Lima : Sketches of the Capital of Peru. By Manuel
A. Fuentes. (Triibner.)—The illustrations of this work are by far the most valuable part of it, but some of them are extremely good. The style of the letter-press savours of the guide-book and directory, and though many of the facts are both suggestive and interesting they will prove dry reading. We notice indeed some lively sketches of the Carnival and the bull-fights, though the follies of the former are much the same aw in some European capitals, and the latter spectacle is truly Spanish. It is remarkable that the circus for bull-fights belongs to the Board for relieving the poor, which perhaps accounts for the constant skirmishes. between Poor Law Boards and Boards of Guardians. The principal feature of the Carnival, as shown in one or two telling woodcuts, is that ladies pour water from their balconies on the passers-by, and the passers-by retaliate from enormous squirts of almost the capacity of fire-engines. This not included by the author in his list of "facts which show imperfect civilization" in the capital of Peru, though some of these facts are not more flagrant offences against good taste than the one we have just cited.
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