Pearls and Pebbles; or, Notes of an Old Naturalist. By
Catharine Parr Traill. With Biographical Sketch by Mary Agnes Fitz- gibbon. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.)—This is a volume of Canadian origin, and deals with Canadian subjects. Mrs. Traill is a Strickland by birth, younger sister of the historian of the Queens of England, and began to write more than seventy years ago. She married in 1832, and came out to Canada in the same year. Almost her first experience of the West was an attack of cholera at Toronto. Recovered from this, she went into her new home. One of the papers in this volume, " Sunset and Sunrise on Lake Ontario," describes part of her journey. Her pen was of much use in providing the livelihood of the family. Unfortunately, money was so much wanted that the copyrights had to be sold. It would be interesting to know how much the publishers, Messrs. Hall and Vertue, and later, Messrs. Nelson, have gained by two books, now known as " Lost in the Backwoods " and " Afar in the Forest," for which Mrs. Traill received £50, more than forty years ago. She has never received any further remuneration. It is to be hoped that this sort of thing does not often happen. In 1857 all the family property was lost by a fire. A few years later Lord Palmerston obtained £100 for her from the special fund. Mrs. Traill's own preface is dated September 20th, 1894. If she is still alive another grant would not be out of place. Can any other English author go back as far as 1822? The papers in this volume are full of interest for the naturalist, and show no small literary ability.
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