past, and sometimes he has been succeeded by savage races, and the result seems to be that his course of development has been less simple than has been thought, and, instead of being a single rising tide, it has been a succession of tides, rising and falling, both the rise and fall being greater as the level to be reached is higher. The third point which distinguishes the author's views in this volume is the summing up of the results of all his studies of the animal life on the globe in connection with the changes in their dwelling-places. He is confident that, although nearly all of what is now dry land was once deep water under the ocean, yet the changes have been gradual, so that in comparison with the highest estimates of the antiquity of man, or even with that of most of the higher animals, our present continents and oceans may be regarded as permanent features of the earth's surface. Thus closes this handsome volume, so full of pleasure and profit.

6.-The Dutch in the Arctic Seas. By SAMUEL RICHARD VAN CAMPEN. Volume I.: A Dutch Arctic Expedition and Route; being a Survey of the North Polar Question, etc. London : Trübner & Co. 1877. 8vo, pp. xxxvii.-263.

In this first volume of Mr. Van Campen's monograph, it is the sub-title rather than the title that indicates the chief importance of his work. His aim to urge upon the Dutch new efforts in that field in which their navigators once were leaders-is, it is true, continually kept before us; but, however desirable its accomplishment may be, this special object is sure to yield in interest, in the reader's mind, to the careful "Survey of the North Polar Question " as a whole, for which it furnishes the motive. As an argument, much of what Mr. Van Campen advances in regard to arctic routes and methods is of course open to candid question; but whatever may be the value of his opinions-which he is exceptionally careful not to let distort his statement of the facts-his service to the general student is beyond dispute. He has given, in convenient but not too narrow compass, an excellent and thorough résumé of past experience and current theories in regard to the whole polar problem; and, in placing side by side the most diverse plans for its solution, has succeeded in stating them with remarkable impartiality. To readers who have not the whole literature of the subject within reach, this volume may safely be commended on this account especially; and, indeed, so much does this judicial quality

stand in the way of Mr. Van Campen's success as an advocate, that we can easily imagine how the arguments he cites against himself might easily overthrow his own in the mind of a careful reader, even without previous knowledge of the subject.

We find, indeed, no more notable instance of this trait than his treatment of his leading topic, the selection of a route by which the pole may be best approached. While himself favoring "the Gulf Stream route, which is supposed to offer a comparatively uninterrupted ship-channel by following the course of the Gulf Stream deflected northward from Norway and Novaya Zemlya,” and giving as his second choice Dr. Petermann's proposed route from Spitzbergen, he nevertheless succeeds in making so good a case for the Smith Sound route that its own supporters could desire no better advocate. We cannot quite resist the impression that his proposal of the Gulf Stream channel-of which the existence has yet to be proved-proceeds rather from a natural desire to see new pathways tried than from a very strong conviction that this approach is any more promising than that which has so many times been the choice of arctic navigators. "The shrewdest and most practical minds among arctic explorers and experienced geographers are by no means convinced," says Mr. Van Campen, "that the route now taken, by Smith Sound and Robeson Channel, is the only practicable one to the north-pole." But this is begging his own question, and minds could of course be neither shrewd nor practical which could support such a proposition. The advocates of the Smith Sound route do not claim that it is the only, but the best one; and in citing the names for and against this theory-high as a few of its opponents stand among geographers-Mr. Van Campen seems to us to have done enough, even without his own subsequent admissions, to weaken greatly the effect of his arguments upon the reader. Most of the students of this volume will probably not be led by it to differ from Mr. Clements Markham's summing up of the whole matter: "By the Spitzbergen route there is a bare chance of doing little; by the Smith Sound route there is a certainty of doing much." Perhaps it would not be unjust to add to this, that by Mr. Van Campen's Gulf Stream route there is an uncertainty of everything; and that, while we give full credit to the careful study and presentation he has made of its probabilities, it is the charm of this uncertainty, rather than any wellfounded conclusion, that has made him its advocate.

With regard to the question of an open polar sea, Mr. Van

Campen is a little unsatisfactory and vague. For, although he gives a careful statement, of great value to the reader, of the different opinions held by leading geographers upon the point, he ends by leaving his own position ill-defined, and by declaring, rather needlessly, that nothing be here decided but by "actual research." On the whole, we are led to infer that he believes the probabilities are in favor of open water at the pole; and "yet it is fair to say," he tells us, "that the most practical men in arctic research-such as Sir George Back, Sir Leopold McClintock, Mr. Clements Markham, and especially the late Admiral Osborn-are exceedingly skeptical.” It is worth while to note, in passing, that all of these men, who are here rightly cited as the "most practical," favor the Smith Sound

route.

Let us not be misunderstood, however, because we cannot agree that Mr. Van Campen makes the best of his own case. It is precisely because he is not a special pleader, as we said in the beginning, that his book is of such lasting value. We repeat that it is one of the best of summaries, for the general reader, of the whole literature of the polar problem. In accuracy, both in his historical and scientific treatment of the questions he discusses, Mr. Van Campen is almost unassailable; and although the reader must not look for narrative-as Mr. Van Campen rightly takes for granted a general knowledge of the main facts of recent exploration-he will find many passages of the book so eminently readable as to make him anticipate with interest the publication of the second volume. This, we are promised, will contain the story of the old Dutch voyagers.

