The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-02 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Wild Euntress. By Captain Mayne Reid.
Author of " The Scalp "Hunters," &c. 3 vols.
Ben tley.
This is a stirring and spirited narrative which is
replete with vigour and vivacity. Few can fail to
be delighted with its perusal. The change is a
refreshing one from tales of fashionable life at
home, and stories of quiet domestic people, to the
records of bold deeds of daring enterprise, and
relations of

" Hair-breadth 'scapes and hair-breadth snares,
Hair-brained perils, 'ventures, cares,"
,hat befell tho dwellers in the wilderness of the back-

woods, or the wanderers over prairies and through
forests beset with foes on every side from the.,
savage Indian to the saintly Mormon. The story
begins in the backwoods. We are told that " the i
white-headed eagle, soaring above the spray of a
Tennesean forest, looks down upon the clearing of
the squatter." There is a striking account given
of the means employed by these builders in the
wilds, and the author observes " Such a pic-
ture is almost pecu;iar to the backwoods of
America. Some may deem it commonplace.
For my part I cannot regard it in this light.
I have never looked upon this primitive
homestead of the pioneer without receiving from '
it au impression of romantic pleasure. Something
seems to impart to it an air of vague and mystic
grandeur. Perhaps I associate the picture with
the frame in which it is set—the magnificent forest
that surrounds it, every aisle of which is redolent
with romance. Such a scene is suggestive of lore
and legend—of perils by flood and field always
pleasant to be remembered—of desperate deeds of
heroism performed by gallant backwoodsmen or
their equally gallant antagonists—those red war-
riors who once strode proudly along the forest
path, but whose upright forms are no longer seen
under the shadow of its trees." The interest and
excitement of the story commence at once, for in the
first scene the reader beholds the elements of war-
fare in the apparently tranquil and peaceful scene
of the squatter's cabin. The two daughters of
Hickman Holt are introduced, and they are
lovely maidens to dwell in so wild a scene.
Marian and Lilian are very different in all but
affection for each other. They were half-sisters,
being the daughters of different mothers, from
whom each derived her peculiarities. Marian is
the heroine, and gives her name to the work, as
she afterwards became, partly from choice, partly
from necessity, " The Wild Huntress." Hickman
Holt, the father, is a very distinct style of man; "we
behold a personage of unwonted aspect, a man of
gigantic stature, with a beard reaching to the second
button of his coat, and a face not to be looked upon
without a sensation of terror—a countenance
expressive of determined courage, but at the same
time of fierceness, untempered by any trace of a
softer emotion. His costume is common enough on
the banks of the Mississippi ; the colossal form is
not rare, but the fierce and somewhat repulsive
countenance—that is, more individual." An im-
portant person in this story, who plays no mean
part in its intricate and involved labyrinth, is Josh
Stebbins. At the time of his introduction to us he
has just entered on a new vocation. " The ei-devant
attorney's clerk—whilom the schoolmaster of
Swampville—is now an apostle of the Latter-day
Saints." He is about as despicable an addition to
the rank of that wretched community as any who
ever joined them. The object of this horrible man's
schemes was to lure away these flowers of the forest,
the beautiful Marian and the lovely Lilian,
.to the
Salt Lake Settlement, where he destined them for
the harem of the Mormon Prophet. Marian very
imprudently, in a fit of pique at the supposed defec-
tion of her lover, Frank Wingrove, a young back-
woodsman in their vicinity, agreed to marry Josh
Stebbins, long a suitor for her hand. She was fur-
ther impelled to this by her father assuring her
that some dreadful calamity would befall him if
she did not consent to become the wife of
Stebbins. For a long time we lose sight of the
maiden, and when she reappears it is as the wild
huntress. She soon found out for what purpose
she had been decoyed away, and that the marriage
with Stebbins had been a false one, in order to
get her to leave her home by a sure pretext. She
fled away, and after many perils she dwelt among
the tents of an Indian tribe, whither her preserver,
a brave trapper, had conducted her. Meanwhile
Stebbins returned to the squatter's cabin, and told
a plausible tale, which induced Holt to depart with
Lillian and accompany his supposed son-in-law to
the Mormon settlements. A party of brave adven-
turers, including Wingrove, the lover of Marian,
and Edward Warfield, followed in the track of the
caravan. Their adventures were most remarkable,
and the passages which relate the escape of War-
field and his subsequent meeting with Marian are
most exciting, and reach to a pitch of
thrilling interest. Sad as the sufferings were
that befel that little band of intrepid pilgrims,
they were most fortunate for the immediate fur-
therance and ultimate success of their scheme.
Had not the tragic events occurred they would not
have met with Marian, and they would not have
gained the invaluable assistance of the Utah chief,
through whose agency and instrumentality they
were enabled to penetrate in disguise into the
tents of the Mormons, and carry off the beautiful
girl destined for so dreadful a fate, and who had
not the spirit and strength of her sister to extricate
herself from perillar to protect herself if wandering
alone. The crisis soon came—the very first evening
of their arrival the discovery of the flight was
made, and the pursuit started. In consequence of
Marian's dog Wolf, who had been her brave
defender in many a danger, and who was left
behind, the cruel hunters reached their prey, but
an unexpected defection took place in the person of
the gigantic Holt, who followed in the train of
Mormons with the apparent object of reclaiming
his daughters. When the parties met face to face,
he turned round on Stebbins and compelled him to
confess the treachery of his conduct in holding a
threat of a charge of murder over his head for so many
years. Holt's second wife had committed suicide ;
but the appearances were so suspicious that Stebbins,
then an attorney's clerk, took advantage of them,
and threatened to prove Holt guilty at any time he
chose to make his statements public. With the
barrel of a rifle on his breast, the cowardly wretch
aid the vile traitor was forced to confess, and then
Holt would have suffered him to depart, but Win-
grove rushed forward and proclaimed his conduct
towards the sisters. As may be supposed, the rage
of the indignant father knew no bounds; and
if ever one human being was justified in taking
away another's life, it was when the squatter's"
unerring aim deprived the " Saint" of life. It was
a joyous return home of the long-separated family
to the banks of Mud Creek, and few wanderers ever
met with more adventures within a year than
did these heroes and heroines of the wilds.
A bright picture is drawn of the transformation
which the original dwelling of the squatter under-
went before it became the home of Warfield and
Lillian. " Ah! the squatter's clearing, with its zig-
zag fence, its girdled trees, and white deadwoods,
it is no longer recognisable; the log hut is replaced
by a pretentious frame dwelling, with portico and
verandahs—almost a mansion. The little maize-
patch, scarcely an acre in extent, is now a splendid
plantation of many fields, in which wave the golden
tassels of Indian corn, the broad leaves of another
indigenous vegetable—the aromatic Indian weed'
—and the gossamer-like florets of the precious
cotton plant. Even the squatter himself
you would scarcely recognise in the respect-
able old gentleman, who, mounted upon his
colt, with a long rifle over his shoulder, rides around
looking after the affairs of the plantation, and
picking off the squirrels who threaten the young
corn with their destructive depredations." This
scene reminds one of the lines of Campbell—
" To see a world from shadowy forests won
In youthful beauty wedded to the sun,
To skirt our home with harvests widely sown
And call the blooming landscape all our own."

