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History, Biography, and Travels.

233 make up a compilation of information concerning Burma and its history which leaves nothing to desire. General Fytche needlessly apologises for seeming egotism in the personal references. Not only was it impossible to avoid this, but it constitutes the chief element of interest to the work. It is not the author's fault if the literary skill be not equal to the valuable information collected, and if sometimes minutiæ and disquisition are a little in excess. General Fytche has fallen into the very natural error of trying to say everything, which tempts the reader occasionally to skip. But this is a fault that, concerning a country so little known, leans to virtue's side. Throughout, the bock is manly and modest and conscientious. It brings together all about Burma that anybody needs to know -its history, physical geography, fauna and flora, agriculture, manufactures and commerce, its ethnography, language and literature, habits and customs of the people, religion and education, and finance. It is a worthy record of a long and able career. We hope with General Fytche that the establishment of our influence at the Court of Burma will facilitate the long desired commercial north-east route, vi Burma, to China.

Alpine Ascents and Adventures; or, Rock and Snow Sketches. By H. SCHÜTZ WILSON. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington.

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No familiarity lessens the charm of the high Alps to the genuine mountaineer. Peak after peak may be subdued, till those who thirst after new conquests must seek them in the Caucasus or the Himalayas. Fainter and fainter may become the awe with which the low-level tourist regards the strange equipment, the sun-peeled face, and the bloodshot eyes, that tell a tale of bivouacking in the snow. The true berg-steiger heeds it not; and even they who never stray far from the easy mule-track, as they stroll up from Zermatt to the Riffel, or from Martigny to the Pierre-aVoie, sighting at every turn upon the path some new summit, phantom fair,' appearing above the horizon, must often feel a secret misgiving that in those crags and snow-slopes overhead are beauties which none but the daring climber can really enjoy. But there are mountaineers and mountaineers; high natures whose spiritual ears are open to catch the whispered secret of the hills; others of coarser fibre, to whom a snow-peak is but a steep place, to be climbed quickly, and whose delight is simply in the strength of their legs. Mr. Schütz Wilson, like most of the older school of Alpine men, is a mountaineer of the former and the higher order, and writes of his adventures with a frankly expansive enthusiasm, somewhat rare among undemonstrative Englishmen. The style, it is true, is not always faultless. Mr. Wilson is much too fond of warming up again the little pleasantries that may have passed muster once in the wild exuberance of high animal spirits. Third parties scarcely see the fun of calling one man the G. C. P., or great and clement prince;' and another the G. L. P., or great liberal party,' and get in the end a little irritated over these troublesome initials. More than once again in an

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otherwise interesting ascent of Mont Blanc, he condescends to the detestable slang of doing Blank.' Still, these are only slight blemishes after all. To enjoy Mr. Wilson thoroughly we must read him when he has warmed fairly to his work, when he is comparing the view from the Mischabel Horn with that from Mont Blanc, or picturing the rush of cloud and mist around the precipice of the Matterhorn. Among the ascents described, two at least, those of the Schreckhorn and the Matterhorn, are of the very highest class in point of difficulty and excitement. Twice, too, among the adventures do we get glimpses of a danger from which we have always thought the climbers of the Alps have hitherto been wonderfully exempt-we mean the danger of being caught in such mists as surrounded Mr. Wilson on the Matterhorn, and again on the Mönch Joch, when advance or retreat were almost equally impossible. But the peaks which reward the lover of nature best--and this is the true moral of Mr.

Wilson's book-are not always the highest or the most difficult. 'Is not such a day, with such a view, better than scrambling up the face of the Dent Blanche ?—a thing merely difficult to do, which yields very little good even when done.' So spake Melchior Anderegg on the Fletschorn, and Melchior Anderegg's skill and daring are proverbial even among Swiss guides.

The Gold Mines of Midian and the Ruined Midianite Cities. By RICHARD F. BURTON. C. Kegan Paul and Co.

