of the book, and makes it all the more suitable for the purposes of the general

reader.

It is to be hoped that the learned author will be spared to enlarge this work into one of three volumes. It would be a great undertaking, but it would be received with much pleasure. The work done in recent years by such men as McMullen and Kingsford has paved the way for a popular threevolume history of Canada which would find an entrance into the library of every citizen of this country.

During the past few years much has been added to our knowledge of the northern districts of Canada by the explorations of Ogilvie, the Tyrrells, and Whitney. Another valuable volume* has just been issued from the pen of Warburton Pike. This is the record

of a canoe journey of 4,000 miles, which began at Fort Wrangel, a port of entry for the U. S, territory of Alaska, situated on Wrangel Island, about six miles from the mouth of the Stikine River. The route lay up the Stikine, across the narrow strip of Alaskan territory into British Columbia, up the smaller rivers to the Pelly Lakes in the Yukon district. From there the general direction was changed from north to west, and the Yukon River was followed to near where it empties into the Behring Sea; here a portage was made, and the Ruskokwin River followed to its mouth. The trip was begun in July, 1892, and finished about the middle of September of the following year.

The story of this trip is written modestly, yet unhesitatingly, simply and directly. The author says in his introduction: "To the sportsman and man of the woods, this book is offered as a rough description of what happened on a long journey through a good game country, without any attempt to make a big bag, or to kill animals that were not wanted to keep up the food supply." Nevertheless, the general reader will find a great deal of valuable

*Through the Sub-Arctic Forest, by Warburton Pike. with illustrations and maps. London and New York: Edwin Arnold. Large 8vo,. $4.00,

information in this really charming book.

The author tells of his moose-hunting near the Pease and Liard Rivers, when they killed eleven moose in the three weeks they were out-"this, too, without any very energetic hunting. He says that this district is the best moose country on the continent. "There is a theory that the moose have been driven away from the Pease River and the Lower Liard, and have crossed the mountains to Cassiar to avoid the continual hunting to which they are subjected on the east side." But while Mr. Pike agrees that there has been a migration westward, he does not believe this is the true reason. In this district where he hunted, he reports that "the noblest animal of the whole deer family is increasing and multiplying at an almost incredible

rate."

His information on this point is very interesting, and one quotation may be given :

"In March and April, when the snow is deep, the moose are easily run down by a man on big snow-shoes, and can often be driven in any direction the hunter pleases. The usual method is to drive the animal on to the river ice before killing him, to avoid the trouble of taking the sleighs into the timber to bring out the meat. The snow is seldom deep enough in this country to force the moose to yard, as is their habit in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; so the system of wholesale slaughter which was formerly practised in the Eastern Provinces is impossible in Cassiar; nor do the Indians here seem to have any knowledge of calling the moose during the rutting seasona method much in vogue among the Micmacs; but they occasionally attract the attention of an old bull by scraping a bone against the bark of a tree, and thus imitating the sound of a rival polishing his horns."

**

Another addition to published Canadian history comes from the pen of· L. S. Channell, of Cookshire, Que., who has written a voluminous book on

the County of Compton,* one of the Eastern Townships.

The origin of this term "Eastern Townships" is thus explained by the author: "At the close of the Revolutionary War, in 1782, many thousand United Empire Loyalists were offered lands in Canada by the British Government.

The offer was eagerly accepted, and from twenty-five to thirty thousand settled in the townships of Ontario. At the same time a few hundred families came to the townships of Eastern Canada (these lands were not surveyed until after the Conquest, and hence were laid out in the same manner as the lands in Ontario). Their relatives and friends in Ontario, and those who remained in the United States, acquired the habit of distinguishing the different settlements by calling these the Eastern townships. As to how the name was acquired may be a subject of discussion, but it has so attached itself to this district of Quebec, that it is as well known throughout the world as though it were a separate province."

It will be seen from this quotation that, as many Canadians already know, these townships are not so markedly French as the rest of Quebec, and for that reason are perhaps more interesting to the average English-speaking Canadian. Some of the most prominent men in Canadian history were born and reared in this district, and social life there is of a most enticing character.

