This is another volume of the interesting series of Library of Wonders, the object of which is to present to the reader a collection of well-authenticated facts illustrative of the nature, habits, and various modes of capturing some of the largest and fiercest of the animal world, and to describe some of the numerous adventures, terrible fights, and hairbreadth escapes to which the hunting of the animals has given rise.
The Desert World. From the French of Arthur Mangin. Edited and enlarged, by the translator of The Bird. With 160 illustrations. London, Edinburgh, and New York: T. Nelson & Sons. 1869.
This is a companion book to the Mysteries of the Ocean, and the best notice we can give this elegantly printed and illustrated volume is to let the author, in his preface, speak for himself:
"The area of our present work would be very limited if we understood the word desert in its more rigorous signification; for we should then have only to consider those desolate wildernesses which an inclement sky and a fertile soil seem to exclude for ever from man's dominion. But by a license which usage authorizes, we are able to attribute to this term a much more extended sense; and to call deserts not only the sandy seas of Africa and Asia, the icy wastes of the poles, and the inaccessible crests of the great mountain-chain, but all the regions where man has not planted his regular communities or permanent abodes; where earth has never been appropriated, tilled, and subjected to cultivation; where nature has maintained her inviolability against the encroachments of human industry."
The author has made a most interesting and instructive work, one that can be read with much interest and profit. His description of the mountain regions of the world is especially good.
New York Illustrated. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
A very good description of New York City. The illustrations of its churches, public and other buildings, are well executed, and the description of each must prove a valuable assistance to strangers visiting our city.