Few tales of these distant regions and these scenes
of M ild life can surpass in exciting ,i.nterest; glow.
ing descriptions, and vivid delineations the
works of this author, and " The Wild Huntress"
is not inferior to some of his earlier and
celebrated productions. From first to last, it
abounds with adventures and narrations,
of the most brilliant kind, that are related with elo-
quence, and also with so much graphic force that the
wildest events appear probable from the manner in
which they are described. Those who desire to
peruse a vivid and varied sketch of forest life and
wild adventures, combined with a romantic tale of
bold and brave hei oes, and of lovely and noble
heroines, cannot do better than possess themselves
of this work. If they seek amusement, they cannot
be disappointed; if they wish to meet with inte-
resting knowledge of Indian life, they will find it to
the fullest extent ; and if they would be charmed
and fascinated by "fair women and brave men," they
will meet them in the daughters of the squatter on
the banks of the Obion, and in:those devoted deli-
verers who tracked their path through perils and amid
dangers that might have proved the test of many a
knight of old, who won for his guerdon the golden
spurs and the hand of his " layde love." This novel
can therefore be fairly recommended as a brilliant
and successful attempt to pourtray and personate
the types of a noble race now fast disappearing,
and the adventures of an interesting family doomed

to strange and sad vicissitudes. " The Wild
Huntress" has every prospect of being one of the
most striking novels of the season, from its excit-
ing subject and attractive style.

