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    There was fun as well as science to be had out of rock-pools : — One day , for instance , I threw a large Arenicola into a pool of several feet in extent . A troop of little shrimps , who were sedately enjoying themselves in the clear element , dispersed in alarm , startled by the noise made by the fall of this strange T > ody , but , recovering themselves in a moment , they rallied , and whilst the annelid was endeavouring to bwy itself in the sand , one of the youngest , and , consequently , also the most venturous of the party , seized the creature by the middle of its body . Emboldened by this example the others . lost no time in imitating it , and the poor Areaicola was pulled about in all directions until a full-grown shrimp , darting from behind a tuft of Corallines , dispersed his feebler comrades and appropriated the booty to himself . I soon saw , however , that he -would be compelled to divide the spoil , for at that very instant there poured forth from the moving sand some score of small Turbos and Buccinums , who conscious that a victim was at hand , wished to

    participate in the feast . Without any sign of uncertainty or hesitation they moved straight forward towards the Arenicola , whcse body was covered in the twinkling of an eye with these voracious molluscs . 1 thought his fate definitively settled , when a small shore-crab ( Cancer Moerias ) issued from beneath a stone , put to flight the shrimp , and by dragging off the Arenicola very nearly upset all the Turbos , who forthwith hurried back to their sandy haunts . Then , however , a large edible Crab ( Cancer Pagurus ) appeared upon the scene , and the poor little Mcenas was obliged in his turn to beat a retreat in order to escape out of reach of the formidable pincers of his stronger kinsman . But he still kept a watchful eye over the dainty morsel which he had once tasted , and taking advantage of a moment when the larger crab was withdrawing from the field from some temporary emotion of alarm , he rapidly seized the long-disputed Arenicola , and carried it for safety to some distance from the water ' s * edge , where he might devour it at his ease on drv ground .

    Hissecond visit was to Brehat , on the shore of Brittany . IJis third was to Sicily , when he formed one of a Government commission , in company with Blanchard and Milne Edwards . They hired their own boat , and explored the Sicilian coast with passionate eagerness : — I saw the sea here under an aspect entirely new to me . The ocean does not exhibit those absolute and profound calms which are observed in inland seas where the surface of the water is often as smooth as a mirror , permitting the eye to distinguish the minutest details at an incredible depth . I Tvras at first ofteu deceived by this marvellous transparency into the "belief that I could grasp some Annelid or Medusa , which seemed to be swimming at only a few inches' distance from me . Our patrone watched the proceeding with a sarcastic smile , and taking a long pole with a small net attached to one of its extremities , he , to my intense astonishment , plunged it many feet below the surface before it came in contact with the objects which 1 had imagined I could grasp in my hand .

    This marvellously limpid condition of the water produced another charming illusion . Leaning over the side of the boat we could see flitting beneath our eyes a vision of plains , valleys and hills , in one place with bare and rugged sides , in another , clothed with verdant herbage , or dotted over with tufts of brownish shrubs , and in all respects calling to mind the distant view of a passing landscape . But it was not the varied outlines of a terrestrial scene on which our eyes were riveted , for we were scanning the ragged contour of rocks , more than a hundred feet below us , amid submarine precipices , along which the undulating sands , the sharply cut angles of the stone , and the rich tufts of brightly coloured red weeds and glossy fucus fronds , lay revealed to sight with such incredible precise-ness and clearness , as completely to deprive us of the power of separating the real from the ideaL Afer gazing intently for a while at the picturesque scene beneath our eyes , we scarcely perceived the intervening' liquid element "which served for its atmosphere and bore us on its cleaT surface . We seemed to be suspended in empty space , or , rather , realising one of those dreams in which the imagination often indulges , we'appeared to be soaring like a bird , and to contemplate from some aerial height the thousand varied features of hill and dale .

    Among other phenomena , M . Quatrefages gives a lengthy account of the volcanic eruptions of Etna . He then takes us ^ to the Bay of Biscay , to Biarritz , Guettary , and St . Jean de Luz , winding up with visits to La Rochelle , Chifctelaillon , and Esnandes . As a pleasant addition to our scientific literature , and as a book of travels far more informing and suggestive than nine out of every , ten which are published , these Rambles of a Naturalist deserved the careful translation they have received ; and , although they contain nothing new in the way of science , yet they bring in an accessible shape much that is valuable to naturalists which was scattered through memoirs and monographs within the reach of few .

