Good Sport
nehanted Days with. Rod and Gun. By Captain Alban F. L. Bacon. (Seeley, Service and Co. 12e. 6d.) ITIT very many sportsmen to-day the rod comes before the n, as in Captain Bacon's title ; and nearly .all of them with al Write better about the more meditative sport. But he has at as well. as fished in Scotland and the Hebrides, which upy the greater part of the book, in India and in the South England. Apart from essays describing, with various exits, various sports' in these enchanted places, a useful seussion is appended on the game laws and " the law as to
shill." Both chapters are worth reading, and Captain n writes more naturally on such themes than when he is ntimentaay descriptive. The pleasure of reading him is n spoilt by an irritating- use of inverted commas -rtitind quite simple words. But the book is varied and bright, contains several thoroughly amusing anecdotes, takes us through charming country, and at the worst the author makes you feel his own pleasure. He is always finding himself in Lord Grey's delicious phrase : " at the top of a golden hour " —which was used in reference to fishing and to Scotland.
Only a Briton could have accummulated the material for the narrative of Colonel Haywood's book of sport and travel. The author some eleven years before the War asked to be seconded to West Africa for the sake of adventure. He found what he sought, with a Vengeance ; and possibly by seeking danger saved his life ; for instead of fighting in France as he hoped, he was sent on a recruiting expedition to many parts of Africa. We are transferred in successive chapters from lions and elephants and duck to natives and wars ; but though, characteristically, " sport " takes precedence of " service " in the title, the most valuable parts of the book are connected with the blacks as soldiers and as social beings. Early in his career the author took a trip up the Niger Valley to Timbuctoo and thence by way of the Sahara to Algeria ; and though hunting—especially of Kob and lion— was the object, he gives us an invaluable picture of French colonization. He shows us in its earlier stages the working of France's grandiose scheme for a huge Senegalese army, Incidentally, and contrary to common belief, the French have evinced something like genius in their colonization methods, especially in regard to transport. The volume is really a remarkable document in West African history during the first quarter of this century. The sportsman hit more than he aimed at when he began to write.
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