THE TRAVELS OF ELLEN CORNISH.
The Travels of Ellen Cornish. By Vaughan Cornish. (Ham-Smith. 12s. 6d. net.)—This volume has been compiled by its author as a memorial of his wife and of the many travel experiences which he was privileged to share with her. The primary object of these journeys was the study of the phenomena of surface waves in air, water, and earth, and the results of these studies have been already embodied by Mr. Cornish in two valuable volumes. The author is, however, a man of too wide sympathies to allow himself to be confined to such impersonal impressions, and the present volume abounds with happy observations of the manners and natural beauties of the countries with which it deals. Mr. Cornish seems to feel that he owes much of his interest in this aspect of his subject to his wife, and it is this which has impelled him to compile these pages in her memory. Probably the ordinary reader will find most charm in the first section dealing with Japan, where the travellers spent three months, and saw much of the native life which does not usually come within the view of the globe-trotter. Of great interest, too, is the account of Jamaica after the terrible earthquake of 1907, and the notes on the Panama Canal in 1907, 1908, and 1910 have a special significance at the present moment. It should be added that in the chapter on Niagara Mr. Cornish is able to bring his observation of the phenomena of the great fall to a further point than in any of his earlier books. But the volume is of more than scientific interest, and too much stress should not be laid on this aspect of it.
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