HA RD WICKE 'S S CIENCE -GOS SIP. 



83 



A GOSSIP ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 



THE Christmas publishing season was marked by 

 an issue of several scientific and other works 

 from the press, which cannot fail to have great 

 influence. Chief among these may be mentioned 

 Commander Cameron's "Across Africa" (London: 

 Daldy, Isbister, & Co.). The story of African travel 

 and adventure has lost none of its charm by often 

 telling. Cameron was among us last autumn at the 

 Geographical Society, the British Association, and 

 elsewhere, in plain but pithy language narrating his 

 eventful journey. Now we have the full and com- 

 plete story, in two handsome volumes, crowded with 

 illustrations of scenery, natives, natural history ob- 

 jects, &c. So full of fresh matter is the book that 

 there is little or no room left for those sporting ad- 

 ventures which, we may be sure, were indulged in. 

 The time occupied in this journey across Equatorial 

 Africa was nearly three years and a half. In many 

 places Commander Cameron's was the first European 

 face which had been seen. The entire route was 

 crowded with most interesting and importaiit inci- 

 dents, so that we can well believe the author when 

 he tells us how his book would have swollen to an 

 unwieldy size had he included his party's adven- 

 tures and sports. As a work of African travel it 

 stands higher in literary execution than any other. 

 Much as we have heard of African Equatorial explora- 

 tion in recent years, conducted by German and Eng- 

 lish travellers, we do not think any writer has kept 

 more to the point in narrating it than Cameron. We 

 say this in no invidious spirit ; we have reason to be 

 proud of that glowing spirit of adventure which has 

 impelled all alike to peril their lives for the sake of 

 adding to our knowledge of unknown and important 

 countries. But, in spite of the studied plainness with 

 which Commander Cameron has kept to the strict 

 particulars of his route, the physical characters of 

 the scenery, and the manners and customs of the 

 various countries through which he passed, this rather 

 enhances the charm of his narrative than otherwise. 

 We feel we are listening to a man who has something 

 to tell us that nobody else can narrate. Then, again, 

 no other African writer has so thoroughly exposed 

 the iniquitous traffic in slaves which goes ori in Equa- 

 torial Africa, nor traced it so thoroughly to its source. 

 If the knowledge of an evil is the first step towards 

 its cure, then we have to thank Commander Cameron 

 for taking that step. Let us hope that the uplifted 

 voice of the civilized world will denounce the curse 

 more vehemently than ever, and yet more perempto- 

 rily demand its immediate suppression ! In conclu- 

 sion, we can only refer our readers themselves to this 

 quietly thoughtful and impressive book, and they will 

 rise from its not unexciting perusal, as we have done, 

 all the more prepai-ed to honour the gallant author 

 who bore so patiently evils which other travellers 

 have immediately and cruelly resented, with the 



noble spirit of an enlightened and a Christian 

 man. 



"The Life of a Scotch Naturalist," by Samuel 

 Smiles (London : John Murray), has created a gi-eater 

 sensation than any other book of its kind. It is a 

 noble record of a brave and noble life. With Thomas 

 Edward, the subject of it, we have from time to time 

 had similar epistolaiy intercourse to that which we 

 abundantly enjoy with many others of his stamp. It 

 was to ourselves that he appealed in the case of the 

 "auld been," figured on page 369 of this work ; and 

 it was in the ' ' Answers to Correspondents " of our 

 pages that it was finally named from the photograph 

 Thomas Edward sent us. Two good results have 

 already issued from the publication of this remark- 

 able book — one, that Thomas Edward has been 

 placed by Her Majesty on the Civil List, and so 

 rendered independent for the rest of his life, and free 

 to follow his delightsome pursuits after the "auld 

 beasties"; and the other, that his life has been the 

 means of widely interesting educated people in the 

 studies of operative naturalists, and in natural his- 

 tory generally. For, useful though Edward's life has 

 been, we feel like the English king when he heard of 

 the results of Chevy Chase, — we know there are "five 

 hundred men" as good as he ! And in making this 

 remark we are not detracting from the position which 

 Thomas Edward has so nobly attained. We have in 

 our mind's eye the men who compose the botanical 

 and natural histoiy societies in Lancashire, Yorkshire, 

 and elsewhere — operatives in mills or workers in 

 coal-mines — men whose only education, perhaps, was 

 obtained in a Sunday-school, but whose acquaintance 

 with plants and insects and birds and fossils would sur- 

 prise any one whose life has been spent in the schools 1 

 We are constantly in correspondence with such men, 

 of some of whom Mr. James Cash has so well written 

 in his " Where there's a Will there's a Way." Such 

 men as these are one of the glories of modern Eng- 

 land, and it is delightful to feel that the educated 

 classes are being stirred in their favour, so as to give 

 them that recognition their services so richly deserve. 

 To return to Mr. Smiles's book : when we say that for 

 style it is not excelled by any of his other books, 

 those who have read the latter will know how attrac- 

 tive it is. The illustrations, which are by Mr. 

 George Reid, are a labour of love, and all of them 

 are artistic in the highest degree. The frontispiece 

 is the full-page etching of the rugged and powerfully- 

 lined head of Thomas Edward himself. In conclu- 

 sion, we thank ]\Ir. Smiles for this book : it is em- 

 phatically a good one, and its influence for good will 

 not end when it is placed on the shelf. 



"The Primeval World of Switzerland," by Pro- 

 fessor Heer (London: Longmans, Green, & Co.), is 

 a welcome contribution to our geological literature. 

 Swiss tourists who desire to do more than gaze in 

 wonder at the Alps, will here find the difficult strati- 

 graphy of that wonderful region clearly worked out. 



