Dr. Nansen, long to be remembered alike as traveller, author,
scientist and statesman, was happily inspired in his last book, Through the Caucasus to the Volga, which has been translated with care by Mr. G. C. Wheeler (Allen and Unwin, 12s. 6d.). It describes a journey made in 1925 on the author's return from a mission to Armenia on behalf of the League of Nations. Dr. Nansen's account of the Caucasus and its peoples, and especially of Daghestan, is enlivened by two chapters on the long resistance of the mountaineers under Shamyl to the Russian invaders. He ends with an admirable chapter on the Volga, noting, with the eye of a trained geologist, that the right bank is always higher than the left and suggesting that the earth's rotation accounts for this curious fact. The book is illustrated with many photographs. Unlike many people who write about Russia, Dr. Nansen, who knew the country well, made no political comment.
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