19 NOVEMBER 1892, Page 12

Among Typhoons and Pirate Craft. By Captain Lindsay Anderson. (Chapman

and Hall.)—The general effect of Captain Anderson's stories is good, though it must be owned that he is sometimes so highly technical with his nautical terms as to be hard to understand. He tells an exciting tale, for instance, of how the Eamont ' out-manoeuvred a number of pirate lorchas ; but a layman has to take much of it for granted. Altogether, we get a very lively picture of a trader's life in the Chinese Seas. But the most curious thing in the book is the account of a visit to Japan before the country was opened to the world. Nothing could have been more ludicrous than the efforts of the people to keep up their isolation. The morning after the' Eamont's ' arrival, more than a hundred small boats were seen endeavouring to tow her away from her anchor. The refusal, half-unwilling, of the townspeople to trade has a very absurd appearance.