Scenes and Studies of Savage L. By Gilbert Malcolm Sproat.
(Smith and Elder.)—This book is of a kind which we may almost say Englishmen only write. Other countries, indeed, send forth great tra- vellers; notably Germany does so ; but a traveller seldom has the opportunity, which the wide distribution of our colonies gives to so many Englishmen, of the close continuous observation of savage tribes. He sees them generally for a short time, and in the abnormal condition produced by the excitement of his visit. Mr. Sproat resided for several years as a magistrate among the A.ht tribes, on the western coast of Vancouver's Island. As he was proprietor of the settlement, and also, like most of his countrymen, a sportsman, he saw a great deal of the natives. In this volume he has given us an extraordinarily vivid and faithful picture of their life. We say faithful, not because we can test his accounts by our own experience, but by the instinct which makes us recognize some pictures as portraits. He writes without theoretical prepossessions or ' colonist ' prejudices ; judges the savage character calmly and severely, though not without an admixture of kindly feeling; never obtrudes unnecessarily his own personality ; is never funny, for which we tender him especial thanks, though he gives from time to time genuinely humorous scenes ; lastly, he evidently writes from a stand-point of previous knowledge and education, the lack of which often makes imperfect and comparatively valueless the work of very acute and adventurous observers. Altogether, as Englishmen and as critics, we thank Mr. Sproat heartily for his book.
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