Sport on the Pamirs, and Turkistan Steppes. By Major C.
S. Cumberland. (Blackwood.)—This is a very bright, informing, and, above all, " real " book. In the year 1839, the author, Major C. S. Cumberland, "carried out a long-projected expedition from India vie Kashmir, Chinese Turkistan, the Pamirs, and Asia Minor," and shortly after his return to this country published his diary in a weekly journal. The Russian claims and expedi- tions to our frontiers beyond Gilghit have brought into notice the regions which Major Cumberland visited, and so he has em- bodied his experiences in a very bright and readable book. He is a very good-natured writer,—so very good-natured that he does not complain seriously even of the delays of the Circumlocution Office. On the contrary, he speaks thus of his application for a passport to Chinese Turkistan .—" The Foreign Office handed the application over to the India Office, the India Office to the Foreign Office in India. Finally, the Foreign Office in India said the Foreign Office in England must procure it from Pekin; but at length I received it, and was at liberty to proceed." After he received this permission, Main. Cumberland seems to have had an agreeable time of it. He went to the Pamirs, thence journeyed to Yarkund, and from Yarkund to Aksu. Hie next expedition was to Kalmuk. Finally, he proceeded from Kashgar to the Ramat Pamir, and ultimately home. He had plenty of sport, as the publication of his diary showed ; and although he has no political discoveries to publish, he appears to have been on thoroughly friendly relations with the folk of different nationali- ties that he came across It is a plain, honest, straightforward narrative that Major Cumberland has to tell, and he tells it well. His book deserves to be widely read.
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