February lo, 1898] 



NATURE 



345 



The reasons for this decision were not less stupendous 

 than the decision itself. Civilisation has travelled from 

 east to west. " Let us," says the author, in a moment of 

 pious aspiration, " let us follow in the track of Providence." 



The idea of taking a " Cook-like " tour in " the track 

 of Providence " strikes us as novel, and would, perhaps, 

 have been thought to be profane had it emanated from 

 Thos. Cook and Son themselves. Originating, as it does, 

 with a clergyman, we can only bow the head and wonder 

 at the varied manifestations of the religious instinct. 



The alternative plans had been carefully considered, 

 and the following sentences indicate the kind of inform- 

 ation which had been collected. " The British Empire 

 is composed of possessions in many parts of the globe. 

 We hold India by military occupation ; its 300 millions 

 of people are put under our rule. Australia, New 

 Zealand and Tasmania are in the Antipodes ; Borneo, 

 Singapore and the West Indies are in the tropics. 

 Africa has various climes and races and interests. . . . 

 Canada comes first among our possessions from a tourist 

 point of view." 



After this display of recondite knowledge, it will hardly 

 be believed that one of the author's motives for taking a 

 trip across the Dominion was that it improves ©ne's 

 geography ; but this fact, reinforced by the arguments as 

 to the " track of Providence" and the "tourist point of 

 view " settled the matter, and to Canada our author went. 



The journey once undertaken was as remarkable in its 

 experiences as in its inception. " For the two first days 

 [of the voyage]," says the traveller, " you feel more or 

 less in a strange land." The feelings of the first two days 

 are often so peculiar, that it is difficult to find words to 

 describe them ; but to feel " in a strange land " when you 

 are really at sea is, we believe, a unique experience. 



Arrived at the other side, " Quebec in electric light, as 

 we gazed upon it, reminded me of Valetta between 

 its two harbours, or even of Venice standing in its 

 waters. It is commonly said to resemble Gibraltar." 

 As we have always understood that there is a hill or cliff 

 of some sort both at Gibraltar and Quebec, but that 

 Venice is as flat as a pancake, we confess to being 

 puzzled by this passage. 



The first effect of Niagara on the traveller was exactly 

 the opposite of that it ordinarily produces. " Niagara," 

 he says, " makes one forget Lord Kelvin." The Horse 

 Shoe Falls, we are told, " is a thing to see not once or 

 twice, but to imbibe and sleep upon." The first of these 

 phrases reminds us of the experiences of the young lady 

 at Venice. " We have been out on the Grand Canal," she 

 wrote, " drinking it all in. Life never felt so full before." 

 We are not aware that there is any competitor for the 

 originality of the idea of sleeping on the Horse Shoe 

 Falls. 



At Toronto our author's favourite subjects were geo- 

 graphy and anthropology, but he " threw in a little 

 geology and zoology." Prof. George Dawson will be 

 sorry to hear that his address was dull ; but Prof. Miall 

 will be gratified by the following summary of his teach- 

 ing : " He said you should not collect specimens and 

 put them in bottles, but study their living habits." 



We cannot follow the trip across the continent in 

 detail. 



Sometimes the author becomes didactic. "The old 

 road [in the valley of the Frazer] is now disused, and the 

 iron road has taken its place. . . . The two roads are a 

 natural parable. The old road is like the way of the 

 world, along which weary travellers toil and often lose 

 hope. In the railway the voyageur {sic) travels safely 

 and with rapidity. The cares of travel sit lightly upon 

 him. He sleeps peacefully at night, and he enjoys the 

 prospect by day. He looks on his journey's end with 

 pleasure. He thanks ..." But we refrain from giving 

 the quotation which the author adds to this quaint speci- 

 men of moral reflection. The sleek tourist, carted about 



without any effort of his own except that of pulling his 

 purse from his pocket, has never before, we supf>ose, 

 been taken as the type of the " seekers after truth." The 

 pioneer, hewing his way through the wilderness, careless 

 if his road be rough or smooth is, we take it, much 

 nearer to the conception which John Bunyan had formed 

 of those who through the Slough of Despond, the Valley 

 of the Shadow of Death, and the River itself, press 

 forward to their goal. 



One quotation more and we have done. We all re- 

 member the difficulty with which Martin Chuzzlewit 

 escaped from the peremptory demand of Colonel Diver, 

 " Let me ask you, sir, how do you like my country ? " 



Our author would have been equal to the occasion. 

 " One is asked one's opinion about the country. That 

 it is a great country is plain to all. A country of the 

 size of Europe is not a small country. At present it is. 

 thinly populated. The Canadians think much of their 

 country and everything in it. An enthusiastic young 

 lady, whose home is in Ottawa, and who is on her way to 

 a finishing school in London, said ' Don't you think the 

 electric cars in Ottawa are better than anywhere else?*^ 

 Of course they are, one cannot but reply, quite bond-fide. 

 Would not she brighten an electric car, wherever she 

 was?" 



This is masterly. The judicial logic of the opening 

 and the skilful retreat behind the young lady would have 

 baffled Colonel Diver himself. 



But enough of this. The note of the British Associa- 

 tion is that it strives to bring the scientific expert into 

 contact with the amateur, who is often a man from 

 whom, on some special point, the expert may have much 

 to learn. It is possible that some of those who are thus 

 brought nominally within the scientific fold, care more 

 for the cheap excursions and the " tourist point of view " 

 than for the advancement of science. This is perhaps 

 inevitable. At all events the Association has not chosen to 

 attempt to sift the chaff from the grain, and the Canadians 

 were willing to extend their generous hospitality not only 

 to the group of well-known scientific workers who crossed, 

 the Atlantic, but to others whose only introduction was 

 their Association ticket. As a member of the Association 

 our author was everywhere kindly received, was carried 

 across the continent half-price, and even enjoyed the 

 pleasure (which he duly notes) of riding in electric trams 

 for nothing. It might have been expected that he would 

 have been grateful for the privileges which were extended 

 to him in his presumed character of one anxious for the 

 advancement of science. We have looked carefully- 

 through the pamphlet and find scarcely a single ex- 

 pression which gives evidence of any such sentiment. 

 On the contrary he seems to think that the benefit was 

 mutual. His last words are: "A trip to Canada is a 

 pleasant experience. May I say that it gives pleasure to 

 those whom one goes to see, as well as to the individual 

 who makes the trip." 



His scientific companions fare no better than his hosts. 

 They are gracefully described as crossing the Atlantic 

 " to disgorge their erudition well flavoured with salt.'* 

 There is a contemptuous reference to " the smaller fry." 

 A body which Sir John Evans, Lord Kelvin and Lord 

 Lister were not ashamed to lead, is called " Cook-like." 

 The author's whole attitude is that of a man who has paid 

 his money, and has had no more than his rights. 



We should not have dealt with this pamphlet at such 

 length had it not been accompanied by a printed request 

 for subscriptions for an object which many men of science 

 would be glad to help. In his desire to benefit this object 

 the author may give his work a wide circulation in this 

 country and in Canada. We think it right, therefore, to 

 draw attention to what otherwise might have been left 

 unnoticed, in order to protest that this pamphlet must not 

 be taken to represent the attitude of average members of 

 the British Association. 



NO. T476, VOL. 57] 



