^'"|-^^>^J Revieivs. 25 1 



Reviews. 



["The Life oi Saimicl White —Soldier, Naturahst, and Sailor."] 



This neat brochure, whicli is illustrated by photographic and 

 coloured plates, is written by Ciipt. S. A. White, C.M.B.O.U., son 

 of the late Samuel White, and is sympathetically handled, 

 especially as Capt. White is himself an intrepid explorer and 

 naturahst. The little work also casts sidelights on the early 

 settlement of South Austraha, when Samuel's father, John White, 

 in 1836 arrived from England and settled at " The Reedbeds." 

 Capt. White is to be commended for preserving these old-time 

 memories, not to mention his fihal privilege to chronicle the 

 travels of his father. " Honour the pioneers." 



When farming operations were well established at " The Reed- 

 beds," Samuel ^'hite, with his brother Wilham— then small boys 

 — followed their father to Australia in 1842. The dehghtsonieness 

 of the new country, especially its fauna and flora, soon captivated 

 the imaginations of the youngsters, and they must needs explore 

 far and wdde as opportunity afforded. Their first important trip 

 was up the River Murray, 1863. The same year Samuel under- 

 took a daring trip into Central Austraha. The hardships were 

 beyond description, but science benefited by one new Wood- 

 Swallow — Gould's type of Artamtis melanops. After another 

 excursion up the Murray, in 1865, Samuel essayed the dangerous 

 task of crossing the head of Spencer Gulf in a " flatty," w^hich 

 nearly cost him his life by drowning. But he seemed rewarded 

 by the " great find of a new Blue- Wren," which became another 

 of Gould's types — Malurus callainus — for beauty of blues one of 

 the most dazzhng of birds. In 1867 the brothers were together 

 again further afield. They landed at Cleveland Bay (before 

 Towns ville was), North Queensland, worked inland, then down 

 to Brisbane. After crossing the wild Macpherson Range they 

 overlanded to Melbourne by way of Sydney. This mighty trip 

 was brimful of adventure, not to mention daring, meeting 

 with ferocious natives, ^c. Samuel was again " called " to the 

 tropics. In a letter to his wife, under date Somerset (Cape York), 

 25th September, 1878, he wrote : — " I have just returned from 

 a cruise among the islands of Torres Strait." To crown all, he 

 built a schooner (80 tons), the Elsea (named in honour of his wife), 

 and in 1880 equipped and commanded a scientific expedition to 

 New Guinea and the Aru Islands. This was Samuel White's last 

 voyage, and the brief and racy accounts of Birds-of-Paradise, 

 brilliant butterflies, and remarkable reptiles fairly enthral the 

 reader. The end of the expedition came with dramatic suddenness, 

 as rs recorded in cold type on page 92. " Samuel White joined his 

 wife in Sydney, and had only been there a few days w^hen, on the 

 very day he arranged to purchase a home on North Shore for 

 his wife and family, while he was away to finish his expedition, 

 he caught a chill ; inflammation set in, and on the 17th November, 

 1880, there passed away one of the greatest field ornithologists 



