THE 
NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW. 
Norway and its Glaciers, visited in 1851. By James D. Forbes, D.C.L., 
F.R.S., &c. Edinburgh : Adam Black. 1858. Price, £1 Is. 
A goodly volume lies before us—broad margin, fine paper, excellent illus¬ 
trations. We like such books. We use the word “ like” as did the child 
who being asked whether she liked pudding or mamma better, adroitly 
replied—“I like pudding; I love mamma.” We like a handsome book; 
we love a good one. That Forbes’s Norway is the former must be “ plain 
to all beholders;” it at once recommends itself to those who purchase on 
such considerations, and needs not our commendation of its external beauty. 
Plaving thus the advantage of a favourable first impression, we endeavour, to 
a certain extent, to inform our readers of its other merits. Thinking it pro¬ 
bable that the generality of reviewers will address themselves particularly to 
his descriptions of the glaciers, we first take, as an example of his style, and 
as an extract having a special interest to Irish readers, his account of his visit 
to an encampment of Laplanders, near Tromsb. It is right that we should 
explain that the learned Retzius has shown that the earliest inhabitants of 
Ireland, of whose skulls remains still exist, were identical in ethnological 
character with the Lapps of the present day; thus the interest referred to 
arises in us:— 
“In the evening, a party from the steamer, accompanied by several gentlemen, 
from Tromsb, proceeded in a boat across the sound (which is here only one-third 
of an English mile in width), to visit an encampment of Laplanders, who annually 
return to the same spot with their herds of reindeer. We landed near the opening 
of a valley which terminates in a hill of considerable height partly covered with 
snow. It is called, I believe, the Tromso-tind. On either side of the valley, hills 
rise to 1,500 feet or more, and are green to the top. These furnish pasture to the 
reindeer. The bottom is well wooded with trees of respectable growth, far superior 
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