This book must not be regarded as of mere local importance. It gives a part of the history of Canada, and the author seems to have fully realized this in writing it. His title denotes this, for it runs "History of Compton County and Sketches of the Eastern Townships, District of St. Francis, and Sherbrooke County; Supplemented with the Records of Four Hundred Families, Two Hundred Illustrations of Buildings and Leading Citizens in the County; including Biography of the Late Hon. John Henry Pope, by Hon. C. H. Mackintosh. The Ca

History of Compton County, by L. S. Channell, with 200 illustrations. Published by the author at Cookshire, Que. Large 4to.. 300 pages.

nadian who has never seen the Eastern Townships will learn much of the peculiar ingredients which are combining to make great the spirit and genius of the Canadian people. Canada needs more such broad-minded and painstaking citizens of the stamp of the author of this valuable work.

*

**

"The Six-Nations Indians in Canada" is the title of a little book by J. B. Mackenzie, who lived for nearly twelve years in the neighbourhood of the Indian Reservations in the Ontario counties of Brant and Haldimand, and who has made some study of the characteristics of this remnant of a oncepowerful people. The lands of the Reservation were granted to the SixNations after the close of the Revolutionary War, "as carrying out the essentially laudable and worthy idea of recompense for the loss of their pleasant homes in the Mohawk Valley, which had been brought about by their steadfast adhesion, no less than faithful service, to Great Britain during the conflict. There they have since lived under conditions which the author describes. Their customs, religion, idiosyncrasies, habits, mode of life, and education are fully described, as is the part they played under Tecumseh and John Brant, son of Joseph Brant, during the war of 1812. The book is valuable, but the author has marred it somewhat by over-punctuation, and by the prolixity of his style. It is dedicated to the Hon. A. S. Hardy, Premier of Ontario.

**

In 1862, the first overland expedition from Canada to British Columbia (for what is now Ontario was then the western part of Canada) was organized. "The company numbered one hundred and fifty, most of them youths gathered from different parts of Eastern Canada." The journey was beset with many dangers and innumerable hardships, and not all of these intrepid emigrants reached Cariboo. The story of the trip is well

*Toronto: The Hunter, Rose Co.; cloth, illustrated, 151 pages.

told in a new book, "Overland to Cariboo," by Margaret McNaughton,* wife of one of the pioneers, and is well worth reading. It gives a broad idea of this western part of our young country as it was before civilization pushed westward with the aid of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The then state of the North-West, the then appearance of British Columbia, have so thoroughly vanished, that such books as this throw a clearer light on the rapidity of the advancement which Canada is making, besides paying a just tribute to the memory of those intrepid individuals who laid the foundations of a new Western Canada.

Mabel, startled at his question,
Said she was not bred a lady:
It would wound the Ashley pride
If the daughter of a tenant,
Bred to labour from her cradle,
Ignorant of courtly manners,

Should presume to be his bride.
Ashley to her would not listen,
But asserted that her presence
Would the proudest home adorn.
So at last the maiden yielded;
Seemingly she had forgotten
All the vows she made to Evan

On that parting summer morn. Other pieces show more originality of style, but all are earnest and thoughtful. The author lives with men and women, not with spirits and spectres. His imagination is not too flighty, and a tone of deep purpose sounds through all his work. "The Sculptors," "Constancy" and "Encouragement very unpretensious, yet inspiring. There are two or three rather trivial poems at the end of the volume which it would have been wiser to omit, as by them its symmetry is spoiled. careful perusal of the volume will, how

are

A

Toronto: William Briggs. Cloth, illustrated, 176 pp. +Toronto: William Briggs. Cloth, 131 pp.

ever, bring much pleasure to the reader who is not hypercritical.

**

"Rural Rhymes and the SheepThief" is the title of a unique collection of poems by Eric Duncan,* of Comox, B.C. There is but one long poem, "The Sheep-Thief." It is historical and descriptive, and is a legend of Shetland. The twelve short poems are distinctively Canadian and eminently rural. As the author says, they are not the "rose-tinted reveries of a rusticating rhapsodist," but are rather "rural rhymes" of an eminently practical na"A Mosquito Song," "A Cow Song," "A July Song," and "Drought” titles which are commonplace enough to indicate the every-day sentiments and experiences which are collected beneath each.

ture.

are

CANADIAN FICTION.

