Actual Africa : the Coming Continent. By Frank Vincent. (Wm.
Heinemann.)—The side from which the author of this bulky volume has inspected Africa—we mean the outside— doubtless has its attractions equally with the interior, of which in recent years we have heard so much. Thanks to the beautiful illustrations with which the book is embellished, Africa, her people, scenery, and general aspect, is made very " actual" to the reader. Mr. Vincent's practised eye and diligent pen have at the same time put together a great amount of in- formation, though the diction is occasionally somewhat unusual and unpolished. Africa has got beyond the stage of traveller's tales,—a continent comprising a fifth of the habitable area of the globe cannot be summed up in the pages of a single volume, nor can a trip round its fifteen thousand to twenty thousand miles of coast-line, even though extended to a couple of years, confer a title upon the tourist to rank as an authority. To the serious student we commend the detailed works which deal with each separate portion of the Continent ; but Actual Africa may serve a useful purpose in dispelling some of the crass ignorance which otherwise well-informed people too frequently exhibit in after- dinner conversation on a subject in which they have but little real interest.
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