CURRENT LITERATURE.
SEA SPRAY.
Sea Spray. By Frank T. Bullen. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.)—The spray from the sea has made its way inland, as it some- times does in a more or less alterecliform. Mr. Bullen tells us occasionally what he thinks about country matters, and his observations are interesting, as one might expect them to be when they come from a man who has gone about the world with his eyes open. The poor physical development of the rural population strikes him painfully. They are, he thinks, inferior to the townsfolk, and the decadence of the townsfolk is alarming us. The broad statistical facts—the increased duration of human life, for instance—tell the other way ; but one is anxious to weigh all competent testimony. Then, in quite another line, wo have a picturesque account of a conflict between rooks and seagulls. Mr. Bullen's sympathies are with the invaders from the sea ; but it must be allowed that they are not always welcome. They look picturesque enough while they sweep to and fro over the Thames ; but at St. James's Park they can work some destruction. It is, of course, in the sea-pieces proper that Mr. Bullen shows himself at his best. His stories are, we take it, kept in general accordance with fact. "The Testing of the Mate," for instance, has an inconsequence about it which would be a serious fault in fiction but is quite in harmony with real life. "The Mutiny of the Maiden Queen" makes one open one's eyes, it is true. A ship laden with three hundred and fifty good-looking young women who were being taken out to marry Queensland settlers offers immense opportunities for romance, especially as there was but one matron, it would seem, to look after them. Ultimately the ladies seize the ship, but repent, and welcome the restoration of order. A fiction constructed on these lines would probably be harshly dealt with by the critics. The best of the stories, to our taste, is "The Luck of the Doctor." If the novelists would give us tales of this kind ! But they are too busy with their problems, and such-like horrors. Other specially good stories are "The Packet Rat" and "The Postman's Story." There are some fine " seascapes," and on p. 59 a pathetic little picture of one who admired these things under most unfavourable conditions. Imagine a man who could enjoy all the glories of sea and sky and wave, condemned to labour in the engine-room !
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