Handy Royal Atlas of Modern Geography, exhibiting the Present Condition
of Geographical Discovery and Research in the several Countries, Empires, and States of the World. By Alexander Keith Johnston. (Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1868.)—This is Mr. Keith John- ston's admirable Royal Atlas diminished in bulk and scale so as to be, perhaps, fairly entitled to the name of "handy," but still not so much diminished but what it constitutes an accurate and useful general atlas for ordinary households. Whether the atlas is " handy " or not, we are not sure; it is, at all events, a heavy handful, but nothing much smaller would really be of much use or value as a family atlas. It gives England and Wales in two parts, — very clearly and fully,—Scotland in two parts, in deference, we suppose, to the special studies of the geographer,—and Ireland in one. All the maps are in pages of a large quarto size. The maps of Africa, Abyssinia, the sources of the Nile, India, &c., embody the latest discoveries. The map of New Zealand is excellent, and all that we have examined give the general features clearly, and mark as many places as is possible without confusion and overloading. Mr. Johnston would render this valuable atlas (which is very reasonable in price) still more convenient for common use, if he would print the number of the map outside each page, as well as inside. The index, he tells us, is very complete, and we can easily believe it from our slight testing of it. It is, however, a mistake to say that it comprises "every place found in the maps." Zernetz, for example, in the Engadin, is given in the map of Switzerland, but is not given in the index.
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