The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido / For the Suppression of Piracy

by Sir Henry Keppel; Rajah of Sarawak James

X., XI.

Journal of Researches

INTO THE NATURAL HISTORY AND GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTRIES VISITED DURING THE VOYAGE OF H. M. S. BEAGLE ROUND THE WORLD.

BY CHARLES DARWIN, M.A., F.R.S.

2 vols. 12mo, Muslin, extra gilt, $1 00.

This is another most valuable contribution to the cause of popular education, issued in Harperʼs New Miscellany; a series that bids fair to surpass even their Family Library in the sterling excellence and popularity of the works which it renders accessible to all classes of the community. The work contains, in a condensed and popularized form, the results of the British Exploring Expedition, which Mr. Darwin accompanied at the special instance of the lords of the Admiralty. The voyage consumed several years, and was performed at a very heavy expense on the part of the British government. Yet here we have its most important results, divested of all scientific technicalities, and presented in a form at once attractive and accurate. The work is entitled to secure a very wide circulation. It contains an immense amount of information concerning the natural history of the whole world, and is superior, in point of interest and value, to any similar work ever published.—New York True Sun.

A work very neatly issued, and has the interest of a leading subject well developed, the unfailing secret of producing a book of character. In the present state of the world, when new countries are opening every day to the great conqueror, Commerce, such publications are of unusual importance. Perhaps no information, just now, can be of more consequence to us than that which puts us in possession of the movements of English discovery.—News.

This is a most valuable and a most interesting work; one which combines true scientific worth with the graces of style suited to render it popular, better than almost any similar work which has recently come under our notice. The voyage of the Beagle was, in truth, a scientific exploring expedition; and Mr. Darwin accompanied it at the special request of the lords of the Admiralty. Its results have been published in several very elaborate, extensive, and costly volumes in England; but as these were entirely beyond the reach of the great mass of the reading public, Mr. Darwin prepared these volumes, in which all the important results of the expedition are fully, clearly, and distinctly presented, interwoven with a most entertaining narrative of personal incident and adventure.—N. Y. Courier.

This is a work of remarkable interest and value. The author, in circumnavigating the world, under commission of the British government, for scientific and exploring purposes, visited nearly every country on the globe, and preserved in this brief, simple, but beautiful narrative all the singular facts of a scientific, social, or geographical nature which are of general interest. The amount of information condensed in these volumes is incredible; and the skill with which the useful and interesting is selected from that which is unimportant or well known is admirable. We admire the style, the straightforward sincerity of the writer, the apparent candor, and the erudite research which he uniformly exhibits. Without one quarter of the bulk or pretension of our famous exploring expedition, the present work is hardly inferior to it in value and interest. This series is gaining a fine character, of which we hope the publishers will be jealous.—New York Evangelist.

HARPERʼS FAMILY LIBRARY.