In the present tale there is an unusual unity of person, place and time. The whole action is confined to three days; the principal characters are not more than six; and the scene is the lake at Cooperstown, with its surrounding shores. The story is placed as far back as the early French war, and is one of Indian siege and ambuscade. Some of the night scenes, where the beleagured whites, uncertain of the time or mode of the enemy’s attack, wander up and down the lake in the ark, listening for the dip of a paddle or the crackling of a twig, to announce the approach of the foe, are unsurpassed even by the earliest efforts of Mr. Cooper. The rescue of Hist from the hostile camp is a scene of great power—so is the surprise of the whites at the castle—and so is the death of the Panther from Deerslayer’s hands, and the latter’s temporary escape from the savages. The closing scene, however, in which the torture of Deerslayer is going on, seems to us not only painfully, but unnaturally protracted—so that, long before the _dénouement_, we begin to lose our interest in the finale, under the feeling that the author has overworked his scene. We are not captious in these few objections, for they are but specks on a sunny sky. No one can question Mr. Cooper’s powers as a novelist of his particular school. We dismiss his work with high praise, hoping that he may long live to adorn the literature of his country, and that he may never write a worse story than the Deerslayer. The Leather Stocking tales are now complete in ten volumes, by Messrs. Lea and Blanchard. * * * * * _A Practical Description of Herron’s Patent Trellis Railway Structure, etc., etc. By_ James Herron, _Civil Engineer. 1 vol. Carey and Hart, and J. Dobson, Philadelphia, 1841._ This is an able treatise. The main object of the author is to explain his Patent Trellis Railway Structure—an invention which is peculiarly adapted to the frosty climates of the middle and northern states; but, as collateral to this, he has discussed the subject of mineralizing wood, of an improved method of joining the ends of railway bars, and of the defective nature of railway structures in use. The length to which we have extended some of the preceding reviews, forbids us to go at large into the contents of this volume; but we recommend it to the attention of the public, and to that of rail-road companies in particular. The volume is accompanied by four large plates of working plans to illustrate the author’s remarks. The invention of Mr. Herron has received the sanction of the very highest authorities, and will, in our opinion, supercede all other modes of railway structure. Mr. Strickland, so well known as an architect and engineer, speaks of it as follows: