ocean. breaking up of winter she was carried back by the floating ice nearly 1200 geographical miles, till she came once more into the Atlantic But McClintock steadily persevered, and at last success crowned his efforts. A" record" was found, prepared and left by Capt. Crozier, upon whom the account of the ill-fated expedition had devolved, stating that on April 26th, 1848, he was about to start with 100 men for Back's Fish River, hoping to reach the territories of the Hudson Bay Company. Then vast quantities of tattered clothing were discovered, and other articles, as if the men, aware that they were retreating for their lives, had abandoned everything superfluous;"-then skeletons, some partly enveloped in furs; guns, "loaded and sucked;" watches; boots; slippers of worked worsted; Bibles and Prayer-books. The "Narrative" gives us the whole sad story, and all that pertains to the discovery of these last relics of the lost expedition. Nothing more remains to be learned. The "record" tells us that Franklin, down to the winter of 1846-7, had been remarkably successful. He had ascended to the North through Wellington Channel, then an unknown sea, to 77° N. latitude, had proved "Cornwallis's Land” to be an island, and then turning to the South through "Peel's Strait," had reached a point at Lat. 70° and Long. 98° W., where he was beset in the ice. From this point, as he had previously ascertained, there was an open communication by water along the North coast of the American continent with the Pacific ocean. To Franklin then belongs the honor of being the first real discoverer of the Northwest passage, and, as Sir Roderick Murchison says, this great fact must be inscribed upon his monument. The prize of $100,000, which the British government offered some years ago for this discovery, has been already awarded to Sir R. McClure, but the friends of Sir John Franklin claim that the credit is due to him, and that his widow in consequence is entitled to the money. From the days of John Cabot and the earliest Polar explorations to our own, there have been about 130 expeditions to the Arctic regions, which have been illustrated by some 250 books and printed documents. Of all the explorers, few have been more successful than Captain McClintock, while no narrative has ever been given to the public which has been more fraught with interest than the plain and unassuming record which he has given us of this "Voyage of the Fox," and "Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his Companions." SOUTH AND NORTH.*-Mr. Abbott has given us, in this sketch of a recent trip to Cuba and through the Southern States, a book not only entertaining but really instructive-a book especially timely in view of the great question which is now agitating the whole country; for this question forms the main subject of the volume. With a faithful record of what he himself, saw and heard while at the South, the author has interwoven, somewhat at length, his own views respecting slavery, and given us a picture of the institution and of its relations to freedom and the free states, such as must commend itself to every one, of whatever section or party, as eminently just, candid, patriotic, and Christian. It is not, indeed, a "South-side View." The author has seen too much of the world, and is too sagacious an observer, to have the wool pulled over his eyes by a little Southern hospitality. It is, from honest conviction, a North-side view; and yet the tone of the book is kind and conciliatory in the highest degree, and the whole constitutes an earnest appeal, on the basis of indisputable facts, to the people of the South, urging them to look at the subject not only in the light of reason, justice, and Christianity, but also of self-interest, political economy, and patriotism. Though a Northern man, with Northern principles, Mr. Abbott divests himself of prejudice, looks at both sides, and states his conclusions with great clearness and force. In his trip through the South, though it was made just subsequently to the hanging of John Brown, he was nowhere molested, nowhere saw a fire-eater at least not in the act of eating and in view of the uniformly genial and gentlemanly bearing of all whom he met, wonders where the bullies and bloody-minded men come from who rave, and storm, and threaten disunion, in the newspapers, in conventions, and in congress. We half suspect that if he had just pricked some of those smooth gentlemen with an anti-slavery or even Republican pin, he would have seen antics not a whit less characteristic of the "chivalry" than those which disgrace the national capital. He saw, in his brief sojourn, no slaves flogged, or otherwise maltreated; but he did see some of the masters, whose slaves are accustomed to receive that sort of treatment. Take the following picture of an Alabama planter, and let any one who fancies slavery to be a good thing think how he would like such a master for himself or his children. "During the night, at one of the little obscure landing places on the lake, a * South and North; or, Impressions received during a Trip to Cuba and the South. By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. New York: Abbey & Abbott. 1860. pp. 352. young planter, about twenty-five years of age, came on board, apparently from a plantation not far back from the shore. He soon rendered himself revoltingly conspicuous by his profaneness and rowdyism. Boon companions speedily gathered around him, and, for some hours, night was rendered hideous by their revelry. In the morning I found him on deck, still in the flush of his debauch. In loud tones, and with a swaggering air, he said: "When I am dry, I drink whisky; when I am hungry, I drink whisky; when I am hot, I drink whisky; when I am cold, I drink whisky. I just keep pouring it down all the while. I had rather drink whisky than eat or sleep! "I am going to Mobile for a bust. I never expect to get nearer to heaven than I am when I get to Mobile. If I don't bust it there this afternoon and tonight! "The damned niggers, if they don't work while I am gone, they'll get it. I tell you what I do, when I've been gone on a spree. When I go home, if I find the damned niggers have not done a good week's work, I just take 'em and lick 'em like hell—yes, I lick 'em like hell! God Almighty never yet made a nigger that could come it over me!' "These utterances were interlarded with the most horrible oaths imaginable. From various remarks I inferred that this young man had recently come into the possession of his