18 OCTOBER 1890, Page 27

Scenes in the Life of a Sailor. By Laurence Cave.

(Digby and Long.) —This is the biography of a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy who,

after serving fourteen years and seeing plenty of action, took orders and settled down as a country parson. It is a readable story, and written after a somewhat old-fashioned manner. It is evidently

-written by a woman; there is much poetry quoted of a fair third- rate order, and in some places a suspicion of" gush" is unavoidable. Studies in Evolution and Biology. By Alice Bodington. (Elliot Stock.)—Those who find much fascination in the study of

biology will welcome this little volume of essays; there are some very sound and interesting studies in it,—sound, because they have been well thought out ; and interesting, because they discuss some of the many marvellous processes of Nature. The writer is an ardent supporter of evolution, though she is puzzled by the sur- vival of some forms and the dying out of others, and the breaks in

paleontological succession, such as between the Laurentian and -the Cambrian rocks. Studies in Evolution and Biology is well written and readable, and is moderate in tone as well.