The Florida of To-Day. By James Wood Davidson. (Appleton, New
York.)—This is a guide-book, written expressly for tourists and settlers,—written, too, in a style which is lively without (in spite of such barbarous adjectives as "politicianal ") being too distressingly American. Mr. Davidson's chapter on the history of Florida is scrappy, and ought to be supplemented by a perusal of Parkman and other writers. But when he deals with its geology and geography, its products and its population, its climate and its roads, he is succinctness itself. His representa- tion—which is his only to some extent—of the present condition of the Seminole Indians is very lifelike. He relapses into slangy American, however, when he writes of the social pests, such as "land-sharks," who infest Florida. But this portion of his book may easily be skipped.
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