An Antarctic Queen. By Captain Charles Clarke. (F. Warne and
Co. 6s.)—The hero of this sea-story, Percy Percival, is the customary young Englishman who is a credit to his race and his profession, and the villain is an Irish mate who succeeds in murdering the captain of the Balena' in mistake for Percy. Irish characters with the brogue and the dialect very strongly developed have been favourite characters with certain authors of tales of adventure ever since the late Mr. Ballantyne introduced the type. "Paddy the Pig," however, is a villain as well, which is a pity, for his language is really wonderful. It is a fresh, vigorous tale of its kind; the reader knows that he is actually afloat In Captain Clarke's hands. There is a heroine, whom he might have made more of, for she ships as a boy, and the settling down in an Antarctic island seems to destroy some of the feeling of reality which clings to the characters ; but no boy will quarrel with the vigour of the story or its attractiveness.
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