11 OCTOBER 1879, Page 22

Natural History Rambles. By J. E. Taylor, Rev. J. G.

Wood, and C. O. G. Napier. (Christian Knowledge Society.)—These are inter- esting and instructive little books, full of scraps of knowledge, amusing anecdotes (all, let us hope, at least founded upon fact), and illustrations on wood, rough, perhaps, but still answering the purposes for which they are introduced. Two volumes, by Mr. J. E. Taylor, entitled " Underground " and " Mountain and Moor," respectively, may be cited as favourable examples of the series to which they belong. It should be noted that each volume of the series includes subjects belonging tp at least two of the natural sciences. As the several authors cannot be equally conversant with botany, zoology, and geology, the critic finds that some parts of each 'volume are loss satis- factory in arrangement and less exact and adequate in treatment than ethers. But on the whole, these attractive and cheap „hone, will prove 'not only pleasing, but really useful companions to all those lovers of tho country who cannot command the larger standard books which treat of tho different departments of natural history and geology. And they cannot fail to create and nourish, if not to satisfy,

i a spirit of intelligent observation and inquiry, in many of the young readers to whom they are introduced.