LIBBABY TABLE. 
Scribxer’s for Sf.ptembek. — The continuations are 
Jules Verne's “ Mysterious Island,” and “The Story of 
Sevenoaks.” Among the other aricles are a description 
of Chicago, a profoundly critical article on the portraits 
of Shakespeare hj- William Page, “ An article on minor 
Victorian Poets,” “ The Cold Snap," and “Tilda," both 
stories. These, avith the copious minor departments, 
make up a number of average excellence. The Shake- 
spearian article is most powerful. Mr. Page, the well- 
known painter, has devoted himself to the construction 
of a Shakespeare's face, composed from all extant 
sources of information. His success ma}’ be questioned, 
hut probably DO man living knows as much about the 
subject its he, and those who intelligently combat his 
conclusions ought to go into controversy with weapons 
of proof. 
The Atb.xxtic IMoxthi-y for September contains ; 
“ Practice and Patronage of French Art,” a discrimi- 
nating analysis of the modern popular schools ; “ Old 
IToman’s G<i33ip,'' a very lively reminiscence of early 
days, hj- ^Mrs. Fanny Anne Kemble; “National Self- 
]>rotection,” a terse, sententious statement of free trade 
and protection, in which the writer, himself a manufac- 
turer, avows himself a protectioni.st, and insists on it as 
the only patriotic principle, and derides free trade phi- 
lanthropy. “ A Patriotic Schoolmaster’’ is an ingenious 
apology for the existence of Webster, the lexicographer, 
who, in his effort to simplify American spelling, has 
achieved an unblest notoriety. “ Sanitary Drainage,” 
a useful article on a subject in which everj- alderman 
and town councillor ought to be compelled to graduate, 
hut which is nobody’s business until cholera or fever 
makes it everybod\''s anxiety. » 
The Adiroxdacks. — Report of Topographical Sur- 
vey for 18T3. By Verplanck Colvin. The wilderness 
of Northern New York, with its sylvan beauties of 
rocks and crags, lakes and torrents, its game and its fish, 
guides and mosquitoes, has been “done” so often from 
tiie picturesejue, sporting and hook-making points 
of view, that it may seem almost superfluous to take up 
such a well-worn subject. It is one of those dishes, 
however, which are always in sea.son, and having oc- 
casion to refer for some points of information to 3Ir. 
Verplanck Colvin’s last survej- report, we have thereby 
renewed our acquaintance with the topic, and make no 
apology for again bringing it before our readers, espe- 
cially as just now is the time in which the .scenery is tn 
its greatest beaut}’, and in a week or two the glorious 
lints of autumn will supplement and vary the greens of 
summer, the streams will be full, and the woods will be 
a! their highest point of loveliness. 
The Adirondack wilderness lies to the west of lakes 
George and Champlain, and covers an area of over.!. 000 
square miles. It is almost a surprise to be told that we 
have a region of such extent, embracing such a variety 
of natural scenery, within twelve hours ride of our 
great metropolitan cities; but it is still more singular 
that until within these ten or fifteen years the whole dis- 
t rict should have been the property of the trapper and 
hunter, and as pathless and wild as the untraveled for- 
etts described in Cooper's Leather-stocking novels, while 
yet the Frenchman and the Briton were fighting for 
the sovereignty of the continent, and before the Amer- 
ican Republic had been shaped even into a thought. As 
late as ITbl over three millions and a half acres of this 
iT'gioD were sold by the State to Alexander Macomb for 
eight pence per acre. The mountains of the -Adiron- 
dack region are not remarkable for their altitude when 
w e compare them against the Rockies, nor are the passes 
and .gorges to he spoken of by the side of the savage 
grandeur of the Colorado or the Yellowstone; but 
Aiounts Marcy and Mac Intyre are 5,402 and 5,201 feet 
in height, and that is good climbing exercise for most 
jileasure tourists, while the mountain streams and lakes 
are innumerable, and to them belongs the boast of being 
the head-waters of Hudson and St. Lawrence, which, if 
not the rivals of Missouri or Alississippi in immensity, 
surpass them in historic legend and commercial import- 
ance. The present survey is in it.self almost a work of 
national value. The great State of New York has her 
State park in the Adirondacks. In its present shape the 
undertfiking is principally due to the e.xertions of Mr. 
\ erplanck Colvin, who had, at his own expense, taken 
up the work as left incomplete by his predecessors, with 
the purpose of getting a perfectly consti-ucted map. 
Some of our men at Albany, with souls beyond rings 
and canal jobs, saw that the idea was good, and the pri- 
vate gentleman’s enterprize was enlarged into a State 
I department. We have had frequent occasions to com- 
1 ment on the debt due by the nation to our men of 
science both at AVashington and in tbe State capitals. 