Gems and Jewels ; their history, Geography,
Chemistry, and Ana. By Madame de Barrera,
Author of " Memoirs of Rachel." Bentley.
An interesting volume, compounded of history,
science, and anecdote, relating to gems and jewel-
lery of every kind, from the earliest ages of which
we have any record down to the present time.
The pai,,siou for ornament has always existed in
men. The savage nations, the lowest in the scale
of humanity, and the luxurious votaries of effemi-

nate civilisation, alike share this feeling. Strings
of beads arid showy trinkets have long proved
the most advantageous articles of barter with the

wild natives of newly discovered lands ; and the
inhabitants of the leading cities of Europe, while
they smile at the childish simplicity of the bar-
barian chief, have shown themselves no less suscep-
tible to the glitter of diamonds, or the sparkle of
rubies. The latter gem indeed, as Madame de
Barrera informs us, is more highly valued for or-
namental purposes than the diamond, owing to
the rarity of large and perfect stones. This scar-
city proceeds from the high estimation in which
it is held by Eastern potentates, and the jealous
care with which the East Indian princes especially
have prevented rubies from being exported from
their dominions. The rubies of Ceylon are
esteemed the best, and are brought down by
the torrents from the mountains into the

beds of the streams. Tavernier, a French
merchant jeweller and celebrated traveller of the
17th century, who spent 40 years of his life tra-
velling in the East as a trader in precious stones,
alludes to the eagerness with which this gem was
sought in the East Indies. He asserts that he
found it more profitable to bring fine rubies back
from Europe than to take them there from Asia.
As may be supposed, the authoress of the work
before us quotes frequently from Tavernier's writ-
ings. She has evidently bestowed much care and
Obour on the compilation of her book, and has
collected a large amount of varied information.
She has divided the work into different parts, each
treating of a separate branch of the subject. The
first gives us a general history of gems, their uses
among different nations, and some of the romances
or tragedies connected with them. The second and
third parts will attract the more scientific reader,
as they relate to the geography and chemistry of
precious stones, giving ample details of the locali-
ties where they have beeniprincipally discovered, and
their component parts when subjected to chemical
analysis. The fourth division treats of the quali-
ties, properties, and virtues superstitiously attri-
buted to gems ; while the concluding portion re-
lates to historical jewels, tracing the his-
tory of individual stones, and discussing the
peculiar importance and significance of various
articles of jewellery in ancient and modern times.
It will thus be seen that although treating of mere
articles of ornament the work is by no means of a,
superficial character. It has apparently been com-
piled from many different sources, and classified
with skill and ability. Occasionally we meet
with slight repetitions. A fact or an incident
alluded to under one heading re-appears under
another. This, however, is not often the case, and
in such a mass of disjointed information it is not
surprising. The style, when treating directly of the
subject, is clear and to the point ; it is only in the
introductory passages that we are inclined to smile
at the grandiloquence of the writing, But great
allowance must be made for a lady moralising on
such a topic; since such is the fascination these
glittering baubles possess over the fair sex that the
authoress confesses there have been few thefts of
jewels in which a woman has not been implicated.
M. Babinet, member of the Paris Institute, to whose
approval the work was submitted, has furnished
the writer with a highly complimentary preface.
In it, in his capacity as mineralogist, he alludes to
the chemical nature of gems. "It would seem "
he observes, "as though the mighty creative and
organising power had chosen to manifest its
omnipotence by producing the most valuable sub-
stances from the most ordinary elements. The
diamond is crystallised carbon, the sapphire and
the ruby are crystallised clay; the topaz, the
emerald, the amethyst, are in a greater or lesser
degree merely pebbles tinged with certain metallic
particles, more especially with iron, which has
been called the great colourist of mineral nature."
But, as the author observes, there is an immense
aifference between the analysis of bodies and their
synthesis. "The chemist may reduce a fine
diamond to a small amount of carbon, but of that
carbon he cannot reconstruct the gem he has
destroyed ;" and, in spite of the efforts of science,
the manufacturing of diamonds has proved no more
successful than the artificial propagation of pearls.
Of the diamond many interesting particulars are
given. M. de Morveau, in the last century,
exposed a diamond to intense heat, enclosed in a
small cavity in a piece of iron. " When the cavity
was opened the diamond was entirely gone, and
the iron around converted into steel. This proved
it to be pure carbon, which combines with iron
to form steel, and not charcoal, which is
generally an oxide of iron." It was an error to
suppose that the diamond was incombustible. If
exposed to sufficient heat it Will burn with an un-
