10 DECEMBER 1927, Page 20

Forty years of cattle-ranching in New Mexico beginning in 1883,

when cattle-rustlers were busy, when Geronimo and his Apaches were on the war trail, and when most men went " heeled" with the rexultant crop of homicides, ought to furnish an opportunity for a book. Captain French has seized it to turn out in Some Recollections of a Wcstern Ranchnum (Methuen, 10s: 6d.) a good honest_ narrative of. rough, frontier life which will eo- ntrast with present-day. conditions in .New Mexico, now that that land of sunshine and silver has become an almost civilized country. The book contains an interesting

• - • description of an' Indiansweat-bath and a splendid account

of a struggle with .a desperately . vicious bronco. It la surprising, though,. to .find a plan with CaptainFrench's expet rience, which surely must have included some acquaintance with Spanish, writing. Qui ,det ho for Cuidado, , _ ,