264 



NATURE 



\Feb. 3, 1876 



simple matters become invested with an air of great diffi- 

 culty. Thus, to take one other example, we should have 

 thought it needless to devote so much space to the 

 difference between a right and left-handed spiral, as is 

 given on p. 242, et seq. 



There are also several clerical errors and misprints 

 throughout the book, which we regret we have not space 

 to point out, as they ought to be corrected in a new edi- 

 tion ; some of the woodcuts, moreover, need alteration. 



In conclusion, we must remark that, although a careful 

 perusal of this work has led us to notice several things 

 which ought to have been different, yet we are not in- 

 sensible to the good features of this unpretending text- 

 book, and we hope, therefore, that Dr. Guthrie will have 

 a speedy opportunity of removing the blemishes which 

 seriously mar the usefulness of his book. In the stric- 

 tures we have ventured to offer we trust nothing offensive 

 to the author has appeared, for whom we entertain, and 

 are glad to be able to express, our sincere respect. 



TWO AMATEUR EXPLORERS 



" The Great ^Divide." Travels in the Upper Yellowstone 

 in the Summer of 1874. By the Earl of Dunraven. 

 With Illustrations by V. W. Bromley. (London : 

 Chatto and Windus, 1876.) 



Yachting in the Arctic Seas ; or, Notes of Five Voyages of 

 sport and Discovery in the neighbourhood of Spitzber- 

 gen and Novaya Zemlya. By James Lamont, F.G.S., 

 F.R.G.S. Edited and Illustrated by W. Livesay, M.D. 

 (Same publishers.) 



THE number of works of travel published within the 

 last few months is probably unprecedented. Scarcely 

 a week has passed during that time in which we have not 

 had occasion to notice one or more in these columns. 

 One noteworthy feature about these narratives of travel 

 is that few of them are by what may be called professional 

 explorers, men who have led expeditions into unknown or 

 little known lands and seas for the sole purpose of ex- 

 tending our knowledge of them. They are mostly written 

 by men who, solely from a love of adventure and sport, 

 have left all the comforts and luxuries which wealth and 

 a high social position can bring to undergo many of the 

 hardships and privations which fall to the lot of those 

 who have adopted discovery as their work in life. No 

 doubt improvements in modes of travel, and especially in 

 steam navigation, have something to do with this, as has 

 also the tedium which occasionally comes upon every 

 intelligent man who has to plod the weary round of the 

 duties, and especially the pleasures, of civilised life. But, 

 as we said last week, we are inclined to attribute this 

 growing love of travel, of amateur exploration, in some 

 degree to the general advance of intelligence urging those 

 who can afford it to gratify their craving for knowledge 

 by stronger stimulants than can be obtained from books. 

 Possibly also some may think this growing love of travel 

 in wild regions, mingled as it often is with intense delight 

 in dangerous sport, is to some extent a breaking out of 

 remote ancestral habit, of a habit which still clings to us 

 from a time when our ancestors, like existing savages, 

 were explorers and hunters of the wildest animals for 

 dear life — a habit which only requires a favourable oppor- 



tunity to be re-developed, though with a different aim. 

 Whatever may be the causes, there can be no doubt 

 about the fact of the rapidly-growing love of adventure 

 and discovery, involving dangers and hardships of a very 

 real kind. No better examples could be found than those 

 of the authors of the two works before us, 



The scene of the Earl of Dunraven's wanderings is in 

 and around that wonderful and interesting region of 

 North America, on the borders of Montana and Wyoming, 

 known as the Yellowstone Park, which the U.S. Govern- 

 ment have had the wisdom to set aside as a " gigantic 

 pleasuring ground." Anyone looking at a good map of 

 the United States will perceive the appropriateness of 

 the term " The Great Divide " as applied to the moun- 

 tainous region in the neighbourhood of the Upper Yellow- 

 stone. It is indeed the geographical centre of North 

 America ; here the principal rivers of the United States 

 take their rise and flow in all directions — north, south, 

 east, and west. We have already (vol, vi,, pp. 397, 

 437) given considerable details and several illustrations of 

 this remarkable region of gigantic geysers, and boiling 

 mud and sulphur springs, and not much has since beer 

 done to add to our knowledge of it. The Earl of Dun- 

 raven, during the few weeks he spent in the district 

 with a few boon companions, made a pretty careful 

 examination of some of the most remarkable pheno- 

 mena, and the record of this, supplemented by copious 

 extracts from the accounts of the U.S. exploring expe- 

 ditions, will give the general reader a very fair idea 

 of the characteristics of this strange region. The 

 Earl reached the Upper Yellowstone region by tra- 

 velling northwards from Corinne on the Great Salt 

 Lake ; and both on his journey northwards, during his 

 hunting of the mountain-sheep or bighorn {Caprovis 

 Canadensis), the wapiti, and other wild animals, and his 

 exploration of the geyser and boiling spring region, he 

 and his party occasionally endured considerable hardship, 

 which, however, they all seemed thoroughly to enjoy as 

 an essential part of the programme of the expedition. 

 Considerable details are given as to the character and 

 condition of the various tribes of Indians to be met with 

 in the neighbourhood of the region traversed, and the 

 Earl has much to say on the Indian question. We do 

 not think, however, that our ignorance of the Indian, his 

 habits and traditions, is so great as the Earl would make 

 out to be the case. There really exists a vast amount of 

 information concerning the aborigines of North America 

 at least, and Mr. Bancroft is doing good service in col- 

 lecting into one magnificent work all that is known of the 

 natives of the Pacific States, Still there can be no doubt 

 that the American Indians are rapidly dying out, and in 

 the interests of science it would be well to use all dih- 

 gence in supplementing the doubtless by no means com- 

 plete information we at present possess. As to civilisa- 

 tion and conversion, the Earl of Dunraven has as bad an 

 opinion of the Indian as Mr. Monteiro and Capt. Burton 

 have of the nature of an African. 



On the whole we may say that the Earl of Dunraven's 

 work is a jolly rollicking narrative of adventure and sport, 

 mixed up with a great deal of useful information concern- 

 ing one of the most interesting regions in the American 

 continent. The illustrations are interesting, and some of 

 them help out considerably the descriptions in the text, 





