in the Levant, but not designed for critics in the
language or its literature.

* * * * *

The students of geography and foreign modes of life, owe a debt to the
French General DAUMAS, for his three works on north-western Africa. The
first entitled, _Le Sahara Algerien_, is an exact and thorough and
scientific account of the desert in Algiers, given, however, with a flow
of manly, soldatesque imagination, which imparts life and charm to the
narrative, and even adorned with frequent quotations from the Arab
poets, who have sung the various localities he describes. The second of
these works is called _Le Grand Desert_: in form it is a series of
romances, the author having chosen that as the best manner of conveying
to the reader a distinct impression. The hero is a dweller in the
interior, a member of the tribe of Chambas, who came to Algiers, as he
says, because he had predestined him to make that journey. The general
interrogates him, and the Arab recounts his adventures. As he had thrice
traversed the desert to the negro country beyond, and had seen beside
all the usual events in the life of that savage region, the author
violates no probability in putting into his mouth the most strange and
characteristic stories. The whole are told with a fictitious
reproduction of the teser and somewhat monotonous, yet figurative style,
proper to all savages. _La Grande Kabylie_ recounts the personal
experiences of the author in that yet unconquered country of the Arabs,
whither he went with Marshal Bugeaud in his last expedition. Kabylia he
describes as a picturesque and productive region. There are deep,
sheltered valleys, where along the shores of winding streams, nature has
planted hedges of perpetual flowers, while the mountains on each side
stand yellow with the ripe and ripening grain. The people are braver and
more energetic, their habitations more substantial, and their fields
more valuable than those in other parts of Algeria. Gen. Daumas would
have France subjugate this country and add it to her African dominions.

* * * * *

M. de Conches, who is well known for his illustrations of early French
literature, is an enthusiastic admirer of La Fontaine: and he has spent
a vast sum in having printed _one copy_ only, and for himself alone, of
an edition of his works, illustrated by the first artists of the day,
accompanied by notes and prefaces of the most eminen