estate, somewhere in the vicinity, by the death of his father, and that his mother was still living. He had, perhaps, a hundred slaves, of all varieties of color, men and women, boys and girls, under his sway in a remote plantation which no eye of civilization ever sees, and where the cry of his victims can reach no Christian ear. After spending a week in Mobile, losing all his money in gambling, his nerves irritated by debauchery, and his spirit maddened by disappointment, he returns to his helpless slaves to wreak his wrath upon them, and to goad them to severer toil to replenish his purse. Their doom is one which it is awful to contemplate." Every where especially out of the cities, (where free labor, by Irish and Germans, is fast taking the place of slave labor,)—the blighting effects of slavery were apparent, even to the most casual observation; and everywhere was suggested the striking contrast that exists between the intelligence, prosperity and strength of the North, and the ignorance, unthrift and weakness of the South. The remedy for the evils of slavery, which Mr. Abbott proposes and urges with great force, is the simple and common sense one of substituting wages for compulsion as a stimulus to labor, showing conclusively that such a substitution would neither imperil nor impoverish the South, but on the contrary would add immensely both to individual wealth and to the security, prosperity, and power of the state. We wish this book could be read by every one, especially by all who are inclined to look kindly on slavery, or to think it no great matter if it should push itself into new territories and cover with its blight a broader region than it has already cursed. A TRIP TO CUBA.*-In the same connection, this sprightly little book of another traveler is of value just at this time. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, of Boston, has given here her impressions of men, manners, and things, as she saw them in Cuba. Her point of view is a very different one from ours, but she gives facts, and she tells what were the impressions which were made upon her; and the reader can make his own inferences and deductions. PRIME'S LETTERS FROM SWITZERLAND.t-The thousands of our countrymen who are hoping that within the next two or three years they may visit Switzerland, will hardly find a better itinerary to guide them in their course than the one which Mr. Prime furnishes in this book. "Switzerland," he says, "to be seen aright, must be entered from Germany. Many travelers rush from Paris to Geneva, and beginning with Chamouni and Mont Blanc, come down from the greater to the less, tapering off with the beautiful, instead of rising to the sublime." For the same reason we add-First ascend the Rhine, trace its whole length from Holland, enjoy the beauty of its vine clad banks, and the picturesqueness of its "castled crags," before entering upon the grandeur and the magnificence of the Alps. Then commencing at Basle, there is no better route, in the main, than the one marked out by Mr. Prime. Zurich-Schaffhausen and the Falls of the Rhine-Horgen-Zug—Arth—Rigi, with its distant view of the Bernese AlpsLucerne and the Lake of the Four Cantons-Fluellen-Altorf-Hopital, and the Pass of St. Gothard. Then returning by the Furca Pass, go by the Glacier of the Rhone, that frozen Niagara, and by the Grimsel Pass, to Handek and Meyringen. Then to Grindelwald, taking, in passing, the Falls of Giesbach, of Reichenbach, the Glacier of Rosenlaui, and by all means the Faulhorn, which Mr. Prime failed to ascend, which, however, affords by far the best view to be gained anywhere of the queenly Jung-frau, of Monck, of Finster Aarhorn and the rest of that glittering line of snow clad giants. Then by the Wengern Alp, and the Falls of Staubach to Interlachen and Thun. Here, in those loveliest of Alpine villages, prepare, by a few days rest, for the still more magnificent views which await the traveler at Monte Rosa and A Trip to Cuba. By Mrs. JULIA WARD HOWE. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1860. 18mo. pp. 251. ↑ Letters from Switzerland. By Samuel Irenæus PRIME. New York: Sheldon & Co. 1860. 12mo. pp. 264. For sale by F. T. Jarman, New Haven. Mont Blanc. Go, with Mr. Prime, by Kandersteg, over that most wonderful of all Alpine Passes, "The Gemmi," to Leuk. Then leaving his itinerary, pass from Leuk over the Simplon, and by no means fail to go up from Visp on the Simplon to Monte Rosa, hardly inferior to Mont Blanc itself. Then with Mr. Prime again, back to Martigny, and to the famous Hospice of Grand St. Bernard. But here Mr. Prime halts, and returns to Martigny and reaches Chamouni by the Tete Noir and the Col du Balme. But we advise the tourist, by this time no novice in Alpine travel, to push boldly on and make the complete "Tour of Mont Blanc !" In no other way, we assure him, can the grandeur of this Monarch of the mountains be comprehended. Descend then the Pass of Grand St. Bernard into Italy; skirt the mountain on the south to Cormayeur, the Chamouni of the Italian side-then by the Col de la Seigne, Col de Fours, the Col du Bon Homme, and Col de Voza, the highest and wildest passes yet climbed, wind around to what should always be reserved as the crowning glory of the whole, the Vale of Chamouni. Nothing of importance will now be left, in Switzerland proper, but Geneva-and "clear placid Leman." Such, with a few slight emendations, is the itinerary which Mr. Prime's book marks out. None but those who have been over the ground repeatedly can appreciate how great is the advantage of taking the different points of interest in something like this order of succession which he designates. The letters themselves are quite readable, without however containing anything particularly novel; and are very much such as might be expected from a rapid traveler who is in the saddle or on foot every day from morning to night, and whose only time to think or write is the hour which other travelers spend in sleep. BELLES LETTRES. WOLFE OF THE KNOLL.* The volume which has recently been presented to the public under the above title is the first collection of Mrs. Marsh's poems, several of which have, however, appeared from time to time in various journals. The present collection contains, besides translations from the Swedish and German, a few of the author's shorter poems, while by far the greater portion of the work is occupied by Wolfe of the Knoll, from which the volume takes its name. By Mrs. GEORGE P. MARSH. New Wolfe of the Knoll, and other Poems. |