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    ART COLLECTIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN . Galleries and CabinetB of Art in Great Britain . Being an Account of more than Forty Collections of Paintings , Drawings , Sculptures , MSS ., &c . By Dr . Waagen . Murray . Dr . "Waagen ' s new volume is supplementary to the three published by him on the Treasures of Art in Great Britain . Since the year 1854 , he has visited numerous collections , carefully describing the pictures , sculptures , drawings , manuscripts , and antiquities brought under his notice . His idea . has been to put together such exact details of every work as might suffice in future for its identification , and this , as he remarks , is the more important from the number of galleries continually stripped by the auctioneer . Thus , since the appearance of Dr . Waagen ' s former massive book , the collections of Lord Colborne , Mr . Rogers , Miss Rogers , the Earl of Oxford , the Earl of Shrewsbury , and others , have been totally dispersed ; but if these are intended as guides , the author must he careful to verify them -with especial minutes , and not to incur the charge of occasional inaccuracy , to which at present he appears liable . Considerable improvements might be introduced into a second edition , in the treatment and , perhaps , in the plan . Dr . Waagen has a formal set of phrases which ho continually applies , so that his n ; es are encumbered with technicalities . But all art students will acknowge the interest and value of his researches , the more particularly so , in that this volurne is partially a criticism of the Manchester Exhibition , many of the pictures mentioned having been exhibited thero in a better light than that in which the Doctor saw them . Perhaps it is on account of this circumstance that some of his descriptions are overcolourcd , and even absolutely incorrect , it being obviously difficult to appreciate any work of art in a dim , old-fashioned gallery , half full of shadows , and adapted only for portraits of ancestral uglinesB . In all probability , however , Dr . Waagen will speedily find an opportunity to be his own corrector , since he has omitted to notice several important collections . In ita actual shape , however , the . supplementary volume is very acceptable , as may be inferred when -we say that Canaletto ' s pictures occur in twelve of the collections

    described , the Carraccis' in twenty , Claude ' s in twenty-seven , Corregio ' s in eight , Cuyp ' s in twenty-one , Carlo Dolce ' s in eleven , Francesco Francia ' seven , Murillo ' s in thirty-one , Raphael ' s in fourteen , Rembrandt's in twentythree , Guido ' s in twenty-four , Salvator Rosa ' s in twenty -eight , Rubens ' s in forty , Tintoretto ' s in fourteen , and Titian ' s in twenty-nine . Some of the examples , of course , are doubtful , but there can be no question that the forty collections enumerated , and now first described , are of abundant richness and beauty . They include the British Museum and the National Gallery in their additions and changes , Lord Yarborough ' s , the Marquis of Hertford ' s , the late Mr . Morrison ' s , Sir Charles Eastlake ' s , Lord Overstone ' s , the Due d ' Aumale ' s , Lord Warwick ' s , the Prince Consort ' s at Kensington Palace , Lord Folkestone ' s , Lord Amherst ' s at Knoll Park , Mr . Banke ' s , the Duke of Northumberland ' s at Alnwick and Sion , the Duke of Newcastle ' s at

    Princely Chamber , the Duke of Portland's at Welbeck , Mr . Baring ' s , Mr . Sfc . John Milmay ' s , Mr . Beresford Hope ' s , and others of inferior importance , Mr . Speaker Denison ' s Annibale Caracci and Lord Abercorn ' Tintoretto remain as yet unnoticed . " We glanced with curiosity at the account of the art treasures atBasildon Park , the residence of the late millionnaire merchant , James Morrison , whose latter years were clouded by monomaniacal anticipations of beggary . The old gentleman who received two pounds sterling a week from his steward , to guarantee him against destitutio : n , lived in the midst of Oriental luxury . In his front hall stood an ancient quadrangular altar of Roman marble , sculptured with heroic figures , eagles , and rains , and bearing an exquisite cinerary urn . In the hall itself bung a magnificent Turner landscape , glowing with the light and life of Italy ; in the octagon , works by Hilton , Eastlake , Tui'iieiv Constable , Collins , Webster , Hogarth