dulating blueish flame, and.,ultimately disappear,
leaving no trace. We quote a few interesting par-
ticulars of the nature of this gem :
The diamond, when first taken out of the mine, is covered
with a thick crust that scarcely permits of any transparency
being visible ; and even the most practised eye cannot then
tell its value with certainty. It usually resembles a clear,
semi-transparent pebble, well worn by the waters, a bit of
unpolished glass, or of gum-arabic. Thus coated, it is
called a rough diamond.
This crust is so hard that there is no substance save that
of the diamond itself that can take it off. The diamond
cuts every substance in nature, and can be cut but by itself.
Allusion to the dust of the diamond being the only sub-
stance that has power to lessen that gem, is touchingly
made in the verses composed by Charles 1., the night after
his condemnation :
" With mine own power my majesty they wound,
In the king's name the king himself's uncrowned ;
So doth the dust destroy the diamond 1"
There are few things in the history of commerce more
remarkable than the enormous mercantile value which has
been set, by all civilised nations and in all ages, on gems.
The jealousy with which the traders of remote times have
protected this branch of commerce, and the favour with
which it was regarded by semi-barbaric nations, proved the
high esteem in which they were held. At the present day a
very large amount of capital, in almost every part of the
world, is vestedin precious stones. Of this capital, however,
coloured gems do not appear to represent more than 1-10th,
while diamonds constitute the remaining 90 per cent. With
the ancients the case was reversed. Their preference
for coloured stones might arise in a great measure from
their ignorance of the art of cutting and polishing the
diamond, which reveals its prismatic hues to such advan-
tage. The ancients, moreover, lived more in the bright
light of day than the moderns, and it is by that light alone
that the richness of mineral colours canbe fully appreciated.
The diamond, on the contrary, is far less brilliant in the
broad glare of day than by night.
Comparing the diamond with those substances which
are of the greatest utility to mankind, we find the money
value of the latter to be in an inestimable ratio. Take a
substance very similar to the diamond in composition,
namely, coal. To express the value of an ounce of coal,
we have no coin sufficiently small ; it is the same with iron
and lead,—metals of inestimable importance. An ounce of
copper may be worth a penny ; an ounce of silver may be
worth ss. ; an ounce of pure gold £4. But the very refuse
of the diamond, that which is used for the purpose of
breaking up into small particles for cutting other stones, is
worth £5O an ounce.
Not the least curious among the scraps of infor-
mation collected in these pages are the accounts of
the absurd speculations of ancient philosophers,
who, according to their custom, indulged in the
wildest theories without the slightest foundation.
Amber, in particular, gave rise to the most extraor-
dinary conjectures. The Romans set a high value
upon this substance, and its quality of negative
electricity made it remarkable among the Greeks.
"It is from electron, the Greek word for this sub-
stance, that electricity takes its name." The early
chapters of the work contain many interesting anec-
dotes, and the mournful histories of the envied
owner of invaluable jewels might teach a moral to
those dazzled by pageantry and power. The jewels
of the hapless Queen of Scots fell into the hands
of her relentless enemy, Elizabeth ; but it is a satis-
faction to ind that the rapacity of the maiden
Queen was properly punished. She availed herself
of the opportunity offered to secure her rival's beau-
tiful and costly pearls at a low price;. and soon
after Queen Mary, in one of her anxious appeals on
the subject, offered Elizabeth the choice of them.
The famous story of the diamond necklace and
Madame Lamotte is given in full ; and numerous
anecdotes, which have come down to us froth
earlier times, whether true or false, are cited. The
story of the Earl of Essex and the ring is of
course not omitted, but we wonder that the
authoress has not included some of the won-
derful tales told of Buckingham's diamonds,
and Anne of Austria. In the chapter on famous
jewels a history of our own Koh-i•neer is
given. The records of the gorgeous spoils of
Roman wars are succeeded by the lavish pro-
fusion of the middle ages. In these more sober
days it seems marvellous how bankrupt monarchs
and penniless nobles found means for their pro-
digality. Gifts in gems were, at one time, greatly
the fashion. The following anecdote gives all
amusing evidence of Parisian gallantry .
The gallants of the Court of Louis XV. carried extrava-
gance as far as the famous Egyptian queen. She melted a
pearl—they pulverised diamonds to prove their insane nog'
nificence. A lady, having expressed a desire to have tite
portrait of her canary in a ring, the last Prince de Conti,
requested she would allow him to give it to her; she ac-
cepted, on condition that no precious gems should be set
in it. When the ring was brought to her, however, a dla_.
mond covered the painting. The lady had the brilliant taken
out of the setting, and sent it back to the giver.
.11:
prince, deterraitted not to be gainsaid, caused the stone to 1"