The Unvarnished West. By J. M. Pollock. (Simpkin, Marshall, and
Co. 2s. 6d. net.)—Captain Pollock began his Transatlantic life in Wisconsin in the service of a very close-fisted German, of whom he speaks very considerately in view of the treatment which he received from him. He then went to Texas, and it was in herding sheep and cattle and kindred occupations that lie spent the rest of his time. He relates his experiences in a Ten,' lively fashion. On the whole, his descriptions and narratives do not move a very keen desire to visit the "Lone Star State." The climate is not to every one's taste. Captain Pollock seems to have liked it, but he acknowledges that the country is visited by " northers," and that these can on occasion be very trying indeed. On a certain day in the early spring of 1888, "at 12 o'clock noon, the thermometer stood at 900 in the shade. By midnight it had dropped to 100 below zero." It is true that this sort of thing does not happen more than once in a century. But the possibility of such a thing is terrifying. This is a most interesting book, which any one who meditates a migration westward should read.
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