6 NOVEMBER 1909, Page 12

The Bitter South. By F. T. Bullen. (R. Culley. 5s.)—Ted

Trevannion, a retired sailor, who has lost most of his money by unlucky ventures on land, invests what is left in a craft with which he intends to follow the whaler's business in the Antarctic seas. The time of the tale is something less than a century ago. When Mr. Bull= gets among the whales he is always vigorous and picturesque, and The Bitter South is no exception. But Trevannion has to deal with other creatures far worse than whales. He meets the very worst, and also the very beat, of luck, as in being cast adrift by a mutinous crew, and coming across a well-appointed ship with no one on board,—it had been invaded, for this is the theory tentatively put forth, by a troop of cuttlefishes, which had abstracted every individual of the crew and passengers." Altogether, a stirring story.