SOUTH AFRICAN Booxs.—South Africa still holds the first place in
the number of books for which it gives occasion. Leading Points in South African History, by Edwin A. Pratt (John Murray, 7s. 6d.), gives, conveniently arranged, what may be called the annals of South Africa. The proofs of Boer ambitions multiply the further we look into the subject. In 1842 we have the Natal Volksraad declaring that "Natal was under the pro- tection of Holland." It was a delusion, but it showed what was in the Boer mind. The story is carried on to March 30th, when Mr. Rose-Innes's constituents at Claremont declared for the policy of what may be briefly called annexation.—The History of the Boer War, Parts III.-V. (Methuen and Co. 19. the part) —Besieged by the Boers, by E. Oliver Ashe, M.D. (Hutchinson and Co., 3s. 6d.), is the diary of the "Surgeon to the Kimberley Hospital," written up day by day. It tells us sundry military and many medical details, some of these latter not a little grue- some. Dr. Ashe speaks with praise of the military rule at Kimberley, and with praise also of Mr. Rhodes, who came to the town at the very last moment. Among the interesting things which Dr. Ashe tells us is that the Misuser bullet can do very great damage and very little. An officer shot through the chest was on duty again in ten days ; but of another we read that he
was "shot in the ribs of the right side far back," and that "the bullet travelled right through him in a slanting direction and came out at the outer side of the left thigh, about its middle, cutting the spine right through and completely paralysing him." This man only lived a few hours.
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