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NEARLY fifty years ago, when the great English naturalist Darwin was only twenty-two years old he accompanied Captain Fitzroy, of H. M. S. Beagle, on an expedition commissioned by the British government with the completion of the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and also to survey the shores of Chili and Peru, and some of the Pacific islands. During this expedition, which lasted from 1831 till 1836, Mr. Darwin kept a journal of his observations and discoveries in the natural history and geology of the regions he visited, which was received with great favor by the scientific world for its many valuable contributions to knowledge. It was a happy thought and a wise one that has led a considerate friend of American boys and girls to glean from this journal of the then young but famous philosopher his fresh and accurate accounts of the countries he visited, the strange people he saw, the birds, animals, insects, and reptiles be found, and chief natural objects and geographical features that attracted his attention. This is what has been done with tact and discrimination by the compiler of a beautiful illustrated quarto, styled What Mr. Darwin saw in his Voyage Round the World, [22] and which comprises in a flowing and easy narrative a large body of interesting information. The gleanings are grouped under the heads of Animals, Man, Geography, and Nature. Under the first head are collected many entertaining stories about birds, beasts, insects and reptiles, in which these creatures are skill fully connected with the places  where they exist, thus conveying a correct notion of the distribution of the animal kingdom. Under the second head full accounts are given of the savage and barbarous peoples that were encountered, their habits, customs, and modes of life. Under the third are lively descriptions of cities, habitations, rivers, mountains, valleys, and other physical features of the regions visited; and the last supplies accounts of the grand or curious terrestrial phenomena and processes that have changed the face of the South American continent. The book is one of the most fascinating and instructive we have in many a day.

[22] "What Mr. Darwin Saw in His Voyage Round the World in the Ship Beagle. Illustrated. 4to, pp. 236. New York: Harper and Brothers.