ured it, and, holding it in my hand until rested, I endeavored to induce it to squeak, for it is one of a very few that has a voice; but it was not to be coaxed. It suffered many indignities in silence, and so shamed me by its patience that I gently placed it in the brook. Soon black, shining whirligigs—the gyrinus—suddenly appeared; and a turtle, as if wondering what might be the cause of the commotion, thrust its head in the air, stared angrily at me, and returned to its hidden home. There was no dearth of life in the brook, yet this is a winter day." Equally numerous does he find the birds in winter, and, in the right places, growing plants, with an occasional flower, if the season happens to be open. He sees, too, the meadow mice, skurrying back and forth in their grass-walled, ice-roofed runways. In spring, Nature's drama becomes more varied. Under the name of this season, Dr. Abbott discourses of the April moon, of small owls, of apple blossoms, etc., and even draws entertainment from such an unpromising place as a meadow mud-hole. In summer, and again in autumn, the scene changes, but all under such delightful leadership is intensely fascinating. Sprinkled through these pages are bits of reminiscence of boy life, not without its pranks, in a Quaker farmer's family; and digressions upon such topics as old almanacs, weathercocks, "skeleton-lifting," and fossil man in the Delaware Valley, occur here and there. The material form of the volume, with its narrow page and wide margins, and its tastefully designed cover, admirably fits the character of the matter within.
The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen, with Translations from the Icelandic Sagas. By B. F. De Costa. Albany, N. Y.: Joel Munson's Sons. Pp. 196. Price, $3.
A scholarly and entertaining work is this upon the Northmen and their Western voyages. The author was doubtless instrumental in arousing interest in regard to the Icelandic chronicles and literature by the publication of the first edition of this book in 1870, and he must view with satisfaction the progress made since that time, which has been emphasized in the erection of two statues to Leif Ericsson.
Fairly and candidly the author treats all evidence bearing upon the earliest knowledge of the American continent, even admitting that many facts point toward the Irish as the first to cross the Atlantic. Beginning with references found in Greek and Latin authors to "a vast island lying far in the West and peopled by strange races," he comments upon the exploits of Tyrian and Phoenician navigators. Cadiz, in Spain, was settled by Tyrian traders 1200 b. c.; in the ninth century there were colonies upon the western coast of Africa; and three hundred years later the continent was circumnavigated by the Phœnicians. A chart of the Canary Isles was made by Sebosus, 63 b. c., and a description of King Juba's expedition is furnished by Pliny. It is regarded as a possibility that the Phœnicians made transatlantic discoveries: "From the Canaries to the coast of Florida is a short voyage, and the bold sailors of the Mediterranean, after touching at the Canaries, need only spread their sails before the steady-breathing monsoon, to find themselves wafted safely to the western shore."
The first chronicle of any voyage to America is found in the Icelandic tongue. This language was spoken by the Northmen who settled in Denmark and the Scandinavian countries, but were at length oppressed in Norway by King Harold. Too proud to brook any curtailment of their power, the jarls sailed away to the frozen shores of Iceland. Here, in 868, they found Christian monks who would not affiliate with the pagan new-comers, but promptly gave up their icy retreat and "left behind them Irish books, bells, and croziers, from which it could be seen that they were Irishmen." In 982 Eric the Red, banished from Iceland, sought refuge in Greenland. Colonies were soon established here, and only eight years elapsed before Leif, the son of Eric, made his first voyage to Vinland. The Ericssons were a family of explorers. Thorvald and Thorstein, brothers of Leif, and Freydis, a sister, each undertook an expedition to the new land. The most important voyage was made by Thorfinn Karlsefne, an Icelander of famous lineage, who, with three vessels and one hundred and sixty men, visited Vinland and remained three years. Had it not been for the observant habits of the Icelanders, who were taught to study "the di-
