A TRIP THROUGH FINLAND.
Finland as it Is. By Harry De Windt, F.R.G.S. (John Murray. 9s. net )—" It was on the 25th of July, 1900," says the author in his first chapter, "that I set out from Paris for New York by land (on behalf of the Daily Express of London) viii Siberia, Bering Straits, and Alaska." But on arriving at St. Petersburg, which he describes as a very disagreeable city, he found it impos- sible to obtain permission to travel on the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was an essential part of his programme at the time, on account of the outbreak of war in the East. His plans being thus disarranged, he was persuaded by a Finn with whom he had travelled from Berlin to pay a visit to Finland ia stea 1, and the book before us is the result. Mr. De Windt admits that he was previously as ignorant of Finland as most Englishmen who have not come into contact with the country either by travel or through its natives and literature, and he was much surprised and pleased at the fine, clean, well-kept cities, the industry and amiability of the inhabitants, and the beauty of the scenery—chiefly lake and river Scenery, be it noted, for Soumi (Marshland) is often called the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, and hardly boasts a hill rising to a level of 500 ft.—to say nothing of the fine trout and salmon fishing for which permis- sion may be obtained for little or nothing. The book gives a lively sketch of his travels and adventures, and is written partly with the idea of being useful to other travellers; and it contains an amusing account of the various personages he met with in his travels, besides useful and interesting information respecting trade, and the products of the country, he. Of course Mr. De Windt speaks feelingly of the sad state of the political horizon in Finland, but expresses his belief that it is not a matter on which foreign nations can form an unbiassed judg- ment; and we are pleased to learn that there is no feeling against the Czar himself, who is personally not unpopular in Finland. The book concludes with a chapter on " How to Get to Finland"; a short Finnish vocabulary ; a list of hotels, physicians, chemists, Sm., in the principal towns ; a mop, and an index. The illustra- tions are numerous and interesting, and largely consist of views, including a winter view of the great waterfall of Imatra, one of the finest in Europe. The book is brightly written, but evidently with too much haste, as several small slips occur, which it is surprising escaped notice in revision. Thus the difficulty of the Finnish language is hardly made more obvious by quoting a notice posted up at an hotel in Swedish (p. 55); the "Kale vela '' can hardly be saictto "deal with the history of Finland from the earliest ages" (p. 40); and " slibovitch " (p. 205) can hardly be `• Hungarian plum-brandy," but looks like a dubious and misspelt Russian word. With similar haste, our author tells us that he once started on a journey of five miles, and discovered, after a long and very uncomfortable journey, that they were five Swedish and not English miles, a mistake from which a glance at a map might probably have saved him. But these are trifles, and detract nothing from the interest of the book.
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