Now we come to a plate which takes us below the surface. A wondrous mermaid, at the very depths, flanked by huge dolphins, is receiving a perfect shower of books, which come tumbling down through the water. This is the plate of _H. W. Bryant_, of Portland, Me. _Marshall C. Lefferts_, of New York City, uses small leather labels on which an open book bearing his monogram is stamped in gold. Different colors of leather are provided for different volumes. This is the only instance of the use of leather for a book-plate in this country, if I mistake not: a very handsome material, too, for the purpose, and meriting wider use. [Illustration: JOHN HERBERT CORNING] In the plate of _John Herbert Corning_, of Washington, Atlas, with strained muscles, supports the world of letters. _Litterae_ is inscribed upon the immense globe which rests upon his shoulders. Two children of the forest, a boy and a girl, with flowing hair and meagre garments, come towards us in the plate of _A. L. Hollingsworth_, of Boston, bearing between them a panel on which is carved the motto _Un bon livre est un bon ami_. The dense forest is close behind them, and were it not for the reader, one feels as if no person would pass their way to see their lofty sentiment. So thick, indeed, is the tangle of brush, that the loss of their clothes must be laid to their passage through it. [Illustration: D^{r}. G^{eo}. L. Parmele, Hartford.] In the plate of _Dr. George L. Parmelee_, of Hartford, a herald in court costume is proclaiming, through his long trumpet, the loss of a book. The banner hanging from the horn shows the words he uses: _Verloren! Verloren! ein Buch_. We are again taken far down below the waves, in the plate of _William Ashmead Courtenay_, of Charleston, S.C. Down indeed, to the very bottom of the ocean, where the weeds grow, and the dolphin feeds. Above, the waves are rolling, and a far stretch of water is seen. The view is enclosed within a square frame which bears the name. The _Rev. Wm. R. Huntington_, rector of Grace Church, New York City, uses a design which is adapted from a frontispiece by Walter Crane for the “Fairy Tales” of the Brothers Grimm, and which represents a youth, with long curls falling from under his cap, opening the door of a house, with a huge key. Upon the roof, two cupids, in imminent danger of sliding off, are making music with lyre and voice. A few stars shine against the night, and the light of the moon falls across the face of the structure, revealing the huge orange-trees in fruit, which flank the doorway. The motto, _In veritate victoria_, is carved upon the steps, and the name _Huntington_ is given at the very top of the design.