27 FEBRUARY 1897, Page 23

The " fifth " edition of the Handy Reference Atlas

of the World, edited by J. G. Bartholomew (John Walker and Co.), contains, we are informed, as many as eighty new maps, while the accom- panying text has been enlarged and brought up to date. The significant word in the title as given above is, it should be under- stood, " Handy." The atlas is of octavo size. The table of contents and the geographical statistics occupy forty-eight pages. Then follow no less than one hundred and sixty plates, and these again are succeeded by an index containing about fourteen thousand names. Among the plates are plans of the principal cities in the world. All atlases are open to the criticism that European countries have scarcely so much space devoted to them as we should like to see, but it does not apply to the volume before us more than to its rivals.