The long promised book of nature-observation from the pen of the Secretary of Harvard College, Mr. Frank Bolles, has at last appeared, and in "The Land of the Lingering Snow," every Harvard man who has in him the slightest love of nature will take the keenest interest. In this delightful book, Mr. Bolles gives us "the chronicles of a stroller in New England from January to June" which embody in some twenty-six chapters the observations of a thorough Nature-lover who turns his back on his comfortable Cambridge home and cheerful back-log fire on many a day, when the lazily-inclined would hesitate about going out, and spends it in studying animal life within a couple of hours' walk of Cambridge.

Although Mr. Bolles is a man of affairs, his chief interest is in natural history, and he has trained himself to observe nature with great fidelity, and especially to study the habits of birds. He is most of all interested in the birds of New England, and whenever he is afforded an opportunity of studying the love-song of the bittern, or of watching the red-breasted robin, he is thoroughly happy. The power of minute observation which is every-where displayed - be it in discussing "The Coming of the Birds," or "The Equinoctial on the Dunes, "The Couquest of Pegan Hill," or "Chocoroa" and its valleys, - reminds one of Thoreau, in its closeness and accurateness.

Certainly this little book will be a revelation to Harvard men and people in general to discover how much there is to be seen almost within sight of Memorial Hall, certainly within a radius of ten miles of Cambridge, for most of Mr. Bolles' rambles have been within those limits. The chief charm of the book is, perhaps, its simplicity and its unaffectednes; and who knows but that Mr. Bolles' book may do for the surroundings of Cambridge what Scott's "Lady of the Lake" did for the picturesque lake region of Scotland?

["Land of the Lingering Snow," by Frank Bolles. Boston: Houghton, Miffin & Co.; 16 mo.]