The glowing accounts of Captain Burton's more recent explorations among the ruined mining cities of North-Western Arabia cannot fail to greatly increase the general interest in the preliminary researches of April, 1877, of which the present volume contains the recital. C'est une ancienne Californie que nous avons fait revivre, is his report, April 20, 1877, to the Khedive, or Khediv, as the word, we are told, should properly be spelt; and though a pert Frenchman murmured something about de la blague, later investigations seem to show that the assertion was not quite unwarranted. A California, whether old or new, is not to be despised by any one, least of all by an embarrassed Viceroy with heavily mortgaged lands. No wonder, therefore, when it was whispered through a common friend that Captain Burton knew of gold in Egypt, if the Khediv expressed a desire for a report. The discovery was not the explorer's own. Years ago, when preparing for his Meccan pilgrimage, a certain Haji Wali, of Cairo, a citizen of the world, had told him how, returning from Mecca, he had found auriferous sand in a water-course that drained towards the Gulf of Akabah, and had vainly tried to interest the steward of the then reigning Viceroy, Abbas Pasha, in the find. 'Gold was becoming too common,' was the opinion in Egypt at that time, and Haji Wali could persuade none to go to El Akabah, except the assayer who had tested the sand, and he, it is believed, was murdered there by the Bedawin. In 1877 things had changed. A corvette was placed at Captain Burton's disposal, escort and engineers provided, and orders issued to the governors of Suez and El Muwaylah to supply guides and

History, Biography, and Travels.

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camels, and whatever else might be wanted for the road. The Huwaytat, a wild and quarrelsome tribe, Egyptians, not Bedawins, by descent, are the chief lords and masters of the lands, where the warm moist winds, condensed by the bleak Shifah range, descend in fertilizing rain-courses to the coast, and from these Captain Burton chose his guides on his short excursions inland. Aynunah, or the fountain of Unah (the ovvn of Ptolemy) -a place where are remains of Christian houses,' i.e., of an old mining town, a dam, and an aqueduct—was the chief centre of these explorations, though there was also a cruise north to Makna, identified by Captain Burton with the ancient capital of Midian, and south in search of a turquoise mine, which could not be found, says the Report, through the mauvais vouloir des habitants. It is not quite easy to make out the precise value of the actual discoveries of precious metal, beyond a statement that in one place near Makna there were 'streaks which proved on analysis to be pure gold in almost every stone we broke;' and the entire fortnight's excursion is rather too slight to spread over an octavo volume without a very great amount of padding. Still it is a work possessing many excellences, antiquarian and descriptive, though not without some counterbalancing defects in the way of hasty writing and unskilful arrangement.

Life in the Mofussil; or, the Civilian in Lower Bengal. By an EX-CIVILIAN. Two Vols. C. Kegan Paul and Co.

We have not often met with a more genuine and a more valuable book of its class than this is. It is the record of an anonymous civilian, who, passing the usual examinations with fair average success, became assistant-magistrate, judge, collector, commissioner, and ultimately joint magistrate of the first grade, when failure of health compelled his return to England and ultimately his retirement from the service. The book is a quiet, earnest, and somewhat minute account of an Englishman's experiences and observations. Altogether free from rollick or chaff, it is picturesque through keen observation, and vivacious through genial sympathies. Pertinent and illustrative anecdote is freely introduced, but always with purpose. We do not hesitate to say that we have derived from it a better impression of the forms and colours of English life in India than from any book that we have read. It is a series of photographic sketches of the hard work, the disagreeable privations, and of the many advantages and enjoyments, and especially the opportunities for exercizing beneficial influence, of an intelligent and upright magistrate. Four or five different districts are thus described. We have simple but impartial and faithful photographs of the author's colleagues and superiors -always genial, but none the less unrestrained in necessary censure. The quiet observation, the practical common sense, and the genial humanity of the writer, are felt on every page. The book teems with information and anecdote. It is very difficult to refrain from citation. We must content ourselves with referring our readers, and especially all who contemplate life in India, to one of the most minute and faithful delineations of Indian life we have ever met with.

Round about the Carpathians. By ANDREW F. CROSSE. William Blackwood and Sons.