This is another speci.al instance of the service done by a 
class of men who too often find their chief reward in a 
consciou.sness of their own deserts. Mr. Colvin’s sur- 
vey may not jierhaps approach the dignity in hard.ship 
of our Western explorations, but there is enough of 
real hunger and fatigue, if not of danger, to satisfy 
moderately adventurous spirits. 
“Young men ardent to engage upon this survey, in or- 
der to participate in discoveries and adveuture.s — which 
at distance seem to them to have irresistible fascinations 
— have felt aggrieved at my refusal to accept their servi- 
ces even in this department. They cannot be aware that 
those who are unaccustomed to labor in the wilderness, 
can afford but little “assistance” upon a survey; but in- 
stead, by illness, timidity, exhaustion, and lack of tenac- 
ity and experience, they would become a clog and a 
burden upon the work. It is ^nly those who have an 
actual interest in persistent, even though tedious, scien- 
tific labors, that experience enjoyment in the midst of 
such hardships. W ere they to behold the observer on 
barometer at lower station at his work, upon his knees 
on the marshy shores of some d-irk, solitary, and lone- 
some lake of the wilderness, studiously and anxiously 
taking and recording — watch in hand-observations on 
the instruments at intervals of five minutes, from 
early dawn till the gloomy hour when the hoot of the 
owl tells the approach of night; day after day alone at 
his station, companionless, and inclosed by tbe deep 
awful silence of the wilderness; his lunch a crast of 
bread, baked a week or ten days previously; only at 
evening rejoined by his tired associates in labor who 
have been as busily engaged at some other dist.ant lake 
or station; they would neither envy nor covet his em- 
ployment. No. Kneeling in the wet moss of the woods 
day by day, keenly wafehing each oscillation of the 
quicksilver; now prostrate on the moss peering through 
the glass walls of the cistern, and by slow motion of the 
screw bringing the gleaming pool of mercui}’ to the 
zero point — eyes strained by dim hght of the forest — 
reflecting with one hand a trifle of light across and 
through the tube, while with the other band the vernier 
is nicely adjusted; bating his breath through fear of 
raising the temperature of the thermometer which he 
quickly reads; the labors of the hypsometer arc arduous. 
The field-work is in the summer season sufficiently 
laborious; but when, as on the third division, it 
was continued amidst the snows of winter, it became 
painful and even dangerous ; only an intense de- 
sire to complete the survey this season and to avail my- 
self of all opportunities for measurement, induced the 
continuance of work. Half reclining in the snow on 
the frozen surface of some lake — the temperature 10 - 
or 20 ~ below freezing — penetrated by the cold; hand- 
ling the chilly metal of the instruments with fingers be- 
nuinlted; with aching feet encased in boots recently wet 
in crossing some rapids, and now frozen hard as boards; 
deprived of the luxury of a fire which might .'iffect the 
temperature of air near the instruments — the hypsome- 
ter who continues his labors in the winter must indeed 
have the success of his work at heart .” 
For the surpassing beauty of the scenery, -which the 
facile pens of ready -writers have essayed to glorify, 
perhaps as good witness as any is found in the following 
from among many similar pa.ssages. Surveyors are not 
prone to gush, and yet the reporter here under the in- 
spiration rises to eloquence. Describing the mountain 
known as the Giant of the Valley he says: 
"It was quarter to 7 p. m. when we reached the sum- 
mit of the Giant-of-the-Valley. Before us -was spread a ; 
vast and gr.and but gloomy depth of scenery. At our 
feet, clifls a thousand feet in height fell away to a gray 
map-like picture, as chill and silent as the world deserted 
and left vacant. The sun had left some crimson streaks 
upon the western clouds — only sufficient to make more 
mournful the sombreness of the rest — : the multitude 
of pe;iks seemed a myriad of gray domes and ridges, 
sunk together in one common slumber, to last forever. 
No chirp of insect, no cry of bird or beast, broke in 
upon the awful silence of the scene, and as we beheld 
mountain on mountain stretching into infinitude, the 
knowledge, that through and over them, beyond the 
reach of sight, our labors led, and would lead us, chilled 
all hearts and made us silent also.” 
Or again, when at the height of 4,326 feet they came 
upon the little lakelets, the highe.st water in the moun- 
tain fastnesses : 
"The little pool is margined and embanked with luxu- 
riant and deep sphagnous moss, and we named it Moss 
Lake. It was found to flow to the Hudson. As we 
stooped to drink from this pellucid and cold spring, off- 
spring of this high mountain atmosphere, my eyes were 
startled by the sight of some very small and beautiful 
white bivalve shells upon the bottom. They were about 
three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter, and were the 
first of such shells I have ever met with at such an alti- 
tude. Beautifully minute and white, representatives of 
a race of lake dwellers, it seemed to me that this cir- 
cumsfiince alone gave this siwing-like pool the right to 
the title of lake. In -svhat manner this little bivalve 
shell ever reached this lonely water, elevated so near 
5,000 feet from sea level, it is impo-ssible to determine. 
