The February Outing.

The Outing for February is not a good number, there is much more to be criticised than is be commended. The illustrations are very poor, especially the front-piece, "The Veteran's Last Fight," painted expressly for Outing. It would be hard to imagine a tamer fight. It is a picture of a wild hog with two dogs on him and three or four more looking on with a sleepy kind of interest. The effect is almost absurd. The illustrations of "A Comedy of Counterplots" are the worst in the number; one is a fanciful portrait of two men dancing hand in hand in a most unnatural position. It would be far pleasanter to have appearances left to the reader's imagination than to have all pleasant ideas of the characters dispelled by such lifeless and ridiculous pictures. The two leading articles of the number are the story "Which Miss Charteris." and "Ice Yachting." The former is a love story which makes pleasant enough reading, but which is nothing at all out of the usual line of love stories, "Ice Yachting" is principally an account of this winter's events on the ice, with short descriptions of many of the first-class ice yachts and a discussion of some technical points. To the average reader, it is uninteresting. The best articles in the number are "Ski Running," "Roping Elk in the Rockies." and "Through Darkest America." The first of these is an interesting article on "ski running" and racing in Norway; "Roping, Elk in the Rockies" is a description of the lassoeing of a big elk and makes very interesting reading. "Through Darkest America" is an account of a canoe trip through the wilds of Canada, by Mrs. Katherine White. We are glad to see that "Harry's Career at Yale" has but one more number to run. This installment is an account of the "Junior Prom" and Harry's engagement. It is very touching - "those moments of first, sweet love, - when your girl yields at last." There are two or three short sporting articles, "A Day with Quail in North Carolina," "A Blank Day," and others. They are good though the latter is spoilt by too many love affairs. There is an article on "Cross Country Running" by John Corbin. It is cleverly written and is decidedly above the average of the other articles of the number. The poetry is no credit to the authors, "A Hint to Ye Goode Sainte Valentine" is weak in sentiment, metre, and spelling, while "Elemental Passion" is only passable.