The North-West Peninsula of Iceland being the Journal of a
Tour i■ Iceland in the Spring and Summer of 1862. By C. W. Shepherd, MA., F.Z.S. (Longmans.)—In spite of the difficulties and hardships of his tour, Mr. Shepherd has written a lively, good-humoured narrative. His descriptions of scenery are sometimes very happy, and his account of his own adventures, if not equally so, is at all events faithful. He tells us that his object in visiting Iceland was partly ornithological, and that "the ornithologist should visit Iceland in the spring, and endure with what patience he can the storms of that season." " The tourist," he adds, " will do well to delay his visit till the summer, as the weather is charming from the middle of July to the middle of September." And Mr. Shepherd's narrative fully bears out this warning. Ten days' confine- ment in a country farm-house, the room in which the travellers lodged being just large enough to hold them, and the room above being filled with sick people, who were coughing and sneezing all night, the weather being so stormy that there was not even light to read by, and the fires so smoky that when the travellers' clothes got wet it was impossible to dry them, must bo too much for even the most patient lover of ornithological science. Mr. Shepherd and his friends had to return at last to more civilized quarters, and postpone their exploration of the north-west peninsula to a a more convenient season.
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