13 DECEMBER 1884, Page 19

On the Fo'k'sle Head. By W. Clark Russell. (Chatto and

Windup.) —In these papers (whether they have all been published before, we do not know, but one, "My Lord's Adventure," we certainly remember), Mr. Clark discourses on a variety of topics in which he is very much at home. He pays a visit to the Victory,' and criticises very properly, as it seems to us, the want of reverence which has made so many alterations in the old ship's fitting ; he describes Jack's doings afloat and ashore ; he has a word for the shipowners who send their ships to sea too heavily laden for safety ; he describes the 'long- shore-man, and various other specimens of those who do their "business in great waters." And what be says is always well said and to the point, the outcome of a genuine experience, expressed by one who has no common amount of the literary gift. This is a collec- tion of miscellanies which are as instructive as they are readable.