Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore

Miss Anne Pratt’s “Things of the Sea-coast” is excellent; and still better is Professor Harvey’s “Sea-side Book,” of which it is impossible to speak too highly; and most pleasant it is to see a man of genius and learning thus gathering the bloom of his varied knowledge, to put it into a form equally suited to a child and a savant. Seldom, perhaps, has there been a little book in which so vast a quantity of facts have been told so gracefully, simply, without a taint of pedantry or cumbrousness— an excellence which is the sure and only mark of a perfect mastery of the subject. Mr. G. H. Lewes’s “Sea-shore Studies” are also very valuable; hardly perhaps a book for beginners, but from his admirable power of description, whether of animals or of scenes, is interesting for all classes of readers. Two little “Popular” Histories— one of British Zoophytes, the other of British Sea-weeds, by Dr. Landsborough (since dead of cholera, at Saltcoats, the scene of his energetic and pious ministry)— are very excellent; and are furnished, too, with well-drawn and coloured plates, for the comfort of those to whom a scientific nomenclature (as liable as any other human thing to be faulty and obscure) conveys but a vague conception of the objects. These may serve well for the beginner, as introductions to Professor Harvey’s large work on British Algæ, and to the new edition of Professor Johnston’s invaluable “British Zoophytes,” Miss Gifford’s “Marine Botanist,” third edition, and Dr. Cocks’s “Sea-weed Collector’s Guide,” have also been recommended by a high authority.