26 SEPTEMBER 1896, Page 22

The Romance of the Woods. By E. J. Whishaw. (Longmans

and Co.)—The " Woods " are Russian, and the experiences which Mr. Whishaw relates of them, and of various streams and lakes, with not a few sketches of Russian villages intermingled, are highly interesting. He goes to shoot black-cock, he lies in ambush for wild geese, with but small success, he, being then a boy, fishes for crayfish (bigger than our English variety, it would seem, for they measure commonly seven inches), he catches Finland trout, and even kills bears. But after all the peasant, though scarcely so attractive, is more interesting than the inhabitants of wood and water. What Mr. Whishaw has to tell us of his manners and customs, and, still more, of his beliefs, is very curious.