Carefully I secured specimens in a phial -with water of 
the lake, and hastening as night approached, crossed the 
plateau northward to the. little summit lake ’Tear-of- 
the-Clouds.’ ” 
The scientific details of Air. Colvin’s survey work, as 
disclosed in the report, would scarcely interest the gen- 
eral dealer, even if its technology and operations were 
intelligible. It involved the construction and transport 
of a number of instruments, including the theodolites 
in general use by surveyors, a sextant, |an azimuth com- 
pass, thermometers, barometers, as well to determine 
altitudes as to register weather changes; packing casi-s 
and knapsacks for the transport of provisions and im- 
plements, for the surveying party consisted of over ;i 
hundred-men, an'd an ingenious boat of rubber water- 
proofed canvas, for which the frame might be cut and 
fitted out of green wood when wanted for actual use. 
Added to all this the surveyor- in-chief had to invent a 
system of signalling, which he did by a sun signal con- 
sisting of tin plates, because glass -v\’as too fragile, and 
erected like an observatory on the hill-tops, the burn- 
ished surfaces of which caught the beams of the sun 
and reflected them to a great distance; besides which 
they had the more elaborately constructed sun signal.-- 
of mirror plates, powerful enough to show at thirty-two 
miles distance in weatlier when the mountains them- 
selves are invisible; rocket signals for night work, the 
bolts and plates for leaving pennanent bench marks in 
the rocks to be used by future generations of surveyors:, 
and finally the stores and supplies, all to be transporled 
as buck load by the guides and forestei-s. Those who 
have read Murray and Kate Field and Wallace will do 
well to send for a copy of tfie report, the maps and di.a- 
grams in which will convey a more accurate idea of the 
locality than any quantity of words. 
Irish Riflemex ix Americ.a, by Arthur Blennerhas- 
sett Leech. Van Nostrand, N. Y.— This little book i.s 
a detailed narrative of the events that led to the first 
Irish-American match at Creedmoor, the events of that 
match itself and its consequences. The gallant Alajor, 
who w.as at the beginning, middle and end of the whole 
business, is the best qualified man to write up the whole 
.subject. He contributed more than any one else to the 
good work, and has earned for himself the good will of 
the entire American people by his generous free-handed 
hospitality to the .American Team in their late trip to 
Ireland. The book which, as the author candidly states, 
is largely made up of extracts from the papers, contains 
a full account of the team’s doings, and of Alajor Leech's 
own visit to the West and South, with notices of the 
leading cities, a hunt on the prairies, and several illus- 
trations of cups, medals and badges. 
HfMPHREY’s P.AIXT .\XD Oil. Tr.\DE .tXO WhOI.E- 
s.vLE Drcgoist is one of the best trade papers in the 
country. It is ably edited, confines itself exclusively to 
the subjects comprised in its title, and w-e are surpri.sul 
to find that a trade of such seemingly limited range 
admits of so much literary comment. The advertising 
patronage shows that its usefulness is appreciated by 
the trade, and we here take occasion to say that the ad- 
vertising columns are as much a sign of the times as 
any other part of a journal. AVe should suppose that 
no dealer can afford to be without a copy of the Puint 
and Oil Trade. 
The Pexx monthly for September includes “ The 
Alouth;’’ “Educational Reforms and Reformers (con- 
tinued);” “A Review of the Fossil Flora of North 
America (concluded); ” “Financial Duty of the Nation ; ” 
“The German AYorkingmau’s Best Friend;” “Abra- 
ham and Dirck opden Graeff;” “Social Science and 
Political Economy.” The ablest of these articles is 
“The German Workingman's Best Friend.” It is a 
rapid sketch of the views and life-work of AI. Schulz 
Delitsch. “ a man whose influence in Germany has 
been pronounced second ouly to that of Bismarck. His 
reputation is more than European.” Our limits do not 
permit us to more than refer to this excellent article and 
recommend it.s perusal. 
“A Light .vxd .v D.vrk C'hristm.Vs,” by Airs. Henry 
AYood ; T. P. Peterson A Brothers, Philadelphia. This 
novel, like most by the same author, i-; lively and enter- 
taining. Airs. Wood's pen is so prolific that it is' a 
wonder ho-w she can maintain her standard of excellence 
Our readers will find this work quite equal to her other 
productions. 
«-♦-• 
Barstow hired a farm of Xcrcrofs. in'Snffolk, V^a. Xorcr ss one 
day walked across a field with a valued dog. when a poison snake 
bit the dog. Xurcross sued Barstow, claiming that Barstow was 
pectmiarilT liable for injnrles done by snakes on hi? premi“es. Bar- 
stow sued Xorcross for damages, claiming that the farm was ngt 
worth the rent agreed upon because of the pr-scnce of the snake on 
It. The leva! talent of the country ia envaged iu these intcicate suits. 
