To the Desert and Back. By Zouch E. Turton. (Samuel
Tinsley.) —If we were to go to the Desert with the author of this volume, it would have been well to have gone more quickly. The Desert is fresh ground. Spain and Barbary, or such parts of Barbary as ordinary travellers visit, are sufficiently familiar. To have given twenty pages to the way there and twenty to the way back would have been enough. As it is, nearly half of the author's space is expended before we get away from the Peninsula. Fifty more pages (out of two hundred and ninety) are required before we reach our destination. And when we are there, we are permitted only the very briefest glance at it. To put the matter plainly, the word that figures so attractively in the title is something of a snare. The best thing in the book is some practically useful information given in the last chapter. Throughout it is fairly readable, though we can see no particular reason why it should have been written.
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