30 JUNE 1917, Page 21

Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Sikkim. By L. S. S. O'Malley.

(Cambridge University Press. Cs. net.)—This is the third volume of the series of " Provincial Geographies of India," edited by Sir T. H. Holland, and, like the first two, is well written, full of information, and abundantly illustrated. Tho term " geography " is interpreted in its widest sense, for the history, ethnology, religions, and antiquities of Bengal and its neighbours are skilfully treated, as well as commerce and agriculture. Tho author helps us to realize the size of India by reminding us that the area covered by his book almost equals the German Empire, but is only a ninth of tho Indian Empire. Bengal alone is nearly as large as Great Britain, and has a million more inhabitants than the United Kingdom. Elementary facts like these are too often ignored. In his account of Patna, tho author notes that the massacre, in Clive's day, of one hundred and ninety-eight European prisoners— a' worse crime than the Black Hole—was carried out at the order of Mir Kasim by a Gorman renegade, Reinhardt.