 



tion in Classics ; ' another on ' Botany in Country Schools ; ' and 

 one on ' Professor Montgomery's Recent Explorations in l^akota 

 of the Remains of Mound-Builders.' 



— Charles Scribner's Sons have just ready a new volume by the 

 Rev. Dr. Henry M. Field, in which the famous traveller describes 

 ' Gibraltar,' giving an historical survey of the fortress and town. 

 ' The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris,' edited by Anne Gary 

 Morris, also just issued, is crowded with material of international 

 interest. 



— Scores of books have been written about Spain and about 

 northern Africa, but it has been left for Dr. Henry M. Field to write 

 a most interesting volume about that unique bit of English territory 

 that lies between these regions, ' Gibraltar' (New York, Scribner). 

 The place is one that travellers are wont to give the go-by, and 

 this fact imparts an unusual degree of novelty and freshness to Dr. 

 Field's picture. The book gives, in a lively, entertaining nar- 

 rative, just what we would wish to know about the fortress of 

 Gibraltar, its appearance, history, construction, military and social 

 life, etc. One climbs the rock with the author as a guide and com- 



glances at the traits of its great marshals ; the social conditions 

 both as they promise development and as they are still unripe for 

 the complete freedom of expression of public opinion in the press 

 or otherwise ; the Philistine and his carping pettiness ; society and 

 the womankind; the family life and recreation ;ind amusement, — 

 all are glanced at and commented on, and anecdotes and instances 

 supplied. 



— D. Lothrop Co. have under way a book of travel by Henry E. 

 Rhoades, of the Engineer Corps of the Navy, who was associated 

 with Lieut.-Commander De Long, Lieutenant Chipp, and Chief 

 Engineer Melville in the ' Polaris ' Search Expedition in the Arctic 

 in 1873, and who has been twice almost around the world. It will 

 deal in an interesting way with the habits and customs of the peo- 

 ple of the West Indies, of Brazil and other countries of South Amer- 

 ica, of Africa, Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, Arabia, India, 

 China, Japan, Greenland, etc., and will be appropriately illustrated. 



— It is a great compliment that the Youth's Companion has 

 been appointed to be read in schools in various localities, Toledo 

 among them. 



From ' Gibraltar.' 



Charles Scribner^s Sons, 



mentator, goes through the fortifications, strolls around the town, 

 is present at a parade, gets a glimpse of the society of the place, 

 reviews the great siege more than a hundred years ago, with all of 

 its details of heroism on the part of the besieged English and their 

 French and Spanish assailants, and finally sails away from the 

 picturesque spot to Africa. The numerous illustrations aid the 

 reader materially in getting a capital idea of the famous fortress 

 and town, and their surroundings. 



— Macmillan & Co. will issue immediately 'Japan and its Art,' 

 by Marcus B. Huish, founded on papers in the Art Journal, but 

 revised and extended. The book, say the publishers, is the re- 

 sult of a year's constant intercourse with the most competent Japan- 

 ese experts, and of study of the principal European collections. It 

 will contain upwards of one hundred illustrations. 



— Messrs. Ticknor & Co. published on Dec. 1 1, ' Imperial Ger- 

 many,' a critical study of fact and character, by Sidney Whitman. 

 This book deals with some characteristics of Germany as a nation, 

 socially, politically, and intellectually, passing in survey over the 

 historical development, and showing the elements by which Ger- 

 man unity has been achieved, and especially noticing the play of 

 the ideal element in the process. The growth of the Hohenzollern 

 power and the characteristics in its more prominent personages 

 which have gone to form the grit of the Prussian nation, and finally 

 to make it supreme in Germany ; the condition of the army and the 

 leading influences that have combined to make it what it is, with 



— A. D. F. Randolph & Co. will publish at once ' The Fisher- 

 man's Daughter,' by Florence Montgomery. 



— The Christmas number of Harper's iVecily, issued Dec. 12, 

 consists of twenty-four pages. It contains an interesting sketch of 

 Christmas customs in Germany by the Countess von Krockow. 



— The sumptuous new volume of 'Mendelssohn's Letters,' 

 lately published by Ticknor & Co., has received many most favor- 

 able notices. Mr. Gladstone says, " To Mendelssohn I feel grateful 

 for his works, and I have also had the pleasure of hearing him play, 

 some thirty or thirty-five years ago, in London. A few glances 

 have shown me that the book will afford me a most agreeable pe- 

 rusal." Sir George Grove, author of the ' Dictionary of Music, ' 

 writes, " You have made me most happy with your beautiful book, 

 and by the dedication, which is more than I deser\'e." Georg 

 Henschel, the inai-slro. says, " I am almost through with it, and 

 cannot tell you how I enjoyed it. and how splendidly the selections 

 are made, and altogether how thoroughly you have succeeded in 

 making the book highly interesting from beginning to end." Men- 

 delssohn's eldest daughter says, " How charming the sketches are, 

 and how ver\' well done I I like every thing in and about the book, 

 and personally enjoy it immensely. The letters read quite as if 

 they had been written in English." And Robert Browning writes. 

 " While I sat preparing the paper whereon to write, came the very 

 book itself, — the dearest of books, just now. The best way will 

 be to thank you at once, and be certain of finding plenty more to 