"Tisab Ting" is a novel by Dyjan Fergus, the pen-name of a young lady writer in New Brunswick. The work is certainly startling, the scenes being laid in the close of the twentieth century. The leading character of the story is a learned Chinaman who comes to Canada to seek a wife, and finally wins a Canadian maiden through his superior scientific knowledge, the chief part of which is "the Electrical Kiss." The novelty of the central idea and of the plot does not make up, however, for the author's weakness of style and artistic skill. The execution is very weak, and this can be but partly excused on the ground that it is the author's first attempt.

Νο

The need of Canada to-day is not more books, but better books. author should publish a work without first having submitted it to competent literary men for approval. Publishers in Canada are hardly worthy of the name, because they will publish anything, no matter what its merit, so long as the author is willing to pay the cost of the first edition. Many an author has spoiled his or her reputation by

publishing immature work. It takes years of patient work on newspapers and magazines to perfect an author in writing. The apprenticeship is necessary before the workman becomes a master. The same laws apply to literature as to the other arts.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Those who desire to know anything of Trinity College, Toronto, will find the Trinity College Year Book" most interesting. Two of the staff, M. A. Mackenzie and A. H. Young, have compiled and edited a vast amount of information which can be secured from no other source. This information is not only useful to graduates and undergraduates, but will be found valuable and interesting to the student of our national life. The volume contains several bright engravings.

**

"Notes on Copyright" is the title of a pamphlet* on domestic and international copyright, by Richard T. Lancefield, secretary of the Canadian Copyright Association. This work gives many useful hints as to the method of securing copyright in Canada and abroad, explains the points at issue between the Governments at Ottawa, London and Washington, and gives a synopsis of the Canadian, Imperial and United States Copyright Acts. The author has added much to his valuable services in the prolonged agitation for a Canadian Copyright Act which will ensure publication in Canada.

**

"Tomalyn's Quest," by G. B. Burgin, is the story of a young English

man who went out to see life and had some experiences in Constantinople. He fell in love with a scheming lady, who tried to use him to secure information for a friend of hers, a Russian spy. Some very tragic incidents and some very ludicrous happenings make up a story which is bright and well told. In view of the present interest in affairs

*Toronto: The Toronto News Co.; price, 30 cents.

London: Geo. Bell & Sons; Toronto: The Copp, Clark Co. Cloth, 314 pp.

Eastern, it is perhaps more important. than it would have been previously, or may be later. The genius of the East may be somewhat accurately guaged from this piece of fiction, as well as the dissatisfaction resulting from an ill-spent life.

**

Students of architecture will welcome with delight the valuable contribution to that department of literature which has just come from the pen of Mr. Russell Sturgis, A. M. Ph. D., F. A. I. A., President of the Fine Art Federation of New York. The book itself is a work of art, containing ten full-page Albertype plates, and over two hundred and fifty engravings. Dr. Sturgis endeavours to show that an interesting study may be made of the history of architecture, and that he has accomplished his purpose no one who has read his work will deny. The author's method of study of the subject is that of analytical comparison of the different types, and as he says in his introduction :-"If the attention is fixed upon the inherent and essential peculiarities of each style, the effort of the student will be of necessity to discover the reasons for these peculiarities.

The analysis and comparison or those peculiarities with such reference to well-established chronology as will show which pieces of building are contemporaneous, and which other pieces of building follow one another closely in order of time, is certainly the most fascinating pursuit possible for all those who have the instinct of form and colour.'

It

A new edition of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's "The School for Scandal" and "The Rivals "* comes to us from the press of the Macmillans. It is handsomely bound, and beautifully illustrated by Mr. Edmund J. Sullivan. also contains an introduction by Mr. Augustine Birrell, Q. C., M. P., in which he gives a history of the life of Sheridan and of the production of his plays "The Rivals.' Sheridan's first play was first produced at Covent Garden on the 17th of January, 1775, "The School for Scandal" being produced two years later at Drury Lane.

**

George Macdonald's new novel, which is to be published in the fall of

The School for Scandal and The Rivals, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, with introduction by Augustine Birrell, Q.C., M.P. and illustrations by Edmund J. Sullivan. London and New York, Macmillan & Co.; Toronto. The Copp Clark Co. Cloth, gilt edges.