The Tropics. By C. R. Enock. (Grant Richards. 16s. net.)—Mr.
Enock does not tell us here how many tropical countries he has visited himself, but we know from former writings that ho has first-he.n.1 knowledge, at any rate, of South America, and he goes to good authori- ties, such as The Oxford Survey of the British Empire, when he is obliged to seek information from outside. His book is a gazetteer of all coun- tries and islands that lie between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. As such it contains a vast amount of interesting information, though obviously it cannot go very deeply into the history or conditions of any of the lands or peoples. The rather wordy style, with a profusion of epithets that are not always very discriminating or enlightening (for instance, most islands are " sea-girt "), does not lessen the necessary impression of superficiality. The photographs, reproduced from various sources, are certainly a pleasant _addition to the letterpress. At the beginning and and are chapters in which the author hints at rathee than develops a scheme of "constructive geography." He rightly bates the short-sighted and cruel exploitation of natives, of which the Congo and Putumayo offer pre-eminent examples, and he is distressed by the power of Lancashire and Germany to oust native industries by cheap manufactures. He would like to undo much of the work of Free Trade and the specialization of industry in favotir of self-supporting communities. But as he still wants the tropics to send to colder regions their superfluity of products, chiefly cotton and food, he seems to us to be bound to accept principles of exchange that are best developed by the greatest freedom of the world's trade.
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