There are some first-class titles available forlast-minute shoppers THE 10GIFT BOOKS arrayed before me would break a young back ifcarried far: the scale would likely tip at 15 or 20 pounds. Were you to buy all10, the cash register would stop humming at $390.29: the bookseller`s smilewould not stop for days. At first glance, the class of the bunchwould appear to be The World of William Notman: The Nineteenth Century Througha Master Lens (McClelland & Stewart, 227 pages, $100 cloth). The historians Roger Hall and Gordon Dodds and Stanley Triggs haveassembled 175 photographs and 70 illustrations to celebrate the work of agifted 19th-century photographer. A Scottish immigrant who fled debtor`s prisonwhen his father`s shawl business failed, Norman set up a photography studio at11 Bleury Street in Montreal in 1856. By 1863, he had 35 people on salary andnumbered royalty among his clients. William Norman was the Yousuf Karsh of hisday. He would go on to establish 23 studios, most of them in the United States. This is the sort of book you pick upintending to browse; an hour later you are still staring at old faces. Normanwas clearly a man with high standards: the quality of his and his associates`work is remarkably consistent. I was struck by their use of light, their senseof composition, and their eye for character: the imperiousness of a rich man`sdaughter holding a dog, the defeat etched on the face of the banishedConfederate president Jefferson Davis, the arrogance of Buffalo Bill, theresignation of Sitting Bull. I found the typeface of the book lessthan easy on the eye, the text somewhat dry, and the photo selection weightedtoo heavily towards architecture and streetscape. But all in all, this is ahandsome ticket back to the 19th century. And in case you were wondering, thebook divulges how William Norman et al. achieved those "outdoor" rinkand winter shots. The studio secrets? Polished zinc for ice, salt and sheepfleece for snow, and a tadies` perfume atomizer to create the blizzard effect. Next come five nature books, many of themfine. The Nature of Sea Otters: A Story of Survival (GreyStone/ Douglas &McIntyre, 132 pages, $29.95 Cloth) is a polished a air, full of quirky detailsand just as quirky photographs. The text by Stefani Paine is consistentlylively and sure-handed. Jeff Foott`s photographs capture the essence of ananimal that seems to enjoy the limelight. In many of Foott`s photographs, seaotters recline on their backs, and look at you sideways as if to say, "Excuseme, can I help you?" Nancy Flight, listed as the editor of the otter book, also handled Bears: Monarchs of the Northern Wilderness (GreyStone/Douglas& McIntyre, 242 pages, $45 cloth) and once again she shows a nice touch.Here she combines with Wayne Lynch, who left a career in medicine to workfull-time as a photographer and writer, and has spent nine years studying bearspolar, brown, black, and Asiatic black. The result is a pleasing, unified work.Lynch`s photos are firstclass, the structure - built around the four seasonsmakes perfect sense, and the writing is rich in anecdote and often full ofsurprising touches. People such as Wayne Lynch are explorersof a sort. They have experienced nature in a way that you and I never will. R.D. Lawrence, author of Trail of the Wolf (Key Porter, 160 pages, $34.95 cloth),is another in the explorer category. The book has a fabulous beginning: justarrived in Canada from England in 1955, the author is surrounded by wolves innorthern Ontario and fully expects to be eaten. Only later did he realize hehad stumbled upon a fresh but unseen deer kill: he had been literally standingon their dinner. Lawrence can call on 35 years of studyingwolves, and his clear prose is rich in story - of deer that fought back, ofmother wolves burying their dead pups, of neighbouring wolf packs capable ofboth delightful play and bloody war. The photos are sometimes quite good,sometimes too small, and suffer from a certain sameness. Still, this is aworthy addition to the huge canon on wolves. The prolific Fred Bruernmer is back withanother book on the North, The Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea (Key Porter, 144pages, $29.95 cloth). Like the rhinoceros for its horn, the narwhal has beenhunted mercilessly for its tusk - or, more property, its long elongated tooththat was once marketed by Vikings as unicorn horn. Bruemmer`s book is a neatpackage of historical information and current biology. We team, for example,that drinking cups made from either rhinoceros horn or "unicorn" hornwere thought to protect royals from poisoned drink. A l7th-century physicianclaimed that unicorn horn cured scurvy, ulcers, dropsy, coughs, consumption,rickets, and melancholy. It was also a renowned aphrodisiac that would"overcome feminine modesty and resistance, make barren women fertile, andimpotent men potent. Small wonder that, for 600 years, unicorn horn was one ofthe most valuable substances in Europe. Pity the poor narwhal. Bruemmer brings his vast experience ofthe North to this book. He knows, for example, that narwhal jerky tastes likestrong cheese. And that narwhal skin tastes like hazelnuts. His text isadmirably researched, but his photos are uneven. Wild Cats (GreyStone/Douglas & McIntyre, 136 pages, $35 cloth), by Candace Savage, lacks the authority of the otter and bear books. This book has the feelof magazine pieces strung together with great chunks of photography in between.Savage can certainly draw on her time in the wilderness, but unlike Wayne Lynch-several of his photos grace the pages of this book - she cannot draw on thebetter part of a lifetime. The result is a book that feels thin. The book does feature some remarkablephotography - a bobcat on two feet spinning a dead muskrat in the air, and anotherstanding bobcat playing catch with a dead bird. But there are oddities too,such as two photos of lynxes dropped inexplicably into a chapter devoted solelyto mountain lions. Leaving the animal books behind, we cometo the miscellaneous pile, and here the luck is hit and miss. Mostly miss. I amassuming that the cover and design of Pierre Berton`s Picture Book of NiagaraFalls (McClelland & Stewart, 160 pages, $34.99 cloth) are supposed to look tacky - like thecomb holders and pennants and other necessities of life in those tourist shopsaround the Falls. But I never could get over the sneaking suspicion that I wasgazing at the kind of city-proud book found in hotel rooms. This a very odd,trivia-full volume. No bathroom should be without it. Ernestown: Rural Spaces, Urban Places (Dundurn, 284 pages, $47.50 cloth), by Larry Turner, is a workmanlike history of atownship near Kingston, Ontario. The book has its moments: I liked some of thecharacter sketches, such as that of John Langhorn (1744-1817), a missionarynotable for his winter swims: he would cut two holes in the ice, dive into one,and come up at the other. An I loved the photograph of the one-armedwoodcarver. Local histories can be surprisingly good,like W H. Graham`s Greenbank, a little classic that came out in 1988. Butclassics are rare. The Art of Fred Ross: A Timeless Humanism (Goose Lane, 87 pages, $35 paper), by Tom Smart,is another regional book. This one introduced me to an artist I did not know,and plots his journey - from promising student, to muralist studying in Mexicowith Diego Rivera, to full-time artist. Though the text is a little esoteric,the art is compelling. The book has stature; the fierce pride of a SaintJohnsman writing about one of his own shines through. Nick Bantock`s The Golden Mean: In Whichthe Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes (Raincoast, 48 pages, $22.95 cloth) offersfurther proof that West Coast publishers are making smart decisions. This lastin the trilogy, like the others, is based on a profoundly simple principle: wewould love to read each other`s love letters. There are postcards, letters inenvelopes, all wrapped in bold art. Bantock, who used to design dust-jacketsfor a living, is a reminder to us all that creativity is its own reward, andsometimes gets recognition. I was struck by his attention to detail - sinceneither Griffin nor Sabine can spell, their typed letters feature correctionsby hand. Nick Bantock deserves a high compliment for his idea: I wish I had thoughtof it first.