The Student's Geography of British India. By Dr. G. Smith,

C.I.E. (Murray.)—This book, though scarcely intended for general readers, will be consulted by others than students. It is a marvel of labour and condensation, and its compiler states that he has prepared him- self for his task for more than twenty years. Besides fall accounts of the geography of India as a whole, its mountain chains, river systems, plateaux, and coast-line, it contains descriptions of every Native State, every Indian province, every Indian district, and every Indian town known to Europeans, with all the statistics necessary to a thorough comprehension of their condition, population, administra- tion, and positive or relative importance. Not only are the height of mountains, the length of rivers, the area of provinces all given, but the most recent results of the census, the latest commercial tables, and the newest information as to the method of governing. For example, there is an exhaustive account of the huge Chief Commissionership or Governorship of Assam, with its area of 55,384 square miles and 4,908,000 people, which in 1874 was lopped off from Bengal and placed on its own feet, but which, except for its production of tea, would be scarcely known in England. This account is as thorough as it would be in a gazetteer, and will be found new to all but a very few Anglo-Indians. Separate chapters describe the geology and meteorology of the continent, while a final one gives the name and authorship of nearly every known book upon the subject. Many of the tables with which the volume overflows will be of value to politicians, e.g., one on the calturable and nncniturable soils, which reveals the extraordinary fact that an area of 182,000 square miles, three Englands, is still classed as caltarable, but uncul- tivated. We can, however, only quote the following, which will, perhaps, give the best popular idea to Englishmen of the vastness of the Empire :— SArarlPiga-Plti,- Square lei gres.

Encore.

Bengal

203,437,69,131,61' 4 .672,000 204.177iFrance.

Assam 55,384 9' 4,908,27, ,968,286 58,320 England & Wales.

British Burmah.

87,220 3,736,77 94.702,656 89,005 Great Britain.

Andaman Islands 3,285 30, i n 150,000 4,200 Cyprus.

N.W. Province, with Oudh 111,086 44,851, • i• '4,437,091 114,296 Italy.

Panjab 221,749 22,712,1 4 47,839,427 240,942 Austria-Hungary.

Bombay

191,847i23,396,045 1,974,411 219,260

Spain k Portugal.

Ajmer 2,7101 460, 936,310 2,866 Hesse.

Baroda

4,399; 2,154, n 1,506,531

5,851 Baden.

Bajpootana 130,994'11,005,51 7,278,911 137,066 Prussia.

Central India,

89,098 9,200,88194,702656

89,005 Great Britain.

Central Province

113.042 11,505,149 94,437,091

114,296 Italy.

Barer 17,728 2,672,673 2,848,102 15,992 Switzerland.

Haidarabad 80,000 9,167, :4 -'.702,656

I 89,005 Great Britain.

Madras 1

150,24823,840,617 6,625,860182,750

Spain.

1,526 Brunswick.

Coorg 1,5831 178, 1- 340,367

Mysore 30,500 4,186,399 3,734,370 30,685 Scotland.

Outside a small Anglo-Indian circle, who ever remembers that the Panjanb, which is not even a Presidency, is the size of Austro- Hungary, and has more than the population of the Spanish Peninsula, or that the population of Bengal, without Assam, is more than double that of Great Britain, and probably exceeds that of Russia in Europe ? The manual is provided with a full index at the end.