Whilst he was' still & midshipman Admiral Chambers was in
two minds whether or not to give up the Navy. The disci- pline irked him, and he was, besidei, an artist : he seems to have been rarely without his sketching materials. He developed a literary talent, and soon began to contribute to the Press.
" I felt myself a failure as a naval officer," he rays in Salt
Junk (Constable, 14s.). But later, surveying interested him and he stayed on : every present-day navigator in the Navy
knows with what lasting results. We trace the bare outlines of his career. This is no mere dished-up pot-pourri of " good stories "-although we do come across some amusingly told little incidents, as when a refugee child fell through the ward- room hatch into the soup-tureen, to the disgust of the Majcr of Marines-but an unconventional account of an adventurous life on many coasts, told with literary skill and embellished with numerous little line sketches. Here is just one example
of the Admiral's power of scene-drawing in words :-
" The snow lasted a couple of months, much of the time with bright frosty sunshine, when the snow crisped underfoot and the edges of the little streams sparkled with icy spines. The woods were full of bright-coloured berries on which the willow and blue grouse fed, and one could hear them drumming as one walked along the trails. *Sometimes one came suddenly upon a little clearing with its snake fences, zigzag piles of poles, each set at an angle with the next, and so requiring no upright posts. From the clearings came the smell of burning wood. I never sense that sharp keen scent but it brings back Vancouver Island to my memory."
It is an artist who writes and there is not a word too much. But it is impossible in a short review to give an idea of the charm of this autobiography.
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