arising out of the necessity of supplying separate accommodation for passengers and servants, black and white, occupied the whole day. First, the cabin passengers breakfasted; then the white nurses, children and officers of the ship. A third breakfast was then laid for the deck passengers, being white; a fourth for the white waiters, who were waited upon by coloured men ; and a fifth for the coloured passengers, free and slave, and the coloured waiters, all of whom, without the slightest personal distinction, were drafted off together. The same routine was pursued at dinner and supper; so that there was scarcely an interval throughout the day that was not filled up with a course of some kind.

During the nine months occupied in the excursion described in these volumes, Sir Charles Lyell went north and south, and visited all the important places in America, directing his attention to geological enquiries wherever opportunities presented themselves. His scientific researches are full of interest; and are so pleasantly interspersed with more general matter that they do not interfere with the popular and attractive topics which form the staple of the publication. Having made the same tour before, his observations on American manners and institutions are entitled to be received with the deference which is due to a larger experience than travellers ordinarily enjoy. The usual effect of familiarity with habits which at first appear strange is evident in his treatment of American peculiarities. There are many things to which he cannot reconcile himself, but, upon the whole, he falls into the train of American usages without much difficulty, finds no great difference between good society in the new country and the old, and discovers much more to applaud and admire than to censure or correct. In some cases he carries this facility of disposition a little too far; as when he declares, for example, that he considers the newspaper press of America to be "quite as respectable as our own," an opinion which a slight acquaintance with the leading journals of the Union, putting altogether out of view the countless fry of small papers, might enable any person to refute. But the book is written with such fairness and good sense that slight excesses on the side of liberality will be readily excused. It presents a complete panorama of a traveller's course through hotels and boarding houses, and on railroads and steamers; and exhibits the life of the country with minuteness and fidelity, and with a freedom from exaggeration which, we are sorry to say, is a rare virtue in English books on America.

Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon, or Columbia River: being a Narrative of the Expedition fitted out by John Jacob Astor, to Establish the "Pacific Fur Company; with an Account of some Tribes on the Coast of the Pacific. By Alexander Ross, one of the Adventurers. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. Mr. Ross is late in bringing before the public the result of his experience in the expedition fitted out by the bold adventurer, John Jacob Astor. Thirty years ago he wrote the present account of the voyage of the Tonquin, which dates its commencement as far back as 1810. Still we are thankful to Mr. Ross for the publication, though tardy, of this volume; for during this lapse of time he has had opportunities of seeing other narratives on the same subject, and has found that something yet

remained untold. Washington Irving's romantically interesting work "Astoria" should be re-perused by the side of Mr. Ross's production. Both abound in stirring scenes and adventures "by field and flood;" but the contrast is remarkable between the highly accomplished author of the "Sketch Book," and the practical man whose sole intent was a plain unvarnished tale to unfold. "All I aim at," says our author, "is to bring before my readers a faithful and impartial statement of what took place, during my own times, in a quarter hitherto but little known."

Mr. Ross comes before the public with a twofold qualification: he was a personal adventurer in the memorable expedition of which he gives us an exceedingly graphic account; and he has spent fifteen years in travelling among the savage tribes west of the Rocky Mountains. During this period "he was induced," he tells us, "from time to time, to note down such incidents and opinions, illustrative of savage life and manners, as appeared to him either new or interesting."

The perilous position of the Indian trader is sufficiently indicated by Mr. Ross's character of the people he has to live among. "Perfidy," he states, "is the system of savages, treachery and cunning the instruments of their power, and cruelty and bloodshed the policy of their country."

Mr. Ross's closing remarks on the failure of the hopes of the intrepid and ambitious founder of Astoria, are suggestive of a moral.

"Had he, however, acquired such insight into the practice of the Indian as he so eminently attained in all other branches of trade; had his mind been as liberal as it was acute, or as ready to reward merit as to find fault; or were he as conversant with human nature as he was expert in a bargain; and had he also begun his undertaking not at the commencement of a war, but at its close, then competency and ease might have been the lot of his servants, instead of misery and want. Success might have crowned his ambition, glory finished his career, and the name of Astor might have been handed down with admiration, as having borne away the palm of enterprise."

The observations made by Mr. Ross on the missionaries among the Indians seem to us just, well-intended, and deserving of attention. He reprobates the interference of one sect of Christians with another, which is of common occurrence; and points out the error of being too precipitate in receiving the untutored savage into the bosom of the church. Our author thus writes:

"The missionary reaches his destination, announces the gospel tidings, and commences his official duties; the young and the old are catechised, baptism is administered, and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper follows: and all these different glimpses of evangelical light succeed each other in such rapid succession as to stamp the whole proceeding with the character of a miracle...... The missionary in all this no doubt follows his instructions. His journal goes home, more labourers are required for the vineyard, periodicals circulate the marvellous success, and all the world, except those on the spot, believe the report. Yet the picture is delusive: the savage is still a savage, and gross idolatry and barbarism have not yielded inwardly a hair's-breadth to the influence of civilization; far less is he made sensible of the obligations imposed upon him by his new creed. It is but a treacherous calm before a storm: the tree is known by its fruit."

"Marriage is a desperate thing: the frogs in Æsop were extremely wise, they had a great mind to some water, but they would not leap into the well, because they could not get out again."-SELDEN.

"I WISH with all my heart," said Bohun, one foggy morning, with unusual testiness, "that ink had a property which would poison, after the first twenty words, all people who are writers of illegible, unintelligible, and unnecessary letters. What a boon it would be to men of brief leisure and business habits! Here have I lost an hour and upwards, during this short winter's day, in poring over a scrawl which I vainly strive to decipher. Who is 'O. O.? I know not. And yet the writer must be one who is-or fancies himself-on terms of intimacy with me, since he addresses me as Dear Bo!' A liberty, by the way,-a decided liberty," said my principal, drawing himself up, "be the writer who he may. But stay: your name, Haslam, appears in the corner of the envelope. Is the missive your property? Look at it."

I did so; and recognised the hieroglyphics of the Ho'sely Boy. Deciphered they ran thus:

"DEAR BO!

"9, Bury St., St. James's, Tuesday. "Kongratulate me. I am on the heave of matrimunny. I've cut Potchetty and Life Insurance for 'heye and for hever,' as the Song says. O my art! O my proppaty! Qpid and Pluto both bee frend me. One with the & of the Countiss Stephanie Gaifrisky. The other with the welcum legsy of a thowsand pounds from huncle Stoodly. This the Countiss olds for me. Her kinexion is all among the elewated and aughty. The Premier's Lady couldn't live without her. They hare insepporable. I'm gaw'n speedily to auld a Goverment Hoffice. One slite pecculiharity sumhough perplexes me. The Countiss is rayther too fond of tossing off a glas of licures to the elth of the kumpany; and when exited hodd wuds do purceed from her rewby lipps. But this, she saies, has been the himmemorial custum of her hillustrious ouse for some sentries. Take her for awl in awl she's STAMMER. I wish you cu'd see the Markiss her warrior farther, and the Marchi-honess her haugust mother. But peepel now a days are so henvious and hunbelieving. The Surrogate, from womb I got my license, axed me if I nu aught abowt the Countiss but from her hown lipps. Not a mite,' sais I. Wud yow bleeve it he then rolled his eyes about and wistled. But a Countiss she be. And to morrow she makes me appy. "Your devoted frend,

VOL. XXVI.

"O. O.”

I