es, the routine of duty and discipline, and the
scarcely less regular round of amusements and festivities,--we have
interesting episodes, such as an account of the observations of the
transit of Venus at Santa Cruz, in Patagonia, the "Brooklyn" having been
detailed to take charge of the expedition sent out under Messrs. Very
and Wheeler. A visit to some of the ports of Madagascar soon after the
bombardment of Hovas gives occasion for a readable relation of the
internal revolutions and the transactions with European powers that have
given a pretext, if such it can be called, for the French claim to
exercise a protectorate over a portion of the island, the enforcement of
which will require, in our author's opinion, "an army of at least fifty
thousand men." Cape Town was a place of stay for several weeks on both
the outward and the homeward voyage, and in this connection the history
of the South African states and colonies, including the English wars and
imbroglios with the Boers and the Zulus, is given in detail; while the
necessity for touching at St. Helena furnished an opportunity for
repeating the tale of Napoleon's captivity, with particulars preserved
among "the traditions of the old inhabitants, not generally known."

It will be seen that Lieutenant Beehler made good use both of the means
of observation and of the leisure for study afforded by the "cruise." He
writes agreeably, and seems to have been careful in regard to the
sources from which he has gathered information. The book is beautifully
printed, and the illustrations are faithful but artistic renderings of
photographic views.

Recent Fiction.

"At the Red Glove."
New York: Harper & Brothers.

"Upon a Cast."
By Charlotte Dunning.
New York: Harper & Brothers.

"Down the Ravine."
By Charles Egbert Craddock.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

"By Shore and Sedge."
By Bret Harte.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

"At Love's Extremes."
By Maurice Thompson.
New York: Cassell & Co.

Although the scene of "At the Red Glove" is laid in Berne, it is a
typical French story of French people with French ideas and
characteristics, and it is French as well in the symmetry of its
arrangements and effects and its admirable technique. In point of fact,
Berne is a city where a German dialect is spoken, but among the lively
groups of _bourgeois_ who carry on this effective little drama a
prettier and politer language is in vogue. Madame C