Vikings of the Pacific. By A. C. Laut. (Macmillan and
Co. 8s. 6d. net.)—These "adventures of explorers who came from the West eastward" make, we need hardly say, a most interesting book. The first—Mr. Lent discards, for good reason, the chrono- logical order—is Bering (Behring).the Dane, who was sent on two voyages of exploration by Peter the Great, a large scheme spoiled in its execution by the inferiority of the instruments employed. The Czar's purpose was admirable, and he could not have bad a better worker than Bering, but Russian corruption spoilt the work. Bering's discoveries led to systematic fur- hunting, described in the "Sea-Otter Hunters." Then come two curious chapters, one relating the doings of Siberian outlaws and refugees, the other part of the adventures of that very x?emarkable man, Mauritius Benyowsky. Few stranger stories have been told than that of the Pole's escape from Bolcheresk, the capital pf Kamchatka. Perhaps it ought to be discounted, for Benyowsky was, as Mr. Laut says, "a liar • without peer among the adventurers of early American history." In Part II. we hear about Drake, Cook, and Vancouver, and the less familiar names of Robert Gray and John Ledyard. Gray discovered the Columbia River; Ledyard was an unsuccessful pioneer in the fur trade. The contents of Part III. are best described by Mr. Lout's words, "Exploration gives place to Fur-Trade." Here, again, we have an interesting chapter, telling of things which closely touch the concerns of to-day. The jealousies and strifes of the fur companies are more important than they seem. The Hudson's Bay Company had no little to do with the making of Canada, while the encroachments of Russian hunters were the first cause of the Monroe doctrine.
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