The record of a journey, apparently for pleasure, taken by Mr. Crosse, chiefly through the southern and western parts of Transylvania and along the northern side of the Carpathians. Mr. Crosse was well qualified as a traveller. Possessing considerable knowledge of mineralogy, he gives us interesting information concerning the mines. A keen sportsman, he describes mountain excursions in search of game. Adequately read in history, and with a love for archæology, he visits places of historic fame, examines Roman ruins, and lights up his pages with historic reminiscence. A keen observer, he describes well the people, their dress, manners, and character. He gives us a good impression of the fine scenery of the Carpathians, and tells us a good deal about the ethnology, the agriculture, commerce, and political and social conditions of the people. Written as a journal of travel, it is impossible to sum up the author's conclusions. He makes us his companions by his graphic power and his easy genial style. His pages teem with information, and their interest never flags. We very strongly commend this very able and graphic description of a country and people just now full of special interest-from their rapid progress since 1840 and from the future that is before them.

The Great Frozen Sea: a Personal Narrative of the Voyage of the Alert' during the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6. By Captain ALBERT HASTINGS MARKHAM, R.N., Author of 'A Whaling Cruise in Baffin's Bay,' &c. Daldy, Isbister, and Co.

If Sir George Nares, in his 'Voyage to the Polar Sea,' has erred somewhat by reason of officiality and stiffness, Captain Markham almost passes to the other extreme of easy colloquiality. He now and then even allows himself the free use of common or slang phrases, and apparently would rather injure the construction of a sentence than miss a joke when he fancies a good chance presents itself. For popular purposes this will be in his favour, we think. He is indeed a delightful companion, never obtruding his own personal concerns or sufferings or responsibilities, but is only concerned to present the reader with a clear general idea of the work of the Expedition and its results. What will be found most attractive by the general reader is the account.given of the sledging expeditions, crowned by that great and memorable effort by which Captain Markham reached the high latitude of 83° 20′ 26′′ N., and made himself, in a very literal sense at least, and 'without prejudice,' the foremost of Polar explorers. At the various other sledging expeditions undertaken by other officers he can merely glance, but he presents indications enough to enable us to conceive the plan and scope of the Expedition as a whole. He is sometimes touching, in a simple and graphic way, as well as funny. His picture of the mischances and tumblings about of the sledges and drivers

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on their first unpractised efforts is an instance of the one, and his sketches of the sufferings of the poor dogs, alike from a new and peculiar species of rabies, and from exposure in the snow, are an instance of the other. His characterization of the Esquimaux dog, and its good and bad points, in contrast to the European, shows real discernment. Not the least humorous part of the book is the record of the plans adopted for amusement; and if we would discover how reticent Captain Markham is as to his own varied merits, we must turn to the severer pages of Sir George Nares to behold him fully in the role of the Wizard of the North' and Master of the Stage. On the whole this book, which should be read alongside that of Sir George Nares, not only supplements it, but adds the cheerful glow of fancy, fun, and grotesquerie—the effect of which is deepened by the skilful way in which, without becoming too minute or scientific, the general results of the Expedition are set forth. The book, in a word, is precisely such as we should have expected of the man who not only wrote the Whaling Cruise in Baffin's Bay,' but engaged himself in a Dundee whaler as one of the crew, at the sublime pay of a halfpenny a month, in order that he might see life under the ordinary circumstances of a whaler, add to his Polar experience, and prepare himself the better for the kind of work of which he here makes record.

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The Countries of the World: being a Popular Description of the various Continents, Islands, Rivers, Seas, and Peoples of the Globe. By ROBERT BROWN, M.A. Vol. II. Cassell, Petter, and Co.

Mr. Brown devotes the second volume of this very attractive miscellany to the two Americas and the West Indies. He skilfully combines description and information, and in the aborigines, the various conquests, the modern colonization, and manifold developments of national life, mineral wealth, and commercial enterprize, of the United States especially, he finds a wealth of information and romance, which he presents in a very attractive way. The work is profusely illustrated, and is most admirable for both the amusement and instruction of young and less-educated readers.

An Inland Voyage. By ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. C. Kegan Paul and Co.

A pleasant chatty account of canoeing in Holland, Belgium, and France --on the Scheldt, the Sombre, and the Oise-marred somewhat by overconsciousness and mannerism, but commended by keen perception, artistic touch, and genial sympathy, almost incessant rain notwithstanding.

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