The Seine from Havre to Paris. By Sir Edward Thorpe.
(Macmillan and Co. 12s. 6d. net.)—We can hardly imagine a pleasanter way of spending a holiday than to sail up the Seine from its mouth to Paris; and anyone who contemplates such a voyage will find Sir Edward Thorpe's book of the greatest value. It provides a number of large-scale maps and other assistance for navigation, and at the same time serves as an excellent guide-book to the country through which the river flows. There is, in addition, an introductory chapter giving an account of the river as a whole. From this we learn that the Seine rises at a height of nearly 1550 feet above the sea, but that in the first thirty-two miles of its flow it descends more than half its total fall. By way of contrast to this energetic beginning, we may quote the statistics for the last portion of its flow. The total fall between Paris and the sea is only seventy-six feet, but the length of this part of the river is two hundred and thirty miles, though in a direct line Paris is only one hundred and twelve miles from the sea. Sir Edward Thorpe's account of the voyage of his steam yacht along this tortuous channel is evidence enough that a road need not necessarily be dull because it meanders.
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