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Journal of Researches, etc. By Charles Darwin. New edition, with illustrations by R.

T. Pritchett of places visited and objects described. D. Appleton & Co. 1890.

MR. MURRAY'S preface to this new edition of the ' Voyage of the Beagle' bears date December, 1889, but makes no allusion to the fiftieth anniversary of the original edition, which has in fact been celebrated by publisher and artist in the beautiful volume now before us. Nor is it wholly accurate to say that "no attempt, however, has hitherto been made to produce an illustrated edition of this valuable work." Such an attempt, in connection with a clarified abridgement, was made during Mr. Darwin's lifetime, and with his hearty approval; and for ten years the youth of this country have (as any public library will testify) been enjoying the handsome volume, abounding in cuts, issued by the Messrs. Harper, under the title 'What Mr. Darwin Saw in his Voyage Round the World in the ship Beagle' (New York, 1879).

The number of cuts (upwards of 100) is almost Identical with that which Mr. Pritchett has got together, and while the subjects of course sometimes agree, there is a wider range in the American volume, which in particular is strong on the side of ethnology. This branch has been decidedly neglected by Mr. Pritchett, whose non-use of the camera is nowhere so keenly felt. Nor can the English edition be much preferred to the American in respect of zoology. Portraits, too, are altogether wanting in the former, Mr. Darwin himself being unpictured, whereas the interesting assortment of naturalists, navigators, and rulers in the Harper edition is led off by Kruell's first (and still admirable) engraving of the beardless Darwin of 1854, made expressly for the work which commemorated the fortieth anniversary of the 'Journal.'

We make this comparison not invidiously, but to claim for Americans a proper share of the world's appreciation of the greatest book of travels yet produced, and one of the most charming; whose observations time has done so little to invalidate, and which will be for ever interesting as the unrecognized herald of the doctrine of evolution. This English publisher has been mindful of what was due to it in the matter of typographical openness and elegance, and the artist has left little to be desired in the care he has bestowed on the natural scenery of the voyage. The rarely visited solitary ocean islands, the banks of the Rio Negro, the waters and mountain barriers of the Straits of Magellan, the raised beaches of Patagonia, the Chonos archipelago, the Uspallata Pass, the Keeling atoll, may be singled out for mention as of prime value. At the same time we should have been better pleased if photography had supplemented the pencil wherever it was available, and if wood-engraving had been employed throughout. Such pains and expense might be, perhaps, reserved for the hundredth anniversary edition, when doubtless mere correspondence will suffice to procure, even from the least frequented regions, authentic photographs of everything delineated in this edition, and more. Meanwhile the public is to be congratulated that the Beagle renews its Voyage under such favorable auspices.