Over Land and Sea : a Log of Travel Round
the World in 1873- 1874. By Arthur G. Guillemard. (Tinsley Brothers.)—Except his enjoyment of a long sea voyage, there is little to distinguish Mr. Guillemard from preceding travellers who have journeyed all round the world, and written the story of their adventures and impressions in pleasant books. His book is very pleasant, indeed, and a chapter on the "Tasmanian Lake District," "a terra incognita, not only to ninety- nine of every hundred visitors to Tasmania, but even to ninety-nine of every hundred Tasmanians," is novel as well. A good deal of useful information may be found in a chapter called "A Few Words on the Colonies." The author advocates emigration to Australia for artisans and servants, and "well-educated young Englishmen with brains, common-sense, and a little capital," but deprecates the shooting of our social rubbish on that field of enterprise, as many have deprecated it before him. Perhaps his and their arguments may be listened to, now that the rubbish can get back so easily; we can understand the strength of the temptation when it couldn't. Mr. Guillemard was delighted with the Blue Mountains, which form one of the seven links of the great dividing chain, the main watershed of Australia ; he did not go to New Zealand, and he is more sanguine than recent intelligence would justify US in being about the future of Fiji, foreseeing in our recent acquisition "the We_st Indies of our Australian colonies." His style is not picturesque, but it is brislt, and his book is eminently readable.
Previous page
