23 MARCH 1895, Page 27

From the Clyde to the Jordan. By Hugh Callan. (Mackie

and Son.)—Mr. Callan gives us here the "Narrative of a Bicycle Journey." He began this journey at Calais, saw Paris on the occasion of the funeral of the Communist leader, Endes (apropos of this he gives a hint that streets paved with cobble-stones are not expedient in a city given to violent street demonstrations), passed through Switzerland, the Tyrol, the Crownlands of Austria, Servia, and Bulgaria. Crossing the Balkans (where he seems to have found but scant hospitality) he made his way into Turkey. Travelling in Turkey is not, he found, pleasant to the wayfarer. Woman is not to the fore, and it is "woman's pity," as Mungo Park told us long ago, "that tends the traveller." After a quiet sojourn in Constantinople, he crossed into Asia Minor, about which he has a good deal to tell us ; crossed the Taurus into "Sunny Cilicia," and so made his way to his journey's end, though we do not see that he makes any mention of "Jordan." The book is written throughout in a very pleasant and scholarly fashion, and gives the reader as much entertainment, not un- mixed with instruction, as he is likely to find in any narrative of travel.