NORTH AND SOUTH.*
Ma. Muses Guide to South America I is somewhat belated in publication, as may be seen from the chapter on the Panama. Canal. The author's apology for a fact of which he is evidently conscious is based on his military duties, as he now holds a com- mission in the Yorkshire Hussars. No apology could be more respectable. The account of the various South American Republics is brightly written, and on the whole adequate, though one who has also travelled in the same parts may disagree' with some of Mr. Hirst's remarks—e.g., when he says that the traveller will leave Rio " without regret," or that it is not worth while staying over two days at Puente del Inca. The present. writer spent a fortnight there, and then found it hard to tear himself away from• Aconcagua, that fascinating " white dove " amongst mountains. And in saying that the streets of • (1) A Guide to South America. By W. A. Hirst. -London : Methuen and Co.- tee_ net.)—(2). Finland an toe Finns. By Arthur Reade. Same publishers. 110s. Gd. net.)
Valparaiso are " narrow and poor," exception should certainly have been made of the splendid* Avenida Brazil. But on the whole Mr. Hirst's book is an excellent guide to the intending traveller.
Mr. Reade's account of Finland and the Finns 2 deals, he tells us, with one of the least known but most delightful of European countries. It is written from the standpoint of an Englishman who has made his home in Finland, and who knows the simple, childlike natives very thoroughly. His chapter on the manners, customs, and beliefs of the people is quite interesting : the singular but innocent custom of nocturnal courtship, which he describes as being still in force at the meters, or summer pastures, might have been paralleled till a very recent date in the Orkneys and Shetland Islands. The popular notion of Finland as a place given up to snow and ice and reindeer sleds will be effec- tually dispelled by a perusal of Mr. Reade's excellent book.
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