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August 14, 1885.] are very delicate, and creditable in the highest degree. Mr. G. K. Johnson, Bridgeport, W., shows a frame of eight photographs, illustrative of “ Camp Life on the Adiron dack,” which are curions and interesting. R. A. C. Smith, an amateur, of New York, has an exhibit of very good work indeed, a whole-plate of a lighthouse being of con siderable artistic merit. Among the professionals, Mr. Blanks, of Vicksburg, exhibits some large and small panels of admirable execu tion. Forcible and vigorous, they are well posed and lighted The same photographer also shows some somewhat hard, but remarkably brilliant and good landscapes. A frame containing some stereoscopic views of the Vicksburg Soldiers’ Cemetery, repres-nting the gravestones of the men who fell in the war, laid in dreadful regularity, bears also the same photographer’s name. Mr. Taber, of San Francisco, shows some exceedingly good direct land-capes, about 24 by 20. taken on plates of his own manufacture Messrs. Jackson and Co., of Denver, Colorado, contiibute some good things of the least known portions of the American continent. A large photograph of some gigan tic cacti, with a Mexican city in the background, is one of the finest in the Exhibiiion. Mr. Lilienthal, a well-known photographer of New Orleans, has a large and well-hung exhibit of portraits—soft, bold, and pleasing. Mr. Lilien thal seems to be more than usually successful with large direct heals. Miss Louise Rieva exhibits an enlrgement finished by one of the thousand photochrome, ivory type, or crystoleum methods, with a result of which, perhaps, the least said the better. It has the merit of being unique in size, and I certainly never saw anything to compare with it at the Pall Mall Exhibition—1 hope I never shall. Mr. Mugnier exhibits several landscapes illustrative of New Orleans and vicinity, which are clean and good ; bis sterescopic views of the Levee and Sugar Plantations being of great inte rest. Herr Haberlaudt, of Berlin, Germany, has two small frames of good commercial woik; and Herr Heinr Graf, also of Berlin, shows a frame of exceedingly well-posed panels. Messrs. Hargrave and Gutchmanu, of New York, have several frames of views of varying quality, some street and river views being very successful. Mr. Turner, of Tu-kaloosa, Alabama, exhibits some good commercial, though hardly high-class, work, hung in massive frames. Mr. Guerin, of St. Louis, makes a very large show of some of the best work in the Exhibition. Of his twenty-six large direct portraits, where all are so good, it is difficult to choose one to call the best. Two pictures of a very small boy fishing are excellent; as is also a large head of a lady peeping through some Howers. Two boys playing at spe-saw would have been better if a few less accessories had been used, Mr. Guerin also shows frames of statuesque pororaits, and children in shells, baskets, &c. 'I his exhibit possesses in the highest degree the characteristic of all American photographs—viz, extreme brilliancy. Mr. H. Pietz, of Springfield, Illinois, has a very large frame, containing numberless photographs of various sizes, lacking, as a rule, inartistic feeling, and somewhat con strained in pose. Elaborate backgrounds are not always sufficient to make pictures. There are some excellent views of ruins in Arabia and other places in the East, bearing the stamp of “ Wilson” in the corner. His five frames contain some perfectly- lighted and well-chosen views, evidently obtained under circumstances of difficulty, and at an expenditure of much time and trouble. Mr. Schurr, of Lockport, shows some well-posed heads of children (a few being double printed in not the best of taste) with landscape borders. A more simple style of printing and framing would have given a more refined appearance to his lower exhibits. Possibly the majority of the American public appreciate a florid style of framing. There are specimens of the “Acme” water colouring process, which may have a future before it when it is made applicable to wall posters. Mr. Hardy, of Boston, has specimens which are choice alike in posing, lighting, and printing. Arranged with tasteful care in neat frames, they certainly form the best exhibit in the photographic section of the Exhibition. There is life and action in the posing, and though not quite free from the fault of overcrowding of accessories, they are soft to a degree not generally found in American photo graphs. 'Hie white drapery in the pictures (albeit it owes omething to the retoucher’s skl!) is b-autifully rendered, •and technically these pictures are perfect. A large com position group, a very difficult thing to carry out success fully, is hardly so pleasing in effect. There are some good examples of photo-engraving, collo types, &c., by two American firms of repute. Mr. H. Collin, of Philadelphia, has a very large exhibit of solar enlargements and monster Hue prints for architects, draughtsmen, &c. Messrs. Anthony and Co., Mr. Blessing, and Mr. Blair exhibit photographic cameras, materials, and requisites. The cameras have sme details which might with advantage be adopted by English manu facturers ; but, as a whole, they cannot compare with those of the best English make in point of portability, durability, and workmanship. The metal used in the construction of many cameras on view is nickel-plated. The folding cameras are somewhat cumbrous and bulky. The studio cameras, in which lightness and portability are of no object, are excellent in many ways, the swing-back adjustments being easily worked and good. Examples of the old lever- worked table-camera stand show that this style of stand still has its advocates. T here are some good backgrounds and accessories by Ashe and Schneider on view. Oue’s impression of the show of photographs at the Exposition of New Orleans, compared with those of Pall Mall, is that, as a whole, the direct pictures are much larger iu size; portraits and views alike are more brilliant, even sometimes to the verge of chalkiness ; the portraits are more crowded with accessories and elaborate back grounds ; the pictures are not often placed in separate frames, as with us. and the frames are more pretentious and elaborate.- A few of the frames and styles of mount ing are neat and in the best of taste, but, as a rule, are showy and gaudy. Beyond the Exposition, and the spectacle of Buffalo Bill, who with his troupe of Sioux and Pawnee Indians, dare devil looking cowboys, and the genuine old Deadwood coach, go through, in a very large field, a performance representing life on the frontier at the time of the pony keepers, we saw little in New Orleans to interest us. I exposed some plates on the Cotton Leve, and the huge floating palaces of the Mississippi, but beyond these things and the desolate swamps suroundingit, New Orleans presented few features of interest to us, and we were not sorry when, at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11th, our six days’ stay having expired, we were steaming rapidly down the river on our way to Cuba. The day after leaving New Orleans was an ideal tropical day; the sun shone powerfully forth from a cloudless blue sky, the glassy sei being without a ripple. In the after noon we approached what, at first sight, seemed an aban doned boat, but a nearer inspection proved to be a bale of cotton half sunk in the water. Closely following the first were other bales, till the sea became thick with them, and in the course of the afternoon we passed about two hundred of these bales, each worth, damaged as they were, about eight pounds, I have regretted ever since that I did not charter a steamer and pick up the cotton ; but owing to my want of knowledge of the salvage laws, the certainty of being plundered, and the fact that I should lose my passage and a great deal of time, 1 did not then care to make the attempt. It is not every day that one sees a thousand pounds clear profit waiting to be picked up. Land came in sight in the grey dawn of March 14th, and by six
