The author of this valuable volume is a man of education and intelligence, who gives us the results of his observations and experience during sixteen months of practical mining, and who, as having written the most sensible book on the subject, deserves to have his facts and opinions carefully studied by every man who meditates a California journey. The extravagant expectations formed by most emigrants have been miserably baulked by the stern realities of the case, and the plain facts given by Mr. Woods will, we hope, induce the adventurous portion of the public to pause and reflect before they undertake an enterprise whose common result is four dollars a day, and broken health, instead of a fortune. * * * * * _The Practical Metal Worker’s Assistant. With Numerous Engravings on Wood. Containing the Arts of Working all Metals and Alloys, Forging of Iron and Steel, etc. etc. By Oliver Byrne. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, Successor to E. L. Carey._ This is another of the very valuable series of works upon the Arts of Mechanics, which Mr. Baird has, with great shrewdness, made his own. The series embraces the whole, or nearly the whole, of the various mechanical branches of trade, and cannot fail to reach a wide sale, and to remain standard authorities upon the subjects of which they severally treat. * * * * * GRAHAM’S SMALL-TALK. Held in his idle moments, with his Readers, Correspondents and Exchanges.