    Pickersgill , " Wilson , Nasnivth , Wilkie , Stanfield , and Ward ; evincing the proprietor's taste for the modern schools . On the library -wall was one of the warm bacchanals of Poussin , with a Rembrandt portrait , a Rubens Virgin , and a Parmegiano group of Amorini . A bronze Maenad tossed her arms and displayed her beauty in this chamber , concerning which Dr . Waagen adds , " The front part of the bookcase consists of a beautiful brown marble with shells , which is framed in a black marble . " Then in the drawing-room Morrison h img a Da Vinci Grace , garlanded with flowers , with an ivory relief by Francois du Quesnoy ^ the only other object of art in this room being a superb crystal vase marveUously cut . The oak

    room contained a series of fine old pictures , the greater part of the Netherland school , with a few varieties of the French and German . Clearly , Mr . Morrison was a man . of taste with but a moderate sympathy with the fine arts . At his house in Karley-streut ho iu . d made a more considerable collection , though not upon a scale commensurate -with his gigantic acquisitions of property . We can imagine Dr . W aagen ' s work attaining no little value as historical material when our posterity examines the aspects of this age , for it will inform the inquirer as to the condition of art in the nineteenth century , and point to the classes and the individuals by which it has been admired and encouraged . To artists of the present day the publication is of-.-great importance . ,:

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    NOVELS AND TALES . The Ruling Passion . By Rainey Hawthorne . 3 vols ; ( Bcntlev . )—The Ruling Passion is tlie story of a family feud , arising out of an unrighteous will . Its purpose is good . The -main idea is worked out with persistency , and sometimes . with effect ; but the writer has a hopelessly false idea of dialogue , which tempts him continually into the composition of inflated colloquies between the several personages of his drama . The moral is , that unnumbered woes may proceed from an unjust disposition of property ; but the plot is made up of a variety of materials , a concealed birth and a recovered son being among the most important . The character-painting is devoted chiefly to the portraits of the rival brothers and the contrasted lawyers . If , as we believe , The Ruling Passion is a first work , it may be described as generally very meritorious ; the interest of the narrative is considerable , and the incidents of the tale are worked out carefully and consistently . Almost ; or , Crooked Ways . A Tale . By Anna Leslie . ( Groombridgc and Sons . )—Miss Leslie is the authoress of ' Self and Self-Sacrifice , ' a story produced last autumn , which commanded some attention . Almost belongs to the same school . It is a didactic exposition of a certain idea of duty . The writing , though not vigorous , is graceful , and the tone throughout is admirably pure , and calculated to inspire healthy moral sentiments . Generalship . A Tale . By George Ray . ( Griffin and Co . )—Here we have an elaborate Scottish story , with humorous episodes . It is intended as an illustration of the evils likely to spring from , manoeuvring on the part of wives and housekeepers . Mr . Ray has published his book in the interest of' the peace of the family , ' and may consequently claim a word of grateful recognition , ( , The Rival Kings ; or , Overhearing . By the Author of ' Sidney Grey . ( Kent and Co . )—A boy ' s book for Christmas . It is cheerful , sensible , and entertaining—a volume profitable for young persons to read .

    The Liens of Londotz , No . 1 . ( Lawrence . )—The author has much to relate of romance made tip of deep _ lights and shadows , and , in his earlier chapters , moves forward with vivacity . The Prisoner of the Border . A Tale of 1838 . By P . Hamilton Myers . ( Low and Co . )—This is a rough , well-told story of adventure and vicissitude . The author is popular in America , and maintains his reputation as a weav of close-spun romance , coloured with more or less of reality . Captain Molly : the Story of a Brave Woman . By Thrace Talnion . ( Low and Co . )—The title of this book is derived from an incident in the history of the French Revolution . Molly was a woman who actually figured in the war of independence , and she is here imagined , rather than described : the result is , a sprightly series of hairbreadth escapes , heroic achievem ents , and all kinds of melodramatic encounters . Many English readers may uc glad to make the acquaintance wifch the * brave woman represented in tuc engravings as fighting a gun' or braining a Rod Indian with a hntchet . Wild Northern Scpnerg ; or , Sporting Adventures with Che Rifle and the lloa-By S . H . Hammond . ( Low and Co . )—Mr . Hammond is _ a somewnat commonplace writer , and , although ho baa abundance of inventions , * addition perhaps to some interesting ryininisconces , appears » t a loss to

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    1144 THE LEADER . f No . 401 , November 28 . 1857 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 28, 1857, page 1144, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2219/page/16/