esses to relate and describe only actual facts, we cannot but
regret that he should have adopted a form which is ill suited to this
object, and which makes him a mere retailer of other people's
observations. In the book before us he paints the interior of Africa
from somebody else's information: had he gone thither himself his
picture would have had great value. So, too, he is continually
instructing us about the processes used in the arts and manufactures;
but his knowledge being gained at second hand and crammed for the
occasion, we mistrust the teacher. If he would apply himself to such
matters, and give us the results of his experience, our gain would be
great. He could not, of course, as now, traverse the whole field; but
what his teaching might lose in superficial extent would be more than
made good by its greater accuracy and reliability. He might select, for
instance, the useful art of coopering. We know his powers, we appreciate
his genius. It is safe to say that a cask made in accordance with his
directions, after he had served a short apprenticeship, would not only
be fair to see and easy to handle, but would also hold water. This is
more than we should venture to affirm of the plot of any of his novels.

The Fishing Tourist. By Charles Hallock. New York: Harper & Brothers.

I Go A-Fishing. By W. C. Prime. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Mr. Hallock tells us in his preface that his province is to write an
anglers' guide without embellishment. It would have been well if he had
adhered to this plan. After some pages of high-flown periods he informs
us that twenty-six years ago fly-fishing was in its infancy, being
scarcely known in America, and but little practiced in England. If he
had asserted that fly-fishing was scarcely known among his "green hills"
at that period, and but little practiced in Hampshire county, the
statement need not have been impugned; but hundreds of books have been
written upon this art in England since the time of Dame Juliana Berners,
and in America fifty years ago there existed many such practitioners as
Fay, Eckley and Bethune.

When Mr. Hallock treats of the natural history of his favorite fishes he
is equally unfortunate; which is the less remarkable since he gets his
science from W. H. Herbert, a writer who knew little of American
ichthyology. As a specimen of the methods of that "cautious student," as
our author calls him, Herbert, pretending to quote from Agassiz, who in
his