Report on General Literature. 



79 



of the consideration of science or taste, and a large majority 

 of which have what little merit they possess clouded by 

 awkward details of individual pleasures and sufferings, or 

 by false and illogical criticisms in art. A volume, however, 

 to be distinguished from these, for pleasant style, agreeable 

 record of adventure and some novelty, was published a 

 little before the commencement of the year, and hardly 

 becoming well known until a few weeks afterwards, may 

 be looked upon as one of the works to be now considered. 

 I refer to Pumpelly's Journey across the Continents of 

 America and Asia, containing a well written journal of 

 adventures that do not often fall to the lot of many men, 

 detailed in pleasant manner and carrying us into lands, 

 that, though not before unexplored, are yet so little known, 

 as not to be beyond reexploration. In a scientific point of 

 view, moreover, the work is valuable, inasmuch as the au- 

 thor held a kind of semi official position under the Japanese 

 and Chinese governments for the examination and elabora- 

 tion of the working of their mines, and hence he is now 

 enabled to treat with authority upon a matter to which few 

 foreigners have ever been permitted to give more than a stolen 

 and fugitive attention. 



Somewhat dissimilar to this volume, is the Recovery of 

 Jerusalem, a capacious and not altogether lively record of 

 exploration beneath the surface of the holy city and 

 its environs, the work being a detail of industry carried 

 on in one region and for one especial purpose. Illustrated 

 with maps and engravings, it exhibits satisfactory progress, 

 having identified some localities which were before obscure, 

 and having approximated without actual certainty, towards 

 the identification of others. The work is, perhaps, valuable, 

 not so much for explaining to us what has been done, as for 

 its indications of future progress, to be carried on with more 

 or less satisfactory result, in proportion as the public interest 

 is awakened and the means for further labor furnished. 



