21 NOVEMBER 1896, Page 12

The Pearl Divers. By Gordon Stables, M.D. (Nisbet and Cc.)

—Dr. Gordon Stables chats with his readers in a homely and pleasant fashion. They must not expect an elaborately con- structed tale. It runs in a fairly constant train of incident and adventure. There are dangers by land and sea, some fighting, and various descriptions of wonders at home and abroad. " The Pearl Divers and Crusoes of the Sargasso Sea" is the sub-title of the book. The situation of a ship becalmed among the weedy forests of the Sargasso Sea is, we think, new. Dr. Gordon Stables's experience of natural history is so much greater than ours that it is with hesitation we hazard a doubt as to the simile, "diving and swimming for all the world like a porcupine."