2 JANUARY 1875, Page 24

The Ship of Ice : a Strange Story of the

Polar Seas. By S. Whitechnrch Sadler, R.N. (Marcus Ward and Co.)—This is a children's romance, and a very good one too, the interest being chiefly one of adventure, but also, though in a less degree, one of sentiment. Of course all the adven- tures which an Arctic voyage could yield, and some which it would not be very likely to yield, are crowded together into the story of the boy-hero, in order to thrill the breast of the boy-reader. But the tale is admirably told, by a Naval officer evidently well versed in the history, even if not

personally experienced in the actual life of Arctic exploration, and even old people may find in it fifty times as much pleasure as in the ordinary novels of modern life. The whole voyage of the 'Undaunted' and of that strange "ship of ice" which carried for a time part of the crew and the sole passenger of the 'Undaunted,' is related with great vivacity and distinctness, and we can promise our readers that none of them, whether old or young, will fail to be sorry when they reach the last page. The combination of events is, of course, no very probable, as it seldom is in novels of adventure ; but there is nothing in it which might not have happened, and if a sufficient number of tales of the sea were ransacked for similar incidents, nothing which has not happened in some one or more of them.