Gosse's "Manual of the Marine Zoology of the British Isles" is, for classification, by far the completest handbook extant. He has contrived in it to compress more sound knowledge of vast classes of the animal kingdom than I ever saw before in so small a space. 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 Algae, 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.
For general Zoology the best books for beginners are, perhaps, as a general introduction, the Rev. J. A. L. Wood's "Popular Zoology,"full of excellent plates; and for systematic Zoology, Mr. Gosse's four little books, on Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, published with many plates, by the Christian Knowledge Society, at a marvellously cheap rate. For miscroscopic animalcules, Miss Agnes Catlow's "Drops of Water" will teach the young more than they will ever remember, and serve as a good introduction to those teeming abysses of the unseen world, which must be afterwards traversed under the guidance of Hassall and Ehrenberg.
For Ornithology, there is no book, after all, like dear old Bewick, PASSE though he may be in a scientific point of view. There is a good little British ornithology, too, published in Sir W. Jardine's "Naturalist's Library," and another by Mr. Gosse. And Mr. Knox's "Ornithological Rambles in Sussex," with Mr. St. John's "Highland Sports," and "Tour in Sutherlandshire," are the monographs of naturalists, gentlemen, and sportsmen, which remind one at every page (and what higher praise can one give?) of White's "History of Selborne." These last, with Mr. Gosse's "Canadian Naturalist," and his little book "The Ocean," not forgetting Darwin's delightful "Voyage of the Beagle and Adventure," ought to be in the hands of every lad who is likely to travel to our colonies.
For general Geology, Professor Ansted's Introduction is excellent;while, as a specimen of the way in which a single district may be thoroughly worked out, and the universal method of induction learnt from a narrow field of objects, what book can, or perhaps ever will, compare with Mr. Hugh Miller's "Old Red Sandstone"?
For this last reason, I especially recommend to the young the Rev.
C. A. Johns's "Week at the Lizard," as teaching a young person how much there is to be seen and known within a few square miles of these British Isles. But, indeed, all Mr. Johns's books are good (as they are bound to be, considering his most accurate and varied knowledge), especially his "Flowers of the Field," the best cheap introduction to systematic botany which has yet appeared. Trained, and all but self-trained, like Mr. Hugh Miller, in a remote and narrow field of observation, Mr. Johns has developed himself into one of our most acute and persevering botanists, and has added many a new treasure to the Flora of these isles; and one person, at least, owes him a deep debt of gratitude for first lessons in scientific accuracy and patience, - lessons taught, not dully and dryly at the book and desk, but livingly and genially, in adventurous rambles over the bleak cliffs and ferny woods of the wild Atlantic shore, -"Where the old fable of the guarded mount Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold."Mr. Henfrey's "Rudiments of Botany" might accompany Mr. Johns's books. Mr. Babington's "Manual of British Botany" is also most compact and highly finished, and seems the best work which I know of from which a student somewhat advanced in English botany can verify species; while for ferns, Moore's "Handbook" is probably the best for beginners.
For Entomology, which, after all, is the study most fit for boys (as Botany is for girls) who have no opportunity for visiting the sea-shore, Catlow's "Popular British Entomology," having coloured plates (a delight to young people), and saying something of all the orders, is, probably, still a good work for beginners.
