Great Waterfalls, Cataracts, and Geysers. By John Gibson. (Nelson and
Son.)—There seems really no limit nowadays to I:rook-making, no subject too wearisome to be dragged into print, no end to the use of scissors in the service. "Groat waterfalls, cataracts, and geysers" seems to the present writer one of these nn- promising subjects ; but a friendly critic, with some amount of good will, may find some crumbs of interest even here, if he is of an inquiring mind,—any critic, for instance, to whom it would be an entire satisfaction to learn that a hundred million tone of water fall every hoar over Niagara. Or if he is of that type of mankind who like to "do" waterfalls, this book would introduce him to all the celebrated ones, and, as it has been amusingly said of Baedeker, "with a quantity of learning to bout, no that you always know at once whether you have to get enthusiastic over an object or not,—by which meaos the study of remarkable sights is greatly facilitated." Niagara has, of course, the place of honour ; but there are equally detailed accounts of other American celebrities, the falls of tho Yellowstone region, the Cali- fornian Dille, those of Canada, Orinoco, and Colombia. The Zambesi, the Congo, and the falls of the Nile are described at length, and even some of the Indus falls, and those of the Clyde and Foyers, are not neglected. Mr. Gibson's work will serve as a handbook on the sobjeet. He has compiled it principally from writers who have visited the various regions; and as the names include those of several authorities on geological subjects, together with Professor Tyndall, D. Hayden, Howells, Livingstone, Stanley, and others, it will be seen that the book should be trustworthy enough.
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