In a new edition the name of Captain Koldewey should be thus spelled throughout; in the copy before us the types give it two or more different spellings. Two or three other similar slips are noticeable, but are obviously typographical. We are sorry to see Mr. Van Campen help to perpetuate the error of calling an English navigator Hendrik Hudson, because he once accepted employment from a Dutch corporation; but in this mistake, unfortunately, he has many companions.

7.- Word for Word from Horace: The Odes literally versified. By WILLIAM THOMAS THORNTON, C. B. London: Macmillan & Co. 1878. 12mo, pp. xv.-317.

MR. THORNTON's translation covers less ground than Francis's or Lord Lytton's Horace; but it includes the larger part of what,

in this most enjoyable of Latin writers, will bear, for English readers, a literal translation, namely, the three books of the Odes, the Secular Hymn, and also "as many of the Epodes," says Mr. Thornton in his preface, "as I myself greatly care for." Very nearly literal is his version, far more literal than the versions just mentioned, or than Dryden's, or Lyttleton's, or Martin's; and yet, to our feeling, it is fuller of charm than either of these, or indeed than any other that we know. For Mr. Thornton has brought to his task, besides poetic feeling and love for his author, the gifts which we already know in his prose work, and which are essential for the translator-gifts which, we may add, characterized Donne and Pope respectively-the twofold faculties of directness and of ingenuity in expression. He displays, too, a knowledge and skill in the modern ingenuities of rhyme and metre, traits which give a remarkable freshness to his work. The original metres he has not sought, except in a few instances, to preserve; in these, he tells us, he found himself "confronted by difficulties for the most part absolutely insuperable," of which the chief was his rigorous self-restriction to the synonyms of Horace's small vocabulary; and we believe that, if he had spent much labor upon the reproduction of the Alcaic and Sapphic metres, his translation would have missed being what it now is-eminently readable, in spite of its literalness. Take, for instance, the eighth and ninth Odes of Book III. ("Martiis cœlebs" and "Donec gratus eram "). These translations-and they are scarcely better than his average rendition--are in the best sense artist's work. From the first sentence of his preface, we feel that we have in this writer a master of words; and we do not lose the conviction when, occasionally, we meet some of those gritty phrases, those asperities of diction, which are scarcely evitable by the translator who is bent upon faithfulness. And to the present taste for literal translations, Mr. Thornton has here, without refining at all upon the provinces and functions of the translator, given a really noteworthy response.

8.-From Egypt to Japan. By HENRY M. FIELD, D. D. New York Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1877.

Books of travel that take us over familiar ground have to be largely subjective. Personal incident and reflection are the only possible novelties. It is the traveler himself that charms us, and he may go where he will. When Dr. Johnson sets out on a tour, taking Boswell with him, it matters little whether they go to the Heb

rides, or only down to Ramsgate-it is Dr. Johnson all the same. But, where the ground is not so familiar, we care less for the entertainment and more for the instruction offered. What we look for first of all is information, which has need to be not exact only, but also of real interest and importance. And so the personality of the traveler comes in here likewise. The more he has of insight and of culture, the more broad, catholic, and genial he is, the better. Dr. Field's first volume, "From the Lakes of Killarney to the Golden Horn," gave great pleasure to a multitude of old friends, and gained for him many new ones. But to him, as to them, the sights were old, and only the lights and shadows could be new. This second volume, "From Egypt to Japan," which completes the author's journey round the globe, has the decided advantage of greater objective novelty. There is, of course, the old charm of the Orient, ever old and ever new; the paths are less beaten, and important changes are everywhere going on. Of the twenty-five chapters that make up the book, eight are given to Egypt, twelve to India, and one each to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, to Burmah, Java, China, and Japan. Our author went up and down the Nile on one of the government line of steamers. The dahabeeah allows more time for ingrained impressions; but, with Brugsch's programme carried out, nothing of moment was omitted. That witching midnight in the heart of the Great Pyramid, with Dr. Grant, of Cairo, was not, however, in Brugsch's programme. Dr. Field saw both Egypts; not merely the old one of the fourth, twelfth, eighteenth, and nineteenth dynasties, the much described Egypt of the pyramids, tombs, and temples, but also the new Egypt of Mehemet Ali and his successors. Of this new Egypt we get a very faithful picture. Ismail Pasha, the present energetic khedive, is both praised and censured with intelligent and just discrimination. His new judicial system, "the one bright spot in the state of Egypt," is explained and applauded, and the credit of it given, where it first and mainly belongs, to Nubar Pasha, the best statesman Egypt has had of late. India very properly gets the lion's share of the volume. The average Englishman makes it a part almost of his religion to know all about India. The average American may learn a great deal from these twelve carefully-studied chapters. With much vivid description of men and things, vital questions of government, of race, of religion, are very broadly, temperately, and discreetly handled. The story of the great mutiny is well rehearsed. English pluck and heroism are duly acknowledged, as are also the signal benefits