53 



SOME NEW BOOKS. 



" Semper aliquid novi ex Africa." 



The Great Rift Valley : being the narrative of a journey to Mount Kenya and 

 Lake Baringo, with some account of the Geology, Natural History, Anthro- 

 pology, and future prospects of British East Africa. By J. W. Gregory. 8vo. 

 Pp. xxi, 422, with maps and illustrations. London : John Murray, 1896. 

 Price 2 IS. 



" In pioneer exploration England has led the way, but in scientific 

 geography we have always been beaten by our German rivals." So 

 said Dr. Mill in the beginning of the present year, and the truth of 

 his remark, unfortunately, cannot be disputed. Our success and our 

 failure are equally due to national characteristics : to audacity, courage, 

 and love of adventure on the one hand ; to one-sided methods of 

 education, and to caring little for anything which does not yield a direct 

 return in money, or its equivalent, on the other. But on the causes it 

 is needless to enlarge ; it is a fact that, with a few notable exceptions, 

 British explorers, too often, have added only to our geographical 

 knowledge in the most limited sense of that term. It is, then, a relief 

 to take up such a book as the " Great Rift Valley." Dr. Gregory 

 possesses exceptional qualifications for the task of exploration : in 

 addition to the tact, patience, determination and courage, the readiness 

 of resource, and the coolness in danger, which are essential to success 

 in any attempt to penetrate far into the Dark Continent, his scientific 

 training has been thorough and yet wide. He is no mere specialist ; 

 he has won distinction alike in petrology and in palaeontology, he has 

 discussed with equal ability problems in Alpine geology, and in the 

 distribution of life, past and present, on the surface of the globe. The 

 trustees of the British Museum, in permitting him to join, as naturalist, 

 an expedition which was designed to explore Lake Rudolf, acted 

 wisely ; and if that intention had been fulfilled, its results, doubtless, 

 would have been more copious, though they could have hardly been 

 more interesting, than those of the journey which was actually 

 accomplished. 



Dr. Gregory has divided his book into two parts : the one a 

 narrative of his journey, the other a general account of the natural 

 history of the country visited. This arrangement will undoubtedly 

 make the book more popular, because scientific disquisitions in the 

 midst of narrative are apt to be as grit in cake to the palate of the 

 ordinary reader, especially at a time when mental digestion is too weak 

 for any food which is not minced into paragraphs or spiced with 

 attempts at epigram ; it will also make the scientific information more 

 readily accessible to those who desire to use the volume for purposes 

 of reference. In one or two cases, we think, it would have been better, 

 even at the risk of adding a few pages, to have entered a little more 

 fully into particulars, instead of referring the reader to papers already 

 published by the author in scientific journals, which often are only 



