4 APRIL 1891, Page 28

City Boys in the Woods. By Henry P. Wells. (Chapman

and Hall.)—What differentiates this book from most works of the class to which it belongs, is the reality of the adventures which are depicted in it. There have been published almost innumerable stories of trappers and trapping ; but Mr. Wells assures us, in his very handsome and well-illustrated volume, that the two high- spirited boys whom he sends out into the world—of Nature—in Maine, might really have had such experiences as he here allows them. Their fathers very wisely give them their own way to a limited extent. The boys, allowed to shift for themselves, get into no serious trouble—although almost at the commencement of their enterprise, disaster seems certain to dog their footsteps —and fall into the hands of a huntsman of the real and not of the Mayne Reid sort. Under his guidance and story-telling, they obtain initiation into a variety of mysteries, such as the hunting of the caribou and the life of the beaver. This book, in all points, and more especially in respect of the illustrations which lighten up the letterpress, is one that should be put into the hands of a boy who has outgrown adventures of the gift-book order, but yet likes to have his imagination stirred as well as his mind filled.