The World of Adventure. (Cassell and Co.)—This collection of "stirring
scenes and moving accidents" is an excellent exposition of an idea which is not the less valuable because it is not new. Some of our more elderly readers will possibly remember the Excitement—" Excitement to Read" was its full title—a volume which used to appear annually for some time during the first half of this century. It was a small volume, containing perhaps some dozen articles, and costing, we may venture to say, as much as the very handsome volume, with its 750 pages of letterpress and its couple of hundred illustrations. Verily, the youth of this generation are well cared for ! No particular arrangement is aimed at in this volume; indeed, variety is made its charac- teristic, and very rightly too. First, we have a trapper's escape from the Blackfeet, and an Alpine traveller's "race with an avalanche." Then comes an episode of the Crimean War, one that has been overshadowed by the renown of another deed of courage, but is well worthy of record,—" The Charge of the Three Hundred' at Balaclava." The Heavy Brigade showed a courage that was equal to that of their fellows of the Light Cavalry, and they met with a happier fate. Then we have the very curious story of how Mr. Williams, of Redruth, dreamt the scene of Perceval's assassination.; and after this the story of Pompeii. Tales of smuggling and privateering follow. From them we are taken back to Scotland, and the brave effort of Catherine Douglas to save her Queen, and the tale of Eyam, the
plague-stricken village in Derbyshire, and its heroic rector, Mompesson. We need not carry on our description of the book. It is certainly one of the best of its kind.
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