fus Hardy's
"Tour in America," and still higher value Lady Anne Blunt's "Pilgrimage
to Nijd." Mrs. T. F. Hughes embodies much curious and suggestive
information in her account of a "Residence in China." Miss Gertrude
Forde's "Lady's Tour in Corsica" is an interesting supplement to
previous works on that romantic island.

"What We Saw in Australia" is the journal of two sisters, Florence and
Rosamond Hill, who, without servants or escort, accomplished the voyage
to the great island-continent; visited Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney,
with all the remarkable places in the vicinity of each; made a trip to
Tasmania, and returned home by way of Bombay, Egypt, and Italy. "We
encountered," they say, "no gales of any severity, have to record no
alarming adventures, and returned to England after sixteen months'
absence, convinced by experience that to persons of average health and
strength the difficulties of such a journey exist only in the
imagination. It may, we feel sure, be accomplished with ease and comfort
by ladies unprovided with servants or escort." The sisters were
insatiable in the pursuit of information, and their book affords a
tolerably comprehensive view of the economic and social conditions of
the Australian colonies. Thus, we are told that "the number of
post-offices throughout South Australia is 348, employing 336 officials,
besides fifty-six others, who are also engaged in telegraph work. Mails
are despatched by every steamer to Melbourne, and three times weekly
overland, the latter journey occupying ninety-six hours. Mail-omnibuses
convey the country letters where the roads are good, which is the case
for many miles out of town in numerous directions. For more distant
places coaches are used, much resembling a box hung high upon four
wheels; all the parts are very strong, and leathern curtains over the
windows largely take the place of glass, the presence of which is
undesirable in a break-down or roll over. The interior is provided with
straps to be clung to by the unhappy passengers as the vehicle pursues
its bumping way." Orphan schools, institutes, reformatories, cabs,
museums, hospitals, prisons--all attracted the attention of the two
travellers, who are much to be commended for their scrupulous attention
to accuracy. But they did not neglect the various aspects of Australian
scenery, so far as they came within their purview. They did not
penetrate into the interior, and their range was not very wide or