122 



NATURE 



[December 7, 1899 



Prince in many of the works which he undertook to 

 promote education, science, and art. ... In all my 

 future intercourse with the Prince, I never on any 

 occasion saw him animated by a single desire that was 

 not connected with the public weal. . . . Only those who 

 had the honour of his confidence can fully know the 

 purity, ability, and simplicity of his character." 



The history of the Great Exhibition of 1851, of the 

 many difficulties satisfactorily surmounted, and of the 

 grand final success, are all graphically told, including the 

 celebrated story of the "Junk Chinaman" dressed up to 

 represent a " yellow jacket " mandarin, and placed in the 

 procession between the Archbishop of Canterbury and 

 the Duke of Wellington ! Greater than his services 

 to the Exhibition were those which he bestowed on the 

 appropriation and consolidation of the large funds placed 

 at the disposal of the Royal Commissioners. Without the 

 advice and the business capacity of Playfair this fund, 

 now large and altogether devoted to purposes of science 

 and art, would have been in danger of being frittered 

 away, if not lost. " Nobody but yourself," writes the 

 Prince of Wales to Playfair in 1889, "could have got us 

 out of the serious pecuniary embarrassments in which we 

 found ourselves placed." 



" So long as South Kensington continues to exist in its 

 present state, there will be no need to raise any monu- 

 ment to the memory of Lyon Playfair." 



The letters and memoir contain interesting descriptions 

 of professorial life at Edinburgh. He does not scruple to 

 dilate on some amusing but^not very creditable University 

 squabbles in which he was often"called upon to act as arbi- 

 trator. Then comes his Parliamentary career in both 

 Houses, the details of which are both interesting and 

 entertaining. How he represented the Universities of 

 Edinburgh and St. Andrews. How he retired from this 

 constituency in consequence of the Government putting 

 Scotch education under a Scotch Secretary. How he was 

 elected for South Leeds, " a working-man's constituency, 

 where he received an almost enthusiastic appreciation, 

 which quickly developed into a feeling of warm confidenec 

 and affection." 



As Chairman of Committees in the Commons, he had 

 hard times in consequence of Irish insubordination. But 

 he did yeoman service in speaking out strongly and fear- 

 lessly about the foHies and the crimes of the Anti-vivi- 

 sectionists and the Anti-vaccinators. The correspond- 

 ence which occurs throughout the volume with persons of 

 all ranks is full of interesting matter. The letters to his 

 wife and children, and to the members of the Russell 

 family, show the depth of his feelings, although, as one 

 of his children writes : 



" No letter he ever wrote could give an idea of his 

 deep and intense sympathy, of his loving help in any 

 trouble to those dear to him, and even to strangers. I 

 never in the whole of my life have seen him cross or im- 

 patient, or known him speak a harsh word to any 

 one." 



Then his sense of humour was keen, and his powers 

 as a raconteur were of the first order, and not the least 

 interesting portion of the memoirs is that in which these 

 powers are shown by the numerous anecdotes with which 

 the volume abounds. Altogether the book is one which 

 will be found full of interest, as giving a striking picture 

 of a wonderfully full and varied life. H. E. R. 



NO. 1 57 I, VOL. 61] 



THE GOLD-FIELDS OF ALASKA. 

 Alaska and the Klondike: a Journey to the New- 

 Eldorado, with Bints to the Traveller, and Observ- 

 ations on the Physical History and Geology of the 

 Gold Regions, the Conditions of Working the Klon- 

 dike Placers, and the Laws governing and regulating 

 Mining in the North-west Territory of Canada. By 

 Angelo Heilprin, F.R.G.S., F.G.S.A. Pp. 315 ; with 

 35 plates from photographs, and 3 maps. (New York 

 D. Appleton and Co. London: C. A. Pearson, 1899.) 

 T~^HE search for gold still holds something of thei 



-*- romantic glamour which has surrounded it fror* 

 the earliest days of our civilisation. It is true that^ 

 modern conditions have enmeshed the winning^!!! 

 of gold from vein and banket, reducing it, like diamond-f;^ 

 mining, to a systematised industry scarcely more in-!;- 

 spiriting to the labourer himself than the mining of coafj 

 or ironstone. But placer-deposits still offer a possi-; ; 

 ble chance of sudden riches to the man possessed? 

 only of bodily vigour and a few simple uncostly imple- i 

 ments, and men's imaginations still take fire whenever ! 

 the rumour reaches them that the old conventional J 

 symbol of wedlth is to be had for the digging. And still, I 

 as in the ancient days, the greater the difficulties to be ' 

 overcome, the stronger to the adventurous spirit seems ; 

 the probability of success. So when, in 1896-7, through \ 

 an ever-widening circle, was spread the news of rich dis- j 

 coveries of the precious metal in a remote and barely j 

 accessible corner of north-western America, thousands \ 

 were found ready to cast aside their everyday pursuits 

 and make, in the words of the wise Camillo, ■ 



" a wild dedication of themselves i 



To unpathed waters, undream'd shores, most certain 1 

 To miseries enough." \ 



To any one knowing anything of the land, the news- \ 

 paper information which led to the rush seemed strangely | 

 inadequate and misleading — a characteristic compound j 

 of half-truths, whole truths and untruths, out of which 1 

 stood the bare fact that placers of unusual richness 

 had been found. What was heedlessly lost sight of in 

 the excitement was that this discovery was not the 

 sudden outcome of a single traverse of a previously 

 unknown Golden Land, but had been attained only at 

 the end of twenty years of persistent exploration, during 

 which, though in the aggregate much gold had been ! 

 won, the average net individual gain had been rarely 

 more and often less than " day-wages." 



As usual, these initial stages (unmentioned in the 

 volume before us) attracted little or no attention from 

 the outside world, for the restless spirits who under- ij 

 take the hardships of pioneer life in the unbroken j 

 wilderness, though perhaps too fluent in speech, write ;i 

 no descriptions of their journeyings. Almost every- 'i 

 where these men penetrate in advance of the " original^; 

 explorer," who often in his own narrative forgets to ; 

 mention their presence ; but unless some unusual hap- : 

 pening brings their doings into prominence, their j 

 traces in the land they have traversed are slight. In this j 

 instance it was surely a matter for prime consideration i 

 that a body of more or less experienced men — in numbers, I 

 according to a table published recently in the eighteenth ' 

 Annual Report of the U.S. Geological Survey (p. 132), 5 



X 



1 



